No-Show due to Covid
Hi, we had a reservation for one night only booking, which allowed free cancellation up until 24 hrs before arrival. The guest requested and received 'Earlier check-in' and 'later check-out' requests, due to their travel plans moving about constantly leading up to arrival.
On day of arrival, the guest contacted us in the morning saying they were not allowed to board the aircraft in Madrid, as their paperwork was not in order. They therefore wanted to cancel and have the reservation fee waived.
Edit: it has to be said the guest initially tried to cancel without any contact but failed due to being inside the fee-period. Had they been able to I am sure they would have just cancelled without any notification whatsoever.
The guest was a 'no-show'. The address of the guest account is stipulated as being a UK address, yet the guest on the comms states they were flying from Madrid for a one night stay only.
Would you as fellow partners waive the fee? The guest should have know about the travel limitations before attempting to board the aircraft, or at least have a 'permitted travel' if the trip was for one night only before return to Madrid? Also, what is strange is the guest has a UK listed address on the account, so the whole thing does not make much sense.
They are already assuming they will have the fee waived, by way of saying they would like an answer before filling out the 'feedback form', which indicates a negative feedback will be left if the fee is not waived. On the other hand, the property could have been occupied by a fee paying guest who did show up had this not happened.
I understand if the 'no show' is reported and the guest leaves feedback, this will be deleted by booking.com as a matter of course.
Thoughts please, and thank you.
Hi Phil
As harsh as it may seem, no, I would stick to the cancellation policy, if they prepaid.
You already went out of your way to accommodate changes, so there has to be a balance.
Yes some accounts will have that on their account , but its mainly due to where the first registered and what country set in profile.
Unfortunately some do abuse the feedback form, but shouldnt be able to leave a rating when they dont stay, which is why it needs to be marked asap as No Show.
At end of the day its your perogative.
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thanks for your thoughts BrookAve. I am inclined to levy the cancellation charge, seeing their special requests were accommodated without question. Having also seen them trying to cancel without contacting first with a reason etc, and the fact they are already threatening to leave a bad review (which should be deleted anyway due to no-show) is somewhat underhanded. It's a difficult one, the cancellation policy was extremely flexible anyway and trying to make us responsible for their oversight is not really on IMO. I would perhaps meet them half-way with a partial refund but the no-show option doesn't provide this - it's either do it or don't do it. Difficult, given Covid etc.
You can do partial refund by message or phone Partner Support.