Jill Reynolds, the front-office manager at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla, had known for some time that the 400-room hotel would be overbooked for this one night in October. She prepared to talk with the front-desk associates as they came on duty at 7:30 in the morning, knowing it would be a challenge to sell out without "walking" guests. Seldom does a hotel sell out before having to walk a few guests. The hotel's policy and procedure on walking guests enables the front-desk associates to call nearby hotels of a similar category to find out if they have rooms available to sell. If it is necessary to walk a guest, the associate explains to the guest that, regrettably, no rooms are available because of fewer departures than expected. The associate must explain that suitable accommodations have been reserved at a nearby hotel and that the hotel will pay for the room and transportation to and from the hotel.Usually, guests are understanding, especially when they realize that they are receiving a free room and free transportation.

On this particular day, the house count indicates that the hotel is overbooked by 30 rooms. Three or four nearby, comparable hotels had rooms available to sell in the morning. Besides walking guests, Jill considers other optionsin particular "splitting" the 15 suites with connecting parlors. If the guests in the suites do not need the parlor, it is then possible to gain a few more "rooms" to sell separately; however, rollaway beds must be placed in the rooms. Fortunately, eight parlors were available to sell.

1. If you were in the same situation, what would you do?