| Abstract: | This paper deals with the problems of hotel overbooking and the scientific determination of hotel booking policies. The general hotel reservations system is described, and a Markovian sequential decision model is proposed for it. An application of the model is presented, based on an actual sample of hotel data. Because of the significance of the cancellation phenomena in the sample, the model prescribes a substantial amount of overbooking. The paper concludes with comments regarding the necessity for and course of future research in this area. |
