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Refund or no refund - that's the question
We have a 2 bed apartment in London for rent. We've just received our first 2 week booking with booking.com (Hoorah!!). Am a touch confused - we've got booking.com to handle the payments and we get paid 10 days after they have left - which is a bit annoying...CASH FLOW-WISE.
But the big issue I have is about refund or no refund. If they cancel in the middle of Summer with 14 days to go or even 2 days to go...the likelihood of us finding a replacement booking is...well...tiny!
What are other apartment owners doing? Care to share?
Sam & Nidhi
Hi Sam and welcome to the Partner Community.
I also have a policy of 14 days…some have 30 days…some have a more flexible policy…it depends what suits you…
You can also have non refundable rates…
Try different options and you will find which one is right for you…
Wish you a great season!!!
Thanks. I get the alternatives. I just wanted to get some feedback what really works -especially for a 2 bed apartment in London or any major city (vs. a hotel room) - how likely is a non-refundable option going to drive people away (especially during these times...vs. how much business is lost with a 14 day cancellation policy and whether or not after these cancellations there were lost days/weeks as a result - again...especially during these times... in London, once can ill-afford to have cancellations as the high season is a trickle due to quarantining.
Dear Sam,
Hope some other partner from London or other big city will share their experiences…
Even at these hard days many of my guests prefer my non refundable rates since I give them a 10% discount…
Wish you well.
Hi M Adamopoulou Can you walk me through exactly how to give a 10% discount in non refundable? So far I have clicked into the risk free option backed by Booking.com.
But I wanted for July/August to have a non-refundable option as this is traditionally peak season in London...offering a discount for non refundable rates certainly sounds like a good idea - does it interfere with the risk free option? Or can one customise for certain dates?
Thanking you.
Sam & Nidhi
Sam,
Have a look at this link…hope it helps you…
https://partner.booking.com/en-gb/help/rates-availability/rates-special-offers/setting-non-refundable-rate
i have a 45 rooms hotel in Cameroon which i manage from france
I decided to set a Non Refund tarif and a 7 days free cancellation rate which is 20% Higher than Non Refund. More than 90% of booking are Non refund. The advantage is that i make a preauthorization on the Credit card to be sure to be paid anyway. If the car is invalid i just cancell after the 24 hours delay to receive a vaild credit card number
It works perfect.
This avoid the last days cancellations or no show
Philippe
Hi Philippe,
Thank you so much for your sharing with us your policies… It’s very useful to know what works best…
I have a 14 days cancellation which is 10% higher than the non refundable rates…
Maybe it’s a good idea to raise my percentage for the non refundable….
BDC facilitates my payments so I have no worries…only extra cost…
Thanks again for posting and remember to edit your profile…add property link…
Have a nice weekend.