How do I get Payments from Guests
Hello, we have just joined booking.com. We have a self-catering holiday cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. What I cannot find out to my satisfaction is how we get paid. We always take payment in advance of the holiday, but, I do not know if the guest pays us direct or booking.com, which then pays us.
The only payment option I can see is cash, but, we do not want this as we do not leave on site. If then option is not selected, then the system expects a credit card, which we do not accept either. Our preferences are bank transfer, failed this paypal. I would prefer booking.com to take the payment, then take its commission and pay the balance directly to our bank account. The details of which have been entered into the website.
Any help greatly accepted.
Regards,
Richard Beilby
I answered this very same question 3 times yesterday ....
You need to send a message to Booking.com via your Extranet and ask them to set up Payments by Booking.com
If they agree, you can go live - be aware that Booking.com will not collect damage deposits for you like with AirBnB/TripAdvisor etc - I've posted a partial solution for that many times ....
Booking.com may refuse to allow you to take payments via Payments by Booking.com. If so, keep your property closed and just use AirBnB / TripAdvisor / HomeAway instead. But don't give up, keep asking Booking.com to allow you to take online payments.
Thank you for your reply Isle of Wight. I suppose I can ask the guests to make the bank transfer direct to our bank account. That is what would happen if the guests booked via our own website.
Perhaps I am being thick, but, I cannot find a method to contact booking.com direct. By Extranet, I presume you mean the website that I maintain the cottage's listing on?
Also, I find "the directions to" meaningless as it caters for air travel only. All our guests need a car and able to drive to the cottage. A few due arrive at Dent station, but, that is over 4 miles from the village and the cottage!
Regards,
Richard Beilby.
We take some payments by bank transfer too - but most bookings are via AirBnB/TripAdvisor - makes things much easier.
Yes, the Extranet is the Booking.com website that you use to manage your listings. Go to Inbox > Booking.com Messages and at the bottom of the right hand column is a link for Contact us
And yes, the directions and many other things are almost meaningless for us too - everyone coming to the Isle of Wight (except Lord Alan Sugar, who comes by helicopter) comes by ferry .....
Thank you, I have now sent a message to booking.com
Regards,
Richard Beilby.
Next thing to look at is damage deposits .....
I view damage deposits as essential as they help protect owners and future guests. If guests do cause damage, the deposit may not cover the costs of the damage, but it can help, if we choose to claim on the deposit. We also have to remember that if we do claim, guests can dispute the claims or write bad reviews - good reviews are worth far more than a few quid claim on a damage deposit. The most important thing is that when a guest has paid a damage deposit, they tend to take more care of the property because they want their money back. That's great, because if they look after the place, it's available for the next guest. If they trash the place, we might have to cancel bookings at the last minute (on the day of arrival) - that is totally unfair on us and future guests. The simple solution is for owners to use Payments by Booking.com and for BDC to authorise cards for an additional �75 or �100 at the time of booking, just the same as AirBnB / TripAdvisor etc. But Booking.com don't want to do this because, in their words, they do not trust property owners. Yes, that's right - Booking.com do not trust owners, like we are a bunch of criminals. I have several properties listed on Booking.com. One has settings that say the damage deposit can be paid by bank transfer (direct to my account), the others all say it will be collected in cash on arrival and refunded in cash on departure. We can't do cash on arrival as we have self catering properties accessed via key safe - we rarely meet our guests and we cannot wait at properties for hours for them to travel possibly hundreds of miles with a ferry crossing that might be delayed, and cannot expect guests to wait outside a property for us to arrive after the guests have had a long journey. It's also not wise to deal in cash - we prefer all payments to be electronic so that there is proof of payment and proof of refund. After lengthy discussions with BDC, they allowed me to set an automatic email reply, which is sent immediately after a booking, asking guests to pay the damage deposit by bank transfer. They allowed this for all properties. This didn't work as guests generally don't read the messages sent to their inboxes. We also had a separate problem with guests printing the booking confirmation and arriving without the access codes to the property, because they hadn't read the messages in their inboxes. To resolve both "reading messages" problems and to get a damage deposit from the guest, BDC said to add information to Property > View your descriptions > "The Fine Print". This is visible on the booking confirmation which they tend to print out. Our "Fine Print" includes the wording " Please note that a refundable damage deposit of GBP 100 is required. Guests should check their Booking.com inbox for payment information." This now partially works and we get some damage deposits paid - we have to chase for others. BDC have also said that if a guest does not pay the damage deposit, we should contact BDC to report non-payment and they will contact the guest. Of course, knowing how useless BDC support is, they will take one look at the policies, deny all responsibility and almost certainly refuse to do anything. We do now have a separate bank account for damage deposits by bank transfer - this will make it much easier to track who has paid their deposit and to track all refunds. As a tip, if you go down the road of automatic emails with bank details for damage deposits, remember to ask guests to provide their bank details too. We spend a vast amount of time chasing guests to send their bank details for their refunds ......
Thank you for your help.
I actually got a phone call from booking.com! This did amaze me, although they were not over informative. I will have to request payment from guests for a while and also process any damage deposit myself. The chap did say that it only takes a few bookings to have the payment via booking.com added to my listing.
I will have to think in detail about how I will process damage security deposits.
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Richard Beilby.
Shame they refused you .... you will now get a load of fake bookings, no shows etc ... the fake bookings will block your calendar and you won't get payments ..... do what I said in the earlier reply, just use TripAdvisor / AirBnB to get genuine bookings AND get paid .... don't let Booking.com treat you like this .... I have to fight every time I add a property on Booking.com ....
One of the guests has paid the deposit, so seems genuine. I will give the other a week or so and send reminders.
Regards.
Hello Isle of Wight
Booking.com has now set me up for payment via Booking.com.
At the same time I am not happy with Airbnb as it is now demanding id, which I feel is invasive and opening me up to id theft. What are your feelings on this?
Regards,
Richard Beilby.
Good that they've set you up for Payments by Booking.com!!
A few weeks ago, there was a mass shooting at an AirBnB rental in the USA. I think this move by AirBnB is partly to do with strengthening standards for hosts and guests - there are discussions in the AirBnB hosting community about this.
I don't mind AirBnB asking for ID. I won't mind any OTA asking for my ID. I do want all OTAs to provide me with real and verified name and address of guests booking our properties. We get names and addresses for most guests through Booking.com, but AirBnB still allows guests to book with fake names .....
Thanks for your reply. It's the security of my data and id that really concerns me. Cyber-criminals will stop at nothing to hack into web sites and data.
Worrying that Airbnb allows guests to use fake names. I wonder how many other agencies do that?
Good luck getting any help from b.com they will drag their heels and offer any excuse not to do something that would help. Try the old we will contact the finance team trick. There is a reason you cant call them direct