What do travel agents do with hotel rooms that aren't booked?

Question

What do travel agents do with hotel rooms that aren't booked?

Let's say travel agent Bob has a room at a Hilton hotel for the week of march 15th that costs $500/night. It's 3/14 and the room (and several others) for the whole week are still available. So it's obvious (I think) that nobody will book it.

What can he do with it? Can he lower the price?

Assuming that the room won't be booked, what are his/her options?

Can I ask for a lower price? Does he have control over the price?

I would think it's best to lower the price and let me book it at $200 instead of letting the days pass by with an empty room because nobody wanted to pay $500.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I used to work in a hotel on reception when I was a student in the summer holidays and can tell you that (at least in Europe anyway) that J is correct.  The travel agent is the intermediary party and if they don't book the room then they don't get the commission, but they are not normally in the position to negotiate on the spot reductions

To get a cheaper price then usually this is only given to a "walk-in" someone who just comes into the hotel later in the evening without any pre-booking.  Even then the hotel will of course try to get the highest price.  They will not drop the price to a ridiculously low price as they have costs to cover if the room is used, and secondly the risk of getting a reputation for dropping the price for walk-ins (so then people stop booking the "normal" price in advance.  

However there can be some reductions if you "bargin" with the hotel manager/head of reservations/senior receptionist, but I warn you, they are used to the tricks of the trade, so be persistant and charming (not pushy)!

Answer 2

Travel agents don't own or have blocks of rooms usually they just get a commission for booking them for the hotel.  If the hotel has a room available and it is really late in the day when you go in and ask for it you may be able to talk them into a discount but that would have to go through the hotel owner or manager.

Answer 3

travel agents don't buy rooms first of all. there middle men, they get a commision for getting customers for hotels. If they can't find a customer, it is the hotel's problem, and they simply do not get paid a commision (percentage of the sale)

Answer 4

Normally travel agents book rooms on the yearly basis. For example a travel agent will book n number of rooms for a particular year and he is free to sell it any time during that particular year based on the availability of the rooms. Likewise any hotel will have a decent number of agents both local and abroad to sell the rooms. So the hotel is only the boss in this matters.