Potential reasons overbookings can occur and how to handle and prevent them.
Overbookings occur when the total number of rooms booked is greater than the number of rooms you have available. If you have received a booking when your property is full, learn how to manage overbookings, and how to prevent them in future.
Potential reasons for overbookings
Overbookings can happen for many different reasons, such as because:
Mapping issues: Room rates not mapped, or mapped to the wrong rate
Incorrect multi-mapping
Availability was incorrect
Disabled status: Channel rates or entire channels are disabled. Important: When a channel or channel rate is disabled, no inventory updates are sent to that channel, creating a high risk of overbookings
Availability errors: Incorrect availability manually entered or displayed on channels.
Synchronisation delays: Two bookings were made via different channels within a 5-minute window. Availability can take up to 5 minutes to update across your channels. To prevent double bookings, you can set up an automatic closure yield rule to automatically apply a stop sell when your room availability reaches 1
⚠️ What happens when a channel or channel rate becomes disabled?
When a channel or channel rate becomes disabled:
No inventory updates are sent to the channel
The channel continues to sell rooms based on the last known availability data
This creates a significant risk for overbookings
If a channel rate or channel has become disabled due to an error, resolve the error, then re-enable the channel or channel rate.
To enable a channel, go to Distribution > Channels > My channels, and update your channel settings.
To enable a channel rate, go to Distribution > Channels > My channels, and update your channel settings, ensuring that Start updating channel is set to Yes.
What to do if you get an overbooking
If you receive an overbooking:
Contact the channel directly. We are unable to contact the channel on your behalf.
Check your availability on all your channels.
Check mapping: Fix any channel rates or channels that are disabled. Ensure you have not mapped a single platform room to two different channel room types, and ensure all rate types are mapped (common requirement for Expedia).
Resolve error messages: Look for error messages indicating disabled rates or channels.
If your property is connected to a PMS that manages your inventory
If your PMS manages your inventory and availability, follow these additional troubleshooting steps:
Contact your PMS provider: Verify correct availability was sent from the PMS for the affected room type and stay date.
Check mapping: Check rates are mapped to your PMS: Go to Distribution > Connectivities > Rooms and Rates Mapping and review all PMS mapping codes.
Check mapping codes: Confirm that all room codes, rate codes, and inventory codes match between SiteMinder and your PMS.
Check for failed deliveries: Go to Reservations and filter by Booked Date. Check if any failed or pending reservations are preventing correct availability updates from reaching your PMS
How to prevent overbookings
To help reduce the risk of overbookings:
Audit your mapping: Ensure one platform room type/room rate is mapped to the matching room type/room rate on the channel
Regularly check availability: Ensure the availability on your inventory matches your actual physical rooms
Monitor Dashboard: Check the property, channel, and connectivity statuses on your Dashboard regularly to fix any disabled channels immediately.
Use Yield Rules (Auto-Close): You can set up an automatic closure yield rule to apply a "Stop Sell" when your room availability reaches 1
Manage the last room: If you only have one room left and expect a booking, manually place a stop sell on low-performing channels and only keep it open on your highest-performing channel