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Is it possible to guarantee a specific hotel room or suite? Several TravelSort Clients have asked this over the years, so we thought we'd tackle this question. It's natural for a client to fall in love with a room or suite they previously stayed in, or to have seen or received a recommendation for a particular room or suite. And since a specific airline seat or seat for an entertainment or sporting event can be booked, why not a specific hotel room?
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Why Most Hotels Don't Guarantee a Specific Room or Suite
Most hotels don't guarantee a specific room or suite, because of the logistical issues it creates. The room or suite might have a maintenance issue, such as plumbing, a non-working air-conditioner or heater, or other problem that must be handles and prevents the room or suite from being available to the guest.
Even apart from a maintenance issue, there's the fact that often, certain hotel rooms and suites connect to others, so if a specific room or suite is pre-allocated, that may mean losing out on revenue if another guest wishes to book connecting options that now are no longer available due to having pre-allocated one of the rooms or suites.
There's also the issue of guests who wish to extend their stays; if a guest in a room or suite wants to extend, but that room or suite has already been pre-allocated to an arriving guest, that would force a room or suite move, potentially multiple times depending on pre-allocation. It's better from the hotel's standpoint if nothing has been pre-allocated, so that a guest can extend his/her stay in the same room, and an arriving guest can be placed in a different room or suite.
In short, there's mostly downside from a hotel's perspective, and the only upside is for those few guests who really want to guarantee a specific room or suite, which can easily make these more complex and frustrating for the hotel and for other guests, resulting in more negative reviews.
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How to Guarantee a Specific Room or Suite
All that said, there are some ways to guarantee a specific suite (less commonly a room).
1. Book a Unique Suite
While most commonly this might be the Presidential Suite, some hotels have several other types of specialty suites which are literally one-of-a-kind: there's only one of them. For example, at the Four Seasons Madrid, there's only one Royal Suite, one Penthouse Suite with Terraces, one Canalejas Two-Bedroom Suite, and one Presidential Two-Bedroom Suite. At Four Seasons George V Paris, there's only one Premier Suite, one Eiffel Parisian Suite, one Eiffel Tower Suite, and one Penthouse. At Four Seasons Lanai, there's only one Palawai Suite and one Alii Royal Suite.
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2. Book a Hotel That Does Assign a Specific Suite
This is rare, but a few luxury hotels, usually boutique, do assign a specific suite at time of booking. For example, the Park Hotel Vitznau by Lake Lucerne has rooms and suites that are so individually designed and named that guests do book a specific junior suite, suite, or residence. If your preferred one isn't available for your dates, it's because another guest has already booked it.
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3. Be a Loyal Returning Guest and Work with a Preferred Partner Travel Advisor
In several cases, where a client has stayed repeatedly at a given luxury property, we've been able to guarantee their return to a specific room or suite (with the caveat that it won't be able to be honored if a maintenance issue means the room or suite is unavailable). Hotels don't tend to do this if it's a guest's first time at a hotel, but a returning guest whom the hotel wants to keep happy and returning can be a different matter, especially when we make the request, given our preferred partner status with Four Seasons, Rosewood, Belmond, Peninsula Hotels, Rocco Forte, Mandarin Oriental, etc. (see TravelSort's Preferred Partner Luxury Hotel Programs).
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