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Hotels routinely oversell capacity - when this happens they just walk customers to comparable hotel nearby. Not sure why hotel you worked in did not do it. htt

by smm2000 9y ago

Hotels routinely oversell capacity - when this happens they just walk customers to comparable hotel nearby. Not sure why hotel you worked in did not do it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-j-jones/how-to-avoid-being-walked_b_1855524.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-j-jones/how-to-avoid-be...

CogitoCogito 9y ago
Unfortunately this is _not_ what airlines do. They work very hard to book you on one of _their_ next available flights. I think that by law they should be required to book you on the next available flight by any airline in any class and additionally pay fines depending upon how long the passenger is delayed. They should also be required to make their best effort to find the available seats for the passenger.
- arcticbull 9y ago
  What you're asking for already exists pretty much in the US under DoT regulations. If you are removed involuntarily (not asked to switch for a certificate) you're entitled to up to 400% of your one way fare up to $1350 cash in hand on top rebooking you, depending how long you got held up. [1] Theyre also required to show you your rights on paper in that situation. It almost never happens because there's a huge incentive for them not to do this to you. And if you think that's rough check out EC 261/2004 [2] and that applies even in the case or a mechanical issue. [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5 [2] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2271213/How-claim-EU-flight-delay-compensation-EC-261-2004.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2271213/...
  - CogitoCogito 9y ago
    I should have made clear I know that some of the rights already exist, but this was really my most important point: > They should also be required to make their best effort to find the available seats for the passenger. In other words, it should be their responsibility to get you re-booked immediately on all available flights. This should be something that should be verifiable afterwards (i.e. if you as a customer find out they didn't send you on a certain flight by another airline that was better, that should mean additional fines). This should be strongly enforced by regulators to the point where it actually occurs. Unless I'm missing something (didn't see it in [1]), those rules/enforcement are not currently place. Under these circumstances, I could _maybe_ accept overbooking as an acceptable practice, but without them I don't see why it should be acceptable.
    - arcticbull 9y ago
      My suggestion is that in the phrasing of the regulation, the longer they wait to get you home the more money they owe you, and that's sort of a built-in enforcement mechanism for them to send you home on the next available flight instead of their next available flight (cash goes from $0 to $1350 over the span of 6 hours) and IMO that's a positive market force thats stronger than any enforcement action, although if you think your rights have been violated feel free to file a complaint against the airline with the DoT. I have no moral argument against overbooking, its wasteful for them not to do so if their projections show that without it, the seat would go out empty. Sometimes they mess it up, sure, and in those cases they owe you cold hard cash, hotel accommodation IIRC and a flight to your destination anyways. Between the monetary outlay and the social media feedback, as a very frequent traveler (top tier with AA and Alaska this year, that's 190,000 qualifying miles), I feel quite satisfied with the status quo. Per [1] in 2015, only 0.09% of passengers were denied boarding voluntarily or involuntarily. Involuntarily denied boarding accounts for only 0.0075% (43 out of 613,141) of boarded passengers -- that's four nines -- and my understanding is 2016 performance was even better. You were almost as likely to be hit by lightning each year (1 in 700,000). With those kind of performance metrics, it feels like things are working, or else we need to really get our act together re: lightning strikes :) [1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_64.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu...
jaclaz 9y ago
Some hotels, usually chains, sometimes do that, many won't. All hotels routinely is not accurate. From the cited article: >Now that I've sufficiently scared you out of ever booking another hotel, here is the reality: Your odds of being walked are incredibly slim.
URSpider94 9y ago
I think hotels have cut back drastically on this, now that most reservations are guaranteed with a credit card. At some magic hour, say 5PM, they charge everyone's credit card for the night whether they checked in or not. For most of the reservations I've made in the past year, the cancellation period is actually one day prior to arrival. In years of business travel, where I frequently arrive at the hotel at midnight, I've only been walked three times. Once at a trade show, where the hotel was renovating and didn't get the rooms done on schedule. Second, where a guest got ill and was unable to depart on schedule. Third, on a trip to New York, where they walked me to a sister property located literally across the street (I got the feeling that these two hotels frequently traded guests).
- ghaff 9y ago
  I spend about 100 nights a year in hotels and I've maybe had a hotel not have a reserved room for me once in ten or more years. >the cancellation period is actually one day prior to arrival Unfortunately, a lot of chains are increasing their cancellation window. In addition, there seems to be a fairly significant trend toward hotels (especially the chains) offering substantial discounts for non-cancelable reservations.

CogitoCogito 9y ago

Unfortunately this is _not_ what airlines do. They work very hard to book you on one of _their_ next available flights. I think that by law they should be required to book you on the next available flight by any airline in any class and additionally pay fines depending upon how long the passenger is delayed. They should also be required to make their best effort to find the available seats for the passenger.

arcticbull 9y ago
What you're asking for already exists pretty much in the US under DoT regulations. If you are removed involuntarily (not asked to switch for a certificate) you're entitled to up to 400% of your one way fare up to $1350 cash in hand on top rebooking you, depending how long you got held up. [1] Theyre also required to show you your rights on paper in that situation. It almost never happens because there's a huge incentive for them not to do this to you. And if you think that's rough check out EC 261/2004 [2] and that applies even in the case or a mechanical issue. [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5 [2] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2271213/How-claim-EU-flight-delay-compensation-EC-261-2004.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2271213/...
- CogitoCogito 9y ago
  I should have made clear I know that some of the rights already exist, but this was really my most important point: > They should also be required to make their best effort to find the available seats for the passenger. In other words, it should be their responsibility to get you re-booked immediately on all available flights. This should be something that should be verifiable afterwards (i.e. if you as a customer find out they didn't send you on a certain flight by another airline that was better, that should mean additional fines). This should be strongly enforced by regulators to the point where it actually occurs. Unless I'm missing something (didn't see it in [1]), those rules/enforcement are not currently place. Under these circumstances, I could _maybe_ accept overbooking as an acceptable practice, but without them I don't see why it should be acceptable.
  - arcticbull 9y ago
    My suggestion is that in the phrasing of the regulation, the longer they wait to get you home the more money they owe you, and that's sort of a built-in enforcement mechanism for them to send you home on the next available flight instead of their next available flight (cash goes from $0 to $1350 over the span of 6 hours) and IMO that's a positive market force thats stronger than any enforcement action, although if you think your rights have been violated feel free to file a complaint against the airline with the DoT. I have no moral argument against overbooking, its wasteful for them not to do so if their projections show that without it, the seat would go out empty. Sometimes they mess it up, sure, and in those cases they owe you cold hard cash, hotel accommodation IIRC and a flight to your destination anyways. Between the monetary outlay and the social media feedback, as a very frequent traveler (top tier with AA and Alaska this year, that's 190,000 qualifying miles), I feel quite satisfied with the status quo. Per [1] in 2015, only 0.09% of passengers were denied boarding voluntarily or involuntarily. Involuntarily denied boarding accounts for only 0.0075% (43 out of 613,141) of boarded passengers -- that's four nines -- and my understanding is 2016 performance was even better. You were almost as likely to be hit by lightning each year (1 in 700,000). With those kind of performance metrics, it feels like things are working, or else we need to really get our act together re: lightning strikes :) [1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_01_64.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu...

jaclaz 9y ago

Some hotels, usually chains, sometimes do that, many won't. All hotels routinely is not accurate. From the cited article: >Now that I've sufficiently scared you out of ever booking another hotel, here is the reality: Your odds of being walked are incredibly slim.

URSpider94 9y ago

I think hotels have cut back drastically on this, now that most reservations are guaranteed with a credit card. At some magic hour, say 5PM, they charge everyone's credit card for the night whether they checked in or not. For most of the reservations I've made in the past year, the cancellation period is actually one day prior to arrival. In years of business travel, where I frequently arrive at the hotel at midnight, I've only been walked three times. Once at a trade show, where the hotel was renovating and didn't get the rooms done on schedule. Second, where a guest got ill and was unable to depart on schedule. Third, on a trip to New York, where they walked me to a sister property located literally across the street (I got the feeling that these two hotels frequently traded guests).

ghaff 9y ago
I spend about 100 nights a year in hotels and I've maybe had a hotel not have a reserved room for me once in ten or more years. >the cancellation period is actually one day prior to arrival Unfortunately, a lot of chains are increasing their cancellation window. In addition, there seems to be a fairly significant trend toward hotels (especially the chains) offering substantial discounts for non-cancelable reservations.