Summer travel 2024: What to do if your hotel is overbooked

There’s nothing worse than walking into your hotel, giving your name to pull up your reservation—and then being told that you don’t actually have a place to stay because the hotel is out of rooms.

While the hotel industry projects occupancies to be around 65% throughout 2024, hotel overbookings might become more common this summer with more Americans on the road and planning to use paid lodging. This can be especially challenging when you’re traveling for work with specific lodging constraints.

Why do hotels overbook? 

1. Increased demand for travel—both for work and for leisure

Post-pandemic, there has been a significant rebound in travel. Leisure and business travel have surged, contributing to higher demand for hotel rooms. This increased demand, coupled with the relatively static supply of hotel rooms, has made overbooking more common. Hotels are betting on cancellations and no-shows to accommodate the influx of guests.

 2. Continued economic uncertainty and revenue management

The economic landscape continues to be marked by uncertainty, prompting hotels to maximize revenue through overbooking. When a hotel overbooks, they are trying to ensure full occupancy, because some guests will likely cancel at the last minute. This strategy helps mitigate potential revenue losses from no-shows or last-minute cancellations.

3. Advances in predictive analytics

Hoteliers are now employing sophisticated revenue management systems that predict booking patterns and cancellations. These predictive analytics tools enable hotels to analyze historical data and current trends to forecast demand accurately. Hotels use these predictions to overbook rooms strategically, minimizing the risk of having empty rooms.

What should I do if my hotel is overbooked?

You might encounter hotel overbooking, particularly if you frequently travel for work. But if you’re traveling as a member of the CLC Lodging network, we’ve got you covered. Here are our recommendations for what you should do if your hotel is overbooked and the tools we provide to help prevent this from happening in the first place.

1. Contact our 24/7 Traveler Support Center

When a hotel is overbooked, our team of experts is available 24/7 to help you find a safe place to stay. Instead of being transferred, or “walked” to another hotel without verifying its quality standards, the CLC team can help you find another option in the vicinity. You can access CLC’s fast-response priority help desk for check-in assistance by tapping “Help Hotline” in your CLC Mobile App under “Support.” This section of the app also helps you troubleshoot declining CLC cards and resend cardless crewfaxes if needed.

2. Add a late arrival notification to your reservation

When hotels overbook, they dole out the available rooms in a first come, first served manner—which can be a challenge if your drive time or project schedule means you’ll be arriving later than other guests. Now, when you make a reservation through CLC, you can add a note to let the hotel know you will be arriving late so that they don’t assume you’re a no-show and give your room away.

3. Enjoy peace of mind with new pre-arrival alerts to the hotel

To ensure that our hotel partners know who is planning to stay, CLC Lodging now sends a pre-arrival email to the hotel before a CLC guest arrives. Included in their pre-arrival email are help materials to assist with check in if a staff member is unfamiliar with CLC Lodging.

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