Types of booking, methods and features of the process

Everyone who at least once went outside of their city or country on business or for leisure, was faced with the need to reserve a room in a hotel or rest house. But few people know that there are several types of booking, each of which has its own characteristics, pros and cons.

What is a reservation?

Booking is a way of securing customers a room in a hotel or holiday home at their request. During the booking process, it will be necessary to clearly determine the length of stay, the number of people for whom the room is reserved, the type of room and its price.

1. The length of stay, regardless of the type of reservation, is counted by nights spent in the room.
2. When taking into account the number of people on whom the place of residence is reserved, it should be said whether there is a child among them, as sometimes they settle for free or receive a substantial discount.
3. Choosing the type of room or room, you need to agree in advance about all the required amenities and the view from the window, which is crucial for some travelers, since they want to see only beautiful landscapes.
4. Separately, it is necessary to clarify the price of the room, which can be reduced by several percent due to a trip on a hot package or for any other reason.

Booking operations

Before starting to figure out how to apply for a reservation, let's see who exactly is responsible for such operations. So, there are three types of booking systems that allow tourists to secure a room:

1. The central reservation system combines all the hotels in the region into one network, and the tourist can simply call the toll-free number to find out about the availability of rooms in several hotels at once, and then choose the most suitable one.
2. Inter-hotel agencies are also the link of several hotels and can easily connect a tourist or travel agency with a suitable hotel.
3. Booking at the hotel itself is the most common way to reserve rooms, as it does not require an intermediary and makes it possible to directly place a reservation on the desired room.

How to make a reservation?

In total, there are three main types of booking applications that will allow travelers to secure a room in a hotel or holiday home:

1. Making a reservation on the phone is easy. It will be enough to call, clarify all the necessary details and order a room. However, here you will not be able to receive any confirmation that the place of residence is assigned to you, and besides, when booking a room in another country, there may be misunderstandings due to lack of knowledge of the language.
2. By e-mail you can send a request to the desired hotel, in which you ask to reserve a certain room. However, in this case, there is a possibility that the hotel’s response service may not work quickly enough and you simply won’t have time to reserve a place of residence until the right time.
3. The online service on the site makes it possible to quickly find out about the availability of rooms in a hotel for a certain date, to reserve a room for yourself and immediately pay with a bank card. True, all this happens in automatic mode, so in such cases it will not be possible to clarify all the nuances that interest you and there is the possibility of a technical failure in the system.

The main types of booking

In total, there are three main types of room reservation, two of which are widespread in our country, and the third is still valid only abroad.

1. Guaranteed reservation assumes that the hotel room will be kept free until the client arrives to check in. Thus, the tourist does not have strict time limits, and he can not rush to settle in, so as not to be left without housing. True, if he has a force majeure, because of which he refuses the number, then he will have to reimburse the costs.
2. Non-guaranteed reservation assumes that the hotel room will be kept free only until 18.00, and if by that time the client does not check in, the reservation will be automatically canceled.
3. Double booking involves reserving a previously reserved room. That is, if a client wants to stay in a certain hotel, and there are no places there, he can still make a reservation in the hope that the one who previously booked the room will refuse it.

Variety of guaranteed room reservation

In addition, there are several types of guaranteed reservation, each of which is widespread in our area:

1. A bank transfer of prepayment is carried out a certain time before the client arrives at the hotel. It can vary from a few days to a couple of weeks, depending on hotel policy.
2. Credit card guarantees include a penalty for non-arrival at the hotel by the due date without first canceling the reservation. In this case, the hotel can invoice the tourist’s credit card, and after some time the bank will withdraw this amount from the credit card and transfer it to the hotel’s account.
3. Making a deposit involves depositing a certain amount of money at the hotel cash desk. This amount can then be returned to the client if he cancels the reservation, or rescheduled if the date of arrival changes.
4. Another type of booking involves guaranteeing the arrival of a tourist by a company, for which purpose a contract is concluded between the hotel and the travel agency sending their tourist there. In this case, all the costs of the guest’s no-show will be borne by the agency.
5. The use of a tourist voucher involves the full payment of the room and all services by a tourist to a travel agency. In this case, the price of a room will be higher for a tourist than if he would directly book a hotel room.

Non-guaranteed room reservation

Separately, it is worth mentioning such a type of room reservation as non-guaranteed, because it has a certain advantage over guaranteed reservation. Indeed, for this type you do not need to make any confirmation of your reservation - make an advance payment, give a credit card number, give any other personal data. It will be enough just to book a room for a specific name and indicate the date of reservation, and then calmly check in until 12.00 on that day. If you do not have time to arrive at the hotel by this time, then the reservation automatically flies, and the hotel has the right to transfer the room to another client. But if there are no other clients, and then you will arrive at the hotel, then you can calmly check into the selected room.

Booking confirmation

When reserving rooms by a tourist or a travel company, the hotel concludes a special agreement with them. There are several types of reservation contracts:

• a hotel lease agreement allows a travel agency for a certain rent to decide for itself how to resettle its tourists there and play the role of hotelier for them;
• the contract agreement allows the travel agency to settle the tourists in hotel rooms, trying to fill 30-80% of the rooms with them, because of which the price of a room for a tourist can be reduced;
• an accommodation agreement does not oblige a travel agency to fill the hotel with its guests, which is not beneficial for the hotel, which means that the price of a room for a tourist will be the same as if he had booked a hotel room on his own;
• an irrevocable reservation agreement forces the travel agent to ensure that the hotel is completely filled with full payment for the purchased seats, which is why there is a possibility of huge discounts on booking rooms for tourists;
• The contract for the current reservation involves the usual booking of a room and its payment if there are free places to stay.

Payment of reservation

After choosing the type and method of booking and receiving confirmation of your reservation, you can proceed to the choice of payment method for the booked room. You can do this with:

• cash, which is paid at the bank, the hotel itself or at the office of the reservation system, where you will be issued a receipt confirming payment for your chosen number;
• transferring funds from your current account to the account of the hotel or office that deals with the reservation;
• a bank card with which you transfer your funds to the hotel account through the online service;
• electronic payment systems that will allow you to transfer money to the WebMoney or Yandex.Money service through a special program or terminal.

Group room reservations

Separately, it is worth mentioning this type of hotel room reservation as a group, when several rooms are reserved for a tourist group or for participants in a conference or meeting. Most often, in this case, the travel agency and the organizer of the conference are engaged in the reservation of rooms, so tourists will not need to do anything. It will be enough to pay money to the organizer of the event and arrive at the place of gathering in time. And the person responsible for the rest or conference will have to establish close business relationships with the hotel service, so that there customers will be provided with comfortable rooms, provided with meals and transfers. They also resolve all arising problems and can make a reservation cancellation if a person refuses a trip or the hotel is not able to fulfill all the conditions of the event organizers.

Types of Cancellations

However, sometimes it turns out that the trip is canceled or there is a better accommodation option than a booked room. In this case, the tourist has the right to refuse the reservation, and there are several options for such cancellation of the reserved room.

1. Refusal of non-guaranteed reservation implies the usual cancellation of the reservation by phone and does not imply any consequences for the tourist.
2. Cancellation of a reservation with a deposit requires that the tourist will then be able to collect the money or part of it if he removes the reservation in advance.
3. Cancellation of a reservation, which was guaranteed by a credit card, implies that a certain amount will then be charged to the tourist in case of cancellation of the reservation.

Denial of settlement

Regardless of the technology and type of booking that you have chosen, it may be that upon arrival at the reserved hotel there may not be any free places.

This can be caused by some force majeure or a malfunction in the system, and then in the case of a guaranteed reservation made by a tourist, the hotel must place customers in another hotel of equal quality, pay him the night spent in this hotel, and also make it possible to make a telephone call, so that the traveler could notify about his new place of residence. Moreover, if the client should be relocated to another hotel, then the head of the hotel reception service must go to him, apologize and tell about the reason for the relocation. But if a tourist does not want to stay in another hotel for longer than a day, then he must be transported free of charge to the originally reserved hotel.

In the case of an unwarranted or double reservation, the refusal of the settlement by the hotel is borne by all the tourists who simply have to look for a new hotel.