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Requesting a Quiet Room
In the last few days all of my Booking.com guest have requested a quiet room. I have never seen this before. Is this a new checkbox? If so, it's creating problems AND an expectation that rooms are not quiet until you request one.
This is a bug. The customer service of bdc said it would be fixed as soon as possible
It's not a bug, it's an experiment! I've been told this by a Supervisor 15 minutes ago! It took some harsh words from my side to get the truth out of him!
Thank you so much! Key West Inn / Hamilton AL
Thank you so much for the nice reply.
We are glad it is a bug, because it's a lot of work for the hotel-owners, to type al the answers about quiet rooms...
I don't respond to it anymore. The guest did NOT click on anything for a quiet room, so therefor I will not respond anymore to the quiet room requests. I got other things to do!
I don't care anymore;-) Done with Booking.com...
The answer should be the option "No reply needed"
I will click on 'No reply needed' next time. Thank you and have a nice day!
Hello partners! Unfortunately, the problem is caused by a bug. The good news is that the team is already working on fixing it. Let's hope they will do it soon.
Is this matter affect my response rate when I don't reply to this messages
It's not a bug, it's an experiment! Please stop lying!
For me, I have created a Template for this issue
The template is useless since the guest hasn't asked for a quite room, it's a booking.com internal error that will be fixed soon
Not an "internal error", a deliberate marketing experiment!
What kind of "deliberate marketing experiment"? You can share you thoughts about it here
I wrote and posted a lengthy comment, which has meanwhile apparently been taken down by Booking.com.
In shorter version: spoke to a Booking agent about having received two messages requesting "a quiet room" today, to which I dutifully replied. She told me she didn't know about it but that it certainly hadn't come from a guest and that therefore my reply would not be seen by the guest. Not happy with that explanation I demanded to speak to a Supervisor. Supervisor: this is a technical problem, we haven't got the time to sort it immediately, it's not a nr 1 priority but we will deal with it. Lack of staff, COVID-19 situation, bla bla bla. And if I could just create or modify my welcome template so guests know this is a bug. Angrily I said that it isn't my job to sort out Booking's "problems" and because I worked in an IT help desk for years, I know that this is a deliberate action, not an "IT glitsch". While I was speaking to the Supervisor I received a message from one of the guests who "had requested a quiet room", saying that she hadn't requested that and didn't know where it came from... So, if I had answered in an annoyed way after having potentially received many of those requests, I could have lost the booking!! The Supervisor, apparently weary of my verbal attack, then conceded he had just received an update, stating that Booking.com wants to improve their service by "experimenting", and this particular experiment was started on 22 June to be terminated on 25 June. I don't know what they reaped from this experiment, but in my case a very angry "Partner".
Well well well Booking.com! I posted a long reply outing what you've been doing to owners and the entire reply has been deleted!! You've apparently started a Marketing experiment on 22 June without informing owners about the repercussions, and we're being told it's "a bug". Shame on you! Stop this time-wasting and annoying nonsense please because it once more seriously makes me doubt wanting to be a "Partner".
It doesn't surprise me at all. Booking.com is always trying to do everything perfect for the client (for the guests that book a room), but not for their partners. It costs us a lot of time and effort, because Booking.com is experimenting something new. Same goes for: "You have a booker that would like free parking. (based on availability)". I don't respond to that 'message' anymore, because everybody would like to have free parking.... Maybe they want to add a new line to please the clients (read guests / not us partners) "We would like to have a quiet room". It would be nice if Booking.com would put in some more effort to keep their partners happy instead of the guests booking the rooms, since WE are the ones paying for the commission.
You're absolutely right. The guest requesting free parking is another ridiculous thing they put on, but since that isn't formulated as a direct question from a guest, it's not as disturbing and I never react to it. I've worked in IT and I know how it went: someone in Marketing comes up with an idea to find out how many people would like to book "a quiet room" and the developers' task is to execute it. They don't care how many partners are inconvenienced by it, they're just doing their job. Partners who call up and complain are being fed the same old "it's a technical glitsch", "a bug" tripe, which most people accept because they don't know any better. Booking thought they could spin the same rubbish with me but they were badly mistaken, so after a lot of pressure from me the Supervisor acknowledged that this was an experiment. Such deceit! They should have just owned up and said: "We're sorry to have inconvenienced you by our experiment that was meant to improve our service (to guests! not to owners!) and we'll correct the situation with immediate effect." That would have been acceptable. But the way they've handled this is a disgrace.
You are totally right. Thank you for explaining how it works! I was also buying the story about the bug, until now.
What I also don't get, is that Booking.com sends the guest a reminder to let them know that the cancellation fee is about to change. We have a strict cancellation fee: ... no cancellation fee until 30 days before arrival, but afterwards, we charge 100%. Almost every time people cancel 31 or 32 days before arrival, because they get a warning from Booking.com about the cancellation fee that is about to change. What a great service! :-(
If Booking.com does NOT send a reminder, we would have less cancellations for sure. Customers always get priority above partners. A shame, I think.
The reason we have very strict cancellation policy is because some people book 4 rooms: 1 in Paris, 1 in Milan, 1 in London and 1 in Madrid. They wait until like 7 days before arrival and cancel al the reservations in the cities where the weather is bad. They keep the reservations of the city with de best weather and 3 Booking.com partners get a last minute cancellation.
To solve this issue, we charge 100% 30 days in advance, so that the weather-forecast is unknown.
Again: Service pro guests and bad for partners!
I started out with a flexible cancellation policy but have meanwhile changed that to the same policy that you have. It's just self protection. I get most of my bookings via Booking and that's the only reason I'm still with them, but if this kind of rubbish continues I'll close my account and concentrate on other platforms (and FB) instead.
If more partners have more strict cancellation policies, like us both, that means that guests are NOT better of in the long run, thanks to Booking.com. We used to have a cancellation fee of 100 Euro's, directly after making a reservation for the last 20 years. Then, a few years ago, we received a message from Booking.com that we had to change to a percentage OR the first night. Otherwise our account would be removed. Then we had to change to charging the first night. The problem is that every partner needs Booking.com, otherwise you will miss out on a lot of reservations (many partners say it's half of their business). Concentrating on other platforms is no use. We get 1 reservation per year via Hotels.nl. Guest book via Booking.com. They are brainwashed as if no other platforms exist. Funny, but true story: One time, I called Booking.com to complain about having to change my policy again. I said to the guy on the telephone: "If I win the lottery, I will quit Booking.com"... The guy who worked for them said:"If I win the lottery, I would quit Booking.com too". ? About the cancellation policies: during the coronapandemic, we received a message from Booking.com that people desperately are searching for a reservation without a cancellation fee. Then I had to change my policy (again). So we stopped charging the first night and charge nothing, unless they cancel within 30 days before arrival. it is quite bizarre that they determine more or less how you should run your company.
Any news on this annoying "bug" please?
Hit the "No Reply Needed" Button next to the Reply Button. Repeat x50.