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No support from booking.com to partners during the convid19 outbreak
Hello,
don't know about you guys but feeling very unsupported as a partner right now due to the convid19 outbreak.
does anyone know the legal stance on Guests being refunded due to not being able to travel?
booking.com attitude is "we expect you to return payment to guests" so how does that leave us as a business?
we are all human and want to help guest were we can but at the same time we all know to start refunding guests is going to send some small businesses down the tubes as out goings still have to be paid, can anyone advise on this matter?
many thanks JOSS
Hi Josslyn
Simply if rate booked is non refundable and not a flexible rate, they can only reschedule.
BdC have been told this several times over the last 10 days, and have done nothing to comply.
In fact they made it 100 times worse my allowing self service cancelations so they can lower inbound support calls. Yep you read that right, changes to make things better for themselves and no one else.
There is also a EU consumer law that protect EU guests and EU bvased accomodation prodivers , and it clear states when it a DIY holiday booking and not a package deall, the guest is subject othe polcies of the provider , i.e. me and you., not Booking.com.
Kind Regards.
Hello Barry,
I really appreciate you reaching out with information as a fairly new business I’ve felt completely out my depth as I’m sure a lot of people have with no support from BdC. After speaking with a BdC team member today from my local office I realised as the conversation progressed this was completely one sided towards guests and booking.com and no support was offered to me as a partner on what support was there for small businesses and no compassion shown on how I would be affected If I went ahead and refunded all guests affected.
I have been offering guests to reschedule but almost all are Demanding refunds even though they booked the non refundable rate.
We are trying our best to advise guests if they don’t wish to reschedule the booking, then to contact their travel insurance for more information on compensation. (not sure if this is the right thing to do) but certainly referring them back to booking agent BdC as advised by BdC originally certainly didn’t work, the guest ends up passed from pillar to post then extremely angry resulting in the accommodation provider being verbally abused.
if you or anyone else has any other suggestions/templates on how best to deal with guests asking questions regarding refunds etc due to this Convid19 outbreak it would be much appreciated.
Hope Everyone Can stick together on this and come out the other side
Many thanks ?
Joss
That's actually that's a good idea, even to have it as a Other Message template to have on hand when someone messages you.
I have found if you deal direct with guest and keep it friendly and clinical even if they try to debate, you just have to stand firm .
Don't even mention them ringing booking support for anything.
Its utterly pointless and will literally make the situation worse.
Hi Josslyn!
You are not alone, extremely disappointed in how booking.com are handling this and the non existent support for partners.
I’ve also tried to contact them 2 days in a row for over 20 minutes to be told they are very busy, try again later and hung up on!!
They are going to bankrupt a lot of people with their “expectations”
Thanks all for the responses.
I’ve given up calling them and plus after there attitude I thought what’s the point. I reckon we sit tight and stand firm as suggested by Barry.
I have woken this morning to further abuse from guests and a changed automatic message from Booking.com
“
A guest has cancelled a booking to which Forced Circumstances apply.
To protect the health of our partners and guests, we have declared Forced Circumstances as a result of official travel advice related to the Coronavirus for all properties and guests affected.
Within 5 business days we expect you to refund any prepayment and/or waive any cancellation costs for all reservations cancelled within the Forced Circumstances period.”
like really?!
Has anyone stopped there direct debit for Booking.com I’m scared incase they start helping themselves to my money? Also I take it the virtual cards won’t even be passed our way now?
thanks again everyone
joss