Sorry, but I'm afraid we have a bit of a problem...
Airlines sell tickets on flights between cities based on a schedule. Customers buy those tickets, and in exchange for the money they pay, they expect to be able to get on that plane flying to wherever it is they wanted to go. That, there are always going to be some passengers who don’t show up, even though they paid for a ticket, is an inescapable fact. Many may have changed their plans, and if they had purchased refundable tickets, that makes it easier. To compensate for ‘no shows’, airlines slightly overbook. So when 250 tickets are sold for a flight where the plane has only 240 seats, and, should all who bought a ticket queue up to board that flight, 10 persons will not get to go. I.e. they will be, airline jargon, be ‘bumped off’.
In any event, the airline has to provide compensation to those people it denies boarding, (thanks to Ralph Nader who won his case after filing court action against Allegheny Airlines many years ago, for being turned away from a flight, for which he held a valid ticket and reservation). Ever since then, anyone with a confirmed reservation, who gets ‘bumped off’, is entitled to ‘denied boarding’ compensation. This can include a few hundred dollars depending on how much later the next flight is, going up if there are no takers, to complimentary hotel stay with meals - if it involves an overnight delay and in many cases free transportation to one’s destination.
On a recent Delta Air Lines flight to Minneapolis in the US, as passengers sat to board, the announcement overhead explained that the flight was apparently oversold and they were looking for eight volunteers. In exchange for their seats, Delta was offering $10,000 cash. "If you have Apple Pay, you'll even have the money right now," the flight attendant said. Wow...10,000 dollars can make a hard-to-refuse case for some people to give up the inconvenience of taking a later flight. More than enough I guess, to smooth the ruffled feathers of those people who bought a ticket, drove to the airport, waited in line to go through security, and showed up at the gate, but aren't on the plane - when it leaves.
Just as in the airline business, overbooking occurs in the hotel industry, where the total number of rooms booked on certain days, is greater than the total number of rooms available for sale. In the hotel business it’s called “walking”. And when a hotel guest is “walked” it is, at the very least, an unpleasant situation…for the guest! And there’s nothing worse than getting “walked” late at night.
It’s 10.50 p.m. Your flight just landed, nearly 50 minutes late. After grabbing your bags, you hail a taxi and head for the hotel where you’ve made a guaranteed reservation. All you can think of is getting your tired body into bed as quickly as possible. You get to the hotel, only to be told by the hotel receptionist, “I’m sorry, sir, we have a bit of a problem and I’m afraid the hotel is overbooked.” What bollocks. Hotels are not afraid at all to overbook, (in fact some hoteliers justify it as a ‘necessary evil’). Despite all your protests, you end up been packed off to another hotel 12 kilometers away, which the delinquent hotel assures as been of a similar standard. You finally get to bed well past midnight and swear never to return to the hotel that failed to honour your reservation.
Unlike airlines providing ‘denied boarding’ compensation to ‘bumped off’’ passengers, hotels get off relatively mildly when they ‘walk’ a guest. All they have to do is make a room booking at another hotel which is considered to be of equal standard (from the hotel’s standpoint), at a similar price-point, apologise to the guest when he/she arrives (no matter what time), whisk the guest off in a taxi (paid for by the hotel), and, attempt to bring back the ‘walked’ guest the following day. Bazinga.
Time to re-set the rules; ‘room denial’ compensation should be on par with airline ‘denied boarding’ offerings instead of merely adapting bland rule-following hospitality. Bottom-line; if a guest is staying for more than a night, bring them back to your hotel the moment a room opens up, lavish them with apologies and freebies. Free meals, a free car for the duration of their stay and an upgrade to a suite.
Go on put your best foot forward to erase the guest’s bitterness from the inhospitable humiliation of having being ‘walked’.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier
|
|
|
|
