here's another 'What would you do?"

[DaisyMae]

about a week ago received an online reservation from a man, for 2 nights with his 1st & 2nd room choice. both of his room choices were already booked when he made the reservation and both were marked as unavailable on our calendar. I have emailed him 4 times telling him the situation and received no response. i called him a couple of days ago , at the phone numbers he supplied, and no response thus far.
i have him penciled in in my reservation book, until i hear from him, for another guestroom, because i don't want to run into a situation where he still wants to proceed with the reservation and i don't have a room for him. But also, i don't want to pencil him in a room and lose a potential booking from another guest, in the event that his not responding to me is his way of saying he does not want to proceed with the reservation. i have not applied a deposit to his credit card yet & have not sent a confirmation number. he is not due to arrive until the end of next month. WWYD?

 

[Don Draper]

If the room you do have is similar enough to his first two choices, I would email him a confirmation for the room you do have, and in the confirmation say if this is not agreeable then he has until XYZ date to cancel.

 

[JBloggs]

I would take real time reservations then he books it, it is out of inventory and the deal is done.

 

[Morticia]

I agree with Joe, but that doesn't help with this situation...
For this one, you have made honest attempts to contact the guest. Because guests don't tend to be online as much as most of us are, don't check voicemail, etc, I'd give him until Monday. I know with my phone, the only way I know I have a message is if I pick up the phone to make a call and the phone beeps at me.
If you don't hear from him by the end of the day on Monday, email again and phone again on Tuesday and say that you are understanding the lack of reply to your queries as disinterest in continuing with the reservation so you are releasing the room for others to book. If he has changed his mind and would like to book, please call immediately. Make sure you state you have emailed 4 times to the address given and have left previous messages on all the phone numbers he gave to you for 5 days with no response.
The problem with having to ask for a reservation thru an online system is that many guests do not read that little bit of info that says they are making a request. They think it is a confirmed reservation, albeit with a choice of rooms, so they don't pay a lot of attention to contact back from the lodging property.

 

[DaisyMae]

update:
my bad, it was 2 weeks ago, rather, that the online inquiry was made. the only reason i did not want to automatically put them in another guestroom is because the other 2 available were priced $55.- $$75. higher than the one he requested. So i finally successfully got in touch with him. he said he did get all of my messages and since he did not want the higher priced rooms, he figured if he ignored me then i would go away. uh, ok. way to deal with things there buddy! he was friendly and all but...

 

[Don Draper]

update:
my bad, it was 2 weeks ago, rather, that the online inquiry was made. the only reason i did not want to automatically put them in another guestroom is because the other 2 available were priced $55.- $$75. higher than the one he requested. So i finally successfully got in touch with him. he said he did get all of my messages and since he did not want the higher priced rooms, he figured if he ignored me then i would go away. uh, ok. way to deal with things there buddy! he was friendly and all but....

Geez! He could have just sent an email and been done with it! At least you know now.

 

[JBloggs]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me.

 

[DaisyMae]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only?

No. we are in contact with the person with a confirmation # within 24 hours. We have never had an issue with our online method, with the exception of this gentleman, of course. even then i wouldn't have really considered this an "issue"

 

[DaisyMae]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? [ end quote}

We've actually never had any issues with our online availability method. We are always in touch with the person within 24 hours and people have always been very good about being in touch with us (with the exception of this gentleman)
mollysmom say: ooops, goofed this one up. see the correct one below.

 

[NW BB]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Nope. I've been doing requests for 6 years with no problems.

 

[egoodell]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me.

We have only had this happen one time. We do request only because we do the wine tours as well as the B&B and have to juggle the two.
In this instance the kid sent the inquiry and promptly left town to drive 4 hours to pick up his girlfriend and then showed up at our door and we were booked. Fortunately for him we were able to secure a comparable room for him at another lovely inn.
Do you think they thanked us? Did we get a review on TA? nope.
I consider a request as that only. If they show up I would ask to see their confirmation.
RIki

 

[Proud Texan]

update:
my bad, it was 2 weeks ago, rather, that the online inquiry was made. the only reason i did not want to automatically put them in another guestroom is because the other 2 available were priced $55.- $$75. higher than the one he requested. So i finally successfully got in touch with him. he said he did get all of my messages and since he did not want the higher priced rooms, he figured if he ignored me then i would go away. uh, ok. way to deal with things there buddy! he was friendly and all but....

update:
my bad, it was 2 weeks ago, rather, that the online inquiry was made. the only reason i did not want to automatically put them in another guestroom is because the other 2 available were priced $55.- $$75. higher than the one he requested. So i finally successfully got in touch with him. he said he did get all of my messages and since he did not want the higher priced rooms, he figured if he ignored me then i would go away. uh, ok. way to deal with things there buddy! he was friendly and all but...

CLUELESS!

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Nope. I've been doing requests for 6 years with no problems.
.

Weird, we've been doing "requests" since day one and have not had a single incident or misbooking. Never had a double or overbooking either.
Did have one of the third party booking engines override an already booked room, but we caught it and were able to move the guest in advance to an open but higher priced room and get reimbursed for the difference.
We did have a "false" walk in try and pull one on us, which out by us is a healthy drive-in at a very busy time of year and we weren't able to accommodate her. Especially after the whopper of the tall tale she told why she had no confirmation, OA had no computer record of a request, nothing.
I mean zilch. After just a few casual questions it was obvious she had never visited the website, knew nothing about our place, must have picked up a lodging guide somewhere in her travels and was happy to concoct this huge fabrication like her request got lost by us or something.
Like that's gonna really make me want to open my house up to you. LOL
Can't knock folks who don't plan ahead for trying but we were so creeped by her general disposition at the door, we probably wouldn't have taken her even if we did have a room open.

 

[Copperhead]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only?

Nope, not a one. (knock on wood) I do however AWAYS reply with in 24 hours, usually within a couple of hours. I do get the few that thought it was a firm - done deal at the time of their 'request' and do not think they need to reply to my confirmation email which states in the Subject as well as 1st sentance to please reply. I can not think of a way to be any clearer...but I am not going the other route - No right or wrong here just a different way to do business. I am sure that many reservation software would not have the 2 options if there were only a few that wanted 'the other' way. (which ever the 'other way' is!)

 

[Copperhead]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Nope. I've been doing requests for 6 years with no problems.
.

Weird, we've been doing "requests" since day one and have not had a single incident or misbooking. Never had a double or overbooking either.
Did have one of the third party booking engines override an already booked room, but we caught it and were able to move the guest in advance to an open but higher priced room and get reimbursed for the difference.
We did have a "false" walk in try and pull one on us, which out by us is a healthy drive-in at a very busy time of year and we weren't able to accommodate her. Especially after the whopper of the tall tale she told why she had no confirmation, OA had no computer record of a request, nothing.
I mean zilch. After just a few casual questions it was obvious she had never visited the website, knew nothing about our place, must have picked up a lodging guide somewhere in her travels and was happy to concoct this huge fabrication like her request got lost by us or something.
Like that's gonna really make me want to open my house up to you. LOL
Can't knock folks who don't plan ahead for trying but we were so creeped by her general disposition at the door, we probably wouldn't have taken her even if we did have a room open.
.

I mean zilch. After just a few casual questions it was obvious she had never visited the website, knew nothing about our place, must have picked up a lodging guide somewhere in her travels and was happy to concoct this huge fabrication like her request got lost by us or something.

This may be something she pulls on a regular basis...you just threw her a curve when you asked questions she was unable to answer. Good for you!!!

 

[aieechihuahua]

I would, and have done this. I give a past guest staying at the same time an upgrade, or randomly upgrade another guest and give the guest in question the cheaper room. At least someone feels special and happy out of it. And makes no difference to me to clean a low priced room or a high priced one.
In fact...I'll randomly upgrade anyone when I feel like it. Makes people feel special and remember you.

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

Do you ever have someone show up when the reservations are request only? I did request only year one and had this ocur a couple times, even with all my urging in caps '"YOU DO NOT HAVE A BOOKING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION" fortunately is was never on a day when we were solidly booked. On gal from NJ argued with me over it, and would not give up, it even said "Reservation Request Only" on the paper she showed me..

Nope. I've been doing requests for 6 years with no problems.
.

Weird, we've been doing "requests" since day one and have not had a single incident or misbooking. Never had a double or overbooking either.
Did have one of the third party booking engines override an already booked room, but we caught it and were able to move the guest in advance to an open but higher priced room and get reimbursed for the difference.
We did have a "false" walk in try and pull one on us, which out by us is a healthy drive-in at a very busy time of year and we weren't able to accommodate her. Especially after the whopper of the tall tale she told why she had no confirmation, OA had no computer record of a request, nothing.
I mean zilch. After just a few casual questions it was obvious she had never visited the website, knew nothing about our place, must have picked up a lodging guide somewhere in her travels and was happy to concoct this huge fabrication like her request got lost by us or something.
Like that's gonna really make me want to open my house up to you. LOL
Can't knock folks who don't plan ahead for trying but we were so creeped by her general disposition at the door, we probably wouldn't have taken her even if we did have a room open.
.

I mean zilch. After just a few casual questions it was obvious she had never visited the website, knew nothing about our place, must have picked up a lodging guide somewhere in her travels and was happy to concoct this huge fabrication like her request got lost by us or something.

This may be something she pulls on a regular basis...you just threw her a curve when you asked questions she was unable to answer. Good for you!!!
.

No doubt!
Considering we had a full house, all of our guests were fully "vetted" and had made their reservations well in advance, she just rolled the dice and happened to "cold call" a B&B that:
a.) had a full house the day she tried her routine
b.) encountered an innkeeper who hasn't made a single booking error in five years.
c.) encountered an innkeeper who wasn't born under a cabbage patch
d.) concocted such an outlandish story and displayed such over the top bravado in her ploy that any idiot could see through it.

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

I would, and have done this. I give a past guest staying at the same time an upgrade, or randomly upgrade another guest and give the guest in question the cheaper room. At least someone feels special and happy out of it. And makes no difference to me to clean a low priced room or a high priced one.
In fact...I'll randomly upgrade anyone when I feel like it. Makes people feel special and remember you..

"In fact...I'll randomly upgrade anyone when I feel like it. Makes people feel special and remember you."
We have done this as a matter of routine since day one. Best kind of free advertising there is.
Gotta say though, we've been burned by it a few times with lack of gratitiude for the gesture and much bigger messes to deal with in a few cases.
In fact, the DNBA who we gave a second chance to that just left a few days ago, reminded us that our discretion on who to do it for should be well grounded on the circumstances and body language exhibited when we greet the incoming guest.
Last year, these two talked me into a free upgrade from one of our basic rooms to the largest, nicest room we have because she just loved the bathtub in it. Well, two hundred gallons of water per day later, soiled towels every day, filthy room every day, no friendliness at all, breakfast orders barked at us each day, etc... the red marker came out last year.
This year, we need the business so we took them and hoped that by bringing their 12 year old I could reiterate the "green" aspect of our place during check in and how protecting the earth was important by saving water, turning off lights when not in the room during the day, recycling, etc..
Same deal, only now there were three of them doing it. I had no idea how many Americans were scared of the dark. We are this close (two fingers pinched very close together) to installing motion shutoffs on our lights in the rooms. Or yanking that damn bathtub out.
The kicker was the last morning the wife didn't even say thank you or good-bye, jumped in the car and left. The 12 year old wrote the most beautiful thing in the guest book, but the parents treated us worse than they did the first time.
And they got the returning guest discount.

 

[Proud Texan]

I would, and have done this. I give a past guest staying at the same time an upgrade, or randomly upgrade another guest and give the guest in question the cheaper room. At least someone feels special and happy out of it. And makes no difference to me to clean a low priced room or a high priced one.
In fact...I'll randomly upgrade anyone when I feel like it. Makes people feel special and remember you..

"In fact...I'll randomly upgrade anyone when I feel like it. Makes people feel special and remember you."
We have done this as a matter of routine since day one. Best kind of free advertising there is.
Gotta say though, we've been burned by it a few times with lack of gratitiude for the gesture and much bigger messes to deal with in a few cases.
In fact, the DNBA who we gave a second chance to that just left a few days ago, reminded us that our discretion on who to do it for should be well grounded on the circumstances and body language exhibited when we greet the incoming guest.
Last year, these two talked me into a free upgrade from one of our basic rooms to the largest, nicest room we have because she just loved the bathtub in it. Well, two hundred gallons of water per day later, soiled towels every day, filthy room every day, no friendliness at all, breakfast orders barked at us each day, etc... the red marker came out last year.
This year, we need the business so we took them and hoped that by bringing their 12 year old I could reiterate the "green" aspect of our place during check in and how protecting the earth was important by saving water, turning off lights when not in the room during the day, recycling, etc..
Same deal, only now there were three of them doing it. I had no idea how many Americans were scared of the dark. We are this close (two fingers pinched very close together) to installing motion shutoffs on our lights in the rooms. Or yanking that damn bathtub out.
The kicker was the last morning the wife didn't even say thank you or good-bye, jumped in the car and left. The 12 year old wrote the most beautiful thing in the guest book, but the parents treated us worse than they did the first time.
And they got the returning guest discount.
.

Dude! Don't book these idiots again. People don't change.