Non- Refundable booking, and grace period NON REFUNDABLE DOES NOT MEAN NON REFUNDABLE
Hi, Can anyone shed any light on this "hidden policy" with booking.com that I have just experienced, we set a non refundable price for rooms, assuming that non refundable actually meant non refundable, it even stated the following on the confirmation to the guest “the guest will be charged the total price of the reservation if they cancel at any time” We had a guest who booked a non refundable room, only to find this was cancelled and fee's waived, without asking us or any correspondance. They management team wrote back to us stating, that we set our grace period to 4 weeks prior, however on this is has no mention on Non refundable booking, and also the wording used to the guest was as seen above i.e. charged the total price. I got this from the rep at booking (Dear partner,
We’re writing to you about the reservation ************– check-in date 2023-07-02.
Firstly, I totally understand how confusing this is to you, and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused.
We would like to confirm that as per our management team decision, we would like to confirm that the reservation was cancelled within the grace period that you registered on our system.
Thank you for your cooperation.
If you have any questions, we are here for you.
--
Mostafa A.
Booking.com Customer Service Team
However I fail to see when setting up the grace period it has no mention of Non Refundable, and also the guest was sent their t&C's saying they will be charged if they cancel.
SO NON REFUNDABLE DOES NOT MEAN NON REFUNDABLE
I have had on many occasions difficulty in dealing with booking.com management team, but this now feels they make things up as they go along, be interested to hear if anyone has experience with this.
I wouldn't think that Booking is not following their terms and conditions intentionally but mistakes are possible as it humans managing the customers.
The grace period is literally what it says on the tin. It offers guests a way out in case they have made an error in the reservation. We have ours set to 4 hours.
After the grace period, the official reservation conditions kick in, in your case the non refundable part.
My advise: reduce your grace period to 24 hours or less. I believe you can only set up 1 grace period, which is valid for all rate plans & reservations.
Update I managed to get this turned around, Non refundable does mean non refundable, we have been given our money back! but still caution to everyone who hasn't checked the default setting its worth checking and changing.