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Having the guest choose rooms at an extra charge

  • 24 February 2023
  • 8 replies
  • 115 views
U
Userlevel 3
  • Uffe
  • Senior Contributor
  • 20 replies

Hello everyone, 

I am curious about your thoughts and solutions:

To those of you who allow guest to choose their own specific room at an extra charge.
How do you manage this practically and system wise. To my knowledge this is not a feature in mews (yet). How does your Revenue Manager feel about having a space “blocked” for X nights when a different room could have resultet in an additional room being sold? 

To those who have chosen not to: how come?
what were your thoughts and processes?

looking forward to hearing from all of you :)

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Best answer by Sanne 9 March 2023, 14:23

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MarketaOupi
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +1

Hello Uffe!

This is Markéta from Mews, thank you for this question! 🍀

I just wanted to make sure, I am understanding your question properly. 🙂

You mention selecting a specific room at an extra charge, so this means for example you have 10 single rooms under the same space category, and you want the guest to have the option to select Single room n3, because it has a better view?

The logic we have now, is that all the spaces in the same category should be equal/same, so it does not matter if the guest gets Single room 1 or 5 or 9.

In case some of the rooms have different features, like better view, reconstructed bathroom, you could create a different space category with these features mentioned so you can sell this room for a higher price.

I am curious to know how would you imagine a solution for that, do you have an idea about how this could look like in the system? 

I will be happy to discuss this with the team and find out their insights. 

Have a great day! 🌞

Markéta 

Markéta - Community Coordinator @ Mews
U
Userlevel 3

Hi Marketa

Thank you for your reply and while I do understand your logic, i believe ours and possibly many others are different (hence the question)

We are running a hotel in a building that was built in the 1800’s This building has been renovated a lot of times, and many small additions, removals and small adjustments has been made. We have run the hotel since 1938, where a lot has happened since then in guest expectations, and many other areas. This means that we do not have 2 rooms that are alike. To avoid this we have made room categories of “similar” rooms however they are not strictly speaking the same. 

My idea (like many other) is inspired by the airlines. Here you can check in online and even though it is the same seat many are willing and happy to pay to reserve a specific seat, (window, aisle middle etc)

Same “category” of seat, but a add on price for the “privilege” of choosing. 

So to answer your question, I was thinking something along the line of the “resource selection” module you have in the kiosk, however with a pricing structure set up. 

 

hope this helps and clarifies. and hope that I am not the only one pondering something like this. 

 

Sanne
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Hi Uffe! As a simple solution I would create a product, to be used for direct bookings (by phone, email, booking engine) which mentions “room preference” with a surcharge. If you use the Mews booking engine, make sure that the guests needs to inform your hotel about his/her preference through the Guest Portal for example.

Add the product to the booking to make sure the preference is charged, block the correct space and lock the reservation so I can not be moved.

I can’t think of an automated way to do so. Upselling tools offer an extra charge on roomupgrades (sometimes even with a 2-way interface so it looks at your availability), but will never look at spacenumbers as far as I know. 

Regards, Sanne 

MarketaOupi
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +1

Hi Uffe,

so just a little update, I had some discussions internally and our product managers really like that idea. 💡

I was digging deeper and we are planning a new feature called Room upgrades, that will be first implemented in the guest portal and later in Kiosk.

This feature will enable the guest to choose a higher space category during check-in.

After this is in place, the product team can move forward and explore the option of selling specific rooms.

I do not have any fixed dates, but I wanted to let you know that we are moving towards that direction 🚀

Have a great day! 🌞

Markéta - Community Coordinator @ Mews
U
Userlevel 3

Dear Sanne And Marketa

Thank you for your input (and for letting me know about the planned idea).

It did offer great insight, and I like the way Sanne’s workaround worked. I will discuss this with the team

all the best and thank you for your insight :)

Sanne
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Hi Uffe! Glad I could help :-) Good luck and have a great weekend 🌞

S
Userlevel 2

Do I understand correctly, that guest can ONLY arrange for upgrade during online check-in and NOT whilst checking in at the hotel ???? Or will guest be able upgrade at ANY moment during his guest journey?? Thanks for clarifying, best Sandra

Sanne
Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Hi Sandra! Of course manual upsell is always possible - at any time of the guest journey. But actively offering a room upsell product to a guest is best during online check-in (please mind there is no inventory on products, so a certain roomtype might not be available) and not later during the online journey since you do not want to offer a room upsell once the guest is already in the room. 

If you’re looking for a two-way possibility to offer room upgrades (inventory-based), Oaky might be a suitable integration. 

Hope this helps! Have a great day! 😃🌻

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