How can I explain to the agentcy about our hotel is overbooking now,then we can not accept the booking(inside allotment).

Jina.
Hotel Reservation

Just remember – don’t take it out on the front desk person. They are only the messenger. Take it out on corporate. They’re the ones enforcing the practice.

Upon arrival, the desk agent advised me that a manager would need to come out to talk with me. This made me somewhat nervous. She came out into the lobby, shook our hands and greeted us kindly. Her speech went along these lines:

“Welcome to the Hyatt Regency. I wondered if you might be willing do do us a favor? We are overbooked for Monday night and I wondered if you might be willing to move on Monday at our cost to the Marriott. We will provide you with taxi service to the hotel as well as a $100 resort credit for your use for the 2 nights that you are here. We will also be upgrading you to the Regency Club with a 40th floor room and access to our club lounge.”

We happily accepted, though hated to leave the Hyatt for that third night.

What did they do right?

1. They were proactive. Our arrival was on Saturday. They were two days ahead of the date they knew they were terribly oversold and this was labor day weekend. They began the process early enough so that by Monday, they wouldn’t be in so much trouble.

2. They were apologetic and asked if we’d be willing to do this – not telling us we had no choice.

3. They gave nice perks to sweeten the deal and soften the blow.

I worked for 2 years in a convention hotel in Niagara Falls several years ago and so I wasn’t shocked by this concept of being walked to another hotel. Our hotel always covered transport costs, and the cost of the room. In once instance, we had to walk them to a hotel that cost us $300 for the night. The guest’s booked rate was about $189. They paid nothing for that 1st night. I was a night auditor at the time so I had to learn how to handle this very delicate situation. It was not always pretty, and I didn’t always agree with how revenue management handled reservations. I certainly understood the business model, but on the front lines, it wasn’t pleasant.

When you guarantee a reservation with a credit card, the hotel is guaranteeing you lodging for the evening. The catch to this is that it does not mean that it guarantees you a room in the hotel.
————————

Hogwash. That’s just hotel self-serving doubletalk. When I book a room at hotel X, I expect to be placed in Hotel X, otherwise I might as well go to Priceline. I understand if Hotel X is unable to honor the booking due to unforeseen circumstances, and I’m fine with overbooking, but to suggest that the agreement is that I’m just contracting for a room somewhere is ridiculous.

It’s not a scam and the hotel would prefer to not have this happen since it is not a good customer service move. Unfortunately due to the overbooking policy of management groups though it does happen since it is impossible to guess exactly how many reservations will not show up/check out early…

Once again a hotel is a business and like any business their job is to maximize revenue. The naivity of the consumer to think that a hotel should be different from any other business is just silly. Sometimes a little bit of understanding should be in order on both sides, the hotels should provide excellent service in those situations and the guests should understand that the front desk agent in front of them has nothing to do with the situation and is stuck with the unenviable task of delivering the bad news to you.

Write a letter to the general manager and express your dissatisfaction with their revenue management policies and perhaps you can actually make a change at the property level where they will be hesistant to overbook in the future.

-a veteran hotelier

I have no problem with overbooking. We know that there will be no-shows and last minute cancellations. OVerbooking allows the hotel tomaximize its revenue.

In my mind there are only two issues. The first is the criteria in which the hotel decides who will be walked. The second is the compensation for being walked.

Regarding the criteria. It makes sense the Priceline/Hotwire guests should be walked first. Not because they are low revenue guests, but because the opaque nature of the booking means that they care less about the specific location than others.

And compensation is appropriate. Many hotels will comp you the first night when you are walked. In addition, if you are part of the loyalty program, you get additional benefits. Marriott gives gold members $100 plus the first night free if walked, and gives play meners $200 plus the first night free is walked.

Hardly seems like a scam.

(1) Ask to speak with the manager-on-duty. The front desk clerks are there to do as they are told, and often can’t break protocol.

(2) Make a good case for why you have to stay at that *exact hotel* on that *exact night*. In both cases, I arrived after 1am in the morning and was vehemently assured that every single room had a body in it (which I knew wasn’t true). At the first hotel, a Grand Hyatt, I mentioned that 4 of my colleagues were already staying there that night, as we had to prepare for meetings together beginning at 6am the next morning. I stressed that the only reason we all booked rooms there was because the hotel could accommodate all of us and we have all had good experiences staying there in the past. Additionally, I emphasized that because we all believed we were staying there, we had booked our all-day business meetings there the next day (hence bringing the hotel even more revenue), and it would be a terrible inconvenience to stay at an alternate hotel. Managers are human too and it helps to play the empathy card vs. the “unfair practice” card, which puts them on the defensive. If you were traveling for pleasure, I might mention (true or not) that you had extended family already checked into the hotel and it would be a horrible inconvenience and negatively impact your vacation if you couldn’t stay with them, you haven’t seen them since last Christmas,you had really been looking forward to staying here because those family members have stayed here often and therefore suggested that you stay here, etc, etc. In my case, my story happened to be true, and it worked – the manager gave me a room and bumped the next guy – who happened to be a “Diamond member”.

(3) Be very apologetic and make them feel like you recognize they are doing you a *huge favor* (even if you don’t feel this way). I always try to phrase my requests as, “I am so sorry to have to ask, but I would *really* appreciate it if you could make this happen, it would be so helpful, thank you so much” etc. In my second experience, I was about to get bumped from a hotel in an unfamiliar city that is terrible to drive in (and took me about 8 wrong turns to navigate there in my rental car WITH a gps!) It was 1am and I couldn’t take it anymore. I just apologized profusely to the manager and said I couldn’t take anymore, exhausted from a long day at work, a flight that had been delayed 4 hours, sat next to a crying baby on the plane, got lost on my way from the airport to their hotel, I don’t know the city and I really couldn’t bear venturing out again at this time of night, and if he could please – PLEASE – find a room for me I would be eternally grateful. Even though the manager initially told me there were no rooms available, he admitted that the hotel always keeps two rooms empty for “maintenance reasons” (i.e. if someone’s shower breaks in the middle of the night or something), and that he would give me one of them.

Sometimes, kindness and appreciation (along with tactically placed arguments) will get you what you want. Of course, in Susan’s case, if you feel like you are getting scammed, I would fight it all the way.

I got to my new hotel which seemed alright in the lobby, but the room was smoking (I had asked for non-smoking in my previous reservation). The room was small, the area was downtown (my previous in chelsea), the internet was out, the hallways were disgusting. Lets just say I was happy to get out of there.

The next day I went to the 4 points Sheraton which now had a room. The internet worked and I looked up the other hotel… $180/night. I subsequently complained about my experience at the front desk — here’s where it gets interesting. I was told I would be refunded one nights stay ($400) and creditted 8,000 SPG points.

*I called the following Monday to make sure the credit was going through — “yes you should see it on thursday”
*I called Friday — Accounting manager was out sick
*I called the following Monday — “Oh it may have been held up by your bank give it a few days”
*I called my bank — “We would never hold a credit to your account”
*I called Tuesday — “I did put it through, here is the confirmation number” She rattles off a 15 digit number so fast I don’t have time to react, she says “I will email it to you as well.. goodbye”
*I call Starwood Hotels (instead of the hotel directly) — They have garaunteed that it will be resolved within 5 days.

The real question is.. did they really think they were going to get away with it? OR.. was this just a case of lazy workers + paper piles + misplaced/forgotten stuff?

The writer of this article fails to be fair or balanced, and uses a very big stroke of the brush so to say in the writing of his article. “Walking” as it is known in the industry isn’t inheriently a scam, but like most anything can be perverted into a scam. In the example cited in the case of Susan Weiler, if she believes that she was scammed then she might have actually been. But what would have been fair would have been for the author to have added the following…

Make a distinction between the reputable and the non-reputable hotel. No reputable hotel wants to walk anybody. Yes they, or at least the major brands, use complicated software and analyize statistics about previous periods of traffic to judge how much, if any, a hotel should over book. Sometimes we get the number right and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes management leaves well enough alone and sometimes they think they know better then the computer and/or the front line employee who’s there as the night’s events progress. No employee of a reputable hotel wants to over book only to look forward to getting yelled and screamed at by a late arriving guest. Trust me, I’ve been yelled and screamed at many times through the years (show me someone whom actually enjoys getting yelled at). I don’t like walking guests anymore then a guest likes getting walked. It destroys their experience with us and undoubtedly impacts negatively in a guest’s loyalty to us.

Hotels over book, that’s a fact of life. We over book, yes like the airlines eluded to in the comments posted, because we want to take into accounts cancellations and noshows. We are in business like any other business – to sell a product and make money. Hotel rooms have a nightly expiration date. Rooms are not like many items in a grocery store that a grocer can purchase from a suplier and then let sit on a store shelf until they sell weeks, months or even years later. Ever read the expiration date on a box of cereal or a canned item? Seeing 2012 isn’t uncommon anymore. Hotel rooms have to have electricity provided to them, water, someone to furnish them and clean them. These folks want to be paid regardless of whether or not the room was used. The electric company isn’t going to give a hotel a per room discount on the number of rooms that didn’t sell on a given night. They still want their money at the end of the month.

Now, if you are walked, by a reputable hotel at least, then yes you should most definetly be taken care of. At least in the cases when I’ve walked guests, you should be sent to a comparable property first, a property a step down from your level of service only if nothing else can be found. It should be a known brand that the guest will trust, not some hole in the wall brand that no one has ever heard of. Your night should be paid for by the hotel walking you. Complimentary transportation should be provided if needed to get you to your new hotel. And if you’re taken there in the hotel shuttle, the driver should walk you to the desk and make sure that everything is okay before leaving you. An offer should be made to return the guest to your hotel the next day. And whether or not you return you should recieve a prompt apology from mangement the next business day. Personally when walking a guest I’ve gone so far as to offer meals, free cabs the next day if I know a guy, and even cash money straight from the drawer among other things.

When walking a guest, the discount third parties like Priceline, Hotwire and Expedia are going to be the first to go. And why shouldn’t they? These guest have little if any brand loyalty, and often don’t even have control over which brand they stay with. So why should I or my hotel show them any loyalty over a guest who’s paying a fair rate and has stayed with our brand if not hotel itself repeatedly? Also, when a hotel guest is walked the hotel walking the guest looses money on that guest in what we have to pay to the new hotel to accomodate that guest and in what that guest would have paid to us in the form of their room rate. So sure, we’re going to minimize that as much as possible. The guest’s reservation with us should be cancelled or modified for that first night, and if its a discount third party site that booked the reservation then we’ll likely credit the site and the guest will then have to contact them then for a refund. If asked, we’ll sometimes contact them on your behalf and ask them to credit you minus any booking fees the third party may have charged.

A non-reputable hotel can pervert walking into a scam. Sure they can. Anything can be manipulated until so. Different hotels, different parts of the country and even different parts of the world have different ways of doing business. Some hotels, a lot really, genuinely care about their guest and some don’t. If like Susan Weiler you think you’re being scammed then you owe it to yourself to speak up. Speak up to the person at the desk, to mangement, to your travel agent, to your credit card company or anyone else that will listen. Read the manner in which you’re being walked. Is the employee actually apologetic or does it seem like an act? Look at where you’re being sent to. If you’re going from a five star property to a two star property with no compensation or credit that you can actually use and you think something is going on then speak up! But also understand that with regard to rates, that they are tiered and subjective. Many different rates can be had from many different booking avenues for the same room. Some hotels, and some hotel desk clerks, see the rates offered by a computer as gospel. Others see them as a guide and are willing to haggle. I’ve easily taken fity dollars or more off a rate to book a guest over the phone or in person just because it’s late and I want their business. So you could be the victim of a rate scam. or just happened upon the hotel or desk clerk that chooses to interpret the computer as nothing more than a guide.

I couldn’t help but stare at the near end of this article when it got to “…what to do if your walked…” The author must live in some pristine world is all I have to say. As I’ve said before, no desk clerk at a reputable hotel wants to walk anybody. It’s just such a bad thing to do to someone. But there are things I’ve told many a friend that they shouldn’t do when they are walked, just about everything this author told people they should do.

Don’t yell and scream at us. Again, we don’t like the situation anymore then you do.

Don’t ask us repeatedly if we’ve got a room in the back that isn’t being used. Yes we do have rooms from time to time that are out-of-order, and if they’re useable then we will put them back into sevice if we haven’t already done so. But no, we do not have a way of magically creating a room. Many people have pleaded that I provide them with a room. But I can’t violate the laws of physics. If I only have 248 rooms to work with and you’re reservation number 249, then you’re out of luck.

Speak up about your hotel that you’re being sent to. What do we think of it? Is it full service or limited service? You’ve never heard of brand XYZ? Then let us know that you want a brand that you’ve heard of. Give us enough faith that in all but the utter worst travel periods, a Hilton is going to walk you to a Marriott or a Hyatt and not a Motel 6.

Don’t threaten us, however professionally, and don’t try to influence your situation by bad mouthing us to other guests in the lobby. Again, we don’t like your situation any more then you do. Again, we can’t magically create a room for you. And often, desk clerks don’t respond well to threats. I’ve given more free stuff and compensation to walks that work with me as opposed to those whom work against me. How do you react to folks whom threaten you?

You can confirm your reservation all you want. But just because you say that you are indeed coming, doesn’t mean we’re going to mark you as “unwalkable.” Cause everyone whom travels regularlly is also calling us to let us know they’re coming. You do signifigantly decrease your chances of being walked, and increase your chances of getting the type of room you reserved, by arriving early. Don’t expect that you can work all day, spend time with the family, and then make that late flight that doesn’t get in until 11pm or mid-night (and that’s if it doesn’t arrive later cause of an airline delay). Hotels overbooks for a number of reasons. And the rooms are going to go as the night progresses until the hotel sells out. And what do they say about how the early bird gets the worm? Try working a half day instead.

In summary, I really had to comment after reading this article. I’ve been in the hotel business for a very long time, I know the in’s and the out’s. I’ve worked for good hotels and hotels that seemed to need help. I’ve worked slow travel periods and periods when I couldn’t check people in fast enough and the phone would never stop ringing. While yes most anything can become a scam, walking in of itself isn’t. It’s like having to say “no” to your kids. If you’re a good parent, then you want to give them everything. But sometimes you just can’t and have to say so, no matter how much you don’t want to.

K Blanco
Dallas, TX