How Are Rooms Assigned? | Hotel Worker Explains
Vložit
- čas přidán 11. 11. 2023
- I hope this offered some interesting insight into how hotel rooms are assigned! Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
If you would like to have access to an exclusive Discord community, see videos before they go live, watch exclusive content, and more, consider joining my Patreon! 👉 / jessicavanel
New Merch is here! 👚
TeePublic: www.teepublic.com/stores/jess...
Check out my other socials! 🔗
TikTok: / jessicavanel
Instagram: / thejessicavanel
Facebook: / thejessicavanel
Twitch: / jessicavanel - Zábava
I used to fly a few times a year for business from a particular airport. The flights were always at unsociable hours due to the destination. I always stayed at the same budget hotel.
After 3 times of being put in the same upgraded room with disabled facilities, I asked why they gave it to me as I'm not disabled, and didn't want to take it from someone who needed it.
The hotel automatically allocated unrented rooms on that corridor to lone women travellers for safety as it was close to the security office, and the staff could spot anyone on that corridor who shouldn't be there. It was very thoughtful
I guess this proves a point about how deferent people put different values on rooms - ‘the hole filling’ aspect. As a seasoned solo female traveler, I’d hate the infantilization of that. But to each their own. 😂
That's very thoughtful of them
That's amazing!!!!! Like it or not, lone women travelers are more likely to be targeted for attack.
I also have this happened many times when I checked in as a solo female out of town. Way more comforting to have the office right around the corner.
Sadly, safety has to play a major role in room assignments; no one should feel unsafe at any hotel.
We’ve been staying at a small individually owned hotel every other week since the beginning of this year. Approximately 10 months so far. Upon realizing that my elderly father had difficulty remembering which room we were in, the staff offered to put us in the same room, every single time we stay. I have to shout out to the Adam’s Airport Inn, in Ottawa, Ontario! The nicest people I have ever met when I’ve had to stay in a hotel. Great rates, and the free continental breakfast is pretty good too! God bless them. ❤
some hotels are a carbon copy of a different down the inch. So imagine waking up in the room, knowing where everything is, go to the ice machine come back and open the window shade and there's a huge mountain when you were expecting a pond.
this almost made me cry!! how thoughtful
why stay at a hotel for 10 months?mat this point just rent an apartment
@@asadb1990 we live in a city about 2 hours away. We only come here every other weekend to supervise my brother’s visits with his 2.5 year old because Mom thinks I want to kidnap her child 🙄 (My kids are grown and I’m not up for raising another kid, let alone in the small two bedroom apartment our Father shares with me since his stroke). Despite her Dad fighting in court to just see his daughter and now living in the same city as them, he can only afford a room because he is supposed to pay for our gas, hotel, meals and entertainment, but even we share some of those costs most of the time because he can’t do it all himself on minimum wage. He doesn’t drive and it’s a 90 minute bus ride from his place to the pick-up/drop-off her place because she doesn’t want her going to her place ever since I caught her sister reading me the riot act and spouting a lot of lies to demean me and the rest of my family. Mom was only mad because she was recording and was hoping to cherry pick the videos to show my outbursts of frustration and realizing we had a copy of the rant, was angry because that ruined her plan.
How can you afford a hotel for that long?
I once stayed at a small family hotel in Greece, and the staff there was pretty small. There was basically one front desk manager who was actually hired, and the rest of them were family members. It was a delightful little place.
One evening, I ordered a sandwich and tea to my room, but the wait ended up being around 40 minutes. I went down to see if they’d forgotten about me and learned that some new guests were unhappy that they got a room with two queens instead of one king, so that one front desk guy had to play tetris and juggle four different reservations to fix the mistake. By the time he brought me my tea and sandwich he was visibly exhaused, and I got a new-found appreciation for his job.
Wow that is so amazingly not even remotely interesting. thsi is not all about you
Actually, I personally did find it interesting.
holy hell. If some douche gets mad at a simple thing like 2 queens instead of 1 king, that is the cream of the crop of FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS. Probably some a$$hat from USA.
@@coppelia84211 And since she asks "tell us your experiences" right in the video...
@@slowery43she hearted it so it cant be that bad
Something I was mildly curious about but my eyes were 100% on screen for 8 minutes straight, you're a great storyteller even for very specific topics.
same here....I wasn't planning on watching the entire video but I was transfixed & watched it right to the end....her eyes are hypnotizing ...lol
A pretty girl who is easy on the eyes is also easy to listen to. I had a hot English teacher in high school to whom I paid close attention to but didn't learn that much English.
And, she didn't say "umm" at all. That made her whole video that much more pleasant to listen to.
And she didn't say like, like like all the time.
I work in a small 121 room hotel at the front desk, and am responsible for everything under the sun. I usually try my hardest to keep guests in the same room, however as you said if they go from day to day extension they may have to move or check out depending on the amount of rooms needed.
If you have 121 rooms available, wouldn't it make more sense to not waste 120 of them and let the guests stay in different rooms?
my pet peeve is when they get an upgraded room and then extend with the cheapest room type and expect us to just let them stay in the upgraded room for free
When I started working at the front desk for the first time, the hotel I worked at only preassigned rooms with very specific requests, group bookings or stay overs. In the normal day to day work, we assigned the rooms upon check in. That was because most guests would only stay for one or two nights and liked to book the cheapest category. We were almost always overbooked in economy class and then just upgrade the guests that came later, if that category was not available anymore.
One day a lady was checking out and she asked me, if her room was the category she booked. Turned out, she had paid only forty euros and gotten the first class suite, because she was the last to check in the night before.
I guess it's not always the early bird that gets the worm
I'm the rooms control supervisor at the resort I work at. You did a VERY good explanation of how I assign rooms! Keep up the great work!
One of the hotels near my local airport is set up so that one side overlooks the airport and the other side overlooks the city and the water. There is an extra booking fee to pick a room on one side or the other, so I did not do that. Although the city side is considered more premium, I, as an aviation geek, wanted an airport view for my stay. I asked during check in if that was available, even though I did not book that specifically, and the agent was very accommodating. I don't know if he chose the room manually or if the computer did it for him, but it was great either way. Gave me a room on the top floor, and I was up all night watching planes take off and land and streaming ATC. That was really fun for me
I work for a large 700+ room convention and luxury hotel. We aren’t a chain and are family owned with a handful of properties that range in luxury. As front desk agents, unless we have VVVIPs coming in, we are fully in charge of assigning rooms at check in! Sometimes there is an amenity or someone special pre assigned to a room which could cause the person to move or sometimes we are sold out of a room type. But if I am checking someone in, I will give them a room based on anything from the reason for the stay to if they are kind to my coworkers and I.
Front desk agent? That sounds like stewardess... Will we have to start calling them Room Attendants?
I'm not in hospitality, nor have i spent that much time in hotels. However, your explanation was perfectly understandable. As someone who's seen a lot of your hotel skits, I was already very aware of most of the process. This video just makes everything more enjoyable. Thanks.
I also love Jessica's "inside baseball" commentary.
I work for a Small Budget hotel (104 rooms). Night shift is responsible for allocating rooms for the next day. Most stays are 1-2 days and we don't have suites. We allocate rooms with children and accessible room requests first. Then triple rooms. As we're a budget hotel we then fill the rooms classed as "Family room" (Basically a room with 2 single beds tucked under the main bed). We fill those up so we cant suddenly get a triple booking that the reception staff will have to set up. Same with the Accessible rooms, because of staffing rules for every person who would need assistance evacuating in the event of a fire there needs to be an extra staff member, so we also fill those up to try and prevent someone suddenly turning up and we can't check them in until an extra staff member is sorted to stay in the hotel overnight (They get check into a room and they just go to sleep while clocked in). So if it's a quiet day, then most people who have booked before the night will get a "Family room".
There's a few other rules about lone females being nearer reception/lifts. Families being at the far end of corridors.
as someone who is a GM for a small Milton property and has only ever worked in ~100 room hotels, i didn’t realize that room assignments were so different in larger hotels. i’m so grateful for how much i got to learn about how a hotel runs from being front desk/audit at those hotels.
when you’re working a 3-11 or an audit and running the entire hotel by yourself you get such a broad understanding of how each piece works. it blows my mind that there’s some front desk agents that just handle check-ins and that’s it lol
for us, we will pre-assign people with special requests, elite members, and families that are traveling together. personally, i like to leave rooms mostly unassigned for people to change rooms or inform us that they are traveling with family so that the front desk (which is usually one person per shift) doesn’t have to spend precious time rearranging the hotel in order to accommodate a request.
thanks as always for your content ❤
I work nights at a Sleep Inn, and it is just me. We only have 92 rooms, but I do laundry, cleaning, audit, shovel snow, set up breakfast, check ins and outs and do reservations. I like not having a manager around.
It's really funny coming from abroad hearing and reading about hotels with around 100 rooms being described as small, I come from France, and I just checked, the average number of rooms per hotel is a little over 37, so 100 rooms is already really big, and it's hard to get my head around 1000+ room hotels.
@@filiaaut Vegas hotels might well make your head explode. The MGM Grand has more than 6,850 rooms. The Venetian has nearly 7,100.
I've seen many of your videos. It kinda explains why it seems I've been treated so nicely by hotel staff. I am actually nice to them, don't expect or demand special treatment and have been understanding when an issue comes up that is beyond their control. So yeah, acted like a sane, reasonable person. Love the videos!
As a night auditor at a boutique hotel, I was responsible for assigning rooms. The "nice" people, reasonable and sane, usually got the best available rooms.
My personal experience working as a night auditor way back in the 1980’s is that almost no one who checked in during my shifts could be classified as “sane” “reasonable” or “nice”.
I have been a night auditor for 22 years, and assigning rooms on the night shift is a stupid idea.
Ha, ha. Recently they have been having us lock the doors at night with the instructions that we should not let in suspicious looking people.@@JLALALALA
@daveyhansen
_I have been a night auditor for 22 years, and assigning rooms on the night shift is a stupid idea._
Agreed. Having been a night auditor I NEVER asked my auditors to stick their foot in that bear trap. roomMaster did an auto assign as part of the dayend close, but manually tweaking assignments was up to the morning front desk manager. Night auditors had entirely enough to do straightening out the ungodly mess left behind by new front desk staff and especially sales staff.
Yes, not to mention not knowing which rooms will actually be made vacant ready, and what rooms will ask for an extension to their stay before checkout and other issues. @@cheechwizard7564 I assign a few when I see that someone must have the first floor, and such, when I know that there will be a definite checkout from that room but in general leave all of that alone for 1st shift. We also do some laundry and set up breakfast, so I have enough to do as it is.
When you said, "Ah-Ha!" I legit spit out my tea and just about died of laughter 😂
I kept scrolling through the comments, wondering if someone would say something about this. You're the best!
I worked at a 152 room hotel for 2 years and it went almost 1 for 1 exactly how your boutique hotel went. When I worked AM as a front desk agent, I was responsible for blocking all of the rooms, looking at all of the specific factors that you brought up, and then some (checking for important emails, checking the event calandar, etc.) I liked that, because how much responsibility we had, we were prepared for pretty much anything thrown our way.
One last thing, I learned pretty quick that you don't have to let the guest know everything. Just because our hotel only had junior suites, I wouldn't tell the guests they were junior suites, just suites (they don't know the difference) and for regular joe schmoes that would ask for suites (non member or just snobby) I would tell them that the hotel doesn't have any suites available (true on multiple fronts, only junior suites and they are not available by default) and just give them a high floor/mountain view room or the next best thing since that's what they wanted anyway since most people didn't even like the structure of our junior suites.
What are the differences between the 2 suite types?
@@rebekah4761 I assume, since we never had a regular suite to compare it to, that the comparison came from the fact that our hotel was a Marriott, which has a number of room types. Ours only had a limited amount but others may have had both or a different combination of the two.
Anyways, the junior suite was tailored for short term business travelers (it was a courtyard) and if you were there with your family, it wouldn't be ideal since it has the same number of beds as a regular room. Another reason we only handed them out on rare occasions (like if it was one of the only rooms left) or upon renting in advance is because they were right next to the elevator which is not ideal and usually results in an unhappy guest unless they specifically wanted the room.
@@rebekah4761 It may not be the same in every country, but where I'm from, the the hotel and restaurant association defined junior suites as rooms with more space and seating than a regular room. The seating can stay in the same room, though, wheras in suites they have to be in an extra room. So you have a seperate sitting room and bedroom in a suite and "just" more space and the sitting furniture in a junior space. Of course they also might have more elaborate funiture, great views, a big restroom, etc. but mostly they are bigger. Everything else (like even more than 2 suite types) is up to the hotel.
@@velar1s Sounds about right based on my experience.
I was travelling and got into an accident needing to leave our van for repairs and rented a van to continue with our planned trip. Returning a week later, the van was supposed to be ready, but the wrong parts came in and it wasn't. so we booked at a hotel and checked back with them day by day. The wrong parts came in several times, various problems and we ended up staying at that hotel for 2.5 weeks! Over that time we stayed in 3 different rooms and at one point we had to pack our suitcases to be out of a room and couldn't get into the other room for an hour, but at that point all we cared about was having a roof over our heads. It was a trip with my MIL and my kids, was supposed to be a fun time while our husbands were going on a trip; fortunately I got along with my MIL but our husbands were starting to feel like we were never coming back, the kids were too young to remember but we'll never forget!
My goodness! That sounds like QUITE the adventure! I can see why you will never forget it. Thankfully there was a hotel nearby! Thanks for sharing your story.
A while back I booked a week at a resort and there was a note in the confirmation that a change of rooms might be required in the middle of the week. This was at a high volume time and I was glad just to get the room. That note in the confirmation was the last I heard about it and it was a good week.
The complex I work in, we have time share apartments. They are privately owned on weekly basis from saturday-saturday. Time share owners have their own weeks and other bookings have to accommodate them. If other customer's bookings pass saturday, they might have to change apartments, if the same apartment is not available for the next week. Of course we always try our best to avoid this, but sometimes it just is not possible. We are renting out the weeks that haven't been sold or which have been contracted by the owners for us to rent on their behalf.
I would totally understand if you booked sort of last minute in a high demand time slot, but as a guest I wouldn't be happy if I got a note like that and actually had to move, when the room was booked months in advance. I wouldn't be a Karen about it, but would also not book at that hotel again.
@@AlmightyAphrodite read my reply above. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much earlier booking has been done. Like the case with the hotel I work in. We can not use days somebody else owns, but of course we try to sell the available times. Guests have option not to book, when there is possibility of changing apartments.
@@AlmightyAphrodite It was a resort and I spent a couple months on a wait list before this one came available, I'm also one of those people who keeps everything in the suitcase, so packing up to move would take me about 5 minutes.
The hotel I work at the Night Auditor assigns rooms. The computer system does somehow suggest which rooms to use first so that 1 room of that particular room type isn't over used and get extra wear. So if I'm assigning a king room the top room listed was the one that hasn't been as much as the room on the bottom of the list. This also helps insure the mattresses and just wear and tear of a room stay as close to equal as possible... lol I feel like I over explained
I appreciate the explanation. That was so interesting. My husband & I were in a boutique hotel in Ga. The weather called for tonadoes for the day we were due to leave. I asked the desk if we could stay an extra night & offered to move if necessary. She had been so wonderful that week & said we could keep our room. Totally loved her.
I think this was one of those questions that no one tends to ask, but more people are actually curious about. I hadn't wondered, but now that I know, that was really interesting - thank you!
I've stayed at multitudes of hotels but I had no idea about how they worked. I really enjoyed your explanation. You have to be a wonderful person to interface with. Your personality is so winning to everyone you meet. I believe if I had an arrow in my back I would feel better just talking to you. Thank you for the hotel operational procedure. It was great. I try to watch all of your videos. Dealing with the public on a daily basis takes a very special kind of person, with a lot of patience. You appear to be that person. 🙂
I love how you explain things. You dont go into a whole rant about different things like some people do, you get straight to the point and explain it as plainly as possible as well as explaining things at a slower rate.
And im a visual learner so the subtitles are really helpful!!!!
Plus, I like learning more about random topics not many people iften think about. This was very educational and therapeutic to listen about. I love it
Can i just say that this has prepared me a bit more for my work experience at a hotel starting tomorrow tysm jessica.
I loved working in the hotel industry. Unfortunately, my back didn't. Had to have my 6th and 7th back surgeries. I still long for it. It was by far my favorite jobs.
Congratulations and good luck on your new job
I work for a Holiday Inn Express. It's most likely what you said. The room type was probably sold out for the extended dates, meaning those people would have had to move to a different room type, if they were dead set on remaining at that hotel. I'm a night auditor, so I'm almost always the only employee at the hotel until 4:30am when the breakfast person gets here. Love your videos! Keep up the good work.
Having worked night audit, I have an appreciation for you!
I worked for a hotel chain. I was the front desk agent. We were in charge of assigning rooms. Most of the rooms were pretty much the same. So we didn’t have a whole lot of requests for certain types of rooms or certain features. But sometimes we’d get a request that they wanted a room away from everyone else so they didn’t have to deal with noise from other rooms. Or they have a hard time climbing stairs (no elevator) so they need a downstairs room. Just those kind of things.
Hospitality for 14 yrs. Mostly FD. We would book large groups together, smaller groups to fill the big gaps, and individuals to fill the smallest cracks. If they wanted a room change, it was a HUGE issue. While we would accommodate the best we could... Sometimes we can't... Live with it folks. ❤ Love your videos! Thanks for sharing!
As an individual, your "live with it folks" comment was disappointing. As a teacher that must travel during peak times and pay peak prices, it is discouraging to not be valued. But money talks so the frequent business traveler, or in this case the higher volume guest, takes priority. I understand this concept so I book the room category that I want. However, giving me the crumbs of the rooms you have left and telling me to "live with it" is a HUGE issue for me. Of course, you can't accommodate all requests. But a little sympathy and kindess goes a long way when my room is by the slamming stair door, the elevator, and such..
My parents had what they called a colonial guesthouse in Australia. They went away for a week and left a couple they were close friends with in charge. Toward the end of my parents week away there was an unexpected booking for a woman, her mother and her four children. The friends told them there was only one night available for them and they took it. My parents came back the morning after that night. My mother tells me she could have organised the bookings for this family to say the extra night they needed. No complaint about the friends but that is what people in the know can do. The family was Jerry Hall, her mother and the four children of Jerry and Mick Jagger.
Name dropping, did not slip by you.... But since you mentioned it, I once met Mick in an elevator in NYC. Charming guy. We both rolled our eyes and smiled over a young woman in the elevator with us whom acted a little gaga...
I work as Front Desk agent in a small hotel (65 rooms) and the Front desk is responsible for assigning the rooms. We don't have rewards program so we base ourselves on room type that was booked (balcony, no balcony, front seaside, sideways seaview, etc.) and also specific needs of our guest (type of bed, bathtub or shower cabin, extra bed, easy access to the elevator, etc). The hardest moment is managing reservations for connecting rooms (we prioritize families with kids for those rooms).
The couple years I had the highest IHG status, I know I was always assigned the nicest room in the hotel. I also was immediately recognized by the front desk person for having the highest status. One time I was able to get a room at a sold out location one time because of my status (emergency business trip at the same time as a special event in the area). When I used my points to book a room, I always got a room in the least desirable location (near the elevator, stairs, ground floor). One time I had to move to a different room for the days I paid for the room and the days I used points.
I don't remember if other loyalty programs are this way, but for the one I'm most familiar with, money reservations and points reservations are in the computer like separate reservations, even when they have the same confirmation #. In the case of the same number, they'd both pull up and there's usually notes about the continuous stay, but the person doing the assigning still needs to go into both to assign the room. Not counting extraneous circumstances, if the assigner knows about the back to back stay in same room type, they *should* assign both at the same time.
I recently stayed at a VERY small place and had a truly astonishing check-in experience. When we got there, there was a note on the office door stating that the owner had had to go out of town unexpectedly and our room key was on the desk in an envelope with our name. We would just take care of the details the next day according to the note. It was really kind of cool.
My old property used to run on this kind of system (if there were late arriving guests, we would leave the key in an envelope and send the guest an e-mail/sms) to let them know.
That went fine until somebody figured the system out and then skipped out on paying for 3 reservations and robbing us during the last stay!
That really sucks. I'm sorry that happened. 😞@@paulappleyard2826
I've never worked at any sort of hotel, have decided through these videos it's so not for me, but enjoy hearing how it all works. Thanks for the explanation 😊
I have always assigned rooms starting with room type booked. Upgrades were then given based on loyalty status, special requests, number of past visits, number of nights and if "they were really nice on the phone when I made their reservation".
When those high loyalty guests asked why they didnt get upgraded to a suite, my response was "while we value your loyalty to the brand, rooms are assigned based on what you booked and then upgrades are filled in from there. I dont have a suite available to upgrade you to as the folks staying in them actually booked that room type." When they go to insist that I upgrade them, I asked "To upgrade you, I would have to downgrade them....I dont think that is fair, do you?" Conversations usually end there
I work in a smaller size hotel with about 140 rooms (part of a big chain) that works similarly to yours. Our night shift does room assigning to all higher level loyalty customers (their upgrades and/or special gifts), customers with special needs or requests (extra beds, connecting rooms, they need a pet room, allergies etc.) and group bookings.
We only upgrade people based on availability, and it's also mentioned in our loyalty program. In cases of overbooking we would also always upgrade first those with a membership and/or shortest stay, especially if we only have one night overbooked in a room type.
In general we try to avoid switching room types from the booked ones, unless they were a high level member or we had an overbooking to solve.
Not all rooms would even be assigned untill checking in the person, so we would still have some "wiggle room" to choose a room best suited the customers wishes. Sometimes we even move already assigned rooms to make sure people don't have to change rooms middle of their stay, but withing availability and reason.
Atlanta weather stranded me and everyone else at ATL. Tempers were short, so I made a point of being sympathetic to the frazzled ticket agent. He gave me an emergency pouch with toothpaste, etc., and he made a reservation for me at a nearby motel. When I got to the motel, they put me in the wing where flight personnel stayed. Nothing fancy, but very quiet and vastly superior to a chair in the airport. Being nice to everyone you encounter as you travel works wonders, and feels good, too.
I found your talk very interesting and informative.
I have always called the hotel directly if I was staying for several days and I found I got the room type I wanted 99% of the time.
I also found tipping the maid daily and tipping the front desk on arrival to made my stay very enjoyable. I was in SF about 5 years ago and I left my maid a $20 every day. I had free bottled water and extra coffee for the coffeemaker everyday and lots of fresh towels. The maid even left me a thank you note.
My colleague ask where I was getting the waters and I said the maid. He said I don't get any. I ask if he was tipping her daily. No.
Hotel employees don't make big bucks and take a lot of grief from people. It's amazing what a nice tip for good service does to cheer them up.
We went on a tour and I also tipped the bus driver. He gave me an incredible tip on a restaurant that wasn't far from the hotel and was very good.
I was staying in a small family owned apartment complex few years ago in Greece. Got to know the hired staff and they told us, owners of the complex "check" the rooms after guests leave, meaning the owners went around and stole the tips guests left for the maids.
I worked in two separate hotels in New York. Yup. The tips were stolen by either management or the housekeeping lead. If you can, hand the tip directly to the maid.
Thankfully, I never heard of theft at the casino hotels I worked in Minnesota. Workers are paid far better in Minnesota, believe it or not.
I was a front desk agent at the hotel I work at and then got trained in the breakfast buffet. I must say that being a front desk agent involves a lot of decision-making skills and problem solving, especially when we have big groups checking in and need to keep them as close together as possible. It is like tetris!
I used to be a Rooms Controller for a 500 room hotel, brand that rymes with chariot. It was my job to do what you described at the boutique property, but for many days out. I also had to work closely with the events/sales team for site tours, group contracted rooms (all guests with the cinference need desks, ceo gets the Presidential, etc), with engineering for rooms maintenance, and with housekeeping. It was the most fun i ever had in a job!
Hi Jessica. So I worked for a hotel suite with kitchen corporation where I was the Night Auditor. After the audit was completed, I assigned rooms manually. I always looked at comments first to see what I can do. However, if I knew a guest was a challenge or they were not nice to me or the other staff, they may or may not have got what they requested originally. Don't be mean to your front desk or your Night Auditor, we talk, we are in the know. We knew who was neat and sloppy, nice and mean, and cheerful and grumpy. I enjoyed the work as I did it for 5 years before a career change. The name hospitality really means something when working in the hotel industry.
Keep up the great work!
🎯
I always try to show my appreciation for the night staff the best I can, because my husband and I are usually late night/after midnight arrivals. I’ve not worked in hospitality, but I have worked a lot in customer service, so I don’t ever want to be perceived as one of “those” customers.
Generally we get a nice response, and occasionally a better room or advise on restaurants or cool stuff in the area!
I’m so glad someone asked that question. I had never thought about that. Your explanation was very easy to understand. Thank you so much for being so open.
We have 31 rooms, divided into 8 or 10 categories (depending on how you count); mostly about roomsize. Assigning rooms is mostly about reservation, the most asked question is to have a room on the ground floor (due to mobility or dog). And ofcourse we know our rooms and always try to give guests the best room available.
When I was Director of Housekeeping, we received a sheet from the front desk, listing all rooms, vacant, anticipated check-out, or stay-over. I stayed in touch with the front desk throughout the day, getting updates. Typically we assigned 14 rooms oer housekeeper. Check-outs were usually done first, and we would observe if a stay-over was leaving for breakfast, work etc and get those rooms while we were nearby. I tried to keep my housekeepers from having to travel from one end of the property to the other.
At times, we would honor special requests, if possible, such as early check-in for a family with small children, or a wedding party. I never insisted on the strict 4 om check-in rule.
I miss my time in the industry. I had to change careers due to health issues.
I totally understand your comment about managing room assignments being like a game of Tetris.
While not a hotel, my parents managed a 24 unit apartment complex; several of the units were used as vaction rentals where the guest could rent for a week or a month. Guest could choose a studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, or 2 bedroom with a den. They couls also choose pool or ocean view. Many guests booked a year advance, and there were many return guests.
Usually, things went smoothly and most guests were nice.
Yup. That's exactly how a hotel works.
Fantastic video and quite informative, thank you for your content! I traveled for work for years and, with the exception of one motel, always got the room which matched my profile - upper floor, king bed, etc. Now, after traveling in Europe on the Camino and staying in albergues with multi-bed dormitories and shared bath facilities I have no complaints...even when I (as a 50+ woman) assigned to an upper bunk! Your experience depends on your purpose. 😁
I flew for major airline.workrd 4 days a week. Airline contracted with hotels a number of rooms,length required,and other parameters.not on first floor,not near inside stairs,etc. retired now.book small hotels when I travel intl. No smoke,elevator, free standing shower,type of bed.read reviews and write them will not share a bathroom,not share a room, or a hostel.
I'm with guest services at a 150-ish room hotel. This explanation was SPOT ON.
On slower days at our property, room assignments are handled right at the desk. AM shift goes through for upgrades, specific room number requests, views or features, feather-free rooms, adjoining rooms and so on - that list is off to housekeeping by 7:30am so that they can prioritize them for cleaning as they vacate.
We deal with a LOT of sports teams - notably hockey through the winter and baseball through the summer. They tend to take about 120-130 of our rooms when they book. For those weekends, there's usually someone (often the front office supervisor or one of the senior agents) who steps away from the desk for a few hours to play rooms comptroller Tetris the rooms around - blocking team rooms as close together as possible while ALSO factoring in as many of the usual block reasons (see above) as they can. We do the same thing for the 60+ room tour buses we get all year long.
In either case, once a room is blocked for a guest, front desk generally isn't allowed to break that block without a supervisor or manager okaying it - and even then it's a pretty rare occurrence.
Excellent explanation. I worked at hotels with sports tesms, conventions, weddings, powows, etc. That's how it works. Only I was assigned to do the tetris. I'm quite skilled now 😅
I do not work in the hotel industry, but answering as a customer. With that said, being a Hilton honors member, we are able to select a room based on availability. (Most of the time.) If you wait too long, you might lose your choice. It also has the feature of allowing it to choose for the customer.
For my anniversary my husband called the front desk of a hotel and told them it was our anniversary and asked if they had an amazing room he said absolutely and hooked us up with a spa in the room 😍 thanks to that dude and my hubby that was the best anniversary ive ever had 😭
I once stayed in a hotel and requested a room I’d stayed in before - right opposite the emergency stairs, which I lived due to my high anxiety levels. I was so happy that they accommodated my request….then the shut down to do a complete refurb and then upped the price way too high for me to stay again.
I had to find another hotel and for cheaper than the refurbed hotel, I can stay in the other one’s best suite. Needless to say, I have a new fave hotel now.
I work in a 60-bed budget hotel, which is part of a larger chain. We do have an auto-allocation function, but it is just a random room assignment, and if you simply rely on it blindly, you will end up in serious trouble with the guests. A mix of manual room allocation and auto-allocation is probably the best way for us - allocate the ones you know have specific requirements, then auto allocate the remainder.
I had to change rooms once with my family and not for a reason you might guess!
One time we were checked into the hotel for Room X. Each of the kids and I had brought up the first parts of the luggage. I headed back to get more luggage and the kids closed the door. Hubby and I came back up to the room with the rest of the luggage. Our keys would not open the door. I took the keys to the front desk and explained that they opened the door once but not a second time. That's weird, right?
Got new keys. Couldn't open the door. Talked to the kids through the door, and they couldn't open the door either. Got hotel staff. They couldn't open the door! Four kids INSIDE the room and two parents OUTSIDE the room! No one, and I mean NO ONE, could open the door. The lock had gone completely bad.
Long story short - the fire department had to chop open the door. What an adventure.
That made a good story to tell!
Yep. Thats the downside. The keys can go bad and when they also go bad with the machine attached to the door, guess what you have. Catastrophe. Been there. Not fun.
It depends how the keys were made. For our porters, we made one shots. Keys that only worked once. Sounds like you got one of those. So, clerk error. Also, when the batteries go dead on those locks, maintenance has to come and vhange them. If no one is available, they'll give you a different room.
@@seameology Well, after the fire folks chopped the door, the batteries weren't an issue. :-)
I had a similar thing happen to me where I was asked if I would move rooms when I extended. For them, it was a staffing decision where they don't have a housekeeper for my section of the hotel when it is not as busy during the week.
I can imagine a similar request if a hotel were to have a bus trip or something where a bunch of rooms are reserved in a block together or if the room is scheduled for maintenance.
Those all sound like good examples of possible reasons.
I worked at a chain hotel as a shuttle driver, breakfast attendant, laundry, housekeeper, basically whatever they needed I would do. I tried front desk and I just couldn't understand it. It seemed so complicated. I felt very overwhelmed and even thinking back to it right now is giving me anxiety. I dunno why but it was just very hard for me to do and I stopped even trying and went back to doing the other stuff.
I started out as a front desk clerk but got authorization to do the backroom magic. I ended doing night audit, then front desk lead. Casino hotels handle things by how much money you gamble. If you just need a night's stay there, expect that players will get the best deal.
I did accommodate elderly, family travelers and also truck drivers who wanted to see their trucks as best as I could.
One time, we were having a very noisy convention and 95 percent of the rooms were taken by it. I suggested to a couple not with it to take the very last room in a hallway because the conventioners were jingle dancers, bells on their dresses etc. I had to size them up first, no elderly or disabled, etc. Well they took my suggestion and OMG! They were so happy they did.
More than once, I've been thanked for my suggestions in the 300 room hotel.
I've worked at bigger properties as well as smaller ones with a large hotel chain for 20+ years. There generally is a 'automated' blocking system in every large chain, but it is rarely used. It is too impersonal and just blocks people into rooms based on bed type and floor preference. I used it a couple of times at each property I've worked at just to see if it was any help, but mostly it was useless. The personal touch is key. 😊
When I worked in the boutique hotel of only 21 rooms we would find out a bit about the guest when booking a room. Sometimes they had stayed in the hotel before and they would request a room. Sometime they were noise conscious and we would try and put them in a quieter room. We had a room with no window and some people were ok with it and some would have a panic attack. I had some favorite rooms and when they asked about those I would point out the highlights. (Every room was different). Fun fun fun job!!
Just wanted to share that as someone who goes to hotels, I found the info interesting. 🙏👍
Don't forget that happiest place in Orlando also wants you to book minimum a year in advance to get your first choice, depending on time of year, you might need to book 2 to 3 years in advance just to get a room available. I worked for that company back when they only had 3 hotels, the rented homes, and the Boulevard with leased hotels. Back then you'd think Mary and Joseph were on their way because we had no rooms available most of the busy season. Long time ago, but those were fun times. Watching someone's face as you tell them there are no available rooms for the surrounding counties either. We had a number to call looking for rooms available anywhere in the county, others for the next two counties too. Then the well what am I supposed to do now question, next time book reservations well ahead of time.
I don't miss the old job...
👵☮️🖖
I'm sorry, but most of Florida is sold out this weekend & all of Central Florida *is*, yes even that one place you couldn't pay me to walk through the parking lot of. I suggest getting in I# & trying Georgia.
No intention of booking a hotel a year ahead of time. I don't wish to plan my life that far out.
@@isidarfrostwolf4477 Hi,
I'm sure there were small hotels in the surrounding area that didn't call in their availability to that call center we contacted. But that was the only resource we were allowed to call to help people. There are lots of small towns in Orange county besides Orlando, and they've all had hotels running since around the same time the castle was built. But I wasn't supposed to call the competition. 🤷♀️
👵☮️🖖
@@tanikokishimoto1604 Hi,
Most people that book 1 to 3 years in advance, go to that same theme park every year for vacation. For them it's best to book ahead to get what they want. But not planning ahead and just showing up, might leave you with no room to sleep in, or spending over $2,000 a night on the only room available. Or switching hotels every night for the only room available. When it comes to the destination with the castle, people are nuts. And down the road to the north or south of that place are a hundred or so hotels, most privately owned, and not up to the same standards. And you need to check for bugs before bringing your luggage inside. But if you rented a car, then there's no problem with driving to the castle.
Just remember there are other theme parks, and they have their own hotels too. Or are surrounded by hotels.
This might be the town made famous by a mouse, but they have neighbors now. And there's more fun to be had besides going to the beach, or seeing a mouse.
👵☮️🖖
I'm just glad when I'm able to book a room and it's clean, comfortable and ready when I check in.
Thanks for your hard work!
I worked for motels not hotels and our room assignments went quite different. My favorite motel I worked for had 16 efficiency sweets and 20 regular rooms. Each was just a little differnt in size. (I swear the builders in 1942 must have been drunk when they framed the building.
In the small (did I say small rooms, not so small you have to go outside to change your mind small, but pretty darn close) were for 4 people with 2 double beds. The rooms to the front of the motel were 1 foot larger than the mid point where bathrooms placement changes from one side of the room to the back of the room and the very last room was 1 foot smaller than the middle rooms.
On the efficiency side some bedrooms where bigger than the living rooms some bedrooms where bigger.
We had regulars who came each summer and would request certain rooms in thier reservations. Those clients we did our best to give them those rooms. The nicer you were at the front desk the better your room would be. If you were a returning customer and had been rude to our staff, you got the worst rooms available.
We had one guy booked for a small room who was a sweet as could be very nice to our staff who when he checked in all we had available that night was the smallest room. The end of his 1 week stay he decided to stay another week but that week all our small rooms where booked but we did have vacancy in the efficiency. I gave him 5 nights in the efficiency for the rate of the small room and 2 nights in it at the weekday efficiency for his 7 day extension. It felt so great to be able to upgrade him like that for his kind behavior
Never worked at a hotel but Surprise I always wondered how they assign rooms when sometimes I get an upgrade or not. Thanks for clearing that up! Sure enjoy your videos!
We don't have rewards program in the hotel I work in. We upgrade customers randomly if needed. Sometimes we are over booked on standard rooms, so we upgrade to superior rooms. Sometimes we have a lot of clean rooms in superior capacity, but not so much in standard. So we upgrade guests in superior just to make it easier for the house keep. Also, if there is only inva equipped rooms and pet rooms left, we will upgrade to superior to avoid using those if customers don't need them.
Usually short stays (1-2 nights) are upgraded. Of course if there are guests that stay often, we tend to upgrade them first. But otherwise upgrading is totally random. Our superior rooms sleep 2, standard rooms max 2+2, so we can upgrade only 1-2 person reservations. If someone have a pet allergy and there is rooms only available on pet corridor, we will upgrade them.
Sometimes we have to upgrade hotel guests to apartments or cottages. It is also random who are the lucky ones to get apartment or cottage with the price of hotel room.
We don't get a lot of 'requests' per se, but we use the Opera Cloud auto assign feature, and repeat guests have their preferences on their profile (city vs courtyard view, high floor, etc). and then the AM GSA will will pull the arrivals report to see if anyone has requests that are just in the notes and not on profile, AND/OR if there are any early check-in requests, we'll try to pop them into a room that's already vacant/clean, or if a guest has already checked out, a vacant/dirty room so housekeeping can get to it first.
Had a very weird experience once: the passport control system went down just as we were about to check in for a connecting flight so the airline had to put us in a hotel overnight. The one they chose was crappy and by the time we got there we had missed restaurant service for dinner. We ordered a pizza and were sitting on the bed watching TV when there was a sudden loud bang and the power point exploded out of the wall. We rang the front desk and they sent someone up to look at it. They noticed room lights were still working so they said "oh that's weird, we'll send someone to look at it tomorrow" and left us in the room for the night. No offers to change room or concerns about safety expressed at all. Next morning I went to take my medication that we had stored in the bar fridge only to discover it had been on the same electrical point and so was not working over night! We had to leave before anyone was able to actually help us (to get to our (new) connecting flight) but that was the weirdest room assignment story I could think of!
This is how we do it at our smaller hotel:
- Reservation comes through -> FDA at time checks notes, and assigns room (regardless of arrival date). If they have a special request like a ground/higher room, then we'll place them accordingly and lock the room so we know not to move it (without opening the reservation up again).
- Arrival date -> Same procedure as Jessica describes, minus the assigning rooms part. I would just skim through it and make sure that the guest requests match their room number and if possible move them around to accommodate their requests.
- Guests who are in Room X, but want to extend -> Because we assign reservations ahead of time, it's a first come first serve basis. So if a guest in upper floor wants to extend today, but I have a reservation that arrived 2 weeks ago that requested an upper floor room -- the 2 week reservation gets priority.
As someone who has had to extend last minute frequently- I am always grateful for whatever room I get as long as I don’t have to switch hotels
I worked at a 50 room hotel. I was front desk agent, night audit and breakfast cook. I also did all the laundry.. mountains and mountains. I hated the laundry and folding part.
This was interesting and could be the start of a new segment. There are a lot of things about how hotels work that could be interesting to learn. Like what a night auditor does or how they decide what rooms are cleaned in what order etc.
Mostly the night person is there to run the audit, which closes the day and starts a new one. We tell the system to start it and it will post things like room rate, tax, any miscellaneous fees we don't post ourselves (some systems you can automate pet fees if they are staying multiple days) and settles the credit card processor. This is generally run between 2-4am, depending on the hotel. Some night auditors are responsible for setting up the breakfast service in the morning. And then cleaning. And then it's just trying to stay awake. I personally bring my laptop and either watch something or play a game. We also walk the halls, handle noise complaints (hopefully there are none!).
I am working in housekeeping , so I can tell you a little about second topic. It depends on the maids. We usually starting at 9, getting lists of check outs for a day, hopefully with some of them labeled as "departed" and from those we can choose our starting point. Until checkout time it can be messy, since sometimes empty rooms can be on the two ends of corridor or even in few diffrent corridors, but in general we trying to choose wisely and minimize the need of running back and forth, since we have to do it with our chemical boxes, trolleys and vaccums. We have info which rooms are Reserved/arrivals, but it usually doesn't matter so much, until maybe last hour-two, before the check in time - if we are late and suspect, that we will not be able to finish with all rooms before that time, we focus on arrivals first. Sometimes reception has request to make particular room asap or until specific time and we do, but it doesn't happen often (at least in my hotel).
@Stephanieann5643 & checking in that really late walkin right right after checking out the guest with the looong drive that needs to hit that one spot before traffic/early flight.
& the hopefully very rare, "what happened here & what was supposed to happen here?" puzzlegame in the paperwork.
Sometimes for a big event at the hotel chain I worked for, I would block the cleanest rooms to impress the group but most of the time that would not happen. But it's definitely something I think hotel chains do is block rooms in advance.
I work as night shift in reception. The hotel is not that big, but we also have apartments and cottages to deal with.
When it is more busy, 8 hrs night shift is hardly enough to get everything done to the tee.
During night shift we make sure all the day's leaving reservations have been checked out. Sometimes day shift might forget to check-out late check-out reservations.
Checking all the day's coming reservations that haven't been checked in, if they have arrived and just forgotten to check-in, or if they are late arrivals or no-shows. No-shows will be cancelled or charged, depending on cancellation terms of the reservation.
We check all the reservations for the next day and assign rooms and apartments for them, accommodating special requests if possible and also marking for the house keep requests for extra beds, baby cots, early chek-ins, late arrivals etc. and notification if guests have pet(s).
Checking the rate codes are correct. If not, we will have to fix them. Even if the price is same, can't have cottage rate code on apartment reservation, or Apartment 1 code on Apartment 2 etc. This is important for accounting purposes.
Tilling and counting all the tills in reception. Including the safe. Ordering change from bank if needed.
Running the audit, which closes the previous day and starts new one.
Sending sales reports to accounting department.
Checking all the leaving reservations, making sure their bills are correct - if not, fixing them. Billing, charging virtual cards.
Stocking shelfs for items we sell and making sure everything in reception area is neat and in place.
Filling supplys, like papers in printers, staples, pens, note pads, key cards, key card pockets, brochures etc.
Dealing with e-mails.
Checking future online reservations and making sure they are correctly in our reservation system. Sometimes they have special requests, so marking them on reservations.
Making key cards for groups and printing name lists.
Printing room and apartment cleaning lists for house keep.
Summary of the coming day for morning shift. i.e. if there are meetings, dinner groups, party events... and making and printing out signs for them if needed.
+ of course customer service. People do call to the hotel during the night; guests staying in the hotel having issues or needing help, new customers making reservations. We get late arrivals and walk-ins. Drunk guests who can't find their room or have lost their keys. Calling taxis, sometimes ambulance.
Oh and those joyoys nights when numbers on the reports don't add up and you have to play Sherlok Holmes, find the error and fix it, before you can run the audit.
House keep get the cleaning lists, and they can also see on the computer when we check customers out. They clean rooms as customers leave. House keep is capable of determing their own cleaning chedule. Once room is finished, they mark it cleaned on computer, so reception can see when they are available.
Your insights are fascinating! Thank You!! I always assumed it was like buying tickets for a concert, just with some more options.
I stayed at a hotel in Michigan and planned a return in two weeks. I loved the room I was in. When I checked out the first time, I asked if I could get the same room when I returned. The hotel was happy to oblige.
you are sooo well spoken - you speak with alot of clarity
Front desk agent here, and I am just amazedhow all of us call the reservation organising a tetris game, i pesronally love it and love the challenge to do seemingly impossible arragements.I worked in a boutique hotel 40+ rooms, each room a different category, wiew or bed arrangement, so we always had to plan an play the game at least a week in advance. I just might go and have a look at my parents house for the real Tetris :D
Fascinating! You answered the question I have been curious about for years. Thank you for sharing. :)
Makes me laugh to read people working in a "SMALL 100 rooms hotel"! Here in Italy 100 rooms are A LOT 😂😂 Most European hotels have about 60 rooms and their back and front office are already separated. Working front desk I hardly ever had to do assignment exept for walk-in guests.
I have 30 years hotel experience, and usually I find myself sreaming at the screen when people explain how hotels work. NOT THIS TIME! Thank you for the great explanation and not shying away from the details. 👍
I definitely wasn’t interested in how or why hotels book reservations for rooms but your genuine enthusiasm for the subject kept me watching until the end. Thank you for sharing. I truly enjoyed it.
Very well explained. I have watched your videos and have a newfound respect for the scenarios. Keep them, coming.
It is a joy to listen to you speak English-you don't use fillers, you do use confused idioms, and you're obviously thoughtful, disciplined, and witty. I hope your life is really as happy as you appear to be.
I've never worked in a hotel, but have worked in restaurants dealing with bookings, which I assume has similar levels of problems solving to manage. Most of the requests we'd get would be avoiding stairs due to mobility, or being in a "quiet" area, but sometimes you'd get specific table number requests, or wanting to be in/avoid a certain area or they might be a friend of a manager, or someone who'd previously had a bad experience so is coming back for a free meal as an apology, or someone from corporate so they have priority. That sort of thing. I guess instead of nights we'd think in terms of half hour/hour intervals. But a difference is that guests in a hotel don't (normally) stay an extra night or two without paying just because they feel like it.
What has frustrated me as a guest is inflexibility on price. I turned up to a budget hotel that I'd stayed in multiple times before (typically paying £30-50 a night) and they wanted about £100 (I don't remember the exact price) for that night. Given this was around 6pm, it seemed very unlikely that anyone else would be coming in that night and paying their massively inflated price, and they wouldn't reduce their price so instead of getting £100, or even £70 from me, they got £0 from me, but a place down the road gave me a room for £60. This was a fairly large hotel with a proper cleaning team so cleaning and restocking one extra room isn't going to be a massive issue for them.
Incidentally, that hotel is no longer operating so I've been trying out some of the other options in that city when I visit.
I worked at a Days Inn off of a major turnpike in New York. The owner would have us call around to see if any of the other hotels, around twenty, had rooms for the night. If not, we jacked up the prices. Typically, Friday and Saturday nights. By all means, call around in an area if you're last minute booking. She would block off six rooms in her own name to sell at jacked up prices. I thought it was sick. Getting $200 plus for a room that I normally sold for $59 on a Sunday or Monday night.
I have really enjoyed your videos. I worked for a small boutique hotel that was owned by a large/major hotel brand, and I get a good laugh at a lot of your videos as I remember being in a lot of the same situations on a regular basis. Keep up the great work!!
I never worked for a hotel but I LOVE your videos and I haven’t heard anyone use kerfuffle in so long, I love that word 😂💜
You explained the Hotel industry better than my brief period of time working for one. Very nice!
I'd actually wondered this myself. Thanks for the video & also entertaining way you presented it!
Not sure how your video popped up in my feed but I like the deep dive into all the details of room assignments. Watched a couple other video and had to subscribe. Thank you!
we actually do have a system for automatic room allocation, but its terrible and we always have to reassign them if one of the newer workers uses it.
i work at a small 85 room boutique hotel. the PM front desk agent assigns rooms for the following day. we prioritise high ranking members for upgrades and higher floors - but the building is only two floors.
we have the added difficulty of being a very old heritage building with a set of 5 stairs in before the last five rooms of each corridor, meaning the front desk agent checking the guest in has to ensure that the guest doesn’t have too much luggage or difficulty going up stairs.
its a very complicated process at my hotel but its one of my favourite parts because having so little rooms, i know the quirks of each and can tailor that to guest requests.
Very cool explanation Jessica. It has been over 20yrs ago when i was a front desk clerk. 100-250 rooms properties, the A.M. clerk would assign the rooms and the P.M. clerk (me) needed to honor the assignment or not mess up the room inventory for the next/future days. Once my A.M. clerk (peer) and P.M. (me) got on the same page on managing the reservations, then the P.M. could be more effective with not overselling the room stays and get the correct price. If we did not manage the room assignments, then our reservation clerk (back office) would have needed to do it. So very fun. It was cool to hear your energy on the topic.
I always wondered about that topic. Thank you for your insight.
This is very interesting and good to know when you travel a lot and might have to extend stays regularly. This also explains how groups (specially large groups) can have difficulties getting rooms in the same hotel. Appreciate the insight.
Thank you for answering a question I've never thought to ask but am immensely curious about.
AWESOME!!!!! I have been wondering this for decades!!!!
I work as an FO Agent in 🇩🇪 in a City at a Hotel (⭐️⭐️⭐️, ~170 rooms).
We do assign the rooms ourselves. Mainly at check-in. If enough rooms are available, we ask the guests if they have some wish (like view, for example). We can also give free room upgrades if the availability allows it.
We also pre-assign rooms if something needs to be prepared in the room (like an extra bed, for example). Same thing for groups.
It's actually just a few clicks that we do to assign a room.
Very interesting video. I mainly stay at down-range members of the Marriott Group (Residence Inn, Courtyard, SpringHill Suites) when I travel for work to rack up nights while keeping within my per diem limit. With them, it seems like it's a pretty quick process for them to pre-assign rooms since few locations have much in the way of variety other than 2 Queen, 1 King, Suite (which usually just means a sofa bed and extra TV), and whether it's handicapped accessible.
Whether it's the computer pre-assigning or a manager making the assignments, I can tell they usually aren't having to do much in the way of gymnastics. Having booked groups of over a dozen rooms before, they definitely aren't having to do MUCH customization or putting most of the rooms together.
Love this behind the scenes logistics stuff!
In general, I agree that small hotels offer a lot more opportunity to learn a wider variety of job duties. I would give one exception here though. A manager of mine at a small California luxury resort, told stories about the exceptional manager training she received at Hilton Head. She explained, part of the manager training required she work for multiple weeks in each and every department of the hotel before being able to move up and become a manager. To me, this is an exceptional training opportunity, and would lead to a manager that not only understands the details and pieces of other departments, but forms those relationships that are essential in smoothing out the rough issues that do arise routinely.
That ramble was fun! Thanks for sharing!
I've worked at a small Backpacker's Hostel. They basically had a Excel spreadsheet with several pages that listed how many beds in which rooms and put down people's names in each of the squares with highlights on when people were moving in or checking out. Copy pasta across pages for however long the people would be staying. Certain rooms were reserved for people staying for extended periods and would occasionally be filled temporarily when they ran out of space, such as when someone extended but there was no space in the main building. Probably a very different system from a hotel in some ways, but quite similar with moving people around if there were future bookings for the room with specific features (eg. larger bed)
Loved this!! Very interesting and informative. Ty!❤
Thank you for explaining this! I wasn’t the commenter but I’m going to Orlando to Universal and my flight changed and it was better to fly in the day before originally planned. So I called to add a night at the beginning of my stay. They said “there is no availability to extend your stay but I can book you a single night of the same room type at the hotel with a note that you have a connecting reservation and hopefully they can get you in one room so you don’t have to move rooms” I was like whatever works is fine with me but I was wondering what was up with that and like magic there is your video.
I had a 28 day booking in a 1 bedroom suite at a Sandman Signature penthouse suite. My work assignment got extended by 5 days and I needed to add to my booking. Unfortunately for me, the suite I was in was scheduled for a full renovation immediately following my stay. The contractors were booked. The time for that suite was blacked out. The hotel was very accommodating and moved me to one of the 5 other penthouse suites. But not for me, a roughly 75 night a year client, not for anybody actually, we're they going to delay the renovation.
Nope. The only way you may be able to get an extra night is if there were a block of rooms being renovated and they could start on another one first. But only one night.
I actually found this very interesting. Thank you! I really enjoy your videos. :)
Thank you Jessica for all your videos, you definitely have made me a better guest.
This so interesting to me as im not in the hotel industry but learn so much from you as im curious as to how it works ❤
Worked as a night desk agent at a 50 room hotel in a small, but popular photography town. The morning clerk was the one that did the assigning, so I didn't do it myself, but I did get to see it done during my training as some of my training was during the day.
I love watching your videos, I worked a long time ago in the industry in Bermuda so it's fun for me listening to your stories 💙
this was still confusing for me. i am actualy an astro physicist but i dont understand hotels lol god bless you for knowing and understanding and making sure my hotel stays are awesome.