Relocation of guests
We recently had to relocate some guests due to frozen water at our property. We contacted the guests 2 days before their arrival, informed them of the situation, booked them into nearby alternative accommodation for the same price, which they agreed to. They asked us to therefore cancel their booking with us through BDC, something we have been struggling with ever since. We have had several emails, messages and phonecalls with BDC saying they will cancel it but they haven't and now we are being charged commission for these bookings! What do I do? We are a small business. Are their rules such that if my business burned down and I had to relocate all the guests, would they still charge me commision on those too??
I repeat this is not an overbooking. What can I do to get them to listen??
Hi
Under extranet, finance, overview, call then message finance team they will sort it out.
I'm assuming you spoke to support team not finance team.
Kind regards
I have spoken with both support team and finance team and been promised by emails etc this will be cancelled. But now been 8 days of constantly phoning them and getting nowehere
Refusing to accommodate a guest after arrival.
This is from our recent experience ::: The female partner of a male guest booked his 15 day accommodation with us, and then cancelled same, - only to re-book a day later ( because of a miscommunication between the two -she claimed )
On the day of re-booking, the room they wanted was no longer available for the full 15 days, but.only for 11 days.
The lady booked 11 days for her partner,( and prepaid online ) and we offered to assist him in finding alternative accommodation for the four days, either at our property, or, if necessary, at any of the nearby Guesthouses in our area.
It turned out that we received late cancellations and were able to make a room available in our Guesthouse for those 4 days before his paid reservation took effect.
What House management and staff learned during the first 3 days was that the guest completely disregarded our house rules, cluttered his room floor with takeaway food scraps , containers and empty bottles, and the guest's refrigerator and bathroom had to be scrubbed twice each day. Strange females were brought into the house during the night, without permission.
Indonesian females are by nature short in size, and politely shy. The male guest in question was a 240 pounder, 2.1 metres tall, and a Martial Arts trainer.
During the first 3 days of his stay we decided that it would be impossible for us to honor his 11 night stay made via booking.com. -- We contacted Booking.com's different offices and were told that, unless the guest himself ( or the person who made the booking) would cancel the reservation, we were in no position to refuse the guest.
We spent the whole 4th day to communicate with booking.com, -- and especially with the guest's partner, who made the booking, practically begging her to cancel her booking without penalty charge.
After we finally succeeded in receiving the cancellation request from the lady, we arranged alternative accommodation for the guest and also provided a free taxi for his trip to the other guesthouse.
Our question is:: In an extreme case, like the one described above, is the Accommodation provider ( at his discretion ) permitted to refuse a guest's access to the premises.
What are our obligations towards Booking.com, and with regards to guests, when the Guesthouse Management is faced with making a decision as to whether to protect their staff and the comfort of other guests, or be tolerant to unethical conduct by a single guest?
Thank you
Reinhold and Raghiel
You should not be relocating the guests. You have to tell Booking.com and the guests that unfortunately the property is not available, and it is for the guest and Booking.com to make alternative arrangements. By making arrangements in the way you have, you are still accepting the original booking so are still liable for the commissions.
Thank you for your thoughts.
In our case, the situation was not quite that straight forward.
1) The guest's partner booked the reservation on his behalf, but under her name. She also paid online with her card.**** online payments are paid out by booking.com to the accommodation provider on, or before, the 15th day of the month following the guest's departure date ***
2) The Booker was informed by Booking.com that the reservation for her partner was accepted from the 1st January to 12th January, before she realized that her partner would travel to Bali already on December 27.
At that time, we could not accept any further reservations, as there were no longer rooms available in our guesthouse, - but we offered to assist the guest in finding alternative accommodation in our area for the 4 days before commencing his booked stay with us, on 1st January.
3) Due to last minute cancellations, we were able to arrange sleeping facilities for the guest at our premises for the 4 nights, at a reduced discount price.
4) On the morning of 31st December, - after having encountered several verbal confrontation with the guest, we tried to contact Booking.com's assistance in order to cancel his reservation ( which would commence on the following day) but all communication channels were overloaded, because of the busy festive season traffic.
-- and here starts the "tricky " part.:( and it is quite complex, - you will see )
5) After a lengthy conversation with the guest ( in the morning of the 31st Dec.) , he reluctantly agreed to move to an alternative Guesthouse, - but only if we pay him the full amount (in cash) associated with his reservation, which was paid for by his partner through her bank account.
aa) as per Booking.com's policies, only the person who initiates, and pays for - the reservation request can cancel it. ( a beneficiary guest can not ) Any refunds would be deposited back into the account from which the reservation was paid for.
ab) During the later part of the 31st December, we finally were able to reach the guest's oversea's partner, who informed us that she had broken all communication with her male friend ( our guest) , because of personal issues.
At that stage our Management's position was like this::
** after a reservation is confirmed by Booking.com, a Guesthouse or Hotel are not permitted to request cancellation of that booking
** the guest himself could not cancel the booking, but appeared willing to move if he receives cash payment from us
** the "booker" who made and paid for the reservation, objects to any further communication with us in regards to the booking. +++ Booking.com communicates directly only with the person who makes the booking, - not with any beneficiary guest +++
** communication channels with Booking.com were overloaded with traffic on that day, and not reachable.
** the guest in question, during the day, verbally attacks staff and management.
+++ remember, it is the 31st of December,- only one night away from the day we officially would need to honor this reservation +++
=================================
During the whole of the New Year eve's afternoon, we exhausted all communication channels in order to reach to booker, who finally agreed to cancel the reservation, and receive a full refund.
But that was not the end... Although the booker successfully cancelled the booking and received the refund, -- the guest himself did not know that his reservation was cancelled by his partner. ( --remember -- the booker had stopped all communication with her partner ) We contacted Booking.com to ask that they please inform the beneficiary guest of the cancellation, but because of privacy laws, they could not do that.
(((Good story ?? )))
So .... you relocated guests because it is your management policy to do so .... and now you're being charged commission on a booking that you didn't cancel .... and all the talk of someone booking for a partner and Indonesians and their sizes and whatever else is irrelevant to the issue you originally posted about ....
If you cannot accommodate guests, you should cancel the booking. Simple as that. Let Booking.com deal with the guests and find alternative accommodation for them.
As you have now found out, when you try to bend over backwards to do things you don't need to do, you put yourself in a difficult position and create problems that you can't fix.
I would have said if they cant conduct themselves as per the house rules, they forfeit their booking and can and will be asked to leave .
there is an option to report them to BdC.
I wouldn't care about where they go next if they breach rules of the property and or endanger others, or are violent , steal etc... at that point they are done.
I simple call to BdC support and say guest has breach the conditions, and refund zero, they forfeit the booking cost.
Hi Barry, great talking with you
Here is a silly question:: Have you ever encountered the opportunity ( like in our case) to argue with a 6-foot-8 tall "body-builder" from Africa in Bali?
Greetings from Reinhold and Raghiel
If you have "guests" who are difficult to deal with, or use their size to bully or intimidate you, you can always call the police.
Hi Isle, great talking with you. We accept your suggestion, - but... have you ever dealt with village police in the Bali outskirts?
Sorry Isle, we overlooked your earlier comments
No, we did not pay commission on the booking, because the female partner ( after hours of communication with her ) finally cancelled the reservation.
The other problem was, - we are talking about the 31st of December, when all accommodation places were flat out, ( so were the Booking.com telephone lines)
Late evening on the 30th of December we sent full information ( and our request for cancellation ) to Booking.com,but never received a reply.
Our original question is quite simple :: can we ( as accommodation providers ) refuse to accept a guest on valid grounds without being penalized ?
If you offer your property for rentals, it should be available. Sometimes things go wrong and a property needs repairs - if it can't be used or repaired, you may need to cancel a booking. That's life, it happens. But you will normally only lose one or maybe 2 bookings. It's not Booking.com#s fault, it's not the guests fault. It happens. Booking.com still did their part by getting a booking for you. If they relocate the guest, they might waive their fees, but if not, you might have to swallow those fees yourself. That's life. If your house burns down and you have to cancel a lot of bookings, then you could be charged a lot of commissions on bookings that have to be cancelled. In this case, you can claim these costs through the same insurance claim on your house.
thank you,Isle ,for your thoughts.
We actually were referring to guest's personality issues.
As an example: a guest books a room and arrives in an completely intoxicate state ,- or a backpacker arrives at our doors displaying a completely unkempt and disheveled appearance,with plastic bags full of assorted junk .......
what would you do?
What is our right to reject the guest's reservation on those grounds?
thank you
Hi Isle, -- we only follow the policies laid out by booking.com
https://partner.booking.com/en-gb/help/reservations/can-i-cancel-reservation
seems some people jumped on my post here. but to set the record straight, it is the property's responsibility to find nearby suitable similar accommodation in the event of a relocation and also pay any difference in price if necessary. If said property struggles to find new property, then Booking.com can assist. Or of course you can ask Booking.com to assist in the first place, though a property has evey right to organise a relocation itself.
This was never an issue with us or booking.com. Also Booking.com agreed we did not have to pay commision on this booking (I had this confirmed yet agin by telephone 2 days ago). My point is, that they said one thing and have never followed through and not replying to emails, messages etc.
So .... you first asked about whether you had to pay commissions, and now you're saying that you don't have to ....
I have had to cancel bookings in the past because guests damaged a property .... I have never, and will never, source alternative accommodation with another owner, nor will I pay any price differences .... that is not my job, it is a job for Booking.com ...