Front Desk here: We don't know why but maybe roughly 6 months ago, phone numbers started disappearing off reservations in our system. You could go into GXP (where we answer mobile chats, review guest information) and get it and copy it onto the reservation but then even that number is outdated sometimes. Believe me, we don't like having to ask for it and getting yelled at about it; but at the same time, management companies/owners/sales departments will get mad if we don't get the information. In fact at some places you can get written up or fired for not getting that information.

I will also say that I had a situation where we had a smoke alarm inspection and it turns out one in one room wasn't working. The guest was at work for the day and we had no number on file to reach him but we needed him to change rooms since there has to be a working alarm in the room. To do that we had to lock the guest out of the room to ensure they would come to the front desk. I got cussed out by the guest because "We didn't call him and let him know." But he didn't give us a number and there was no number in GXP - so while the number may be annoying it can save you from situations like this.