Overbooking - is there an exit?

The word "overbooking" is familiar to many not only by hearsay. Situations when the place paid for in the airplane or hotel is already occupied by someone, unfortunately, are encountered quite often. Why this happens, is it possible to avoid overbooking and how to act, if not lucky - we will discuss all the issues below.

What are the reasons for overbooking?

The main reasons for overbooking are several:

  1. Technical malfunctions, when "something" happened to the database or the data of the potential customer forgot / did not have time to make in the database.
  2. The desire of hotels and airlines to make a maximum pushes on a conscious super-bronzing, because on average 5-15% of the armor flies at the last moment. Simply put, to ensure that hotel rooms are not idle and places in the aircraft are not left empty, companies take on dissatisfied customers who have remained in case of incorrect forecasts "overboard".
  3. The trick of a tour operator who sells space in two hotels, but one of them is not in demand. In such cases, the tour operator can sell seats in a popular hotel to all comers, and the second artificially raise the price. Arriving in the hotel "superfluous" tourists are accommodated in another hotel, but more "expensive".
  4. Often there is a situation when vacationers at the hotel want to extend the stay or vip-client at the last moment expresses the desire to go by a specific flight. Obviously, in this case, the alternative will be sought for newcomers.

When and where to wait for a dirty trick?

You can identify a number of circumstances in which overbooking situations increase. As for flights, overbooking is less common on regular flights than on charter flights. In terms of hotels, excessive planning is the most frequent phenomenon in inexpensive mass resorts, especially during the most feverish periods. For example, in Tunisia it is September, in Egypt - all summer, in Bulgaria - August.

Is it possible to avoid overbooking?

In fact, to avoid the situation of overbooking is almost impossible, if you are destined to face it. It is possible to single out only a number of tips, the adherence to which will allow, in some degree, to reduce the risk. Firstly, no matter how trite it sounds, before contacting a travel agency or an airline, review the reviews. Surely, if there were precedents, offended citizens did not remain silent and scraped on the Internet at least a couple of lines. Secondly, if possible, plan a trip not during the peak period. And, thirdly, if we are talking about overbooking during flights, then here is the rule of sneakers for the first. Obviously, if the place is sold to two people, then the one who has checked into the flight earlier will fly on it. So the advance arrival at the airport can well save one's nerves.

How to proceed if overbooking is discovered?

First of all, if you are a victim of overbooking, do not panic, do not shout and do not create conflict situations. Quite often you can still get your place. One of the effective methods - to put pressure on pity, it is possible that a family with children or elderly relatives will still be accommodated in the originally planned hotel. Another method is a group attack, if you start looking for like-minded people who are in the same situation and threaten the hotel, then most likely the administration will find a way to resolve everything peacefully. It is possible that these actions will not work, and you will have to settle in another hotel or fly another flight. Here it is important to remember that you can only be offered the same conditions or better, but not worse. In any case, if you are still not happy, collect evidence - photographs, bills, testimony of witnesses, backed by names and passport numbers, all of this will come in handy in the struggle for justice in court.