Why is overbooking a common problem?

Overbookings, or double bookings, happen when a hotel sells more rooms than it has available for a given night. Many hotels do this deliberately to offset last-minute cancellations or no-shows and avoid losing revenue and occupancy. Of course, it can also happen by accident.



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When overbooking in hotels is done intentionally, the risks include: Negative customer experiences that lead to negative word of mouth. Loss of potential revenue from upsells, ancillary services, and in-room upgrades.

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Carriers have been overbooking their flights for decades as a way to maximize income. According to Tech Crunch, on average, 5% of travelers miss their flight, and there are some situations where up to 15% of passengers do not show up.

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The short answer to this is economics: airlines want to make sure that every flight is as full as possible to maximize their profits. The reported reason why airlines routinely oversell their seats is to recover costs the airline incurs for seat cancellations and for travelers who do not show up to take the flight.

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Potential poor publicity If your hotel overbooking strategy fails, you could get bad reviews. Many potential visitors to your hotel will be sure to check reviews to know what people are saying about your hotel before they make reservations.

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Overbooking for hotels is a revenue management strategy that helps to maximize the total capacity and increase the Room revenue. But on the other hand overbooking for guests means waiting and inconvenience that result in their dissatisfaction with the services.

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The purposeful and deliberate act of overbooking runs counter to any acceptable standard of ethical business practice. In addition to the practice being ripe with serious legal, contractual and consumer protection violations, overbooking forces hospitality personnel into making conscious immoral and unethical choices.

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Whether you're flying from New York or New Orleans, Lisbon or London, airlines continue overbooking to compensate for “no-shows” all the time. Simply put, they sell more tickets than they have available seats. And it's not an illegal practice.

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If there are not enough passengers who are willing to give up their seats voluntarily, an airline may deny you a seat on an aircraft based on criteria that it establishes, such as the passenger's check-in time, the fare paid by the passenger, or the passenger's frequent flyer status.

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How to handle overbooking in hotels
  1. Check your other hotel room availability. The first thing to do is find out whether you have another room of the same standard available. ...
  2. Relocate the guest. ...
  3. Have a strategy for who you relocate. ...
  4. Take a breath and take stock.


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By overbooking flights, airlines compensate for so-called no-shows or last-minute cancellations. This is a complex analysis system based on historical flight data of passengers on the respective routes.

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Overbooking, also known as overselling, is the practice of accepting more reservations than rooms you have available. The term can also refer to overbooked flights - we've all been offered vouchers to leave behind a confirmed reservation or airline ticket and the concept is very similar in hotels.

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Airlines overbook flights to maximize revenue and ensure flights are full, as routine no-shows and flexible ticket holders contribute to empty seats. Volunteers are asked to switch flights when there are more passengers than available seats, as it is more cost-effective than flying with empty seats.

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While it is legal for airlines to involuntarily bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers, it is the airline's responsibility to determine its own fair boarding priorities.

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Moreover, every airline in the United States overbooks its flights at least some of the time. All but one, that is. JetBlue Airways (JBLU 2.70%) is the one holdout that chooses not to overbook its flights -- to be more customer-friendly.

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Overbooking = more profit, but often = unhappy customers. Airlines use statistics to avoid overbooking, resulting in 50k people getting bumped off flights annually. Airlines use data to predict the number of passengers boarding a flight.

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While there aren't federal guidelines for hotel overbooking, some states have laws in place to protect you from being denied a hotel stay. Should you happen to be traveling somewhere that doesn't have a state law in place for hotel walking, you do have another form of legal protection: Contract law.

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The risk that expected cancellations might not take place and some guests might not find available their reserved rooms is the reason why overbooking is considered a controversial practice, unethical for consumers.

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Overbooking occurs when a customers book more rooms than the actual number available in a hotel. The hotel allows this to happen, anticipating that some will cancel.

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