Hi Ged, I agree with Leandri. You should note that it is not possible for you to cancel the guests' booking at your end. You can only encourage the guest to cancel. Also, you need to have a seven day cancellation policy, so that you have a week to try to get your property re-let. I used to have free cancellation up to 24 hours before but changed to 7 days and have not noticed any reduction in bookings.
You need to be able to pre-authorize the card to verify the details so you can have a better chance of getting paid in the event of late cancellation or no-show. This is however no guarantee of payment. I had a guest who booked a 1 night stay. The card was pre-authorized for £1 to verify. The guest was a no-show, but I was unable to take payment from the card.
Booking.com do nothing to help. The guest is free to book other accommodation and the fact that they have dishonoured the cancellation policy is not even flagged up to accommodation providers.
Hi Ged, I agree with Leandri. You should note that it is not possible for you to cancel the guests' booking at your end. You can only encourage the guest to cancel. Also, you need to have a seven day cancellation policy, so that you have a week to try to get your property re-let. I used to have free cancellation up to 24 hours before but changed to 7 days and have not noticed any reduction in bookings.
You need to be able to pre-authorize the card to verify the details so you can have a better chance of getting paid in the event of late cancellation or no-show. This is however no guarantee of payment. I had a guest who booked a 1 night stay. The card was pre-authorized for £1 to verify. The guest was a no-show, but I was unable to take payment from the card.
Booking.com do nothing to help. The guest is free to book other accommodation and the fact that they have dishonoured the cancellation policy is not even flagged up to accommodation providers.