g
1
Guest cancellation advice please
Hello.
We have a guest who booked and then called us to say that she will "probably" cancel as we don't have aircon.
The booking is for 2 days in the middle of August.
What is the etiquette here? Should we cancel her booking or at least hold up our end of the booking agreement?
All advice very welcome.
Thanks, Ged.
Hey Ged,
Welcome to the forum.
I tend to request that they cancel the booking if they say early on that they Might cancel. This is because normally one struggles to get prepayment out of these guests. Also, the earlier you cancel the better your chances are at renting out the room to someone who will actually occupy.
But say it in a nice way, tell the guest that you don't mind cancelling the booking and waiving the fees if they cancel Now so that you can refill the room. But make sure the guest knows that you are doing them a favour, because if they booked on a non-refundable policy then technically they should pay either way.
Keep well!
Hi Ged, I agree with Leandri. You should note that it is not possible for you to cancel the guests' booking at your end. You can only encourage the guest to cancel. Also, you need to have a seven day cancellation policy, so that you have a week to try to get your property re-let. I used to have free cancellation up to 24 hours before but changed to 7 days and have not noticed any reduction in bookings.
You need to be able to pre-authorize the card to verify the details so you can have a better chance of getting paid in the event of late cancellation or no-show. This is however no guarantee of payment. I had a guest who booked a 1 night stay. The card was pre-authorized for £1 to verify. The guest was a no-show, but I was unable to take payment from the card.
Booking.com do nothing to help. The guest is free to book other accommodation and the fact that they have dishonoured the cancellation policy is not even flagged up to accommodation providers.