Always check your hotel reservations!

colmil

There was a very interesting article in the Sunday papers suggesting anyone booking through companies such as bookings.com., lastminute.com etc should always check with the hotel before travelling to ensure their booking is ok.

Worth a phone call!

StuieUK34

Bit more info on the topic to make the thread worth reading ?

spheric

I had a problem with a laterooms booking earlier in the year, and was offered some insight into what goes on behind the scenes.

Apparently, some hotels still dont use a proper computerised booking system, and some of those that do don't have the booking system integrated into any of the online agents' booking systems. In these cases, laterooms (and I assume other agents too) send out a fax to the hotel when a booking is received.

If there's a problem with the fax machine, or the hotel was simply too slow in updating all the different booking agents when they fill up on a given date, your booking doesn't actually get made. - this is despite you having a booking confirmation and a supposedly 'guaranteed' reservation.

In these circumstances, the booking agent is theoretically liable to you to find you a new room that you're happy with. When it happened to me, however, laterooms got in touch with the hotel who did the legwork to find somewhere suitable instead. I was fortunate, in that the alternate accommodation was the same price as what I'd originally booked, but if it had been more I would have expected the booking agent to have to swalllow the difference.

StuieUK34

I thought it worked like this:
Blah Blah Hotel has 100 rooms total....
Bling Bling booking agent strikes a deal with Blah Blah hotel to advertise/sell say 8 of its rooms (at whatever price, normally lower).... when all 8 are gone on the days requested by the client, then bling bling booking agent doesnt show that hotel room as available...
so in theory, the hotel get the booking electronically there and then kinda thing ?

Or am i wrong, cos most UK booking agents use another agent for that country who then book you into the hotel, so you never know whose done what, and 1 blames the other when it all goes wrong ?

coral

yup.....the fax thing is exactly right.

I work for a hotel and we sell through several of these websites. Our availability is not live in their system - we have to manage it ourselves. So it is very possible for us to make a mistake and sell something we do not have.

We do have a cross check in place so we'd notice and before you arrived make an alternative arrangement for you to stay at a hotel local to us with us paying the difference in cost. We are contractually obliged to do this as you have a "guaranteed" reservation. The websites take it very seriously and will quickly remove your from their listings if you start to have overbooking issues.

Luckily we have a robust systems in place so it is a very rare situation.

I do worry about using these websites for smaller hotels - the fax has all of your credit card details on it and if they are not stringent in their procedures these could fall into the wrong hands.

I tend to use a prepaid card number with no funds available, as usually you supply a card at check in to settle the bill anyway.

BillTrac

Actually in the Saturday Times, about customers booking through sites then arriving to find no rooms available.

One couple ended up spending their romantic weekend in an hotel on an industrial estate rather than the moonlit beach the thought thye ha booked...:eek:

ferf1223

this happened to my in-laws...they arrived to find the hotel had no record of their booking (via expedia)...long story short, the hotel's head office hadn't forwarded the details on (the head office had received them)...the hotel was sold out, as it happened, the first night they stuck them in a crappy room not normally used for guests...and someone checked out early the next day, so my in-laws got the room...and then some other poor soul who was due to have that room later that day got shuffled somewhere else.

I haven't read the article, but if it doesn't mention - many times the hotel itself will not have the traveller's details until shortly before arrival - they will just have a booking with XX 3rd party...the names may come shortly before the start of the booking. So calling 2 months out to confirm may leave someone quite paranoid as the hotel may not have a record at that time, but all may be just fine a week or so before arrival.

Bronnie

Double check everything, not just hotel bookings. We booked and paid for meet and greet parking through a 3rd party company and printed out the booking confirmation.

15 mins before arriving at the airport we phoned the meet and greet company as directed, only to find they had no record of the booking and no-one available either.

Each blamed the other and we got a refund when we got back, but had no option to pay full price for parking (which was almost double the cost) in the airport on the day, as there was no time to sort anything else.

StuieUK34

Bronnie wrote: »

15 mins before arriving at the airport we phoned the meet and greet company as directed, only to find they had no record of the booking and no-one available either.

Each blamed the other and we got a refund when we got back, but had no option to pay full price for parking (which was almost double the cost) in the airport on the day, as there was no time to sort anything else.

I would have pursued to claim the cost difference too for you having to find alternative parking!

Bronnie

StuieUK34 wrote: »

I would have pursued to claim the cost difference too for you having to find alternative parking!

I know, I came back from my hols feeling fairly mellow though, whereas I'm usually a bit of a terrier where not letting things go are concerned.

If I recall though I think both companies had some sort of disclaimer in their T&C.