buylowsellhigh

As the subject suggests, I'm abit curious as to whether "withholding" inventory from Starwood or even other booking engines is a normal, everyday thing or not.

I'm trying to book hotels for an event at an Asia pacific SPG hotel, representing around 4% of the total rooms in the hotel. For the date(s) i'm interested in, the availability shows zero on SPG site. Yet, when I asked a friend to call in (using the local language), the sales rep said the rooms are available. They've also said that if we are keen on taking the rooms, the pricing "might" be negotiable.

Understanding that hotels will pay Starwood or other OTA's a hefty commission for bookings, I can see why hotels might have their own reps to process bookings.

Anyone have insight or pointers to offer for these?

tonei

How far out are the dates? Wondering if the SPG online booking engine might not go out that far...

RogerD408

Hotels will split their rooms across several booking sites, SPG, Expedia, and the such. And each engine will have their own rules as to what is acceptable (i.e. MLOS, rooms available, etc.) and may be what was blocking you online. Many times SPG.com will show more rooms available than actually available throwing people off when they are looking to get upgraded. But many properties have good numbers to hedge the bet on no shows and willing to overbook hoping they don't have to walk anyone.

For large groups, your request sounds like a large number of rooms, direct negotiation is the best way to go. Properties can offer several perks like lower rates, room service credit, meeting rooms for a reception, and maybe free shuttle service to secure the booking. You can even discuss a lower rate or more services if guests are not allowed SPG credit (just be sure to advise everyone so no arguments later).

nutsandbolts

It sounds like a very bad business idea to shut off access to a very large audience to book your rooms(spg.com). There could be other booking restrictions you didn't meet and the agents didn't see any availability. Once you made contact with the property, they may have reconsidered any restrictions considering the amount of rooms you were going to book.
Also bear in mind that hotels book their rooms for large events years in advance. It could be very well that a client told the hotel to release hundreds of room nights blocked for them, etc. Could be a number of things really; but least likely would be withholding the inventory from your biggest booking source. Might as well go independent and try to compete.

Lobster

This does not make any sense to me. Starwoods is the loyalty programme the hotel belong to and very different from a third party booking agent.

If you go to a hotels website and make a booking the actual booking is done through starwoods. Therefore I do not see how a hotel could or would withhold inventory.

MSPeconomist

In some countries, hotels literally sell some inventory to travel agents and other third party booking channels, so you can see rooms available on the internet but not through the hotel. If you want a room for those dates, you're forced to book through a TA or OLTA. I've experienced this in Russia.

RogerD408

It's very possible the site does have the rooms available but the system has a cap. I can see someone booking a large block of rooms and then cancel during the window (not that they can't do that in smaller groups). I would understand a programmer putting in checks that may not make sense in all situations. Fortunately, that's why we have people in the loop.

3Cforme

It sounds like the OP checked online rather than calling Reservations. It's possible he got caught up in something as simple as a limit to number of rooms that can be booked online (irrespective of room types). Airlines have the same kind of limit. Booking more than XX (and sometimes that is fewer than 10) demands a call.

It's also possible the hotel is 'fully booked,' having sold some inventory to 3rd parties, and now the hotel sales agent is going to try to claw back some rooms for direct sale. Pre-selling to 3rd parties happens every day, and rooms get resold through both opaque (Priceline Express Deals, as an example) and transparent channels.

Instead of researching this, some people are quick to spin out and call this a bad business practice or something nefarious.

buylowsellhigh

T-90 on these, so its within reasonable range, not too far out.

Haven't checked *too* many places after encountering the anomaly, because knowing that OTA's and the such take quite a bit of commission, I might be better off negotiating with the hotel directly.

And I was just running queries on SPG.com for one single room, just shows all booked up.

buylowsellhigh

Thanks for the tip on the direct nego... I've definitely gotten better rates by contacting hotels directly on longer stays (1-2 weeks)... and knowing the fact that SPG/OTA's charge hefty commissions, booking "direct" is better for their revenue management... just didn't know to what extent hotels do this... I can tell you that at many SPG's in China you can call using the local language, often times you can get better price booking direct as a "local" than an int'l visitor... Its crazy, I've had many a times when I had local friends book for me at prices lower than seen online LOL.

RogerD408

Yes, locals will get a better deal I believe because they expect more of a chance of repeat business than dealing with someone elsewhere. This is even true in the US, I used the local offices to book stays and got much better service/upgrades. Most of the properties are franchises and will work hard to improve their numbers showing their worth to the chain and those numbers are not just revenue, but room bookings and the such.

some dude

When you are trying to book using "local offices", how do you do this? Generally, if you call a hotel's phone number, there is an automated system ... If you select the option for reservations, it bounces you to the SPG call center.

Of course you can to be transferred back to front desk, but it makes it seem that they don't actually want to do what you are suggesting.

RogerD408

What I meant was using someone local to the property in question and when they call to talk with someone in the local (but may not be onsite) sales office. Many times when you call a property and ask for "reservations" they will dump you over to central reservations that really don't have the ability to arrange group bookings. But the sales office does. The front desk is not the place to discuss room bookings, meeting/conference arrangements and the such.

I was fortunate to have local offices of our company that build relationships with properties near them and they would use these contacts to secure what was needed.

worldtraveller73

Sometimes, hotels have a minimum night stay. Reward redemptions may be available, but you'd need to book 2-3 award nights. Octkoberfest in Munich is one example that comes to mind.

s_yvr

I've had about 50% success when there is zero availability on spg.com, calling the local number in business hours ask for 'local reservations'. About half the time they can scrounge up a room.