With midnight bookings (leaving it until midnight to give us the go-ahead to book) becoming more common, it’s time to consider if you’re doing yourself an injustice.
What Is The Issue With Midnight Bookings?
When sourcing rooms around midnight only hotels with 24 hour receptions will answer the phone. These hotels have a cut off at 12AM before the earliest booking becomes for the following day at approx 3pm. Even their online portals automatically switch to the next day, leaving it impossible to book. The reception staff are also likely to claim the hotel is fully booked, even if that isn’t necessarily true, as a standardised response to bookings after their cut off. We have encountered this on many occasions previously and hate not being able to help our clients on these occasions.
Asides from the issue of being unable to book anything after this cut off, it also greatly decreases your options and you may end up paying over budget for basic accommodation. Booking a couple of hours earlier would increase your chance of actually getting a room, but booking before 5:30pm greatly improves your choice.
Avoiding It In The Future
The main way to avoid this is by setting a reminder on your phone to confirm the option and ask our Travel Advisors to book before 5:30 for the best chance and before 10pm to not risk not getting a room at all. You could also get your booking sorted further in advance on flexible / refundable rates if things aren’t set in stone.
Not An Urgent Booking?
If you want to put in a booking request out of hours (9am – 5:30pm) that isn’t urgent, you can always use our custom booking platform – RORI! You can login to RORI on our website and create a ‘Booking Request’ there. Our Travel Advisors will begin working on it in the morning. Or send an email to info@rapidtravelgroup.com if you would rather. We’d appreciate all calls on our out-of-hours line to be genuinely urgent.