Hotel Reservations. Update

wow... that's weird...

The short answer is yes.  Hotels are alloted so many rooms for different things...expedia has so many, hotels.com, their own online reservations, etc. etc. 

that seems pretty inefficient to me... why would they do that...

janetmichel3009

that seems pretty inefficient to me... why would they do that...

Who knows...in this day and age you would think they would be able to keep track of all reservations through one central system.  Just like airlines though they have set aside so many rooms at different rate.  It totally makes no sense to me.  This has happened to us several times.  Rarely is a hotel completely 100% sold out.  They usually always leave 5 - 6 rooms open for just in case situations.

 We ran into that with Ticketmaster too. We tried to get tickets on line only to find out the seats sucked and we could not get 2 together. DH went down to the venue (happened to be the Joe Louis Arena for MI Hockey) and we got GREAT seats right down by the ice.

Maxs Mom

 We ran into that with Ticketmaster too. We tried to get tickets on line only to find out the seats sucked and we could not get 2 together. DH went down to the venue (happened to be the Joe Louis Arena for MI Hockey) and we got GREAT seats right down by the ice.

 

This happens with huge concerts b/c the bands get a pool held for their posse and often most are re-released.  In Dec. 2005 I drove all the way to St. Louis for a U2 show, without a ticket (U2 shows sell out in about 10 seconds in the USA).  Got in the GA line at 6am and then went to the box office, camped there all day and got a "dropped" GA ticket (band ticket released back to the public) at 4:30 PM, one hour before the gates opened.  I believe the same is true for things like credit card companies that hold tickets for their customers.  As far as the general release for U2 shows, there is no better chance of getting tickets at the venue or in person at a Ticketmaster outlet than there is online.  The ones you pick up after the shows sell out are being re-released.  You could get them online as well, just depends on the timing.

Actually....

The online system should reflect the actuals that the associates are seeing in their system on property.  There is a discrepancy in their system which is going to cause them problems, I'll bet when you get there that they won't have the type of room that you requested because, in reality, they are sold out.

Trust me, hotels do sell out.  We sell out, or get very close to it most Tues, Wed and Thurs as we are a business hotel.  There are also sell parameters that are used to maximize the space meaning that they may be taking reservations for more than one night only, etc, etc.

Trust me again - we don't hold rooms for Justin Case.  Why would we not sell a room instead of selling it?  We also oversell, just like the airlines.  There are also group blocks holding a certain number of rooms that may be released back when they are not reserved by a certain date (much like the band that doesn't use all their concert seats).

The whole thing is a true science that many people dedicate their careers to perfecting as it really is complicated and ever evolving.  However, in this case, there is no reason for the discrepancy other than their online system hasn't updated and closed out properly.

Yeah - I'm a hotel geek. 

What you have said sounds much more the way I thought things would happen also. That is why I checked several times before booking online. I also plan on calling again tomorrow, to confirm things. What I'm afraid of is that they only have certain rooms that they allow the dogs in and that is not one of the rooms that I was able to get online. The online reservation did say that many of their Hotels did allow dogs but to confirm that with the individual Hotels. Well, I have confirmed that they do allow dogs but, as I just said, it may only be certain rooms. So I may be out of luck. She did tell me to call in a couple of days though, if I didn't get anything else, and that I might have some luck that someone has canceled. She told me that, after I mentioned the online booking, and it was almost as if she was quite sure that there would be other rooms. That did leave me a bit confused and thinking that maybe, since they are contracting with these different online companies, that the companies require that the individual hotels guarantee them a certain number of rooms, up until a set date. Kind of the same idea as the hotels holding blocks that are released back after a certain date. Anyway, I'll find out and I can only hope it works out, as it looked like most of the hotels in the area were all booked.

I think on Priceline, you can book up until 10 or 11 at night, because one night I called my dad, told him the amount I knew would get me a specific hotel (I had stayed there the night before, and decided to go back). I then showed up 40 minutes or so later. Anyway,I think that proves that the hotel doesn't only hold for Priceline up until a certain date. I always thought it was the opposite way. Rooms that aren't sold get released to be sold at lower prices through Priceline type places.