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COVID- 19 - GUEST CANCELLATION
Good afternoon to everyone. Not offense please, but If future guest wants to cancel for Covid-19 even if his reservation is non refundable we MAKE IT REFUNDABLE IMMEDIATELY. COOPERATION IS TOP PRIORITY FOR US. Greetings, thanks for sharing.
Hi Tamar,
That is entirely your perogative to do that, but not many will want to do it.
Especially smaller host partners.
Hi Tamar,
Does this work both ways round please? because I am having enquiries now to take my single unit cottage for the whole month as people go into self isolation. Which I would jump at but currently cannot because I am not allowed to cancel future bookings through booking.com?
Hosts don't get smaller than me (1 room) but I would not dream of charging guests that wish to cancel at the present time. I hope that they will visit in better times.
Will booking.com be compensating their "partners" for loss of income during this difficult time? I think not.
Small companies will simply not be available to afford to agree to this when their insurance providers are not helping at all particually if cancellations are covered by a cancellation policy.
Guests have the option of taking travel insurance when they book somewhere with a non cancellation policy they should be relying on that. If they chose not to insure they made the decision that they could afford to lose the monies if they were unable to attend not the accommodation provider.
This type of grand standing from booking.com is not helpful at all as it puts pressure on small providers under the guise of "compassion" to destroy themselves from within.
Hi Ian. We feel exactly the same way
This pandemic is something that is out of our control and therefore we shouldn't be expected to make refunds for any bookings cancelled during this time for any dates as we all cannot sell them again! We have been offering guests postponement at no cost to them, so that we can stay afloat, but we are now stopping that because we would go under as it is looking likely that this situation is going to continue for some months. Its as simple as that. Why does B.com always treat its"partners" as inconsequential in any matter, leave alone this one. They are always on the side of the guest. Without accommodation providers, what will travellers do? This is a shared pain and we should not be made to pay for it or shoulder the burden. Its not of our making and we have done nothing wrong. Yes, of course, we dont want people to be out of pocket, but we shouldn't be forced into bankruptcy because we are not able to trade out of no fault of our own. Guests would be coming if it werent for this pandemic. In no world would we all be facing 100% cancellations on one side with no income coming in on the other side. Its an impossible situation to reconcile. We are standing firm and Booking.com can say what they like, but they offer nothing but feeble and ineffectual platitudes. Let them refund the guests instead.
? % agree!
In theory I agree that I do not want any guest to be out of pocket for a cancellation due to Covid-19. However - Booking,com's system was not set up to make it easy for accommodation providers, or the guest, to change their dates. It was basically, cancel and get all your money back, or nothing. AirBnB have announced a $250 million package to hosts to help cover the cost of COVID-19 cancellations. AirBnB recognise that they are going to shed a whole lot of hosts who have been put in this position through no fault of their own. Well done to AirBnB. We have done the right thing by our customers, but at an enormous cost.
Airbnb understood what “real” partnership means, not Booking.
mmm, interesting, I may look into Airbnb if they look after their partners better. I agree with all the comments above about us not being in charge of our own businesses. I am a property manager not an owner, but for 11 years I treat properties as my own for my boss. I agree, anyone booking our properties should have adequate holiday insurance and not assume that we should shoulder their stupidity! Stay safe everyone.
Wrong!!! We have lost over $150,000 in uncompensated Airbnb bookings. They are letting ANYONE cancel for FREE if their reservation is before July 15... err August 1... err August 15. They keep pushing the date two weeks further out and screwing us out of any money at all and letting guests cancel 100%.
Airbnb does NOT care about hosts. All we are is inventory to them, nothing more. And their $250 million thing was a sham.
#BookDirect
Sorry to hear that, was hoping there was a company out there that looked after the people who offer their accommodation and keep them in business. We have been lucky as been open throughout for critical and key workers, its kept us afloat but thats booking us direct without any help from Booking.com as all they did was help cancel our bookings until recently where we can now roll over dates! I feel for everyone and as the gentleman 4 months ago said, if you choose a non refundable booking and dont take out insurance, then you can afford to lose it, why should we be responsible for their stupidity, really annoys me!