Making a reservation - the best way

Now this post is advice from a booking perspective for people who do not understand the inner workings of hotels or bed and breakfasts.

Never ring to make a hotel or BB reservation before 11am or after 5pm - why you ask? 7am to 11am is check out time and breakfast - this is the busiest time for our type of business, so do you really think you will have the full attention of the person on the phone? if you want a specific room, upgrade, have a special diet etc do you really think this is the best time to discuss this at length?
Some hotel chains for example the Holiday Inn do have central booking which is staffed all the time but in many hotels their reservations department goes home at 5pm, this means after this time reception picks up reservations from the 3rd party booking sites ie Laterooms or Booking.com about once an hour if you are lucky to put them into the computer - if it is very busy ie a wedding on etc then it may only be once in an evening. This being so you have just doubled the chance of your date being the one that is overbooked and you may not even get the hotel you want never mind the room you want.

Also if the on site reservations team have gone home and it has transferred over to the Central team they will have little or no knowledge of the hotel ie is there a function on that you don't want to be located directly over? or is the room directly opposite the lift with noise going on all night and early morning disturbing you? - they will not have the answer.

In a Bed and Breakfast it is usually the owner answering the phone and in many cases they are only a 2 man team - therefore do not ring before 10.30am and do not ring after 9pm. The busiest time of day is breakfast and check out - the owner will be cooking and or serving this - therefore you will either get the machine or asked to ring back later - this is not the time for complicated questions. I implore people don't ring BB owners after 9pm - this is when they are getting ready for bed as we work long hours 7 days a week - waking someone up will guarantee that you don't get a reservation. (or the room with the view of the bins!)

Also don't make online reservations for BB's after 8pm they will have to be processed and put into the booking system - in a small place that probably won't be till the morning after - so if 2 lots of people are trying to book at virtually the same time it is a recipe for disaster! so please keep your reservations to office hours if possible - I know its tempting while the kids are asleep and you are watching late night tv and have 10 minutes of quiet time - but please think twice it is in your interest.