Forced Payout of Non-Refundable Reservation
I received the below message from Booking.com today with regards to a reservation booked at the non-refundable which I was "expected" to refund. Booking.com have refunded the guest due to Forced Circumstances and have issued an invoice to me, which I am now "expected" to pay.
What doesn't seem right about this particular case is that I was communicating with the guest and offered them accommodation credit to be used within the next 12 months, instead of issuing a refund to the guest. The guest appeared to be ready to accept my offer of accommodation credit until Booking.com advised them that they are entitled to a full refund. The guest actually wrote me and said that he no longer needs the accommodation credit now that he has been promised a full refund by Booking.com!
Since we have not received any income for over 2 weeks now and have no idea how long it will be before we are receiving any income this is going to place a severe financial strain on our business. It will be difficult for us just to pay our next Booking.com invoice, let alone refunding guests who had booked non-refundable reservations!
Just doesn't seem right to me ...
They also sent out a message to all partners today advising us that the procedures of the Forced Circumstances will allow guests to postpone or cancel trips. It would appear that there is no option for guests to postpone trips, just cancel and get a full refund.
Booking.com also advised me today that they will not be honouring Risk Free Reservations due to Forced Circumstances, so we will also be losing out on income for these reservations.
Dear #######,
We're contacting you about a follow up to reservation #######, for the guest #######.
We have refunded the guest on your behalf, and an invoice has been issued to your property in the amount of EUR 437.83.
The invoice for the refund is final, and this matter has been fully resolved for the guest.
Kind regards,
Booking.com Customer Service Team
I am in the same situation like you.
What bdc is not realising is that some hospitality businesses like ours are going to go bankrupt even with just the cancellations let alone with booking.c deciding to invoice us with said refunds.
Bdc acted in a panic mode without even catering a facility to guests to postpone not cancel...
Final product..let our loyal partners pay .
Yes. It seems like that is the case here. I really wish that Booking.com had handled this matter better. It would have been easy for them to remind the guest that they had booked Non-Refundable Rate but that the accommodation provider was willing to provide them with accommodation credit on future dates, instead of just batting for the guest and assuring them that they would get a full refund. Yes, it is written in our Terms and Conditions that we should pay out guests who have booked Non-Refundable Rate in the event of Forced Circumstances - but the guests are not aware of this! Booking.com are not responsible to pay out property owners for Risk Free Reservations due to the Forced Circumstances, but property owners are responsible to pay out guests who have booked at Non-Refundable Rate. Seems very one-sided to me!
I would be interested to hear feedback from any representatives from Booking.com on this issue, but they are probably not game to touch on this ...
erm, what the hell is going on.
Why were you billed that amount?
That should not happen in fact it cant when the booking was cancelled.
This sounds alot like misinformation and two different things muddled together.
Please clarify
Kind Regards, Be Safe, Be Well
Hey Barry,
No miscommunication. The Euro 437.83 was the amount of the reservation paid in advance by the guest for the Non-Refundable Rate reservation.
See message below from Booking.com giving me 24 hours to refund the guest or Booking will refund the guest and invoice me. The above message from Booking advising that they had refunded the guest and will be invoicing me was received the following day!
Dear partner, As you may be aware, many travellers and Booking.com customers, including ####### (reservation #######), were unable to travel due to the coronavirus outbreak. Although this reservation has a cancellation fee, these circumstances were out of their control. We kindly ask for your cooperation in processing a full refund to the guest within the next 24h. Please confirm the refund in time or we'll proceed to refund the guest and invoice your property. Booking.com will waive the commission for this reservation. If you have any questions, we are here for you. -- ####### Booking.com Customer Service Team
We are facing the same problem. We have a guest who booked back in December and entered the 30 period where they couldn't cancel and their booking became non-refundable. This was before all tourism stopped. The guest contacted us to see if they could get a refund and we explained that unfortunately the booking was non-refundable but we could offer alternative dates in the future, which they accepted.
A few days later we received a call from booking.com and we explained the above. They accepted that the customer had agreed alternative dates and the call was ended. An hour or so later, we received an email to demand we refund the customer and if we didn't, booking.com would refund them and invoice us. I requested contractual information to demonstrate that we are legally obliged to refund the booking and none was provided. I also requested a call from booking.com to discuss and no call was received. Today we received the email demanding we pay the invoice they are going to send us. The invoice they are sending us is for R$4600 and the booking was for R$4000!
Would be interested to see how many other partners are facing these demands from booking.com and if they are legally entitled to do? We face potentially going out of business if they continue in this manner.