Sorry, we've overbooked

The BBQ Pit
41

You may have been just really lucky…

Honestly, 95%+ of the time, on-line reservations work just fine, despite all of the behind-the-scenes screw ups. But, there are any number of cases that penalize hotels and potential guests because the web reservation system falls apart.

Want examples?

A few years ago, when I managed the front desk for a brand new hotel in a very busy tourist area, I had a party come in for their (don’t remember? Orbitz? Expedia?) pre-paid reservation. Fortunately, I had a couple of rooms available (because I have enough experience in this industry to make a couple of “dummy reservations” in our system in case we need to move guests due to a room defect, or honor a reservation that got lost somehow.) Naturally, I had no record of the reservation, including the one-time-use credit card number that should have accompanied that reservation. I got on the phone with the booking company, and (after what seemed like hours on hold, with impatient clients sitting in the lobby with complimentary beverages,) the agent told me that OF COURSE they had sent us the reservation: Just look up confirmation # 1234567. Remember, however, that we were a brand new hotel - so new, in fact, that our T1 lines had not yet been installed. (Yeah, we pushed the opening so that we could take advantage of a holiday - Fourth of July, I think.) So, there was no way that I had that reservation in my system. Happily, I was able to get the CC# faxed to me and get the guests into one of the two remaining rooms available in the area. (And don’t get me started on the fact that these folks were shocked and appalled that we had the gall to charge extra for parking in our garage… The web companies never, ever warn you about extra charges. Sure, the guests could have tried to find a street parking space, but our garage was considerably cheaper than even the municipal garages nearby.)

I’ve also had to turn away or move guests (when I worked at properties that owned another hotel across the street) because Orbitz overbooked their room allotment. Of course, that never makes the guest happy, but it’s not really something I can fix: If I have 100 rooms, and make 10 available to Orbitz, I assume that I have 90 rooms that I can book via central reservations, telephone, or walk-ins. If Orbitz sends me 11 rooms for that day, there’s not a helluva lot I can do about it. (And quite frankly, if they overbook me, I’m going to turn away my last Orbitz guest, because that is then THEIR problem - not mine. I haven’t collected any money from that room, can’t refund it, and cannot change the reservation in my system. Lots less paperwork and hassle for me. Sure, I’ll do my best to help that guest find a room, but I can’t guarantee anything. I’ve seen nights when - despite massive effort on my part - I couldn’t pinpoint an available room within a 40 mile radius of my property.)

And I once had a fax reservation from Orbitz come through literally seconds after I sold my last room. Fortunately, I was able to reach the agency quickly, so that they could contact their client and rebook.

Also, if our property overbooks rooms and cannot honor a reservation, we “walk” the guest: That is, we find a comparable room as nearby as possible, and pay for that room ourselves - no charge to the guest. Sometimes mistakes happen, and if WE are the ones to make the mistake, we take care of it. If Orbitz makes the mistake? Sorry. I can’t be any more help than to call other properties to help you find a room, and to look up Orbitz’ customer service number for you… :frowning:

Two morals to this story:

If you must make a reservation through a third-party wholesaler, follow up by calling the hotel directly to confirm.

  • or -

(Preferred) Book directly through the hotel, or its on-line system. Frankly, if you call me and say “Orbitz is quoting me a rate of $X for the night of Y for your property. Can you match that?” I’m gonna say “absolutely, and you won’t have to pre-pay. I’ll just hold the room for you on your credit card. That way, if you need to change or cancel the reservation, you can just call us by 4 pm on the day of arrival.” (That way, we don’t lose the booking fee. You don’t think that we receive the entire amount you pay to Orbitz, right?)

42

Doesn’t it depend on the terms of the contract?

When I buy a tour package from a travel agency I frequently have no privity of contract with the hotel. The travel agency has bought a block of rooms at a discount and resold them to me at a higher price. I don’t know how orbitz works but they may be mroe than a broker.

So how does orbitz work exactly, because you clearly must know fuck all about that to take that sort of tone.

43

Look at who took your money. Thats a pretty good indicator of who you can hold responsible.

They screwed you and thoght you would jsut stand there and take it up the azz. get your money back from the airline, raise holy hell. Picket their ticket stand at the airport if you have to. Write horrible reviews all over the internet.

Then bash the the hotel all over the internet.

Then bash orbitz all over the internet. Make people think twice before they use orbitz before they use expedia or directly book rooms and flights.

It might not help you but it might make them think twice before they try to screw ME over so I highly encourage your campaign of righteous indignation.

44

Before you start bleating about shit you clearly don’t know fuck all about, they’ve always overbooked. So do car rental agencies and any number of other types of businesses that regularly have no-shows.

45

Looks like a lot of wheaties got pissed in this morning!

Where’s Basil Fawlty when we really need him?

46

Always overbooked? Really?

Maybe you also need a glass of you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about?

47

Bankrupt and swilling Mad Dog on the street. Orbitz fucked him out of business.

48

What does that have to do with the practice of overbooking?

49

You do have privity of contract with the hotel in that case. Do you not believe they have an obligation to furnish you a room? (as in they can say, nope, I sold my room to “XYZ agency, and only they get to occupy the room”)

50

I assume that you meant that for me?

It has to do with the practice of overbooking in that most hotels aren’t even in a position to contemplate doing so. So, no, not all hotels always overbook.

51

Yeah, sorry, got out-typed.

While I agree they’re not in the position to do so in some places, I didn’t get that CarnalK was suggesting that they do it everywhere, all the time. Obviously they can’t force people to book in numbers that would require them to overbook. Only that it’s standard practice in the industry, and has been for a long time.

52

I guess you just proved they don’t attempt to book to capacity either, moron.

53

did I say they did?

54

That would depend on the terms of their contract with Orbitz. You certainly couldn’t enforce an obligation against them that Orbitz can’t.

55

yes, I’d really be interested in a contract between a booking agency and a hotel chain that didn’t address the furnishing of rooms :rolleyes:

56

You can’t be this fucking stupid. You don’t think there might be some limitations on whether the hotel must guarantee that it will furnish rooms?

ETA: You’re not this fucking stupid. Are you drunk?

57

OK, well let’s presume that Orbitz functions as a nonexclusive sales rep through an agreement made with hotel franchisors. Furthermore, Orbitz has only the authority to relay orders for hotel rooms to the franchisor’s central computer system (which then forwards that data on to individual locations). If Orbitz fails to relay the order as the parties had agreed, who is liable when the guest finds that there is no room available?

(I will concede that this is not the precise scenario set forth in the OP, considering that in the OP, the desk clerk apparently knew that this reservation existed. But it could be that the desk clerk said what he said because he was uniterested in arguing whether the OP ever made a reservation and gave the OP the benefit of the doubt—after all, what was important at that moment was that there were no rooms left.)

58

There is a poster on this thread (and on another thread I started recently) who’s either a troll or just likes playing devil’s advocate to rile everyone up.

Rumor_Watkins, you’re not helping anyone with your antagonistic tone. I come to the Dope boards for lively discussion, and occasionally to ask for help or advice or to find a place to blow off some steam (like in the Pit). But nothing you say helps anyone. If you were talking to us all live and face-to-face, I have a feeling we’d all just leave the room and leave you alone to yourself.

59

You said earlier that it’s a near monopoly that owns most of the other travel websites, but I don’t think that’s true. According to Wikipedia, Priceline, Travelocity, and Expedia are all separate and independent companies. How does Orbitz have a near monopoly?

60

I asked a student I know who works as a desk clerk at a local Marriott about overbooking in hotels these days (it’s been 15 years or more since I worked in hotels so the Internet and the growth of the city has changed everything) and she said that when Marriott has to walk a guest they always do the Priceline and other discount online reservations and pre-paids first. There are good reasons for this:

-They make way less money on those rooms in general
-Marriott caters to business travelers, especially during the week, while people who use Priceline & Orbitz et al are more likely to be leisure travelers and thus less likely to return to that hotel anyway
-When you walk a guest who’s affiliated with Company XYZ you risk losing all of XYZ’s business, whereas when you walk somebody who uses Priceline or whatever you’re probably just risking their individual business; while you want all customers to leave happy, if one has to leave unhappy it’s best that it be a lone wolf than part of a pack

Of course she also said it’s still their policy to pay for the other hotel room and for cab fare there if need be and to send a follow-up free night voucher in such instances. The most egregious thing about the OP wasn’t the being walked but the attitude and the fact they charged without reimbursing or providing other accomodations.
ETA: Forgot to mention- walk a guest is hotel jargon for having to find another hotel for a guest due to overbooking or something being wrong at the hotel. We once had to walk a couple of dozen guests due to a broken water pipe at a hotel where I worked and while some were p.o.'d most were understanding (the problem was obvious and “whatcha gonna do?”; unfortunately a lot of hotels will lie when they overbook and claim it’s due to a broken water pipe or faulty smoke detectors or some such in hopes it sounds better than ‘we overbooked’ and consequently when it really is due to a building problem it sounds less legit.