Discounts under omnibus EU Directive
The guidelines received from Booking.com on dealing with discounts to comply with the new EU directive do not make any sense.
The way pricing information is presented on the platform should be Booking.com responsibility, not Property's.
It is very easy for the Platform to take the current price offered on a given room, compare it with the lowest price offered on the same room over the previous 30 days and display a discount (or not). Today, the price that is shown struck out is Booking.com' calculation, not ours.
From a Property owner perspective, discount means the price reduction from a certain base rate... which is typically the highest offered rate, not the lowest... There are other issues related to seasonality, etc.
This is the relevant paragraph sent by Booking.com on this topic:
"When you offer a discount on a specific room/rate combination, the base rate of the exact same room/rate combination needs to be the lowest rate offered in the past 30 days. The base rate is the rate against which the discount will be applied – this will be shown as a strike-through price to customers on our platform.
As of May 28, 2022, you’ll be required to make sure you meet the criteria set out above when you offer discounts on Booking.com."
Again, how is the Property owner supposed to "make sure" these rules are implemented on the Platform?!
I totally agree with you, calculation should be done by booking.com.
The email is almost disrepectful, BDC boldy putting all responsibility on their partners because they have not done their homework. BDC sent me the same email as yours on 19th May for an application date of 28th May_
Thank you Europe! It's true that currently nothing was more urgent than to find a "one size fits all" solution looking for a problem!
And how to comply with a a discount for this summer for instance, when you don't know what will be the actual sold prices of the 30 previous days?
The easiest solution is to cancel all discounts. In my area it seems it is what other hotels are doing right now.