Is overbooking important than frequent-stay guest?
Occupancy has been so high that year, that the hotels had regretted a large number of reservations.
In 2006, a group of eight men from a leading MNC group did not agree to check in, due to poor efficiency of front office department to reserve rooms for them. Seven single rooms were booked for these guests, one month prior to the date of arrival at a corporate rate. When they reached the hotel for check in at the reception at 2 am, the hotel refused to provide accommodation to four of the guests, due to non-availability of room.
The guests from the same company refused to check in, as the reservation was made for the entire group and not for four of them. The condition was worse because they were Frequent-Stay Guest (FSG) and this was not expected from the hotel.
The only suggestion the duty manager could give was to accommodate four of them in a double deluxe room (two double beds in a room). The guests were irritated and asked to call front office manager, who was not available. They started shouting, “We had already received confirmation from you. Does it make no sense to you? We are not going to check in, till your manager comes to the hotel.”
They all sat in the lobby, waiting for the front office manager to come. The front office manager was called by the duty manager in the night, and he spoke to the guest, apologised for the same and somehow the guests were accommodated in the same suite room and assured that they will be shifted to their reserved status room early morning and the check in was made accordingly.
The problem arose due to overbooking of rooms, due to which all rooms were occupied and led to guest dissatisfaction.