One of the main reasons to call and confirm your reservation is to ensure that your room will be available when you arrive. While it's uncommon, hotels can sometimes overbook their rooms, which could leave you without a place to stay.
Importance for the hotel: • Prior reservation gives the hotel an indication of the level of business likely to be encountered during any particular period. The reservation manager knows the amount of business ensured during that period from the confirmed reservations.
A confirmed reservation means that you have not yet paid, but the hotel agrees to hold a room for you based on some condition. For example, in a typical confirmed reservation, the hotel may agree to hold the room for you until 8 p.m. on a specific day.
In formulating the reservation request, the three most important factors are a) the expected date of arrival and departure b) the desired room type c) the number of rooms needed.
The most common sources of reservation are : Travel agent, Companies/corporate houses, Airlines, Embassies/consulates, Government Office and Ministries and Personal approach.
An unconfirmed ticket means that you have a tentative booking but you need to confirm it with the airline or the travel agent before the deadline. If you fail to do so, your booking may be canceled and you may lose your money or pay extra fees.
A confirmed reservation is one where you haven't paid your reservation in full yet, but the hotel agrees to reserve a room for you subject to a condition. A guaranteed reservation in hotel is one where you have paid your reservation amount in full and the hotel is required to hold the room for you.
A pending reservation has not charged your card on file and is not a set-in-stone reservation. You have sent the owner a booking request and the owner needs to accept the reservation on their end. This will stay in pending status until either the owner accepts the request or the request expires after 24 hours.