Hotels - normal procedure

[Busamav]

parakitaMol. said:

How silly of me.

.

Now be a good girl , run along and make some tea for everybody

[Raify]

Just booked a lovely looking place that's £40 cheaper and only wanted a deposit.

To be honest, if the original place had told me whilst booking, I might have just gone ahead. Finding the debit on my online statement this morning is another thing.

[mercfunder]

parakitaMol. said:

How silly of me.

Reserving a hotel room in advance is exactly like a flight booking. Every reservation I make in future, I will insist on paying them in full up front. They aren't very bright these hotel types, they are 'tards too I expect.

How is booking a hotel room any different to booking a flight? essentially you are booking space on the basis that you will turn up, how can you say that you object to paying for a service in advance, yet will happily pay for a flight in advance.

When you book a flight how much does it cost the airline, virtually nothing, but they will sit on your money until you take the flight, what is wrong with a hotel doing the same, limited space and demand etc.

Edited by mercfunder on Friday 13th August 15:36

[parakitaMol.]

Busamav said:

parakitaMol. said:

How silly of me.

.

Now be a good girl , run along and make some tea for everybody

6 lumps or 7? Do you still have those stabilizers on?

I'm on the phone to the Limewood in the New Forest, I'm insisting that they take full payment for our Septempter weekend, they said it's not what they do, so I told them that the airline industry to it so they should wise up, smell the Avgas and do it too. Silly people. Oh I also told my hairdresser I want to pay before she cuts my hair, instead of on the way out so she thinks I'm using a stolen cards *again* and want to pay quick before it's blocked. I told her I had to pay for a flight first so it was OK but she said that planes need run checks on who is stealing the blankets and little sugar packs. The plankton. Why doesn't everybody just do the same? I will be up pondering this all night now.

[ninja-lewis]

mercfunder said:

sc4589 said:

Raify said:

The supposedly simple task of booking a hotel for a wedding is turning me into Osbourne Cox from Burn After Reading:

Problem #1: Hotel won't accept a one night booking, has to be the whole weekend.

Problem #2: I finally find a reasonable place that doesn't enforce rule #1, and they have charged my credit card for the full amount a month before my stay.



I have never heard of this happening, was happy to give my credit card to reserve the room understanding it was only to hold the room, not pay for it (like every other hotel room I've booked). Apparently it is "standard procedure" for this hotel.

Anyone heard of this before?

I partly run a guest house, and we don't do that. One night bookings we generally tack a £5 surcharge on (not my choice) if it's in advance, but if someone walks in and we only have that night then we give it to them for standard price.

Regarding that, we'd normally just take a deposit- nowhere near the full amount either.

Find a new hotel!

Why the £5 surcharge for a single night? I don't understand that, a room booked in advance is surely better than relying on passing trade?

Because they're probably many more people looking to say for 2 or more nights than a single night, especially at weekends. If you sell a room for one night, you won't be able to sell it to someone willing to book it for two nights. With fewer one nighters and some nights being more popular than others you could end up in a position where you have a room filled for one night and empty for the other with the consequent loss of revenue.

You often it on holidays too in the form of single supplements. Say you have a cruise ship set up to accommodate 50 couples paying for 2 meals, 2 activities, etc. If you sell one of the cabins to a single person, you'll be one person short (since it's very unlikely that you can break up another couple or share it with another single person) hence you lose out on revenue due to unused capacity.

Ideally you want to maximise utilisation and single nights/single people are often an inefficient way of doing that in these kinds of businesses.

[parakitaMol.]

ninja-lewis said:

Ideally you want to maximise utilisation and single nights/single people are often an inefficient way of doing that in these kinds of businesses.

I guess planning ahead and separate transactions for mini-bar items, meals and wine might also become a bit of a nuisance.

[rsole]

We have a surcharge for one night stays (£5) and we also ask for the payment upfront in full. I don't see that as any different to asking for a one night deposit upfront on a longer reservation to be fair? Almost without exception people seem fine with this approach. If someone cancels the room we always try to refund if we can re let the room.

ETA - one night stays in high season (down here) are a no no unless you find yourself with the odd gap. Weekends 99% time are a minimun 2 night stay.

Edited by rsole on Friday 13th August 17:23

[Spitfire2]

Neil H said:

Cutting your nose off to spite your face.

This.

OP needs to fking chill out a bit. There are things worth worrying about - this ain't one of them

[sc4589]

ninja-lewis said:

mercfunder said:

sc4589 said:

Raify said:

The supposedly simple task of booking a hotel for a wedding is turning me into Osbourne Cox from Burn After Reading:

Problem #1: Hotel won't accept a one night booking, has to be the whole weekend.

Problem #2: I finally find a reasonable place that doesn't enforce rule #1, and they have charged my credit card for the full amount a month before my stay.



I have never heard of this happening, was happy to give my credit card to reserve the room understanding it was only to hold the room, not pay for it (like every other hotel room I've booked). Apparently it is "standard procedure" for this hotel.

Anyone heard of this before?

I partly run a guest house, and we don't do that. One night bookings we generally tack a £5 surcharge on (not my choice) if it's in advance, but if someone walks in and we only have that night then we give it to them for standard price.

Regarding that, we'd normally just take a deposit- nowhere near the full amount either.

Find a new hotel!

Why the £5 surcharge for a single night? I don't understand that, a room booked in advance is surely better than relying on passing trade?

Because they're probably many more people looking to say for 2 or more nights than a single night, especially at weekends. If you sell a room for one night, you won't be able to sell it to someone willing to book it for two nights. With fewer one nighters and some nights being more popular than others you could end up in a position where you have a room filled for one night and empty for the other with the consequent loss of revenue.

You often it on holidays too in the form of single supplements. Say you have a cruise ship set up to accommodate 50 couples paying for 2 meals, 2 activities, etc. If you sell one of the cabins to a single person, you'll be one person short (since it's very unlikely that you can break up another couple or share it with another single person) hence you lose out on revenue due to unused capacity.

Ideally you want to maximise utilisation and single nights/single people are often an inefficient way of doing that in these kinds of businesses.

Pretty much that. I don't agree with it... but it's not my choice. I don't deal with the admin side! If someone walks in on the single night they want to stay and book in, then I let them have it for the standard price and respond with a vacant look when asked about the surcharge.

It always works. Besides, it's another lump of money that we wouldn't have otherwise...

Did you find a new hotel??

[Raify]

sc4589 said:

Did you find a new hotel??

Yes thanks. Looks lovely, is £40 cheaper and only wanted a £50 deposit.