How To - Cancellation Handling

How To - Cancellation Handling

Alternative Titles :

• How To Cancel a Guest Reservation.
• How can I cancel a reservation but Guest is not responding to messages or answering their phone.
• How To cancel a reservation last minute or too close to arrival date.
• How can I cancel a reservation that appears to be fake or fraud.
• How can I cancel an existing reservation in progress due to guest breaking house rules

NOTE: Never ever post a cancellation request here on the Partner Hub Forum. It is utterly pointless as no one will see it and no action will be taken.

BdC = Booking dot Com

There are 3 main scenarios with cancellations and a preferred method,

1. Guest initiated cancellation [PREFERRED METHOD]
    
   1. If the  Guest contacts you, by phone, SMS, email,  always insist they cancel via their Booking.com Account portal.
       
   2. You can also point out they can contact Customer Service to do it too.
       
   3. This is very important as it literally covers you in a dispute later.
       
   4. Once the process is started, You will receive a system notification
      
      
      
      
      
       
2.  Partner Initiated via Reservation Details Page
    
   1.  Open the Reservation Details Page
       
   2. On Right Pane, click Request Cancellation. If greyed out Contact Partner Support
       
   3. Two options presented.
      1. Typically Option 1 is for failure to prepay within time limit.
          
      2. Option 2 is then for everything else.
          
      3. This triggers a notification to be sent to Guest. Then Guest must click a link to action confirmation.
          
      4. If Guest never responds or chooses to decline, then you have no choice but to Contact Partner Support.
          
      5. If time sensitive, do not wait after using this, Contact Partner Support.
         
          
3.  Partner Support (Partner Services) 
   1. A relocation invoice is generally issued by BdC when the Guest refuses to accept cancellation.
       
   2. When a guest is not contactable and all you can do is send a Extranet Message.

Reasons you may need to cancel :

• Previous Guest Damage
   
• Guest failed to prepay deposit
   
• Guest failed to prepay partial or full rate directly or via Partners' payment service provider method, with in the time limit of  X number of days. or X hours for last minute.
   
• Unscheduled Maintenance - water leak
   
• Scheduled Maintenance
   
• Overbooking / double booking - Root Cause : Not using a channel manager service
   
• Sickness outbreak : COVID19, or other sickness by Staff.
   
• A repeat Guest who previously caused damaged but you did not Report Guest and block future bookings.
   
• A repeat Guest who was doing illegal activities in property.
   
• the list goes on... etc.

Over-Booking Considerations:

Sometimes it actually may be worth offering the overbooked Guest alternatives, to encourage an amicable outcome.

Such as direct booking offer for :

• a free night if booking 3 or more nights;
• 3 for 2 nights
• Free meal
• alternative dates
• Be Creative

If needed, Simply report to BdC Partner Support , see below 3 methods. They will never see any post on the Partner Hub.

Message or Call BdC Partner Support

1. In the extranet, go to the ‘Inbox’ tab.
2. Select ‘Booking.com messages’.
3. Right Pane - Click on ‘See Contact Options’. 
4. Choose Account
5. Now choose Other
6. Then at bottom , See all contact options, and click Message or Call
7. As there is no one number for all partners, the number for your nearest BdC Partner Support is then revealed.

*** public main lines via Where you can reach us