What should I do if I can’t accommodate a guest Chinese (CN)/简体中文
What should I do if I can’t accommodate a guest Chinese (HK)/中文 (香港)
What should I do if I can’t accommodate a guest Chinese (TW)/繁體中文
What should I do if I can’t accommodate a guest Japanese/日本語
What should I do if I can’t accommodate a guest Korean/한국어(대한민국)
What should I do if I can’t accommodate a guest Thai/ไทย
There are circumstances where a hotel is not able to accommodate a guest. This article will outline what you can do to prevent this, and how can you report it if it is unavoidable.
Understanding booking rejections
Agoda offers instantly confirmed bookings to customers, which means Agoda guarantees that a guest will be able to stay in the room at the property that they booked. However, there are certain cases where a hotel rejects the booking or is unable to accommodate the guest.
We highly suggest that all properties should honor all bookings if possible. Any rejection may:
- Create a bad experience for a customer
- Harm your property’s reputation
- Harm Agoda’s reputation
As stated in Agoda’s terms and conditions, you will also be responsible for all the costs that your guest might incur due to a booking rejection. You can see more details in Booking rejection costs
Cases of booking rejection and how to prevent them
Case 1 – Double Booking /Overbooking
This occurs when multiple reservations are made for the same room on the same night at your property where additional availability is not available anymore. The two most common causes are:
- Availability is not synced across all online platforms —This can occur when a guest books your room via but the room is still available for the same night on other platforms and another guest book this room on those other platforms.
- Wrong calendar setup – This can occur if you indicate that you have two rooms available when you just have one available, and then both rooms are booked.
Case 2 – Incorrect Rates
When you fail to update the rate on the platform or you forget to deactivate a promotion that is no longer applicable, this may result in an incorrect rate being sold and booked by a customer.
Here are some tips for avoiding Double Booking/Overbooking and Incorrect Rates:
- Regularly manage allotment in YCSto reflect your property’s room inventory. Details on how to manage availability can be found at How do I manage my availability?
- When you receive a booking, please also make sure to update your availability on all online platforms.
- Regularly update the current rates in YCS — see this article How can I adjust my price? For details.
- Make sure to set correct eligible dates for any promotion that you create. You can find easy steps here.
- If you are using a channel manager to manage your availability and pricing across platforms, read about how you can connect a channel manager to Agoda.
- If you can’t always keep track of your bookings on your computer, we’d recommend downloading our YCS companion app on your mobile phone that allows you to manage your availability anytime, anywhere.
Case 3 – Incorrect Content
This may occur if you don’t update to the most current content such as property cancellation policy, child policy, or facilities. To make sure you are up to date, please find guidance on how you can update restrictions or facilities.
Case 4 – Renovation
If you don’t close out your availability during a closure or renovation period, you may receive a booking you cannot accommodate. Please make sure to plan ahead and close your availability according to your renovation timeline.
Case 5 – Deactivation
Your decision to deactivate your listing on Agoda temporarily or permanently will likely impact bookings. Following Agoda terms and conditions, honoring bookings is strongly encouraged.
To avoid rejection of any new incoming bookings, we recommend you plan ahead and make sure to close your availability at least 30 days before deactivation.
What you can offer to guests for alternatives?
If your hotel is not able to accommodate a guest with a confirmed booking, you should offer alternatives. It is important to act quickly to make sure the guest is not left without any accommodation.
- Offer an equal or upgraded room to the customer with no extra cost
- Offer an equal or higher standard alternative accommodation location with no extra cost.
For alternative accommodation places, we recommend helping organize transport to the new accommodation. You can contact your customer directly to inform them of these arrangements via Agoda Customer Messaging.
If you have issues contacting the customer, please request the Agoda Customer Service team to notify the guest. Kindly provide the following details:
- The guest’s full name
- Agoda Booking ID
- Details of where the guest has been relocated to
- Their room type in the new location
- Any more useful details (e.g. any additional costs the guest may need to pay on arrival)
Booking rejection costs
As mentioned, any booking rejection will result in penalties applied to your hotel.
Depending on what you’re able to offer your guest, the cost that you might need to cover is equivalent to at least 1 night’s average nightly value of the booking. You can find details here at YCS>Help>Terms and Conditions.
This cost will be charged to your property later, depending on the payment method used by your property.
Reporting an overbooking
please contact us for further assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
I can’t accommodate a booking due to a system error from the Agoda side — how can I report it?
Please contact us for further assistance.. We will then investigate the issue and confirm with you any solution we can offer.
You can choose the closest correct reason available under “Booking related.”
We would still strongly recommend you honor the booking if that option is possible, to make sure the guest will have the best experience.
What should I do if I won’t be able to provide any alternatives?
Providing a suitable alternative is strongly recommended; however if no alternative is possible, you may cancel the booking and inform us that you won’t be able to provide any alternatives to Agoda Customer Service.
Please contact us for further assistance.
Learn More
