why I've started booking hotels in Sabre

For years, I used Sabre to research hotel rates, then phoned the hotel's reservations center to make the reservation. I've recently started booking many hotel stays directly on Sabre. Here's why.

(1) I'm never put on hold. While I sometimes get through to a call center on the first ring, often reservationists are busy and I can be on hold for 5, 10, or 15 minutes, listening to muzak. And if I get disconnected, I have to start the process all over again.

(2) Direct bookings save a lot of time. Reservationists are required to follow a script, sometimes even to read boilerplate about of the property (until you literally give them permission not to read the boilerplate to you!). It can take ten minutes on the phone just to provide the same limited set of information (IATA number, guests names, dates, room and rate desired, credit card guarantee, and my email address).

(3) Accuracy. When making a reservation by phone, I always have to check the confirmation for accuracy (assuming they spelled my email address correctly and I got the confirmation): Is the client's name spelled correctly? Are the dates correct? Is the room category and bedding request accurate? Did they sell the Virtuoso rate? This is very important because if anything other than the Virtuoso rate is booked, my clients won't get their Virtuoso amenities (free daily breakfast, room upgrades, and other perks that differ by property).

When booking hotels in Sabre, I'll automatically get the rate I want. See the screenshot above of the Sabre blue window. If I sell rate # 2, I've booked the Virtuoso rate at the Mandarin Oriental New York for the Deluxe Hudson River View room with King bed (already upgraded from the Standard room which is the same rate).

(4) Clients receive a Virtually There link to their reservation, and they can access it at any time by going to Virtually There and typing in their Sabre locator code (a six letter code) and last name.

(5) I can cancel the reservation or revise details through Sabre, again avoiding the need to phone a reservations center.

(6) I can do all of the above 24 hours a day, even on my iPad, from anyplace in the world with decent WiFi access.

(7) Clients have a 24 hour help line to Sabre if they need to make last minute revisions or cancellations and can't reach me: (800) 593-8738 or (203) 787-6266. My clients will need to provide Brownell's agency ID, G8Y0.

Why did I wait so long? Basically, because of some technological glitches that prevented me from importing a PNR into Sabre from my agency's database, but now that those glitches have been solved, I've made the change.


booking hotels in Sabre (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2012 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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