How to deal with false bookings?
I joined Bookings .com in January and since then have had, I think 13 "bookings"
7 were cancelled 5 no shows and 1 actually turned up
on each no show we lost bookings, spent money getting the villa ready and my agent going to the villa to meet and greet
When we tried to contact the guest the email address was not replied to the telephone number supplied was invalid
I am not allowed collect deposits until i build up a record, which is clearly impossible if people dont turn up
I am entitled to get paid for cancellations, in certain circumstances, and in full for no shows, but as these are obviously false bookings and I have no way of collecting this money this is useless.
The amount of time and money spent on these "bookings" is crazy
does anybody else have these problems?
my villa is in Punta Cana
I had a similar problem with no shows when I was just doing a cash only transaction, with me collecting direct from customer. But booking.com are now processing payments for me, which they previously weren't doing in this country. If you can switch to them processing payments or go onto a card transaction system it definitely reduces this. Haven't had a no show since I changed.
This is what I wanted to do as I do with the other sites I advertise on very successfully
Bookings.com won’t let me until I can show a track record which is impossible with the no shows Catch 22
wehave a couple of future bookings for this year who also don’t respond to emails so we assume they won’t turn up and are taking other bookings
this is absolute madness which would be avoided by us taking deposits or Bookings taking payment
i have lost about $15000 this year through no shows plus the cost of getting the villa ready and my agent waiting on site
she now doesn’t want to handle any more booking.com enquiries as every other booking from Airbnb etc have worked perfectly and she is not prepared to waste any more time
Real catch 22. Was really shocked at my first no show as it was a concept I hadn't thought about and didn't realise people would do that, but not as many as you seem to have had. My cancellations have reduced a lot since booking.com are processing payments. Hopefully you can stick with it and get on track with them.
One suggestion is to join the Genius programme. Gives people a 10% discount but they are meant to be more regular and reliable people. Just had my first couple of bookings so don't have track record to confirm yet. But if you could get Genius bookings then that might be a way to go forward.
Thanks
I have emailed bookings.com a number of time asking for help and get nice replies saying they will look into and come back but they never have
Hello all,
All that I am reading on the forum is making want to go as far as possible from Booking.com! I’ve not yet had any booking, not even bogus ones, but since I have no other choice but to rely on cash on arrival as a mode of payment, it will surely happen.
customer service is not sure when the payment by booking.com function will be enabled for my property. Just and to sit and wait.
I have used Bookin.com for less than a month. I have had FOUR 'No shows' and ONE brilliant group of guests.
We have to get the house ready, as I have four staff, so this is very annoying with the no shows.
However the most annoying thing, is that the no shows or 'false' bookings are blocking the Calendar for the property, which means real guests are unable to book it.
Wake up booking.com otherwise I will de-register and use Airbnb or TripAdviser who seem to work brilliantly compared to you. Shame really as your customer service is one of the best I have spoken to and your website is user friendly.
At this moment in time there is NO way I would recommend you to anyone!!
Hi David. You have posted this on the partner forum, so other businesses not booking.com. It probably won't be read by any of the booking.com staff. I really feel your pain. I didn't even realise that people booked multiple properties and then just chose one on the day, until I started to do this. Let alone bogus bookings. If you can switch to booking.com collecting payments for you then that resolves the issue or at least you get paid if no show because they have their credit card details.
Many thanks Sharon,
I will switch to booking.com collection if I can. I have only been with them less than a month, so my understanding is you have to have a number of bookings before they will do this. It's a catch 22, as the whole process is driving me mad at the moment.
Appreciate your reply, thanks
I've just opened up my hotel in the UK and have already been hit by a false booking. Reading through the thread of this, I'm clearly not alone!! Do I go down the route of changing policy and holding full booking amount, or would this put genuine guests off? Has anyone else used policy change to combat false bookings and has it helped? Also if I request a holding deposit, is it Booking.com that process this?