How to prevent double bookings in a hotel: the causes and the fixes

Overbooking vs double booking

Overbooking is a revenue decision: selling a few more rooms than you have, expecting cancellations and no-shows. Double booking is an error: the same room given to two guests for overlapping nights. The first is a strategy. The second is always a failure.

Where double bookings come from

1. Sync delay. A room sold on one OTA is still available on another for the minutes or hours before the next update. The classic iCal problem, see two-way vs iCal.
2. Manual edits. Someone extends a stay by a night without checking the next arrival.
3. Room moves. A guest is moved to fix a complaint and lands on a room already promised to tomorrow's arrival.
4. Blocks entered as bookings and then released by hand.

What the system must enforce

A warning on screen is not enough: warnings get clicked away at 23:00. The rule "one room, one guest per night" must be enforced where the data is stored, so that no screen, import or integration can break it. If your current PMS lets you save an overlapping booking after a warning, it is not protecting you.

Operating rules that help

• ●Sell room types on OTAs and assign room numbers late, ideally the day before arrival.
• ●Check the next 7 days of the planner every morning.
• ●Keep one or two rooms out of OTA distribution in peak weeks as a buffer.

When it happens anyway

Have a walk policy written before you need it:

• ●Book an equivalent or better room nearby, at your cost.
• ●Pay the transfer.
• ●Call the guest before arrival if you can; an apology at the desk is worse.
• ●Do not charge the first night; offer a reason to come back.

In FrontDesk

FrontDesk rejects overlapping bookings on the same room at the database level, whatever the source: the screen, an import, the API or the channel manager. Room types can be sold on OTAs with the room assigned later from the planner. See it in the demo.