Stating the Obvious

A woman calls up and asks me, "If it says it's a non refundable room then what is the refund policy?"

"Ma'am, it means there are no refunds."

"But what if I have an emergency or something?"

"Sorry, but you would not get a refund. It is a non refundable room"

"Well, OK. Just one more question. Under room type it says 'poolview'. So what view would that be?"

Really, how can you answer that one......

BED TYPES

A common practice for hotels throughout the world is to offer really good pricing on rooms without specific bed types. How that works is the hotel on any given day will have for instance, a few rooms that are king beds and a few rooms that have two queens. In Europe it's more likely to be a double bed or 2 twins. It's impossible to be one hundred percent accurate in determining what bed types customers will want or require.

What hotels will do is give you a great price on the rooms if you will take whatever room type they have available on the day you check in. This guarantees they can still book the room without specifying the room type. This ensured they fill the rooms.

For most people this is no problem. If it's a couple they generally don't care if the room has 2 queen beds or a king bed. That's not the case if you are traveling with for instance your brother or parent or even a teenage child. In that case you would need 2 beds.

That's why it just floors me when a customer will get all indignant because they cannot have the discounted rate AND the room style they want. The whole purpose of giving you the discounted rate is because you will take what there is when you check in.

If you are traveling with your mother or teenage son you need 2 beds. If the hotel you want has a great rate for the room type you want, well that's great! If not, well, guess what? You will need to pay more and get what you want, it's that simple.

If the hotel you want doesn't have the room you want, well guess what, you will need to get another hotel. Simple.

Oh, I Work From Home....

As many of you know I work from home. It really is the best possible way to work but as with any job there are occasional glitches in the system. One agent tells of one such glitch.

I was speaking to a customer and somehow we got disconnected. I tried to call him back but I got no answer. So I decided to take advantage of the situation and take a quick bathroom break. I put myself on "NOT READY" and ran to the other room. For some reason the phone rang while I was in there. Since I was on "NOT READY" I assumed it was a personal call coming through the line so I asked my 12 year old daughter to answer it for me. Well, it was the customer!

My daughter proceeded to tell him I was in the bathroom and would be right back! The customer just laughed and by the time I got to the phone I could barely speak from holding back the laughter.

"So..." he said, "you must work from home..."

By then I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold back! I got the reservation booked though!

Day by Day

So if Monday turns into Tuesday, is it possible to hold back the day? If an opportunity is missed, is it possible to retrieve that opportunity? But what if you really, really want Tuesday to be Monday again? What if you realize too late that the missed opportunity was just what you wanted?

Well, it's kinda like that with travel. We can't hold back the day and we sure as heck cannot go back and get the perfect price on that dream vacation you let slip by. And just as opportunity will fly by, sometimes as if on the wind, those prices are just as fleeting.

Take my word for it..... we did not do this to you. If we had that kind of power we would rule the world.