Three Arrivals Short at 23:40

Criteria to rank on: strength of the guarantee the hotel gave, vulnerability of the guest, cost and disruption of the walk, and lifetime value.

Walk first - the two late wedding-group rooms. The group itself created the shortage by extending two nights, and it has an on-site coordinator who can manage the move to a partner hotel as a block. A group relocation is one conversation, not two separate guest recoveries, and the group contract normally allows the hotel to relocate with notice.

Walk second - the walk-in couple at ₹7,200. They hold a confirmed voucher, so this is a breach, but they are the least disruptive single-room move: two adults, no children, no prepaid OTA funds at stake, no loyalty history to protect. Walk them only after the group, and only if a third room is genuinely needed.

Do not walk:

• The top-tier loyalty member: a 06:00 flight plus top status makes a night-time move a guaranteed corporate complaint; lifetime value here is measured in account revenue, not one room-night.
• The prepaid OTA family: the hotel already holds their money, a breach triggers an OTA penalty and a refund claim, and moving a family of four at midnight is a service failure with children involved.
• The 40-night repeat guest: at ₹8,100 ADR that is roughly ₹324,000 of annual room revenue; a walk risks the whole account.

Record the reasoning on the shift handover before 02:00 - the decision must be defensible to the GM on Monday, not just correct at the desk.

Package offered to each walked guest:

• Comparable or better room at a partner hotel, paid by the hotel, including taxes.
• Complimentary return transport, both legs, by hotel car - not a taxi reimbursement.
• One free local/international phone call to inform their party, and breakfast at the partner hotel.
• The reservation honoured at the original rate for any future stay within six months, with priority upgrade.
• For the group rooms: written confirmation from the group coordinator that the move is accepted.

Documentation, all before 02:00:

1. Walk voucher/letter on letterhead, signed by the guest, stating the hotel pays the partner property directly and the guest's bill is nil.
2. PMS entry with a walk code so the room is not re-sold and the folio does not charge.
3. Incident log: time of decision, names, rate, reason, partner hotel, transport used, staff member.
4. Notification emails to the reservations manager, revenue manager and GM, and to the OTA for the affected booking if any.
5. Shift handover note with the four out-of-order room numbers and the expected return-to-service time.

The point of the paperwork is that a walk without a voucher is later argued as a cancellation, and the hotel ends up paying twice.

Failures, in sequence:

• The extension was treated as a favour, not a booking. A group extension consumes sellable inventory and must be priced and checked like any new reservation.
• Out-of-order rooms were not deducted immediately. Four rooms lost at 18:00 should have reduced sellable inventory to 92 the moment the leak was reported; the oversell arithmetic was never re-run.
• The crew block was reconfirmed without a room hold check. Reconfirming a block is meaningless if the rooms are not blocked in the system.
• No overbooking ceiling with a walk plan. A three-room oversell is survivable only if a partner hotel is pre-agreed and the walk policy is written; here it was improvised at 23:40.

The rule: sellable inventory = total rooms − out-of-order rooms − house use, recalculated at every shift. An extension is a new reservation subject to that figure at the rate of the day. If sellable inventory is zero, the answer is no, plus a written offer of a partner hotel at the hotel's cost - decided in daylight by the revenue manager, not at the desk after midnight.