What Happens When you Book with OTA VS Booking Directly

Today we're going to talk about what happens when you book with a OTAA versus booking directly. We're going to do a video review of what happened to this particular guest and uh what the front desk agent had to do with deal with because of Hey, it's a it's OTAA. Let's go. >> It was prophesized that another Jordan will be born who will be greater than Michael Jordan. But he won't be the MJ of basketball. He will be the MJ of hotels. Prophecy fulfilled. This episode was brought to you by the Hotel Revenue Bible, the number one hotel revenue book that has ever been written. It includes revenue management, digital ads, social media, social media marketing, sales, catering, FnB, and more. Grab your cop today at hotelrevenuebible.com. OTAAS are, you know, they're great tools for hotels to use, especially ones that don't know how to market themselves. A lot of times people use OTAAS because they have a great relationship with them. They get to choose whatever hotel they want. So, uh, guests use OTAAS because they feel like they're going to get a better deal book with OTAA versus booking directly. And a lot of times this does not work out to this advantage. So we're going to review this video real quick and see what happened to this guest when they book with the OTAA versus booking directly with the hotel. >> We have two kids, two adults. >> Yeah. >> The reservation on our phone is clear, but we reserved. >> Yeah. >> What do you expect us to do? >> Well, with that one, we could get you checked in. It came in as a king suite reservation, so it has a king bed and a sofa pullout couch. We expect this to be like we >> now as you can see he said he booked one thing on the on with the OTAA but it came through as another thing through the system. This happens a lot and the reason why this happens is because you'll get a OTAA that's trying to make money and they're just going to push your reservation through. They don't care about the room type as long as they get the commission. So they see that the the hotel is sold out on one room type and they just pushed it through to any room type and now the hotel has to deal with it. This happened to me personally when I was in Costa Rica. I requested a king bed. I showed the confirmation showing a king bed. It came through as a double bed. They got the Could care less. So you really have to understand what you're dealing with when you're, you know, booking an OTAA. Most of the times they're going to do what's in their best interest versus what's in the guest best best interest. So you have to be mindful of that. >> We expect us to do that. We mean we have two kids and us. We can't all sleep. That's ridiculous. >> Yeah. Yeah. I understand. It's just it's the way that Booking.com sends us the reservation. So all that we have is that and we're sold out for tonight. >> I get that. So what do you expect us to do? That's my question. >> Well, that's what I'm saying. Yes. So we could either check you into the room or we could cancel the reservation. That's the only two options. >> Car. Do you have I mean, where else are we going to go? Are there any other holiday express hotels you can check us into? Is >> I don't have the power to do that, but there are Holiday in Expresses in Bloomington. >> So, you're not even going to help us. You're going to say, "Take the room as it is, but you're on your own." >> What I can do to help you guys is get you guys checked into the room that has the king bed and the sofa pullout couch. But apart from that, we don't have any other rooms to check you guys into. If it's regarding what you guys reserved, you would have to call Booking.com so that they could assist you with something that happened on their end. But this is just the information that we've received from Booking.com. >> Now, as you can see, she's saying this is just the information we received from Booking.com. When you make a reservation with the OTAA, your reservation doesn't belong to the hotel. The hotel is just servicing the reservation. your reservation belongs with the OTAA. So, there's very limited things that the hotel can do when there is an issue or there's a conflict or a refund or a change. You have to go back to the OTAA to make any changes that you need to make because it's their reservation is not the hotel's reservation. who hasn't checked in. What else is available for beds? >> We don't have any other rooms available. >> Who hasn't checked in yet? >> These rooms are reserved. I can't take them from somebody that's already reserved a room. >> You gave somebody our room, right, the way it was supposed to be reserved? >> No, cuz we held the room that we had the information for, which is the king suite. That's what Booking.com sent over to us. So, we kept that room for you guys. How did you think poor people would fit in that room? I mean, when when when you see it come in, don't you go, hm, this doesn't make sense. >> No, cuz Booking.com sends us the information. So, that's the reservation and we hold it as it is. >> So, you think So, you think four of us could sleep? That's your suggestion? I I'm not too sure how you guys were going to, you know, do the setup in there. We just have the reservation as it was sent into us. >> Now, that's another key point is the reservation. The reservation has nothing to do with the hotel. The people that you made the reservation through, they're the ones that has to deal with that reservation. So, if you're in a situation where something like this happens, you have to contact the OTAA, get them to make any changes, and maybe even get them to relocate you, but I I'm pretty sure this OTAA is not going to relocate them because they're the ones that cause this issue. Um, whenever you have to be re relocated to a different hotel, sometimes the hotel has to pay the relocation fee if it's the hotel's fault. But you can clearly see this is not the hotel's fault. This is either the guest's fault for booking the wrong room or the OTAA for pushing through the wrong room. >> We're completely sold out for tonight. >> I'm just stepping in. But you have a king bed and a full office, right? >> Yeah. >> You have two beds >> and four kids. Two kids and us. >> It's none of your business either. What are you doing jumping into this? Well, look, I mean, I don't think that it's none of your business. You're too bad. Shut up. >> That's not really respectful. I think we can just go ahead and cancel your reservation. >> Then what are we going to do? >> Now, this is one thing um that I really applaud this front desk agent for doing and that is she seen that the guest was getting too confrontational. We have the right to refuse any guest. We we we don't the hotel does not have to check you in. If they see that you're extremely confrontational, you're perceived as dangerous or you're making threats or anything, they don't have to check you in. They can cancel your reservation and say go about your way because every every every hotel has like a code of cond that that they abide by. So once they see that you're very aggressive and that you're you're acting crazy or that you may be a harm to them or another hotel guest, you're out of there. So even though this of course is a very frustrating situation, it was for me when it happened to me. It's not that that person's fault. Like they don't own the OTAA. The front desk agent doesn't own the OTAA. The hotel doesn't own the OTAA. So, you really have to be mindful of what's really going on when you're dealing with OTAAS, but you know, don't take it out on on on the staff at the hotel because they have nothing to do with your reservation coming through the system. >> You know, I'm not too sure, but there are a lot of hotels in the area. >> Why don't you just sit tight for a second? >> I will. I'll be here till 11:00. So, you know, the this girl was very professional um when she was handling this guest. You know, of course, the guest is upset because at the end of the day, he has a family and he's trying to get checked in, so on and so forth. So, you have to be really mindful when you're booking with OTAA. When if I book with OTAA, I know what I'm getting. Like, I I know what it is. I know I'm not dealing directly with the hotel and I and I have to be mindful of that when I'm dealing with that particular OTAA. A lot of times you're going to get the runaround because you're going to have to call the OTAA, then you're going to have to call then you got to deal with the the hotel and then you're going to go back and forth. You know, it's like a a wheel. You're going back and forth between all of these different companies trying to get a matter resolved. I actually had a a guest that booked through Price Line. You know how that is. book through Priceel Line prepaid and you know Priceel Line isn't they rarely cancel reservations. So you know you gave us your money, you know what it was, it was prepaid and you know it was a government issue, you know, government shutdown, whatever the case may be. So they were having issues getting to the location and they wanted a refund. It's not a reservation. You have to go to you have to go to the OTAA to get your refund. We were guaranteed monies and you know the hotels pay a commission on that as well. So you have to remember you know you have your room was blocked for some that a room that could have been sold was given to you to an OTAA and now you're asking the hotel to lose money because of something that not you didn't have control over and the hotel didn't have any control over. So who do you think is going to win and who you think is going to lose in that situation? So, when you're dealing with OTAAS, just be really mindful because you you really have to know what you're getting yourself into when you're when you're dealing with them. Uh, this is Bruce Jordan signing out. You know what to do. Like, share, subscribe, and we'll talk to you soon. Hey, what's going on? It's Bruce Jordan, the hotel revenue expert. I just want to take a quick second to thank you for watching this video. If you could just do us a big favor and just subscribe to the channel. We have a lot more videos like this, more information, great information about hotels. 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