How to confirm a hotel reservation?
This article serves to educate the readers on how best to confirm a hotel reservation.
It is recommended to always contact the hotel to check on the availability of the room before getting there or sometime after you make the booking. To make sure that the particular room will be waiting for you when you get there it is nice to confirm the reservation. As hotels often overbook rooms or experience technical glitches with the reservation, it saves time to confirm deters finding out that there is no room available. To avoid meeting a similar fate, follow these guidelines to properly confirm your next hotel stay.
Call the Hotel Directly
The easiest way to verify it is by dialing the telephone number of the specific hotel where you intend to stay and talking to personnel at the reception desk. Ensure that you dial the number with your confirmation number so that you can be understood faster. Originally, this confirmation number was given at the time of booking online or by phone and usually, it is given instantly.
When you call, verify all the key details regarding your stay:
- The dates on which you will be checking in and checking out.
- Type of room you booked (for example standard double queen or deluxe king suite. )
- Number of people in the room excluding the host
- Additional requests like additional cribs, towels, or check-in earlier than the standard check-in time
Make it a point that you note the name of the hotel staff who read back your reservation information to you. If there are any issues with the confirmation when you get a chance to check in, write down the name and date of the employee whom you spoke to.
Ask About the Reservation Guarantee
Although numerous hotels provide the possibility to book rooms through various third-party sites, many of them guarantee a reservation if one books directly on the website of the hotel, or by phone. While terms vary between hotel chains, a guaranteed reservation typically promises:
- Your accommodation needs will be considered (like smoking or nonsmoking, a specific type of bed, etc)
- A room will be made for guests who will be arriving in the night after 6. 00 p.m.
- Information about where to go if there are no rooms for guests or if they want to stay somewhere else because of some problems.
- The rate for the first night of your stay refunded in case an alternate place of stay is not found
It is advisable to ask the receptionist or anyone in charge to ensure that your reservation is accompanied by a guarantee and that you are aware of it.
Request Written Confirmation
To further enhance your security, ask for a written email confirmation of the details of your reservation and other guarantees considered by the company. Almost all the hotels will send an email confirmation once users book their hotels through the Internet. However, if you get a second call from the client after you have sent in a proposal, it will be easy to cross-check with the second letter to see if there are any differences.
Please also keep a copy of the emailed hotel confirmation for your convenience and protection. Receptionists or other members of staff who will be checking you in will, of course, expect you to produce a confirmation upon arrival.
Check the Hotel Cancellation Policy
In addition to confirming your booking, it is also important to use the call to ensure you understand the policy on cancellation of the hotel booked. There are certain regulation policies that each hotel or any third-party booking site has on the time limit and other costs that are required for canceling an existing reservation.
The same when booking by phone, make sure to discuss cancellation policies and they should be documented within your reservation. Upon the call to confirm, make sure to ask for clarification on whether or not those cancellation policies are still valid for the booked dates.
It is possible that learning very early on may affect your behavior. A flexible cancellation policy, either with longer cancellation periods or free of charge helps to make a cancellation resulting from an emergency or change in the itinerary less worrying.
This means the call should be made at least 48 hours before the arrival of the guests. The experts suggest that one should always confirm the status of hotel booking 48 hours before your planned arrival at the hotel. If a hotel overbooks some of the rooms, which are not available to the guests at the time of their arrival, then calling a couple of days in advance gives the hotel ample time to rectify mistakes and honor the guarantee.
Group bookings or, specifically, bookings made the day before or in the periods when the hotel is particularly popular are likely to have discrepancies. It gives you more opportunities to repurchase if the prices change in case you decide to stay at the same place for a longer time.
Confirm Additional Reservation Details
Along with verifying room guarantee and cancellation policies, use your reservation confirmation call to finalize other key aspects of your upcoming stay:
- Ensure all the listed occupants or guests in the room are present or staying in the room. Let the staff know of any replacements or modifications. Any additional person over the maximum allowable occupancy of any hotel room is usually chargeable based on a certain fee per head.
- Discuss paid services such as rollaway beds, microwaves/ refrigerators, and accessibility features like shower bars and seats. Check if anticipated services are enumerated and would be offered without any charge or at proposed prices.
- Lastly, check on the parking space and the cost if you are planning on driving. Inquire about nearby EV charging stations, parking privileges and validations, and ins/outs privileges for guests staying overnight.
- Inquire if there are options for early arrival or late departure that are available. Even though the ability to check in earlier or check out later is usually not ensured unless you book a more expensive room, it is helpful to know the policies that apply to it.
- Ask about renovation or construction projects going on at the particular hotel when you are there. Require different rooms farther from the noise production if possible.
Reconfirm Arrival Time
When confirming your reservation with the hotel, it is also advisable to give an estimated time of arrival in case the hotel staff needs it. Hotels preallocate the rooms to clients and keep them available up to a specific time (usually 6 PM) depending on the hotel's policy. This way if checking in late night or early morning they can note that your ETA is for your reservation.
Also, it is important to know when exactly your specific type of room would be available for occupancy. Normal guaranteed check-in usually occurs at 34 PM. However, they may be able to accept the early check-in of guests depending on the current available vacancies and turnover rate.
Join Hotel Loyalty Programs
If you eat at the same restaurant chains, join the loyalty programs so that you get points for the number of times you dine with them. Handouts usually include early check-in/late checkout, free room upgrades, free WiFi, free breakfast, and free points to earn free nights.
This is because of privileged access to rooms in the event of a last-minute sale of rooms to other customers. During high capacity, hotels attempt to meet the needs of the many loyal customers who prefer to stay in their facilities. Some of these perks include free breakfast, free parking, late checkout, room upgrades, and priority check-in; all of these are avails by presenting your rewards number while booking and confirming.
When You Get There It Is a Good Idea to Cross Check the Details of the Reservation. It can be easily avoided by simply slowing down and double-checking out the reservations during the check-in phase. As the front desk reviews your reservation details, ask for clarification about the front desk reviews your reservation details, ask for clarification about:
- Listed arrival/departure dates
- Additional amenities such as the kind of bed one prefers and the particular area of a hotel that they would like to be placed in.
- Total of the people present in the room.
- If any extras are often reserved like cribs, rollaway, or microwaves
To mention in advance any cancellation or other conditions that were agreed by the hotel's staff over the phone. It is preferred that staff write any such new request, including additional towels or any details related to the hotel in your file.
It also offers a way to avoid any miscommunication in terms of reservations and provides reassurance that guests are beginning their hotel experience in the right manner by reconfirming when checking in. Getting in touch with the hotel to crosscheck other details related to the reservation also prevents other issues likely to arise from other negligence in the booking exercise. Therefore, to make a better experience, it is best to take some initiative and start talking to the members of the hotel staff to make a better check-in and better stay.
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