guest relocation and consequent charge
Hi everyone and thank you for your help.
So I'm having a issue with booking.com... I got my property overbooked for a bug in the pms, i immediately contacted booking.com who gave me 24 hours to find alternative accommodation of equal or superior quality. It was a booking for 3 guests in a self catering unit. After 2 hours i replied offering alternative accommodation in a nearby (300m) guest house, 4 stars like us, 9.3 review like us, offering one self catering unit exactly like us. A Beautiful place, definitely not inferior to my guest house! Those of booking.com replied to me after 4 days, asking more specific informations about the alternative accommodation, that was also listed on booking.com, that i gave as i got the response from the other guest house... Since this moment, i didnt get any reply from booking.com... 5 weeks after the date of stay, i got an email from booking.com saying that they relocated the guest and that i had to pay the difference. So this poor guest have been relocated in the most expensive area of cape town, by the waterfront, ie 80km from my property (located in a small village out of the city), in a hotel with no triple units, no self catering rate! While my rate was 1950, he got accommodation for 5500! I phoned this hotel to understand better the situation, and they confirm that these 3 people were accommodated in 2 rooms (not 1 like me), breakfast included rate as they dont have alternatives!
Between my property and this other, we can probably count hundreds of other properties offering triple units, self catering rates and "normal" rates...
When i sent an official complain to booking.com, they replied that i failed to find alternative accommodation for the guest within 24 hours and they had to relocate him. As I explained before, this is not the truth!
"On 13 Dec 2019, 11:47, your property let us know that the above guest could not be accommodated due to overbooking. We allowed 24 hrs to request your assistance in offering an alternative accommodation, but we did not receive a reply therefore, we offered something on our site." I REPLIED OFFERING ALTERNATIVE ACCOMMODATION 2 HOURS LATER!
It's clear that the guests and booking.com wanted to take advantage of this situation, refusing the alternative accommodation i offered.
According to the General Delivery Terms of booking.com, what we need to do in a case of overbooking is to find and offer alterantive accommodation at our expence, and this is what i did. If a guest refuse because he wants to take advantage of the matter, booking.com should not allow it!
Im trying to get in contact with someone reasonable to talk about it on booking.com, but those of the customer support as the area manager are refusing to give me an email address of someone who count in this company.
Any suggestion/idea/way to help?
Thank you all for your support!
Contact us
No man ?, I 've done it already but the area manager says get she is not involved, those of customer support only do a copy/paste message..
Seriously just pick another nearby team in another country if your local support team are a bunch of incompetent muppets.
Africans! ?
You're right anyway, I'll try with Italians like me.. Thank you for your help Barry!
Dont give up and keep all proof !
You may want to try Airbnb aswell as a second platform with non instant booking.
That works best for me and you can discuss options - wishes before they book.
Yes a bit more work. But never had a huge issue and in rare occation problem was solved very well.
All the best !!
Greetings
Aaltje B .
Yes bro I use airbnb also and Expedia.. Never had problems with them.. But booking.com has got power and they know it! Most of bookings are with them, but we work much better with the others..
I will change my profile picture and my Bdc name
Its Aaltje in Dutch .People cant pronounce it
Also called Petronella at birth.
Now made it Ella in NZ
A lot easier to understand and pronounce .
Cheery Bro