arlflyer

Sort of silly because HGI rates are often as high as full-service property rates. Heck, a lot of HGIs are nicer than full-service properties to begin with.

scubaccr

To OP of course the hotel will oversell by x% based on trends and empirical data

Whilst you may have booked an BAR non-cancel rate I would hazard that a large number of rooms were booked on flex rates, which until this January we're cancel able on the day, and there will be older flex bookings stil under flex terms.

Hotel knows empirically for any day of year how many flex cancel on the day AND how May BAR guests simply don't turn up (and won't contact either as they can't get advance payment refunded).

On occasion this goes wrong, various scenarios
o Diamond Force means hotel forced to overbook by more than usual that night
o rooms unexpectedly not usable
o guest extends and local state law means hotel has to allow
o all flex bookings turn up

Typically your Guaranteed room is there until it is last room left and a guest with reservation arrives to checkin and is given it. I don't think online-checkin is a foolproof work around AS until you checkin and get key card for room hotel inventory knows room is still available

Heck just imagine now we have online checkin that ALL bar's that can't make the stay kick out by doing online checkin to prevent hotels double-selling their paid for room. As such hotels will and do ignore online checkin after say 9pm rather than turn an arriving guest away

JoshC

Personally, I think it is BS that the room is not held for you. I am sure they would have charged you for the room had you not showed up, it should be sitting there waiting on you if that is the case.

Yeah, I know...

SR12

To be honest up to a certain point I get why they overbook their rooms. Lots of good points have made and I would agree with you, that your room should be held for you, but in my opinion your argument has one big flaw: It's only really spot on for 1night reservations, where they would charge you 100% anyways if you didn't show up.
Multi-night-stays are slightly different: Let's say you make a reservation for 1 week, if you didn't show up, they would only be allowed to charge you for the 1st night and end up with an empty room and lost revenue for the remaining 6 days. In some cases they might be able to sell the room otherwise, but since they would only know 1-6 nights before, many times those rooms would remain empty and the hotel would be losing money.
So to be fair, if one were to demand the room to be held, it would only be appropriate if the hotel was to charge no shows or cancellations within the last 24hrs before their supposed checkin 100% of the entire stay instead of just the 1st night.

Just my opinion though.

telabadmanwot

HAHAHAHAHHA ah thats amazing

writerguyfl

The vast majority of time, that's exactly what happens. Walking is not a common occurrence in a decently-run hotel. It's expensive and risky. Any walked guest can become a "detractor" who will go to social media and places like Trip Advisor and damage the reputation of the hotel.

Walking is also wildly stressful on the hotel staff. (No one likes to get yelled at.) If a hotel makes a habit of walking guests, they will have difficulty retaining front-line staff.

If hotels didn't overbook, many rooms would be empty every "sold-out" night. Sure, that's bad for the hotel; but also for guests. The hotel where I worked the longest had 357 rooms. On some nights our no-shows would be in double digits. If we didn't overbook, that would mean that 10+ people who wanted to stay with us would have had to stay elsewhere. And, if you confine your stays to a single hotel group, that alternate location might be miles away from where you want to be.

arlflyer

Seems to me like a lot of the walking occurs when hotels have made reservations long ago that they wish they could take back - during special events (perhaps not yet known at the time), etc. They probably end up making much more money on the inflated rates than they lose off the walked guests. I'm sure they know what they're doing and take it all into account.

jabbered

I don't want to ever have to walk someone. Where I currently work, the nearest hotel is 30 minutes away and not remotely comparable. We keep a hold room stashed in case of emergencies.


On one hand, I'd like all hotels to be proactive and offer walks early in the day to someone that's agreeable. You eliminate the need of walking someone late at night or that doesn't want to. However, you then get no shows and there was no need to walk anyone and end up with empty rooms.


By waiting, your chances of a no-show increase, lowering the need to walk someone. However, waiting can lead to walking someone in the middle of the night if everyone does show up.

gemac

While that's true, here's what I don't understand. At 6 PM, if there are a few rooms left, they all become paid-for rooms. Why continue registering every guest who comes in, knowing that you have a diamond with a guaranteed rez who you will have to pay cash to if you walk him? Why not block one of those still empty rooms for him? If he doesn't show you will get paid anyway.

If it is earlier in the day and you are getting short on vacant rooms, it still makes sense to set a room aside for the diamond, because you have more reservations and the likelihood they all cancel before 6 PM is remote.

What doesn't make sense to me is when you know that you will end up walking most of the remaining reservations (but not all), letting the guy who stays at your chain all the time stay on the walk list when you know it will cost you extra and anger one of your chain's best customers.

jabbered

Depending on how many rooms a hotel is overbooked by will often determine the start time of walking guests.

If I'm overbooked by 1 or 2, I'm not going to start walking early in the day (even though it's better IMO). If I'm somehow overbooked by 10+, I'm more likely to start early.


If at some point (maybe 7 or 8 pm), I'm still overbooked by one, I'm making sure my highest level folks have rooms and find a lower tier (preferably non-status) to walk.

However, if I was overbooked, I'd be getting my high status folks rooms assigned rooms early in the day.

hhoope01

Actually, with Marriott you receive your elite benefits no matter how the reservation was made. Though with a Priceline type reservation you would have to call the hotel before you arrived and have them manually enter your MR# into the reservation.

But if you do that and they still walk you, Marriott, just like Hilton, has a walk policy for elites which would be applicable.

sweeper20

Sort of depends - you are banking that the people with the cheap reservations show up last - what if all the people with the cheapo reservations show up earlier in the day and the ones with the higher reservations show up later?

jphripjah

What happens if someone refuses to be walked and insists that you give him his room and walk someone else? Will the hotel cave or will the hotel call the police to forcibly remove the guest and/or have him arrested for trespass?

Can you essentially get yourself "unwalked" just by refusing to leave?

hhoope01

First, I would guess that if you read the fine print on the reservation, it will probably have some wording somewhere that allows them to overbook and relocate some with reservations to other locations.

As for the squeaky wheel approach to getting a room, maybe it will work, but I'm guessing most likely it won't Given the extra cost to walk a Diamond, I'm thinking they really don't have another room to give out. It would be much easier and probably giving that Diamond a suite is less costly than walking them (paying for that night's cost plus the extra cash for being a Diamond.) So I would guess that more times than not, no matter how much yelling and screaming you do, you aren't getting a room.

But hey, you never know until you try.

jabbered

It depends.

If you're the last to arrive and no rooms are there, then your out of luck.


In my past experiences, if someone doesn't want to move and there is someone else that meets the criteria, then will likely flag them and that guest can stay. I've never had a guest get that upset, but my walks have been from basic hotel type rooms, to a larger higher end resort room.