What to say?

When we get third party reservations we send a generic confirmation stating the guest has a room.
Last year we spent a lot of time with those guests calling to confirm they got a specific room based on photos they saw.
Nope. No specific room is assigned until close to the date. Mostly because if a full freight guest wants a particular room, they are getting it if all I need to do is move the third party guest who did not pick a specific room but booked a "standard queen room."
I'm now getting emails asking for the names of the rooms they are in so they can see the pictures on our website.
No can do. I am not going through this "no, we want a different room" scenario.
I have already had to remove one room from the mix after a third party guest complained no one offered to carry her suitcase up the stairs. I've added to the confirmation that rooms may be on the second floor and there are no elevators and limited bellhop service.
If you take reservations thru a third party do you tell the guest exactly which room they got or just a room type?

The answer is to tell them that the reservation is run-of-house (or guaranteed) and that rooms aren't assigned until arrival. Specific rooms cannot be reserved. Specific room requests will incur extra charges.

I've been told before it's "best available" on the day of check-in

Breakfast Diva said:

I've been told before it's "best available" on the day of check-in.

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Funny, I just booked a hotel room for night and had these exact same terms pop up. My impression of " run of the house" was that you don't get to choose and it will typically be the room they can't sell. My impression of the "best available" was that you probably still won't get the best room since only they know what's available. I ended up just picking the kind of room I wanted and booked that, but even then it was unclear if I would get to choose what kind of bed arrangement we get.
Oh well- it was a bargain.

happykeeper said:

Breakfast Diva said:

I've been told before it's "best available" on the day of check-in.

Click to expand...

Funny, I just booked a hotel room for night and had these exact same terms pop up. My impression of " run of the house" was that you don't get to choose and it will typically be the room they can't sell. My impression of the "best available" was that you probably still won't get the best room since only they know what's available. I ended up just picking the kind of room I wanted and booked that, but even then it was unclear if I would get to choose what kind of bed arrangement we get.
Oh well- it was a bargain.
.

Click to expand...

The actual text for the hotel website says you get a standard queen room here. Nothing on my website says that same thing.
Last year a lot of guests booked third party and then called to be sure they got the fireplace room which is not standard.
Good advice here was to say king rooms or fireplace rooms are not 'standard' but the guest was invited to upgrade if they wanted.
I don't want to assign rooms ahead of time because I want the option of moving these guests if someone else calls me and wants a particular room. First floor, particular view, suite, etc.

Madeleine said:

happykeeper said:

Breakfast Diva said:

I've been told before it's "best available" on the day of check-in.

Click to expand...

Funny, I just booked a hotel room for night and had these exact same terms pop up. My impression of " run of the house" was that you don't get to choose and it will typically be the room they can't sell. My impression of the "best available" was that you probably still won't get the best room since only they know what's available. I ended up just picking the kind of room I wanted and booked that, but even then it was unclear if I would get to choose what kind of bed arrangement we get.
Oh well- it was a bargain.
.

Click to expand...

The actual text for the hotel website says you get a standard queen room here. Nothing on my website says that same thing.
Last year a lot of guests booked third party and then called to be sure they got the fireplace room which is not standard.
Good advice here was to say king rooms or fireplace rooms are not 'standard' but the guest was invited to upgrade if they wanted.
I don't want to assign rooms ahead of time because I want the option of moving these guests if someone else calls me and wants a particular room. First floor, particular view, suite, etc.
.

Click to expand...

The third party site I used had run of the house as it's cheapest and four other rooms, each with a specific description.