UAmainbird

I hadn't seen this covered before, although it wouldn't surprise me if I missed it.
Have you seen examples of a property that completely blocks out availability for a certain percentage of their rooms, and keeps it that way?

No complaints here; just curiosity:
Stayed at the Hampton Inn in Scottsbluff, NE, on a recent Saturday night. Leading up to the date I wanted, online reservations showed that there were no regular rooms available. I wanted to stay there (on points) on our way back from extended travel, because it was the right distance from origin + destination, so I kept checking back. A couple days ahead of time some additional rooms became available and I was able to book at the normal (20,000) rate.
The afternoon of check-in, I went online to see about potential upgrades, and there were no rooms available at all.
Upon check-in, I asked about occupancy and he did say they were sold out.

HOWEVER, we were in and out a few times; I rarely saw many other guests.
I was awake until about midnight, and only heard a few others.
Our room overlooked the back parking lot, and ours was one of very few cars there. (the others were near staff entrance, with lots of empty stalls)
At breakfast the next morning, there were definitely other people there, but only about a third of the tables were ever occupied.

I'm not disappointed about not getting an upgrade, because it would have mainly been to room features we would not have used anyway.
BUT it caused me to wonder whether they might have "artificially" restricted their occupancy? Perhaps they could not arrange for enough staff to care for additional rooms?

chrism20

The quickest two explanations I can think of is deep cleaning for example carpets etc it would make sense to block off rooms and blitz over a weekend if the hotel experiences high occupancy during the week so they do things like this at the weekend when rates are lower. That's assuming the hotel is mainly business.

The other explanation I can think of is that big businesses who are based nearby block off rooms and pay for them whether used or not. Here in the UK I know the oil companies do this in Aberdeen on a large scale.

There will be other scenarios/explanations that others may offer but these are the two that quickly spring to mind.

uncertaintraveler

I've been to that Hampton Inn before; I got the sense that they get many tourist groups passing through on buses. Perhaps a scheduled tourist group never showed up that night?

Sez_Who

This would have been one of my guesses. Another is a group that booked a block of rooms for an event that may have been canceled or there were some no-show's.

Maxwell Smart

Or a tour group came in by bus and left early in the morning? That could also explain both the open parking lots and sparse breakfast crowd.

Often1

To answer OP's question, it's very common. All he needed to do was ask at the FD and he would have had a better answer than the speculation here.

1. There was relatively low demand, so the property shut a floor / wing / hallway for some period of time.
2. Maintenance involving taking rooms out of service.
3. Renovations.

Rickenbacker

Likely a motorcoach tour. Many are early AM departures (even 5 or 6).

UAmainbird

Thanks all!

Points Scrounger

Once upon a time, at an actual Hilton, I booked Run of the House as a Diamond, and was stunned to find myself with a single (twin) bed. They were not nearly full. I let it go, but regret not having said something before unpacking.

hhoope01

Many years ago, I was staying at the Kauai Marriott for a vacation. At check-in I was told the hotel was fully booked, but during our stay, the whole place was virtually empty. We almost had the hotel to ourselves.

I finally had to ask what was going on. It turned out that the movie 'Six Days, Seven Nights' was being filmed on the island during our stay and the hotel was booked up from the movie studio workers there. It seemed they had to be up and out to the shooting location well before sun up and they didn't get back until late in the evenings. So I never really saw them.

The moral of the story is just because you don't see them, doesn't mean their aren't there.

365RoadWarrior

The other possibility that I've encountered is flight crews. They often come and go at odd hours and seldom do I see them lingering around the hotel. Scottsbluff, NE, that probably wasn't the answer.

jn in ca

That's a fun story. In general, hotels get more "late check in, early check out" guests than you would think. Next time you're curious, go out and look at the parking lot. You think it is half empty, but go back out at midnight and see how full it is. Go out at 5 AM and see how full the parking lot is, then by 7, the number of guests who have driven away is surprisingly large.

Doc Savage

I'd think possibly tour buses as well, except for the fact that there are really no tourist destinations anywhere near Scottsbluff.

COSPILOT

Maybe 3 years ago I tried to make a reservation for Scottsbluff online, but it was showing as full. I chose to call the hotel directly and mentioned what I saw online, the response was confusion, as she said the hotel was wide open for that date. Strange that this glitch continues.

uncertaintraveler

There are a few National Historic Monuments nearby, and it is a good stopover point to other National Parks/Sites that are within a few hours driving distance away.