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Questions

Avoiding double bookings

Two customers for one place, a room let twice, a slot taken online while you give it away over the phone. Double bookings nearly always have the same cause: two separate counts.

Where they come from

  • Two customers at the same instant. Both see “1 place left”, both confirm. If the tool checks, then records, without holding back the other request in between, both go through.
  • The phone and the website. You write a booking down in a notebook; the website knows nothing about it.
  • Two calendars. Your personal calendar says “busy”, the website says “available”.
  • Multi-night stays, when only the first night is checked.

Five rules

  1. One single count. All bookings, online, by phone or at the desk, go through the same tool.
  2. The check happens when the booking is recorded, on the server. Not in the customer's browser, and not a few seconds before.
  3. One request at a time for the same place. When two arrive together, the second waits for the first, then sees that nothing is left.
  4. Time taken elsewhere closes the sale. An appointment in your personal calendar must close that time on the website.
  5. Close a day knowing what it affects. Before you close a day, look at the bookings that fall within it.

The test that never lies

Open the same date in two tabs, or on two phones, with only one place left. Book in both, almost at the same time. Only one booking should go through; the other should get a clear refusal.

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