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I had a very interesting experience with booking.com. I found a hotel room, it said something like "Only one left". So, I quickly booked and by the time I enter

I had a very interesting experience with booking.com. I found a hotel room, it said something like "Only one left". So, I quickly booked and by the time I entered the payment details the room was taken. Ok, so I went back to search for alternative, and it showed the same room again. I tried to book it again, and it simply went through. I actually stayed at that hotel in the end. It looks like some really weird algorithms are at work.

joshvm 9y ago
It's possible they use a queue system similar to the one used for concerts. Once you select a room/ticket, it gets held for a few minutes while you check out (and taken off the public market). So you can have a situation where there's no room, but someone else fails to complete the reservation and it becomes available again.
PeterisP 9y ago
There can be an interesting interaction between booking.com and the hotel's own booking - I mean, booking.com doesn't know how many such rooms the hotel has available, it only knows how many such rooms the hotel has reserved for booking.com that may be booked at any time without a feedback from the hotel. The hotel wouldn't put all their rooms there because they also have other channels (that also need to promise the customer that they'll get the room, inform the hotel afterwards, and the room must be available), and they don't want to risk overbooking. On the other hand, if they get a booking and see that all their booking.com rooms are taken, they'll likely assign another room or two to booking.com if they have them available.