CHANGE REVIEW SYSTEM - better protection to host
1. MANDATORY WRITTEN REVIEW or LET HOSTS REPLY TO ALL REVIEWS
2. TIME LIMIT FOR REVIEWS
3. REVIEW GUESTS will bring BETTER PROTECTION FOR HOSTS, it will make amelliorate their conduct and how they treat the property, some of us invite guests to our homes!
4. LET HOSTS CANCEL RESERVATIONS - let us choose who makes us uneasy and uncomfortable
I'm just over 7 months using ing.com and the experience is awful, specially due to the review system.
1. Hosts cannot protect themselves from malicious reviews and we have no way to defend ourselves, it's an absolutely crippling feeling. The guests are stepping all over us! I noticed a sea of underwhelming reviews just because I ask a security deposit!
1. 2. and 3. Since ing does not protect the property in any way, I've had things stolen, house occupied after cancelling the reservation and without paying and ing.com didn't even move a finger. It's crushing how any ill-willed guest can knock your hard work down to the ground for something that is not even your fault.
One third of guests from ing.com bring problems and have really bad conducts, I have never encountered an issue with Airbnb, even when I did, they reached out and took responsibility. Otherwise why I'm paying the commission for? For a headache, it seems. I'm really HATING the kind of guests I get from ing.com and how the system is skewed to make it harder to the host.
2. A guest made a 1* no comment review because I didn't refund the last night of her stay the night before due to a flight change, gave me horrible rating.
Another guest gave me 5* because he bumped his head and didn't check the pictures of the room right.
How the hell are we supposed to work like this?
Booking.com use the term "Partner" but do not act as partner.
They only act on the guests interest regardless of how absurd the guest request / demand/review is.
Booking.com seem to forget without their "Partners" they would have no business but yet still take the Guest side in every dispute.
Will be their loss eventually when other platforms show more positive support to their "Partners" and Partners wake up and make the move to another platform
I totally agree with you,
I have just had a malicious review from a guest that booked Non-Refundable, Turned up 2 hours before check-in time without prior notice. Booked twin room for 2 x adults, then turned up with a child. (my policies clearly state that I do not facilitate children). He then informed me that he would be bringing a couple of friends back to the room later that night!!!
We had a conversation and he requested a refund, I declined and he left very annoyed. I then had to remake both beds in the room as his daughter had jumped all over them, completely messing them up.
Now because I declined his refund he has written a nasty review even though he didn't bother to read my policies.
I contact Booking.com who said they would ring me back, I am still waiting 3 hours later!!!
Booking.com really does need to protect their Hosts more adequately.
Since making my post I have had a review of 1. ( Against nearly 400 reviews rating it a 9 or 10 - Ave 9.1)
Guest who had booked had already decided to finish his trip and go home
( he only lives a few hours away).
decided he wanted to get his money back and not stay.
so he rubbished the apartment and scored it a 1. Despite the fact the the guests before scores 10 for same room
I re let the room as upgrade 1 hour later to existing Guest and he then also rated it a 10 on leaving on the BDC platform. So 3 ratings of 10 all within a day for this room. Yet BDC take the side of Guest who did not even stay and only produced a pack of lies to get his money back ( which he did 100%)and btw thinking there may have been some major burst pipes or something before I had seen the room myself, I had offered to pay for Guest to relocate to local Premier Inn at my cost. He then claimed he was halfway down the Motorway and was going to book in to a Days Inn. Again I offered to pay for the Days Inn if he sent me receipt, but he wouldn’t do this either as of course all he wanted to do was save money by me returning his deposit.
You do not need to be forensic investigator to see through this behaviour as a total scam and worse still utterly malicious.
I am utterly disgusted at BDC unilateral support of the Guest to the detriment of their own “ Partners” who, without them BDC themselves would not even have a business.
With this policy, if another platform appears with a better support to their partners and values them properly, I have no doubt BDC “ Partners” will leave them in big numbers.
BDC will reap what they sow!