Reservations are strong: hotels want to hold overbooking accountable
A bill has been submitted to the State Duma that obliges hotels, apartments and guest houses in the case of overbooking to provide travelers with similar or higher-level accommodation without additional payment and while maintaining the quality of the service. It will be considered after the New Year, the State Duma told Izvestia. We are talking about an attempt to legislate the model of behavior of hoteliers, which has been working for a long time in some market segments, while in others it still remains the subject of disputes, conflicts and lawsuits. Some market participants see the initiative as a logical step towards civilized regulation of the industry, while others warn of the risks for small accommodation facilities. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
When there are no places, but there is a tourist
Against the background of rapidly growing domestic tourism and the constant influx of travelers in popular regions of Russia, the problem of overbooking — the resale of rooms beyond the actual capacity — has once again become the focus of attention of lawmakers. A group of deputies has submitted to the State Duma bill No. 1087937-8, which proposes to oblige accommodation facilities to provide guests with alternative housing of equal or higher standard at no additional cost.
Tatiana Lobach, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Tourism and Tourism Infrastructure Development, noted that the proposed amendments actually take the market out of the "gray zone" in which responsibility for overbooking is blurred, and the guest is often offered only a refund instead of a real solution to the problem.
— The introduction of an obligation to provide equivalent or better accommodation for free will force some hotels and apartment hotels to review the sales system, reducing risky practices of double booking and reinsurance by analogy with the aviation market. However, the market will not completely abandon overbooking: small accommodation facilities may face rising costs, and large chains may face the need for stricter control of sales channels," the parliamentarian said.
She added that the bill does not yet offer a clear operational scheme.: who records the fact of overbooking, how the "equivalence" of the placement is assessed, and how the guest proves the violation. Lobach stressed that "this issue can be worked out between the first and second readings in a dialogue with business and the expert community."
Tourist protection as a matter of reputation
The problem of overbooking has been in business for many years as an informal compromise between hotel risks and customer expectations. Most often, in conflict situations, the responsibility falls on intermediaries and it is difficult for the injured tourist to achieve justice.
— In my opinion, the problem concerns a very small number of tourists, perhaps several tens of thousands with one hundred million trips per year, — says Sergey Romashkin, ATOR Vice President. — Overbooking happens due to force majeure - technical failures, human factors, number breakdowns. No one intentionally sells more than they have. The bill, which imposes the obligation to resolve such situations directly on hotels, will increase the protection of guests and equalize the responsibility of all parties.
Usually, bona fide hotels resolve issues quickly, but isolated cases of unfair behavior cast a shadow over the entire industry.
The expert of the direction "Popular Front. Analyst Denis Polunchukov notes that overbooking in Russian hotels is rare — much less common than when selling airline tickets.
"Most hotels use automated systems where reservations are recorded instantly," he explains. — Problems arise in those facilities where they save on digitalization or work manually. But even isolated cases during the peak season show that tourists must have guarantees. The new law will give you this confidence.
Overbooking vs. reservation cancellation
The parliamentarians remind us that the problem of overbooking is inextricably linked to another phenomenon — late cancellations of bookings by tourists themselves, which is why hotels are forced to insure themselves by selling more rooms than they have available.
— On the one hand, we are talking about the responsibility of the hotel to accommodate a tourist under any circumstances, on the other — about the responsibility of travelers, who often refuse to book at the last moment, — said Sangaji Tarbaev, Chairman of the Duma Committee on Tourism. — In 2024, overbooking accounted for less than 0.5% of all settlements, but the number of such cases increased by 37%.
According to the deputy, most of the conflicts are recorded in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Sochi. Of all bookings, tourists cancel up to 24% on their own, which annually deprives one hotel of more than 1 million rubles and costs the country's economy billions in lost taxes.
Tarbaev emphasizes that world practice has long developed strict standards: in case of resale, there should be either a refund and compensation, or relocation to another hotel without deterioration of conditions.
When duty becomes the standard
Travel platforms also support the initiative. They face the consequences of overbooking on a daily basis and hope that fixing the rules at the legal level will increase market transparency.
— Only on Bronevik.com about 1.5 thousand incidents per month are recorded," says Kirill Trenin, CEO of the platform. — Conscientious hotels try to help the guest, but often the tourist is left alone with the problem. We have long advocated that the procedure for overbooking should be clearly spelled out in industry legislation. This will not cause an increase in tariffs, on the contrary, it will strengthen confidence and make the market predictable.
The hoteliers themselves also recognize the significance of the document, but they are waiting for specifics.
Sergey Karasev, head of the sales and Development Department of the hotel business at the Hotel Company, notes that the clause on settlement rules for overbooking has long been featured in the contracts of large chains.
— In fact, everything is already working, — he summarizes. — We just need to consolidate the practice at the level of the law and identify the responsibilities of the parties.
World practice and Russian realities
In developed countries, the principles of dealing with such situations have long become the industry standard. Andrey Mikhailets, Managing partner of the Independent Hotel Alliance Management Company, an expert on marketing and sales in hotels, recalls this.
"The principle of providing a guest with an equivalent room or hotel without additional charges and transfer compensation is fully consistent with global practice," he notes. — This is a common procedure in large cities, but it is more difficult in the regions.: Overbooking is more often the result of organizational mistakes there. The main thing is that the law does not complicate business life and establishes simple, understandable mechanisms. Then it will strengthen trust and reduce the number of unscrupulous players.
The expert believes that the document will help eliminate gray areas between hotels and aggregators: if the reservation turned out to be "virtual", the tourist should still be accommodated, and only then the parties will find out the financial details.
"You can't bring back a lost night,— Mikhailets emphasizes. — Therefore, the control should be clear, and the sanctions should be clear.
However, experts of the Ostrovok online hotel and apartment booking service note that overbooking is not a completely new situation for the market and in a professional environment it has long been regulated by contractual relations between participants in the chain: hotels, tour operators, online platforms.
These documents specify in detail exactly how the parties act when settlement is impossible.: as a rule, the guest is provided with equivalent or higher-level accommodation. That's exactly what most honest gamblers do.
The law as a litmus of market efficiency
The placement market agrees: responsibility should be distributed fairly, but the new rules should not lead to additional bureaucracy and increased costs.
— The bill is more likely to simplify the lives of tourists than hotels, — said Eduard Demidov, Chairman of the Board of the NGO SME "New Formation". — It will help to consolidate the procedures of pre-trial appeals, but it will not change the real balance of interests. Professional hotels are flexible enough as it is: they don't leave customers on the street. But the mechanism of control and complaints really needs to be improved so that the document does not turn out to be "paper".
Demidov is confident that the law will not lead to price increases, because tariffs depend on demand dynamics, not on administrative requirements. But it will make market participants pay more attention to risks and documents.
Between reform and business overload
However, there are also cautious assessments: in the new norm, there may be an extra burden on hotels, especially small ones.
"There is a misconception that hotels are massively reselling rooms," says Vadim Prasov, CEO of Alliance Hotel Management, Vice President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia. — In fact, overbooking is more often the result of circumstances: bad weather, breakdowns, sudden fund cuts. Sometimes these are the consequences of the actions of intermediaries who sell more than they have in the quota.
According to the expert, for large businesses, such risks are offset by scale, but for small hotels, additional responsibilities can be a serious challenge.
"The new requirements," adds Prasov, "look fair, but they must be implemented taking into account the current workload, taxes and the overall sustainability of the industry.
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