Why Not Instant Confirmation?

[de-active]

This is another question regarding IOS R 

Why is there not an instant confirmation of the booking? Why does the guest have to wait for a confirmation from the hotel?

Isn't the availability suppose to be real-time, in that room availability is suppose to be updated as and when rooms are filled up?

The reason why confirmation is not good is because customers have to wait for a confirmation, and it's that waiting that is not good, in the meantime they might look else where, they might be in a hurry and many other disadvantages of waiting.

It also means, the hotel have to send the confirmation and makes the process inefficient. 

Would like to hear what you have to say,

[nikos65]

Just a thought .. online cant be in reality because the hotel availability is some time matters of a lot of thing . If a group close e.x. all the rooms and the same time someone close one room i think hotel manager will prefer the group.

In all the cases all the hotel managers ask me to have the last call .. but this happens in a small hotels with low season and low numbers of rooms so they need to take advantage the 100% of the capacity. In this case you can show lower free availability.

I think is the best to leave the manager the last call is better !!

[ks-net]

i agree with nikos...

this is the reason that i disabled the paypal option...

to choose!

in the other hand  90% of visitors uses the phone to book (greek people don't trust machines )

what will happen if i talk to the phone and once i tell customer .. ok is booked and  the same time the reservation system books twice the same room?

this is a big problem! my bigger problem is the phone!

especialy in holidays and weekends .

[de-active]

I don't understand what you are saying exactly but I get the gist, which is the reality is different and the system can't display the ground situations, in that case:

1. The hotels are not using the system properly or the system is flawed.

If the former, the hotels are not keeping their room numbers and availability upto date on IOS R, so they are not using it the way they are suppose to. In the former, the system does not allow hotels to use it for their own bookings, other than the ones online. I don't know, I haven't used the system, I've just seen the front end search, that's all the capabilities I've seen. 

2. So does IOS R allow the hotels to use the system as their regular booking system, including guests who have booked through otherways than online?

3. So what happens with PayPal? What if a customer pays by PP, then gets a confirmation from the hotel that their booking is rejected because of unavailability, does the system have to refund the guest? It would seem so. So why not put a hold on the PP, until confirmation has been made.

I am not here to be a voice of decent but I just want to make sure I am buying a product that will do what I need it to do, so all of these questions are only well-intended.   

[ks-net]

I see what you mean..

but the system is not flawed ..

people do!

believe as the most confidence way is a person to approve reservation !

once hotelier been informed have just to press the  confirmed  button!

3. So what happens with PayPal? What if a customer pays by PP, then gets a confirmation from the hotel that their booking is rejected because of unavailability, does the system have to refund the guest? It would seem so. So why not put a hold on the PP, until confirmation has been made.

because a payment received.... no wait to this case .. customer paid ! so room should be published automatically as unavailable.

2. So does IOS R allow the hotels to use the system as their regular booking system, including guests who have booked through otherways than online?

yes you can in coming version 2.5 (free update)  you can set any time a room as booked ...


PS. all that we said above has a simple explanation... our hoteliers are not stay over the pc all the time!
so we disable any auto-confirmation till we are sure that we wont double-book a room.

EDIT:
also think of people that not paid anything  and booked the room who guarantees that they don't regret it and look for other hotels? i leave out of this  any kid that like playing  with those systems.
In my case always make a call to found that their personal informations are correct and then set the room as unavailable 
... at leaste i have a personal contact...

see.. there are a lot of reasons not to autoconfirm!

[de-active]

I'll get back to your points, but I don't want to use it for only one hotel, I want to use IOS R as a portal, for many hotels! 

[ks-net]

the same applies at in this case! no matter if one or 100 hotels!

and it is even more dangerous...with many hotels as their hoteliers behaving different(like me i can't stay over the system all day and night)
suppose you have 30 hotels and any body that want to play with your system  book all your hotels with a few clicks  for a week!
till you discover that this is a spam you will lose even hundreds of customers that will view rooms as unavailable!

this option you looking for, sounds great but practically it is useless(my opinion) and totally dangerous!   
 
in my opinion always!

[de-active]

OK, I want to use IOS R as a portal, where I have many different hotels on my website, the confirmation is done via myself, manually, but what happens if a guests pays the money via PP (full amount) and then I send them an email saying that their booking has been rejected, but they have already paid?

So my point is, how can you pay for a full amount, when you have to wait for a confirmation? It does not make logical sense, you should only pay, once you know a hotel is available, otherwise, an automatic confirmation should be sent.

Hmmmmmmmmmm

[nikos65]

Using paypal option for full payment you can edit the email and ask them to do not pay until they have confirmation ..

[de-active]

and it is even more dangerous...with many hotels as their hoteliers behaving different(like me i can't stay over the system all day and night)
suppose you have 30 hotels and any body that want to play with your system  book all your hotels with a few clicks  for a week!
till you discover that this is a spam you will lose even hundreds of customers that will view rooms as unavailable!

this option you looking for, sounds great but practically it is useless(my opinion) and totally dangerous!   
 
in my opinion always!

That is the whole reason why you have a payment gateway such as PP, so that only people who have paid are read guests, anyone who hasn't paid is not to be considered.....i just don't see the point of having to wait for confirmation, if I've paid wiht my credit card, i should be entitled to what i have paid so how can people play with my system unless they have stolen credit cards

[ks-net]

So my point is, how can you pay for a full amount, when you have to wait for a confirmation? It does not make logical sense, you should only pay, once you know a hotel is available, otherwise, an automatic confirmation should be sent.

if system has availiable rooms to book it will book them!

In case that someone paid via paypal...

i haven't tried this, so someone to confirm if in this case we have auto confirmation?
system is informed from paypal for the payment(see attach) but i don't know if system automatically set room as booked!

in  case it is not (in my opinion)maybe is needed ... not to other cases to the above posts!
only when paypal is enabled!
  

[attachment deleted by admin]

[de-active]

So I'd like to know what other potential pitfulls or work-arounds I'd have to do if I was to use this system

[de-active]

"If a hotel has surety fee enabled via PayPal and you have set to auto-confirm reservations after a
successful payment, then the reservations on these hotels are auto-confirmed and you won't
have to Accept/Reject these reservations."

Great this solves my problem, but I agree with those who prefer manual confirmation, just to be 100% sure that there is a room that is available.

[de-active]

In case that someone paid via paypal...

i haven't tried this, so someone to confirm if in this case we have auto confirmation?
system is informed from paypal for the payment(see attach) but i don't know if system automatically set room as booked!

in  case it is not (in my opinion)maybe is needed ... not to other cases to the above posts!
only when paypal is enabled!
  

OK so can someone confirm? Author? If the setting is on auto-confirm for PP reservations, then is the hotel room set as booked and therefore no longer available?

[ks-net]

"If a hotel has surety fee enabled via PayPal and you have set to auto-confirm reservations after a
successful payment, then the reservations on these hotels are auto-confirmed and you won't
have to Accept/Reject these reservations."

Great this solves my problem, but I agree with those who prefer manual confirmation, just to be 100% sure that there is a room that is available.

where found this?
if this is in the manual then it is true! no  other confirmation needed!

you asked why i don't use paypal.
because as already said:
-i am not over the pc all day and night.to check if i still have  rooms to book when the phone rings and a customer asks availability of a room, many people don't try the system(greeks especially)  , other people see only advertisements in other sites and use directly the phone they find there.  so if system accepting payments and book rooms i have to be over the pc to check system before answer to the phone.
-90% of customers prefer phone to ask an book
- ios reservation works for me  especially in midnight when people don't want to call (it is late)
and want to book.... it helps me a lot in this way...

so i leave system to collect  of requests for reservation then i check persons information ..
then accept booking(set room unavailable)

if you have a person in the hotel 24/7 the week paypal is the best choice....

PS .. all people using ios reservations are satisfied with it , till now and as far as i know!
including me!