Travelodge on Watchdog tonight

jillie1974

havent airlines like BA. Virgin etc being doing this for years? where they overbook a flight? I'm sure i've seen it on 'airport' where an airline has had to turn people away and hope that not everyone turns up?

Altarf

budgetflyer wrote:

This is really no big deal. Its an industry wide practice that 99.9% of the time it works fine.
Once again, journalists sensationally trying to destroy a companies good image .
These overbooking practices ensure maximum efficiency that allows us to enjoy these £10 and £26 saver rooms.

It is not a big deal if Travelodge dealt with the overbookings well. They do not appear to have done so, by either getting people to drive to the nearest Travelodge with an empty room rather than find alternative local accommodation, or just failing to find any alternative accommodation.

If they had dealt with the overbookings well, they would have had very few complaints, so they are managing to 'destroy a companies good image' themselves without any help from journalists.

zolablue25

So, does anyone know how many people each year get turned away from Travelodges? And how does this compare to the number of rooms that they rent out each year? I mean, does this happen to 2 in 20,000 or 2 in 10? I know that if you are one of the 2 then it doesn't matter how many, but it would help to get perspective on the problem.

Trets77, as you are going to Gatwick are you flying somewhere? Im sure you are aware that airlines overbook and they definitely charge up front!

Edit: Damn I wish Ihad read the 2nd page of this thread before posting. Doh!!

colmil

in a statement from Travelodge, a spokesman states that 'about one in 10,000 have been affected, this is unbelievable!

I can only be thankful that I have never been caught, but that's me definitely finished with them, just fancy, someone had to sleep in their car!!!

What would have happened if it had been in the middle of winter?

Bye, Travelodge.

redux

The only times I've stayed at Travelodges I've arrived at about 2 am from Dover or the Channel Tunnel, the first time unbooked and I had the last room, equipped for disabled people. The other two, I've booked ahead, and they've confirmed they'd definitely keep it when i said I'd arrive that late.

I did have this happen to me at an Etap Hotel in Germany though, arriving at 9 pm. She claimed that she had tried a pre-authorisation on my card when she got down to the last 5 rooms, but she then quoted back that I'd given her the wrong expiry date, 3 years before the card was issued.

I doubt that any hotel would actually double-charge for this, and they probably do not usually process the transaction until people actually arrive, just save the details as a precaution. Otherwise they'd be spending more time refunding cancellations.

gerretl

I can't believe MSEs are having a pop at overbooking. A business has to make money, and an empty room in an hotel is money lost, never to be regained. They don't do it willy nilly. There is good solid statistical precedence for the numbers not turning up. It means the costs can be kept down. If you are a 'victim' of overbooking, keep polite, speak to the manager, and get whatever you can for the inconvienience.

MarkyMarkD

There's a lot of ill-informed guesswork going on in this thread.

To clarify:

(1) If you book a cheap rate room, £15 or £26 now (was £10 or £26), you pre-pay.

(2) If you book a standard rate room, £46 upwards, you pay on arrival but you are contractually committed to pay unless you cancel in good time.

So, by the time the actual day arrives, they know they have (say) 105% of the rooms booked.

They are taking an educated risk that at least 5% of people won't turn up.

This is quite likely because:

(1) People who've paid £15 or £26 don't get any refund or anything for cancelling, so those who aren't going to turn up aren't going to bother saying.

Travelodge could incentivise such customers to tell them they aren't coming, by giving a small reduction on a future booking, for example, but they don't bother doing this.

(2) Other people who've booked at the higher rates may just not know their movements until the last minute, and not be able to cancel in time. Once again, if it's too late to cancel and get a refund, many people won't cancel at all. Once again (again) Travelodge could incentivise such customers to cancel properly right up to the last minute at small cost to them.


I believe that Travelodge have made this problem worse with their cancellation policies.

BTW as to why they want 100% occupancy, it's because they make money on breakfasts and other food/drink sales, as well as the "greed" aspect referred to in some posts i.e. they can sell the same room twice.

Steve_xx

gerretl wrote:

I can't believe MSEs are having a pop at overbooking. A business has to make money, and an empty room in an hotel is money lost, never to be regained. They don't do it willy nilly. There is good solid statistical precedence for the numbers not turning up. It means the costs can be kept down. If you are a 'victim' of overbooking, keep polite, speak to the manager, and get whatever you can for the inconvienience.

I disagree with you. The empty room that you describe is not actually empty. It is rented for the respective period by that person who has asked for it to be held. If there are no rooms available then it is absolutely wrong for the hotel to say that there are rooms and it is not good business practise for a hotel to have travellers arrive there only to be told that there is no room available for them and that they'll have to shunt on up the road to the next available pitstop.

What you describe is rather like going to the bank to withdraw cash, only to be told that you cannot have your own cash today due to the fact that they've already given their allocation of cash out on that particular day.

Where does good customer service/relations figure in the equation here?

balsingh

gerretl wrote:

I can't believe MSEs are having a pop at overbooking. A business has to make money, and an empty room in an hotel is money lost, never to be regained. They don't do it willy nilly. There is good solid statistical precedence for the numbers not turning up. It means the costs can be kept down. If you are a 'victim' of overbooking, keep polite, speak to the manager, and get whatever you can for the inconvienience.

I know this is common practice across the board and I'm glad to say that I haven't fallen fown of such a situation. If it did happen, I am sure the hotel woudl cover any upgrade costs to another hotel. My only concern would be being placed in another hotel miles away ... often when I book, I choose the hotel based on the location of where I need to be. One thing that would really cheese me off is if I was told to check into a hotel 5 miles away (regardless of any compensatation that they may offer)

bap98189

I think there is some misunderstanding of the way the booking system works.

When you book a normal (ie non-special offer) room with Travelodge you give them your credit card details and yes, they will charge you should you not turn up, as do all other hotels. However, you can cancel the booking up to 24 hours beforehand without charge. If you cancel the booking, they lose out as they have an empty room they could have sold to someone else.

My guess is they get a lot of cancellations, so they overbook some rooms expecting some of the guests to cancel. If none do then they have a problem like the one described above.

If Travelodge do this, they are by no means alone in the practice. A lot of hotels do this, and then have the problem of finding places for overbooked guests to stay.

For those who are worried and planning to turn up at a Travelodge at stupid o'clock, I suspect you are being a little bit paranoid. I'm not going to say this doesn't happen, but I doubt this problem is very widespread as I have stayed in Travelodges numerous times and have never had any problems like these.