Booking A Hotel Room As A Single Person

26 Apr.

Did you know that last year alone, 20% of All holiday makers in the United Kingdom travelled alone? The market for individual holiday makers and travellers is now a very significant part of the travel industry, although often when you look about for good deals for single travellers you would be forgiven for thinking that the reverse was true.

Indeed, it is often the case that people going on holiday alone are penalised for their decision or circumstances, and end up having to pay supplements that leave their bill very little short of what it would have been had they gone on holiday with someone else. It is true, of course, that if 20% of holiday makers are travelling on their own, this means that the vast majority, 80%, are those travelling either as a couple or as a family or other group. Clearly hotels and other holiday accommodation need to cater for the majority of their customers, and so most hotel rooms are equipped with double beds.

A single individual booking a hotel room which has a double bed is effectively taking up two potential spaces that the hotel could have filled, and this could be considered as losing the hotel money. At busy times of the year it is highly probable that by letting a room out to someone staying on their own, they are losing a paying customer, since it is likely that they could just as easily have let the room out to a couple who would each have paid for the room. It isn’t just the room costs of course. The hotel will take into consideration that a couple are far more likely to buy drinks at the bar, eat in the restaurant and generally spend much more money than the individual. This represents a considerable loss, and so by charging a supplement for the individual traveller, they recoup at least part of this loss and make the blow a little less painful.

Despite this seeming to be a terribly unfair way of doing business, at the end of the day, it is exactly that - a business. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that hotels are purely there for our holidaying pleasure. They’re there to make money, end of story.

Of course, it is less painful for the hotel if a single traveller is using a double room, but not occupying this at the loss of a couple, since many rooms are vacant, and other customers won’t have to be turned away. In this way, choosing to stay at a time of year that is less popular for couples, such as holiday seasons, or special events, will decrease the chance, or at least the cost, of any such individual supplement.

If a hotel insists on charging you this extra fee, then look into the idea of getting something in return - possible a free upgrade, or breakfast thrown in? If they refuse to meet you part way on this, then it may be worth looking around and finding a hotel which is more amenable. It may well be that the hotel decides at that point that one paying guest is at least something, and offers you something in return.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant about luggage, cruises, hotels, and shopping. You will find the best marketplace for luggage, cruises, hotels, and shopping at these sites: http://www.bags-luggage.info , http://www.hotels-cruises.info , and http://www.krishnadesign.com

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