New website aims to solve hotel overbooking issue

By Melodie Michel

- Last updated on GMT

Hotel-overbooking.com helps overbooked hotels relocate their guests
Hotel-overbooking.com helps overbooked hotels relocate their guests

Related tags Hotels Hotel

Hotel-overbooking.com acts as a bidding platform between hotels with too many guests and hotels with empty rooms, aiming to save operators time when relocating customers.

Aiming to reduce the time it takes hotels to relocate guests they overbooked, the website allows them to sign up and lodge a request for free, setting parameters such as minimum star rating, minimum guest rating (calculated from a combination of booking and review websites) and distance.

Registered hotels that meet the criteria are then notified by email, and can bid on the bookings. The websites takes a 10 per cent commission on the winning bid’s agreed rate.

Time-consuming relocations

“This idea came from my background – I worked in hotel management for about ten years. Everything is pretty much high-tech in hotels but it is still very time-consuming to relocate guests. When hotels overbook, they have to call the hotels around the area.

“Sometimes they spend two, three, even four hours calling hotels, seeing if they have rooms available, negotiating the price etc. I thought there should be a quicker way to do that,” founder Hans Schmidtner told BigHospitality.

The website is launching next week, with an initial focus on London and plans to expand to other international markets next year.

“It will be international but we are starting it in London – we wanted an English-speaking location, and London is always very busy. We hope to launch in the US and everywhere else next year,” he added.

Win-win situation

He explained that both parties would benefit from using the platform.

“It’s a win-win situation: For the hotel trying to relocate, it will save a lot of time and stress. They can plan ahead and use the system to relocate the guests in order to accommodate a conference group for example.

“They can plan ahead but it can also be a last-minute thing, as they always count of a few no-shows.

“For the hotel winning the bid, the commission they pay is actually lower than what they would pay on other platforms, he said, adding that the site was a great opportunity for hotels to increase revenue and occupancy.

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