Hands up if this has never happened to you: your hotel is full on certain dates and someone writes to ask about availability.
You tell them you have no rooms free and offer them other dates… but the guest is only free on those days, so you lose them.
And that's the last you ever hear of it.
Then suddenly, a couple of days before those dates, the cancellation comes in.
Oh no! 😱
And with such bad luck that the gap never gets filled, so the day arrives… and the room stays empty.
Do you know what could have solved it?
Something as simple as “on-request bookings”.
What are on-request bookings?
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When someone visits the hotel's website and makes a booking that is confirmed instantly, it's called an online booking.
On-request bookings are not confirmed instantly.
They are requested, and only when the hotel decides to confirm… are they confirmed.
The moment of confirmation comes some time after the request and, obviously, before the stay. The hotel decides that.
What does that solve?
Well, you can have on-request bookings for a certain date with the hotel full, and if a guest suddenly cancels… you accept the on-request booking and there you go, you don't miss out on the revenue.
You don't lose bookings 😍
And if nobody cancels in the end, well, you let the person know with a reasonable margin so they can make other arrangements, and that's that, no harm done.
Because on-request bookings aren't real bookings; until you confirm them, they commit you to absolutely nothing.
When to activate on-request bookings... and why
Well, imagine: when you have soaring demand… or limited availability.
On those dates when you usually fill up.
Last-minute cancellations always happen; it's a fact.
One way to guarantee the revenue is to accept bookings this way, on request, and secure that “stand-in guest” to reach full occupancy.
And its big benefit? That you don't lose bookings to cancellations.
Not enough for you?
On key dates this is a real plus; there's nothing worse than having empty rooms when you know demand is through the roof. But of course, when you've run out of room for manoeuvre…
What's more, if you activate the “on-request bookings only” mode in your engine, you can accept only the ones you want.
Perhaps you receive four requests, and one of them is for a few more days than the others.
The first three leave you 480€ clear each, and that fourth one… 820€.
Are you going to say no to the 820€ one and yes to the others, which would bring you considerably less money?
No doubt about it: a resounding yes to on-request bookings, especially when you “suffer” from high occupancy on key dates or from limited availability.
They're not instant bookings, true, but at those times when you already have certain occupancy levels secured… it hardly matters, does it?
But be careful, this has to be feasible in your engine
Of course, you can't combine both booking types — on request or instant online.
Your engine has to be programmable to process bookings… or booking requests.
Alojapro's engine can do it, and we'll show you everything as soon as you book a free demo with us.
If you lose money from time to time because you're not prepared, as we said: on-request bookings are the solution 🙃
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