Selling the Same Physical Room in Multiple Channel Room Types

There is a difference between a room type and a room rate. A room type represents a physical room. A rate represents a certain type of price for that room. For example, a “double room” (the room type) could be sold for $50 (rate A), but it could also be sold for $75 (rate B).

Please make sure that the different offerings of the same physical room are set up as “rates” in the booking channel, not as different room types. Otherwise the channel will believe that you have more rooms than you actually have – which can result in overbookings.

For example:

Let’s say you have 9 rooms on Booking.com, all sold in different room types (single, double & family). Booking.com will show your availability like this:

9 single rooms
9 double rooms
9 family rooms

So Booking.com will offer 27 rooms in total, when in fact you have only 9 rooms in total. This setup will cause problems when the guest books multiple room types at the same time.

Let’s say you have one room left, and this room is presented on Booking.com as:

1 single room
1 double room
1 family room

If the guest now decides to book both a single room and a double room, you will have an overbooking – since there is actually only one physical room remaining. The solution, as mentioned above, is to use room rates.

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