Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Programs: AAdvantage EXP/1mm/Admirals,United Silver+Club (life),Marriott Titanium,Hilton & Accor Gold
Posts: 5,061
Three very simple facts:
1) Hotels do not pre-block rooms for one main reason...
HOTELS ROUTINELY OVERBOOK!
If you have 225 rooms and 233 stayovers scheduled, how do you allocate the block? What happens when a guest extends a stay? The desk clerk would have to unblock an arriving guest, then do the extension. Blocking rooms creates a mess of problems in a hotels PMS (property management system).
2) If the hope of a King Bed, Non-smoking room isn't present, a good number of folks will book elsewhere. Hotels don't want to lose potential guests.
3) Travel agents routinely request King Non-smoking for everything they book, even though their guests may want something else. If these rooms are blocked for guests that don't want them, what about all the folks that were denied their choice in the meantime?