Walk THIS!

[Evil Queen]

The Crowne Plaza up the street, while a VERY nice hotel, is generally oversold by 10-30 rooms. The worst was when they oversold by 50. They wound up with contracts to every hotel within a 10 miles radius (which amounts to some 30 hotels). We got the majority (23) when they oversold time before last. We're less then a mile away.

Last time they oversold it was mearly by 2 rooms, so the guests just came down the street to us.

Personally, I think overselling in moderation is good. This helps the hotel build decent partnerships with other hotels. But the Crowne only has 260 rooms. We have 80. I've worked here since Christmas and have oversold twice; once by 12 rooms (damn you Expedia!) and once by 4. Luckily, the 4 understood for the most part. Except this one guy that thought I was walking him because he was black. I told him I didn't know that, as I'm colourblind.

[Forensic Waitress]

Airlines also oversell their planes as well. This happened to us recently as my hubby works for one of the major airlines we were going to do staff travel to save money. We knew it was a risk coming home but we decided to take it. All of their flights for the next few days were oversold. Full fare passengers were having to wait to see if they could get on the next flight so we were screwed. We ended up having to fly in and out of 3 different places to make it home, but at least our last flight was first class (very very nice).

But the point of fact was because it was Singapore to Australia and Singapore is a major hub for UK and European flights it left a lot of people high and dry and not knowing if they can make it home. I personally think overselling can be ok but as long as it is within reason. That is because I am one of those cheap people that hope that I could get upgraded if I opt to go at another time. But there is no reason to take your anger out on the people at either the hotel or the airlines desk because they had nothing to do with this and do not deserve to be shot because they are the messenger.

[dekydrose]

I *loathe* when hotels overbook. I had this poor woman call in the other night while I was working E.H. who had been driving literally all day. This was to be her first trip to Shrevedale (or something like that) and she had come up for the casinos. She gets to her hotel- it's 1 AM, she's older, and she gets told "sorry, we don't have a room for you and the entire city is sold out. She calls me in TEARS and is like "I've been driving alone all day. I'm exhausted, and now I'm told there's nowhere I can stay. Turns out all hotels within THREE HOURS were sold out....apparently there was some softball tournament going on. I got her a suite, guaranteed a late checkout, paid for her first night, reimbursed her for $90.00 in gas and told her to take her husband out for dinner when she got home-this was all invoiced to the hotel.

I know hotels count on no-shows for times when there are to be heavy demand for hotel rooms...but even if someone no-shows...you're supposed to hold their room open. This poor woman had to drive for THREE HOURS on a dark highway by herself. I gave her my personal cellphone number to call in case she got tired as I had to go home and sleep. She arrived at a little past 4 AM and the hotel I booked her into was awesome enough to not bother her at all...she checked out at 4 PM.

The hotel owner is not pleased with me. ::shrugs:: oh well...he should have managed his inventory better.

oh...and I love Crowne Plaza...those beds and their "sleep advantage" thingie they do? It knocks me out when I stay there.

[depechemodefan]

Me - Why me? Oh yeah, see signature...

Is that from Peanuts?

I went to Europe with my mom, an uncle, is wife, and one of my mom's neighbors. We are at the airport to go back home when the airline says the flight is overbooked by 1. If one person would give up their place, then that person would get a flight for the next day, paid either 40 pounds or 200 pounds (maybe it was 400 pounds), and a paid hotel, and a voucher for a trip on the airline, good for a year. I wanted to jump on that but my mom was freaking out about me being by myself in London. Mom's neighbor doesn't speak English but when she finds out about the deal she jumps on it. She spent the whole day at the hotel. I wanted to stay, I could have seen Depeche Mode in London! This was Nov. 2001, and the Mode was touring England (I already saw them Houston in the Summer) at the time.

[Leopardmadcat]

SC: Look asshole, we've been having problems getting here all day. Now either you get me a room, or you and I are going to take a walk outside.

I salute you KhirasHY! Cause at that point I would put my hand on my pistol but and tell him leave... NOW or it's gonna be a real short walk for one of us...

As for overbooking, BAD IDEA! Customers don't like being told they were playing a lottery with you when they entered into a contract for services. My family was bumped once from a SUPER8 hotel due to overbooking. They will NEVER get our business again, EVER.

As for airlines, they're already on notice that legislation is forthcoming regarding overbooking. The ever so quaintly named "Passenger bill of rights" is more of a ruling that requires airlines to clarify ticket contracts and remedial processes for passengers.

Myself... I'm just praying to get my own private pilots license. Renting your own Single Engine Light Aircraft is often cheaper than "flying the unfriendly skies". And a heck of a lot more fun and reliable!

[SuperB]

I hate the over booking practices and I've been in the hotel business. Usually it's the larger properties that do this and not the smaller ones. One place I was at for years was somewhere in between. We didn't have any reservation system other than the Best Western 800 number. The night clerk used to run the last few reservations credit cards and if they came up declined, that's when he would sell the rooms. Technically I guess they didn't have a guaranteed reservation if they didn't guarantee it with a working credit card but it still made him nervous to do it.

And never use Hotels.com. They will screw you up and not give a rats arse about it.

[Evil Queen]

Hotels.com is owned by Expedia.

[AriRashkae]

Then, usually around three or four in the morning, the last reservation would get in. I never overbooked. If she did, then she got to deal with it, including one time when I called her at a wedding she'd gone to, and let the guest howl at her about selling his room.

I don't travel, and while the policy can make a bit of sense (crap happens. It's how I get earlier Dr. appts for the kids.), it's still a $h!tty policy.

Yeah, if someone tried to push a policy like that on me, that person could handle the fallout as well. My name is not D. Mat or P. Bag.

[king4aday]

When I worked in hotels (total of almost 8 years on front desk between a few different hotels), the properties I worked in didnt overbook at all. This was a very strict policy. We rented out rooms through expedia and travelocity but only gave each of them access to sell like 3 rooms each and we had a 48 hour cutoff for them..meaning that if it was less than 48 hours before that reservation was scheduled to arrive then the site would list those rooms as sold. If they didnt list them sold, we would manually list them as sold through the sites.

The thing about our hotel that I didnt like was the one week cancellation policy (its turning into a standard policy since this a tourist area). If you cancelled at least one week in advance we kept $40 as a cancellation fee. If you cancelled less than a week before you were scheduled we charged you for the entire stay, and then re-rented the room. My bosses LOVED cancellation money.