I like that you said time for HOTELS to improve technology. I will resist the urge to go off on another rant.

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I completely agree, although we deal with a lot less hotels than expedia we only deal with “web enabled” hotels who communicate through email or phone.

You tend to find though if companies have thousands of hotels there are always going to be the hoteliers who arent in the 21st century who will only do buiness via phone or fax.

I dont think it should be up to consumers to check and triple check their bookings directly with the hotel, thats what the travel agent is there to do.

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I speak as a hotel manager, one who has dealings with Expedia. It is true, Expedia offers faxing as one option for hotels to receive reservations. They also offer electronic notification, and in this day and age, every hotelier should be selecting this option (in my opinion.)

The customer needs to validate any reservation they make (just as they would confirm a merchandise purchase on-line, or any confirmation where exchange of money or credit card numbers takes place.) I have been on the other side of the desk when a guest arrives without a “reservation.”

Many times (not all) the reservation was booked for the wrong date, or at the wrong location… any of these could have been confirmed easily by the guest well in advance of arrival. Let’s be careful not to take all of the responsibility off of the consumer.

It is actually quite difficult for a reservation to become “lost” within my particular Brand’s PMS system. The room for error is between the 3rd party booking site and the hotel. Both sides of this communication need to be developing up-to-date technology to support their businesses.

Looking forward to reading other responses.

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A statement Expedia gave us last night when asked as to why they still use faxes, used as part of our post (http://tinyurl.com/y8mcgll) on the TechCrunch-Expedia debacle:

“Expedia offers hotels a number of ways to connect with them. The hotel’s preference dictates the method Expedia uses. While the majority of hotels rely on the more advanced confirmation systems offered by Expedia, some small properties elect to communicate by fax.”

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@Darren “It’s crazy that people can arrive at the hotel and it be the wrong date or location, but I guess it does happen.”

Working in operations, I see one of these a week even when passengers book through an agent. In their defence, some cities have 2 hotels with names only separated by a “The” in the name. believe it or not!

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We don’t even possess a fax machine!

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Funnily enough 18 months ago we booked a hotel in London with Booking.com and the hotel had not received our booking from them. Thankfully, the hotel had one room available. I now always check with the hotel or book direct with them and cut out the middlemen.

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As an hotelier of a small independent hotel we cannot afford to implement the technology you talk about, but we do have email. We have had instances where email notification has not arrived from the booking portal and turned people away. It is regrettable, but if we have no space we cannot help them.

We do ask consumers to confirm with us and we will try to help them find alternative accommodation.

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Darren.

It just as bad for a travel agent (rather than a hotel booking agent that you’re talking about).

We make our reservation via the hotel agent (such as Expedia or GTA) or direct with the hotel and then even with confirmation e-mail (sighs or fax) the customer turns up and is still told the agent did not make the booking. (We had one case where the customer had a copy of the hotel fax signed by the same person they where talking to).

Then we have group allocations, where an agent holds say 10 rooms at the hotel. The hotel may only get the customers name 1 month (or less) before arrival, making it hard for the customer to check.

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Too many third parties involved in the travel booking process ?
Seems this is not only inflating the cost but also adding complexity that leads to guests not getting what they booked ?

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Thankfully, that never happens within the Timeshare Industry..because each week that becomes available must have been deposited by the member exchanging. So eliminating double-bookings..One week out..new members-in..Simples!!

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[...] means, when you book a hotel online or offline, follow the advice of Darren Cronian of Travel Rants: Always call the hotel to confirm your [...]

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It’s interesting to note that the complaints are usually followed with “… and there weren’t any rooms left!” I wonder how much of this is a technology issue (and clearly there are problems there) and how much of it is deliberate overbooking of hotel rooms, much like airlines often do. It’s hard to blame hoteliers if they are overbooking, considering how many travelers back out at the last minute. People who run into these issues may just be unlucky enough to have booked a place that everyone actually wants to stay at. The scenario I’m imagining is that the hotels give agencies and third party sites a certain amount of inventory, and keeps a certain amount for itself, and the sum total is more than the actual availability. Mostly, the inventory likely rarely sells out on all marketing channels, thus no problems. Sometimes nights get overbooked, but then there are last-minute cancellations – again no problem. Enough room. Very occasionally, something bad happens for one person, and pandemonium ensues.

This is purely speculation. I have no idea if this is actually happening, or how often it occurs, but it would be interesting to know. As consumers, it’s terrible to get the raw end of that stick (having no place to stay); on the plus side, these hotels are able to expand their reach and we have an opportunity for a great stay at a hotel we might never had come across in the first place.

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Agree that hotels need to wake up to technology but the problem in the Techcrunch case is different.
MG Siegler booked through Expedia so Expedia should have taken full responsibility for the issue. And handled it in the proper way: We are sorry for the issue, we’ll fix it in no time and you’ll find a bottle of champagne waiting for you at the hotel. Plus a discount voucher for next booking. This way you make an upset customer happy again and he will come back to Expedia. Now he’s never booking through Expedia again and he’s probably convinced several people to do the same. He would have convinced me if I didn’t already think that Expedia were rubbish.

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I’d be interested for someone say why everyone on here believes email is so far superior to fax.
I’ve worked with hotels who still prefer faxes for reservations because they can keep the fax just for that purpose. The email inbox quickly gets cluttered and the only faxes they tend to receive are reservations, therefore they find it easier to act more quickly with them. It also gives them a hard copy there and then.
I don’t have a problem with hotels using faxes if that is what they have agreed. If Expedia has a confirmation it seems the hotel was at fault, but is it really about technology or the systems the hotel uses? OK, so Expedia didn’t handle it well but that’s another matter..Hotels have been using faxes for decades without too many problems, it’s hardly as though email is a golden bullet.
One of my gripes about social media is the way total non-stories like this become big news. Like the Kevin Smith on SouthWest – who really cares? The hotel cocked up – it could have happened with technology as well.

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Double checking your reservation is key.

Last summer I booked on some UK site for Scotland. When checking with actual place, found I had accidentally booked a double instead of twin. Since it was still a month or so from the trip, I was able to resolve the problem and upon arrival have exactly what was needed.

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Theres a number of issues at work here – many of which have been touched on above.

1. Technology. Many independant hotels and hoteliers cannot afford the technology required to take on-line reservations. Those that can often lack the technical expertise to implement it properly and efficiently within their organisations. Larger hotel groups often have large supporting infrastructure which is critical to their business operations. Consequently, cracks do appear. As a soon-to-be-reformed IT boffin, even the finest technology has cracks in it and is generally not-bug or flaw-free.

2. Yield management. In a high fixed cost industry, maximising your revenue is important. Within the hotel industry, occupancy is the primary driver of revenue and, therefore, profitability. Overbooking in hotels isn’t as uncommon as one might expect although it is lower profile than airline over-booking and happens for the same reasons.

3. Reservation errors and expectations. I’m quite sure, that although overbooking and reservation errors occur on the supply side, many people make mistakes in their original reservations – using the wrong dates or wrong hotels. I know on one occasion, I had booked my hotel on the correct date – but the flight for the following day (and turned up at the airport on the day I had booked the hotel for!) Reading many of the consumer forums one would imagine that this kind of mistake has never happened to anyone. Ever. And I, for one, just don’t believe that all the problems can be ascribed purely to “poor customer service” or similar – much also depends on what mistakes you made in your reservation and what your expectations of the experience where.

I don’t know enough about the specifics of this case, but I’m sure many problems are some combination of poor supply and demand errors / misplaced expections. But most of us are loth to admit we screwed up our reservation in the first place.

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The larger hotels use a online system where no matter who books it the room is from the system. Comments here about over booking ring true as even this way there are problems. In fact more often with this way there are problems in my experience. The online direct access system accounts for close on 70% of the market, so that leaves the smaller hotels. Why do they use agents? Because it is far cheaper to pay an agent 5-12 % on a confirmed booking than it is to pay £1000′s in marketing.

I am not sure that even checking with the hotel helps. We had a customer who was arriving at 5am so was charged as a no-show before they got to the hotel. As it was an overseas hotel the credit card company contacted the customer asking about the charge from the hotel. So he thought, great they taken the money for the room so I have a confirmed reservation. On arrival at the hotel they where informed that it was full, and when he commented he had been charged the hotel said they would refund it, to him and to the next 3 customers. Makes you wonder how much money the hotel makes from double selling no-shows.

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It all depends on the hotel, it seems. The larger chains, of course, went digital with their systems a long time ago. With smaller operators now going digital, the problem could very well be that they don’t have the technical know-how to manage the new digital systems. Maybe it’s going to require the next generation of tech-savvy operators before these smaller hotels and B&Bs get it right.

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I do operate a small hotel. I have a fax, but the fax can be out of order, even without me noticing it, because of software or hardware failures, because of a non functioning telephone line, or simply because it stores faxes in its memory because there is no paper in the machine and the fax doesn’t indicate its paper hunger by screaming loud..

I have an e-mail, but I’ve experienced an ISP that hosts my websites and e-mail accounts that went flat out during 4 whole days during the past 3 months.

I’ve had guests who booked on wrong dates.

I’ve had guests who booked by telephone for the correct dates while I jotted down the wrong dates, even at one instance the wrong year…..

Before the days I kept my inventory in a central place there were OTA’s who opened rooms that I had closed without me noticing it. When guests arrived the rooms were occupied, or not ready for use.

I’ve had guests making reservations and simply forgetting about them.

I’ve had guests held up by planes, by storms by illness, by family or otherwise, for instance just unorganized and simply late ( a day or a week sometimes).

It’s not only the technology or the lack of technology.

Hotels and Airlines that are overbooked are reacting to travelers and guests who don’t plan decently and cancel at the last moment or don’t cancel at all, but simply don’t show… Seen that been there. Sometimes even if you double check with the hotel it goes wrong, becaus the guy or girl simply forgot to make a note or misplaced the note.. and so on and so fort. Maybe it is an idea to quote percentages for the instances all went good. Probably that is 99 and something percent.

Cheers!

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In my opinion, what makes the difference in such cases is the behaviour of the hoteliers.

Last year my friends and I booked 2 rooms in Corsica (with Booking.com, if I’m not wrong); when we arrived, they didn’t have our reservation. The reason? They had a problem with the fax machine at the moment of our booking (of course it can happen, but why haven’t you asked Booking.com to resend you the faxes??)

What made me nervous was that they didn’t admit their fault, on the contrary: they tried to sell us two rooms at a (much) higher price, even if we had a copy of the confirmation! By choosing automated reservation systems, checking your booking is definitely the best solution.

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We had the unfortunate experience of booking through Expedia only to be double charged. When we called about the double charge we were put on hold and they acted like it was not a big deal that they had run our credit card twice. When we spoke to the hotel about our experience we were told by their staff that this happens all the time and that they have many guests trying to check in who do not have a valid reservation. I would hate to think that this type of action is intentional.

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