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Cancellation after 4 days stay and booked for 26 days

Good day,

I am not sure what to do? Guest wanting to change their reservation from 26 days to 5 days. They stayed here for 4 days and now they want to change their reservation. What do I charge for cancellation as I had many other enquirers and declined due to already having a long stay booking. I went out of my way for these guest, collecting them at the Airport, driving them around at no cost, buying a coffee machine as they did not like instant coffee. 


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fluff 5 years ago

What is your cancellation policy, as listed on BDC?

What is their reason for cancelling the remaining stay?

Why do you not have their full payment already?

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Sonja Nel 5 years ago

My cancellation policy said no refund if cancelled 7 days prior to booking in. They have stayed for 4 days before cancelling.

I have 2 cats on the property, but the cats are not in the house itself as we stay in a separate entrance on the property. They complained as cat hairs blew into the house. I offered a cleaning service free of charge, but they are not interested.

They are a cash on arrival booking and have not paid me yet as they where sorting there bank affairs out. I gave them time until today until they could sort their rental car out.

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Sonja Nel 5 years ago

I am looking for a contact number for Booking.com in South Africa to call but cannot find any number for property owners...only for guest

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Sonja Nel 5 years ago

We had very strong winds on the day they booked in, and somehow cat hairs blew into the house. They only complained on day 4.

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fluff 5 years ago

Ultimately the decision is yours but I would suggest that because you can be seen to be in the wrong ( despite trying to rectify the situation) that some agreement on a refund is due, the unused time after check out would seem appropriate. You could also be cheeky and do a deal, "as you didn't tell us of your allergy requirement, I'll give you a 21 day refund in exchange for a 10 review!"

Remember many people have cat hair allergies so this can be a total deal breaker for these people. At the same time I appreciate that it may also be just an excuse but that's a pitfall/fact of this trade.

I would not, as a host. keep any animals on site. As a "doggy-person" this is hard as I cannot leave one at home all day but also cannot have one at the hotel. No pooch for me! :-(

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Sonja Nel 5 years ago

Noted and thank you for the advise.

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Reservations 5 years ago

To be quite honest if the cats are not in the house whats to stop another cats hair blowing in to any property they may be in if their window is open or as they walk along the street. Its silly to expect you could stop something blowing through the window, but to be honest just tell them you need to know when they are leaving and will charge for the nights stayed as there is no point in making them pay in full or stay as you will only get a bad review, and to be honest if they were meant to be cash on arrival one does wonder why they did not have their "bank affairs" sorted before travelling ?

Did they get any discount for a long stay if so I would scrap that and charge the normal rate per night for a short stay

re contacting booking.com they have made it a little more difficult these as they want us all to use their online message system which they then say they will get back to you within so many days but they do still have phones but it takes a search to find them

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