Hotel reservation systems have come a long way from the early days of computerization. Most travelers and travel agents who booked hotels when the big chains first partnered with the airline reservation systems have at least one or two horror stories.
One of my first horror stories, was booking a Marriott through our American SABRE reservation system on a Friday morning for a Sunday night. Late in the day I discover that “Oh, we don’t send the bookings out to the hotels until Monday morning.”
Nowadays many chain hotels advertise “last room availability” through their own sites and through travel agent GDS systems. Generally a confirmation from Marriott, or Hyatt, or whichever chain you have booked through, shows up immediately at the hotel.
But not always. This is why the confirmation number is always worth bringing, even in a paperless age.
In addition, knowing how the reservation was booked is helpful. Because travel agency and online bookings should get to the hotel computer immediately, third party (i.e. tour operator or hotel discounters) require another step and thus are more likely to be delayed or lost.
For non-chain hotels, the potential pitfalls are increased. Because while you might get an instant confirmation number from your booking, it doesn’t mean the booking has reached the hotel.
For an example, I booked two clients earlier this week through Preferred Hotels, an association of first class and deluxe hotels around the world. These bookings were at the Woodmark Hotel outside Seattle.
The bookings were for the same night. Since it was early in the day and because Preferred Hotels is a high-end reservation group, I wasn’t worried particularly about it. However, I got the call later in the afternoon from the client’s administrative assistant, saying that the hotel didn’t have the reservations.
As it turns out, Preferred Hotels sends bookings to the hotels almost immediately, but hotels can action those reservations on their own time. The first person I talked to at the hotel said “It can take 24 hours,” the second person put me in touch with the agent whose job it was to download the reservations.
To make a long story short, by asking that agent to download the messages asap, my clients’ bookings got into the hotel system. But had I not called, they might have shown up and been told they had no reservations.
On the positive side, with as many reservations that get booked via various computer systems, it’s actually amazing how many of them are trouble-free. On the other hand, a 99 percent success rate doesn’t mean much if you are the 1 percent.
So to be safe, anytime you have a hotel reservation, bring the confirmation number (it’s amazing how often spelling or other errors result in a booking being unfindable at first) and also a contact or at least the name of the booking company.
Whether it’s Priceline, a reservation service like “Utell International” or “Travelclick” or a hotel association like Preferred Hotels, having that name will help the front desk clerk trace the booking.
Which means at best they might be able to find the lost reservation, or at the least, make sure you don’t get double billed when they find you a room anyway, and the original reservation shows up later.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
