Australia’s world-first flexible rate website, Ubid4rooms.com, has become the first accommodation site in the country to activate a new service – Guests Behaving Badly – that automatically alerts hotels to troublesome customers at the time of booking.
Guests Behaving Badly (GBB) - www.guestsbehavingbadly.com.au - provides hospitality members access to an online database used by hotels to identify guests with a recorded history of anti-social, intimidatory and destructive behaviour. GBB members can also lodge verified complaints against hotel customers on the database.
The founder of www.ubid4rooms.com, Gary Berman, said the GBB database would automatically alert hoteliers if customers booking via Ubid4rooms were on the database.
“We’ve introduced access to the GBB system via Ubid4rooms to help hotels avoid troublesome customers and ensure consumers enjoy a trouble-free stay,” Mr Berman said. “Prevention is better than a cure and what GBB does is provide peace of mind and security for everyone staying in a hotel and those who manage and own the property.”
Mr Berman said hospitality providers were keen to minimise the hefty cost and effects of inappropriate behaviour such as theft, vandalism, large parties, loud noise , offensive behaviour and misuse of facilities.
“The vast majority of hotel customers are dream guests but there are individuals who have little or no respect for the property or rights of others and GBB helps hotels pro-actively manage this risk. We felt GBB was an important service to offer Ubid4rooms customers and the properties who bargain with our customers to fill beds.”
Ubid4rooms.com allows travellers to make their own offers for rooms up to 28 days in advance at rates better than those advertised. Unlike e-bay auctions, bidders don’t compete against other bidders and confirmation is provided within three hours, often minutes. The process results in a confidential, one-off deal struck directly between the hotel and the customer.
More than 700 properties across Australia are now ‘haggling’ with consumers on the site, including premium properties such as Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast.
“Consumers have become much more savvy and aggressive in their hunt for good deals so hotels need to be more flexible on rates and realise that profits can still be achieved through controlled discounting,” Mr Berman said. “Nothing changes if nothing changes so our bidding system is an ideal way for accommodation providers to try something different to boost business. And GBB is a great new way for hotels and travellers to safeguard their security.”
* For more information on Guests Behaving Badly, visit www.guestsbehavingbadly.com.au.