What a hotel can charge
A no-show charge is only as good as what was collected or guaranteed. A prepaid or non-refundable booking has the money already. A guaranteed booking with a deposit lets the hotel keep the deposit under its policy. A pay-at-hotel booking with nothing taken leaves nothing to charge — which is why many hotels ask for an advance on busy dates.
Bookings made on an online travel agency follow that agency's rules for no-shows. Whatever the channel, the policy must be stated before the guest books.
No-shows are also why some hotels overbook on purpose: if one booking in twenty never turns up on a busy night, a full house needs one more booking than rooms.
Example
A booking for two nights at ₹3,000 with a ₹3,000 advance: under a first-night policy, if the guest never arrives the hotel keeps the ₹3,000 and releases the second night for sale. The same booking made as pay-at-hotel with no advance leaves the room empty and nothing to keep.
How Nivasik handles it
- Night audit lists the day's arrivals who have not checked in: tick the ones who are not coming and they are marked no-show and their room is released. The automatic close can do the same, if the property switches that on.
- Nivasik's own booking page takes a booking as pay-at-the-property and takes no money, so it sells the flexible, freely cancellable rate and never a non-refundable one; non-refundable rates are sold at the desk, where a deposit can be taken.