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How to book accommodation outside the school (in case of overbooking)

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Version 1.2 – February 2020
Last modifed: 7th July 2022

Author: Ishi

Audience: Bookings manager, Welcome Center staff

Type of booking: All.

Abstract: This document describes the series of steps required to book accommodation outside the school in the event accommodation inside the campus is fully booked (overbooking).

General Guidelines:

Where we want to book?

Good places to book:

  1. Sea Garden Resort Haad Chao Phao (Good but expensive, contact: 077 349 333)
  2. Benjamin’s Hut (Good and close, contact: 077 349 286)
  3. Sunset Cove Resort (Sometime rooms no so good, contact: 077 349 211)
  4. Seaflower Bungalows (Good, 077 349 090)
  5. Beyond The Blue Horizon Villa Resort (very expensive, contact: 091 618 1889)

OK places to book:


1) Paragon Resort & Spa (no previous experience)

2) Jungle Hut Bungalows & Hotel (not so nice rooms. Contact: 087 474 0377)

3) Captan Home (simple bungalows, contact: 087 625 3919)

4) Phangan Cabana Resort  (nice staff but small rooms & bad mattress, contact: 099 223 4555). These rooms are only suitable as a “free upgrade” for students booking type C accommodation.

5) Comon Bungalow (very simple, only suitable for backpackers, contact: 077 349 369)

6) Haad Chao Phao Resort (very simple, only suitable for backpackers, contact: 092 454 3437)

Places where we don’t book

  • Sunset Hill Boutique Resort Koh Phangan (just too far, requires motorbike to get there)
  • Zama Resort (very unprofessionals, left us out with a 12 rooms booking last minute)
  • Hut Sun Bungalows (owner don’t like SK)

Note: As a general guideline we only book places that are around Samma Karuna, up to 5 minutes walk.

Up to how much to pay?

As a general rule up to 30% of the booking value can go to accommodation.

Still we aim to pay between 20% and 30%  of the booking cost towards accommodation. Any amount beyond this value needs to be authorized by the operations manager.

Guidance choosing the right place

  • To keep the customer happy, when you place someone outside the school whenever possible offer this person a “Free upgrade”.
    • For example: If the person booked a 4 beds A/C.. offer the customer a shared bungalow with another student.

  • Detox customers should have priority inside the campus than the other students.
  • During high season we try to put all type Bs and type As accommodation outside the school.
  • During low and middle season we try to put all type As and Bs inside the school.

How to book on booking.com

To book on booking.com login first with this credentials:

Username: bookings@sammakaruna.org
Password: qw6324865

If the system asks you for a credit card to secure your booking use the following information:

Card Type:          Visa
Card Number: 4113601974804222
Name: Kimberley Wooten
Exp: 02|2023
CVV: 158
Address: Cuba
Country: USA

Procedure:

Step 1)

Go to booking.com and type “Haad Chao Phao, Ko Pha-ngan” and select the dates of check-in and check-out dates of the booking.

You may also try searching by “Koh phangan, sritanu” as some of the Haad Chao Phao resorts such as Benjamin’s Hut and Seaflower Bungalows are actually registered in Sri Tanu area.

Step 2)

  • Look for the best deal in booking.com but before booking give a call or pass by the property.
    • Hotels pay from 15% to 30% commission to booking.com, often by passing by the property you can get a better deal.
  • For Awakening & Healing packages and detox: Send an email to the customer informing him about the issue (this is not necessary for YTTC and TTTC), something like this will do:


“Dear customer,

                My name is XXX from Samma Karuna. On regards of your booking XXX, I would like to inform you that currently we don’t have accommodation inside our campus for your selected dates.

However, we can provide you accommodation in one of our partner resorts (just YY minutes walking distance to our campus) and as way to compensate the inconvenient we can upgrade your accommodation to ZZZZ at no cost.

Please let me know if this is good for you or you prefer me to issue a refund of your booking for you.
Im looking forward hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

                                   <Yours name>”

If the customer confirms the change book the accommodation, otherwise you may offer alternative dates for the booking. If nothing else works, issue a full refund of the booking to the customer.

Important: Customer must be contacted within a few hours of booking!


Step 3)

Book the best avilable option up on customer’s confirmation.
For YTTC and TTTC you don’t need to contact the customer, just book the best available option.

We must look for ANY AVAILABLE OPTION before contacting the customer to inform no availability:

Bookings manager should ensure that all this steps have been followed before offering a refund:

  1. We have looked for any available accommodation near by and no-option is available (even paying up to 40% of the booking)
  2. Welcome Center Manager Assistant (Noi) has taken her motorbike and ask all the resorts and bungalows around.
  3. There is no accommodation downgrading option that can be offered to the customer.
  4. We have looked for accommodation options up to 5 minutes motorbike ride, offering the customer a free upgrade and a free motorbike rental.
  5. Finally, we have contacted the customer informing that there is no accommodation available for the booked dates but offering instead a different range of dates to join us (where we know there is accommodation, either inside or outside the school).
  6. ONLY IF ALL THE ABOVE HAS BEEN DONE YOU MAY CONTACT THE OPERATIONS MANAGER TO SUGGEST A REFUND (AND BEFORE CONTACTING THE CUSTOMER)

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