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Danny Aaron

New to Booking .com

I am brand new to booking.com.  I have till now only been using Airbnb.  I decided to try and see if there was any advantages to having both.  I was int e middle of setting all my pricing, when someone booked and my pricing was not set up yet.

Maybe I am just new to this site but O find it very complicated compared to Airbnb. 

How do I cancel this booking or adjust the pricing?  At least with Airbnb you have the option of reviewing your guests first.  

If this is un remediable, I may have to just turn off booking.com and continue to stick with Airbnb.  

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BrookAve 3 years ago

 

Hi Danny,

 

Yes its very comprehensive and daunting at first.

 

First thing to do is close all room availability so no more bookings until you are ready to open it up.

 

So from calendar list view  you can use bulk edit to under that Rates & Availability menu, the Open Close menu to do it there also.

 

You could simply message the guest to say you are only just getting setup and not available on those dates and that you will be cancelling the booking.com

 

Simply do it straight away and then click on cancel in the booking and choose the second reason.

 

Then you just wait for them to get the email for that and they click on a confirm option.

 

Its a common issue as many don't realise they are semi live that quickly upon setup.

 

Kind Regards

 

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Aaltje B. 3 years ago

But do try to keep both. 

I have done so for the last years.

I noticed different flow from both platforms hence handy to have both.

Lastly, if you have your settings for Air  bnb  to non direct then you dont need channel manager.

Since B. ' s system works with direct bookings only . 

Also you have to tweek the pricing of both platforms since the commission is paid by you with B instead of A' s guests pay theirs. In that regards using a channel manager is not a simple one price fits all. 

So done manually it works perfectly fine. 

I cant say I had less bookings for A since stopping channel manager. 

Within NZ I do have the option of people paying at arrival. 

Yes a risk for cancellation is there, but you could choose non refundable option to make it less attractive for guest to cancel. 

There is a lot to take in. This BDC platform is complex and in constant upgrade therefor it is essential to put some time in it . 

But it is worthwhile. I get people from all over the world and can even choose what countries I prefer to give a discount. 

Also realise, most promotions you apply do stack up . 

Offering genius (discount) is helpful but do put your price up first! 

Hopefully it works out for you. 

 

Many greetings 

Aaltje B 

NZ 

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Joel Bennesher 3 years ago

Hi Danny

I also came from airbnb, which is much more intuitive and clear. So to save you some pitfalls..

  1. Make sure you connect a google calendar or another calendar to make sure there are no double bookings. Once the calendar is set, you can not change/cancel bookings without a major impact to your profile.
  2. Make sure you agree with the guest on the payment. Other than airbnb, with booking.com *you* are responsible to collect the payment from the guest upon their arrival.
  3. Note the guest's email and phone number asap. Once the guest has left, you will not have any way anymore to communicate to them and the service team @booking can not help you. Not even in-app messaging will work after 7 days.
  4. Make sure your prices include the high booking commission. 
  5. Take a day off to sit down on booking.com rules, configuration and everything. It really takes a lot of time to set everything up.

There are some more experiences I made in the first few weeks, which I might share later.

Good luck..

Joel

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