What hoteliers and accommodation providers do to help with single rooms

Many accommodation providers including Warner Hotels and Marsham Court Hotel in Bournemouth offer an allocation of single rooms without supplements with various conditions, such as the time of year and availability.

Warner Hotels allocates five single rooms per group or coach booking, without supplement for January-March and October-December arrivals and three single rooms without supplements for April-September arrivals. Then additional single rooms can be bought as and where needed.

Marsham Court in Bournemouth offers four single rooms without a supplement per group booking and if additional single rooms are needed, they are double rooms for sole use with a seasonal supplement charge. 

“The role of any hotelier is to discuss the issue with the group organiser and reach an amicable solution.”

Antony Brunt, Yarn Market Hotel

This year, Alfa Travel has introduced no single supplements across its Leisureplex sites.

Jess Baybutt told us they also analyse availability on a rolling daily basis and convert leftover double/twin rooms to single or sole occupancy where possible because of the demand for solo rooms. She added: “We are more flexible with how many single rooms groups can have and sometimes we often knock off any charges for sole use rooms if the singles have sold.”

Antony Brunt who owns the Yarn Market Hotel in Dunster, explained a hotelier’s perspective: “Single supplements are a difficult point. Obviously a hotel needs a certain income to enable a group booking to be viable but in the same token does not wish to unfairly penalise single people. I like to look at the problem in a different perspective. Where guests are prepared to share, they should be given a discount.”

He added: “The role of any hotelier is to discuss the issue with the group organiser and reach an amicable solution – perhaps if the issue is purely financial it might be feasible to increase everyone’s price slightly and waive the single supplement charge?”