Overbooking
Hotel practices have evolved over time and in many ways adjusted to the technical advances in marketing and customer-controlled transaction processing, such as this online booking system. However, certain marketing factors remain constant and affect those practices.
One place where those technical advances confront practical considerations involves inventory (room) management. Because travelers in most cases retain the right to cancel reservations up until 24 hours before check-in, hotels sometimes oversell their inventory of rooms to allow for this (as do airlines). Because of this uncertainty, they typically don’t formally assign rooms to completed reservations until the day before scheduled check-ins, and in some instances find that they have overestimated expected cancellations and cannot honor every room commitment that has been made.
If this happens, the response of the hotel is entirely at their discretion and their options may be limited. Generally they will try to provide a satisfactory room configuration or sometimes arrange for a room at another nearby property. While Campus Travel Management has no direct control over the hotel’s actions, satisfactory service here and elsewhere is what we expect of our participating hotels, and what they strive to provide in order to retain the goodwill of our clients and a continued place in our program.
Check-in requirements
Since many of the travelers using our services are prospective students or younger students travelling alone, one of the factors to consider in assessing your hotel choices will be the minimum age for check-in. For many hotels, that age is 21, but there typically are hotels in each school’s area that set the minimum age at 18. Information on minimum check-in age will generally be listed in the amenities section of the individual hotel pages.
Transportation
Air travelers may want to focus on hotels that offer shuttle service to and from campus and airport locations, and some hotels will be within walking distance of one or the other. When traveling by car, transportation between the hotel and campus may not be an issue, and distance from the hotel and campus a minor consideration. For those travelers, parking availability will be an issue. Consult the hotel descriptions and amenities listings for this information as well.
Terms and Conditions
When selecting a particular hotel room, price is often a consideration, However, keep in mind that hotels often list more sharply discounted rooms on the condition that they must be paid for in advance and such payments may be non-refundable. In other cases a deposit may be required. Those terms are sometimes clearly indicated in the room description, but it is always good to click on the Term and Conditions link to make sure.
In most cases, advance payment is not required – submitting your credit card information is just for the purpose of guaranteeing your reservation, but even then make sure you are aware of the cancellation terms. Cancellation usually requires notice 24 hours before your check-in date, but there are variations in the required notice and the amount of penalty for failure to cancel. These policies are independently set by the hotels and enforced at their discretion.