Exercise 9. Read the text and speak about advantages of guaranteed registration.

Describe a hotel’s cancellation policy.

Reservations systems in need of an update?

American Express was a pioneer of guaranteed reservations when it introduced Assured Reservations 20 years ago. The concept has since become ubiquitous. It is nearly impossible to book a room without using a credit or charge card to guarantee the reservation.

However, the challenge facing lodging companies today is transforming existing reservations policies into a tool that further increases profitability and productivity.

A series of interviews and a new survey from American Express indicate that while guaranteed reservations continue to offer benefits to the lodging industry, further consumer education is required.

A guaranteed reservation does more than remove a room from the vacancy list. It helps hotels predict peaks and valleys in occupancy, adjust prices accordingly, and develop marketing strate­gies. But the most important benefit is that guaranteed reservations reduce no-show costs and no-show frequency.

However, customer education is neces­sary to achieve these results.

While a reservation serves as a contract between hotel and guest, the charge or credit card company with which the reservation is made also is a crucial party to the reservation agreement, and the card issuer can be of great assistance as an educator.

The recent American Express Travel Index shows that while customers usually understand a hotel's reservation policy when booking a room, there is room for improvement. For example:

While 64 percent of consumers say they are "usually" informed of a hotel's cancellation policy at the time of booking, 26 percent say they are not “usually” informed of this policy.

Although 72 percent of consumers say they “normally” get a phone number for cancellation, 23 percent say they are not usually given the number.

Even though 84 percent say they "normally" receive a confirmation number when booking, 10 percent say they do not.

The charge or credit card issuer can be of enormous assistance in this regard. The first priority should be to ed­ucate cardholders of the consequences of not following proper cancellation policy. Secondly, they should push for clear consumer education on the part of lodging merchants. In that way, the guaranteed reservations system works with all parties to decrease the likelihood of no-shows.

A reservation made with assured reservations requires guests observe hotel cancellation policies.

The majority of consumers are aware of this. However, there are occasions when a customer will guarantee a room and fail to cancel when his plans change.

Ex. 10. Read the text and say why handling reservations if such a difficult job.

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