How to Prevent No-Shows: Hotels, Motels and Accommodation Providers

There are variations of the "no show" in every industry. The client who has "a ton of work that I need done," but never ends up calling. The lady who says "Great! I'll just grab my husband's credit card" and is never to be seen again. And even more damaging are clients that actually make firm bookings at hotels, motels and other accommodation providers and then don't turn up. Many hotels deal with this problem by taking credit card information in advance, but this isn't always the best customer service policy for those who have a genuine difficulty that meant they couldn’t cancel within the allotted time. Today we check out some solutions, such as scheduling text messages and other policy changes, that help prevent no-shows for hotels and motels.

1. Create a no-show policy with the help of a lawyer
   Before you can deal with no-shows in a professional manner, you need to create a policy for dealing with them. Do so in conjunction with a lawyer - when softer methods such as scheduling text messages and other reminders fail, you need to know what recourse you can legally take.
2. Take a deposit for busy periods.
3. When you are taking a booking over the phone, or a booking is being made through the website, always make sure that the booker understands the penalty for not cancelling by phone prior to the arrival time. Over the phone, ask the caller to acknowledge the information. On the internet, create a window with multiple checkpoints (not just a link and a checkbox) to ensure they know what the policy is.
4. Set up a multi-step reminder system which includes methods like scheduling personal reminders via text message, doing callbacks, and requiring email confirmations.
5. Check your booking sheets daily, looking for duplicate reservations, date discrepancies and any bookings that are from two seemingly different people but with similar names.
6. If possible, have a single person within your hotel or motel take all the reservations, to ensure that no crossover of information occurs.
7. Do mystery shopping on your own accommodation service regularly to make sure people are giving out the correct cancellation information.

All of these small business tools will help you get and keep the clients you need and deserve!