When the reservations department receives a request and the only way possible to accommodate the guest is by splitting a reservation into different room types, the person in charge should vet the room plan carefully and make a decision based on the possible income from that booking. 

If for example a guest is asking for a 7-nights stay in a room that is unavailable for just 1 day within that period, you might consider freeing that room for the blocked night in order to book in the new guest, by upgrading someone for that 1 specific night. By doing this upgrade you manage to: 1. have a happy guest that has received a gift (upgrade) and 2. receive a 7-night booking that would otherwise be impossible or too inconvenient for the guest (more than 1 room changes would be required). 

For sure, many factors affect this procedure and thus what you need is a professional reservations team that knows the drill and a well-trained receptionist or guest relations employee to deliver the news in the right way. Using this technique will eventually increase your hotel’s income.

Hiring a proper Reservations professional has now proven to be more challenging than ever, as we can see that people tend to stay in departments like reception, guest relations etc for years and won’t usually express any interest in moving up the chain to the back office. We must admit that on many occasions, these posts pay better and require much less effort. So, what will happen to those job openings? 

Taking this subject a step further, even finding and training an employee to handle reservations successfully still carries risks, like what happens when you need to replace that person, how can you know how efficiently this person works, what happens if that person needs time off etc. Out of the many hotel departments, reservations and sales is the only one that can be outsourced and as the scenery changes, it probably should. When it comes to a single property, the person in charge of the reservations may not be properly supported, supervised and educated. Additionally, he or she may need longer brakes, may have special needs or agendas.

On the contrary, hiring a company to act as your reservations department means full clarity, regular updates and access to all data 24/7, higher performance rate and consequently faster business growth. An expert will always evolve and adapt faster to the industry’s needs, while the hotelier’s interests will be more secure since the company will share the same. Finding the right partners may be tricky but after you do and eventually establish a trusting relationship with them, you will most likely see growth rate increasing!