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Running the hotel business is a tricky job. The operational aspect comprises of various factors. The hospitality sector management is always in search of innovative ideas to generate significant ROI and maximum profit. Under booking, overbooking, and double booking are the challenges that operation managers face on an almost daily basis.
We comprised a list of some practical solutions to overcome these issues through our research.
Overbooking
Overbooking occurs when the hotel books more rooms than the available rooms. It is a strategy to counter no shows and last moment cancellations. But when it backfires, it leaves you with angry guests and a tarnished market reputation. It is an even more risky game nowadays because of the online review facility.
Tips for Managing Overbooking in Hotels
- You need a robust property management system to pull off overbooking.
- Get an online booking system with the provision of same time payment. So that you can charge a cancellation fee if the customers back out last minute. It will discourage the customers from cancelling,and you won’t need much of overbooking.
- Proper channel management of all the booking channels like OTAs, travel agents, and hotel booking engine is vital.
- Make a contingency plan of some nearest hotel for your guests to stay. This will decrease their anger to some extent.
Underbooking
It is the opposite scenario of overbooking in hotels. More hotel rooms remain empty than they should be. It happens because one medium might not be able to a sale beyond its assigned inventory. In contrast, other under sales.
Tips for Managing Underbooking In Hotels
- Integration of different channels at one platform is the solution to underbooking in hotels. Every time a booking medium runs out of inventory, it should quickly receive the available quota from other channels.
Double Booking
Double booking is a scenario where one room is allotted to more than one guest. It might seem that it is a similar situation to overbooking. But doublebooking can also be a result of the flawed inventory management system.
Tips for Managing Double Booking in Hotels
- Get a channel manager on which travel agents, guests searching on OTA’s and your property management system can see the real-time status of the rooms. A usefulrevenue management software can do this task for you.
- Ensure your staff is promptly entering direct walk-ins, phone booking, and phone cancellation in the system.
One-stop Solution to Underbooking, Double Booking & Overbooking in Hotels
You can avoid these problematic situations by adapting Aiosell’s all in one revenue management software. It will integrate different booking channels at one platform.
Aiosell’s
automated revenue management software is capable of recording and analyzing the following data:
- Booking via OTAs
- Direct check-ins/walk-ins
- Direct booking via your hotel’s website
- Overall occupancy rate
- Channels that bring more revenue/bookings for a general idea of your revenue
- Updating bookings and rates across all distribution channels
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