Factors affecting Reservation

It is very important to ascertain the volume of business accepted on the basis of forecasting. Even the hotel believes in overbooking, the percentage of overbooking is determined through an experienced calculation. However, the factors effecting the reservation forecasting are:

Often a guest may change his/her programmed visit and may request for the revision or cancellation of the reservation. The following steps should be followed up during the revision or cancellation of reservation:

The guest who arrives in the hotel without pre-information a reservation is termed as walk-in guest. This may happen because of the goodwill of the hotel or any emergency of the guest. The guest directly contact to the reception and ask for the room. A walk-in generates extra increase in the revenue of the hotel.
In case of walk-in guest in a hotel the receptionist should be more alert and careful. When such guest asked for the room, first of all the availability of the room is checked. In case of availability,the personal details of the guest are checked first. He/she is provided with a room asking for the deposit amount of money. If the guest is found drunk, mentally hazard or misbehaved, he/she may be refused to provide an accommodation in spite of the availability of the rooms. Various alternatives can be given to the guest if the hotel is not able to provide an accommodation because of the full occupancy of the room. Alternatives can be given in various forms like changes in date, changes in the type of room, referring the guest to the near by hotel with same standard etc.

No-show refers to such types of guest who make the confirmed reservation but doesn’t arrived in the hotel at the time of arrival date without informing to the hotel. Because of the confirmed reservation, the hotel holds the reservation request till the arrival date to the guest. When the guest doesn’t contact or cancel the reservation with in the time prior to the arrival date, such situation affects the reservation system in a negative way. In case of no-show guest, the confirmation charge is returned back to the guest by the hotel after deducting the service charge. But if no-show happen due to political issues, flight delay or cancellation, environmental disturbance, strike etc. the total confirmation charge is refunded to the guest.

This situation takes place when there are more numbers of reservation request than the total numbers of saleable rooms in the hotel. Overbooking is a normal practice in a large hotel. Generally non-confirmed reservation request are overbooked because there is no guarantee that the guest will arrive in the hotel and there are always chances of cancellation at the last minute. Experienced reservation assistant will determine the level of occupancy and takes the overbooking accordingly. In case of overbooking of the rooms, the guest will guaranteed reservation may have to be transferred to another hotel of the same standard. all the extra cost like transportation, differences in room rate, informing the relatives or the parents of the guest about the changes in the accommodation of the guest, delivery of guest mails and messages to the new hotel etc should be borne by the hotel. This may cause the loss in the hotels profit and the business established with the agencies or any other sources may be affected.

It assures the guest that the hotel will hold a reservation request until the arrival date of the guest. It may done be done by the phone, fax, E-mail, letter etc. but should be in written form. It is a legal piece of document indicating the acceptance of the request made. The hotel normally forwards a letter in the name of the guest indicating the confirmation number. The guest confirms the reservation by paying the confirmation charge. If the guest doesn’t confirm the reservation with in the specified period of time, the room is released and sold to another guest. Guest are often asked to produce the confirmation letter at the time of registration. Confirmation of reservation helps hotel to generate some revenue.

If a guest stays in a hotel more than his/her departure date, he/she is termed as overstay guest and when a guest check out earlier than his/her departure date, he/she is termed as under stay guest. These situation also affect the normal operation of the reservation system.