a
1
AP

Mixed Rates / Cancellation Policies

Hi,

I'm having a problem where guests are booking with mixed rates and cancellation policies.

I have 2 rate plans -- Standard (lower rate) and Flexible (higher rate). I've got 2 bookings now where the guests have selected a 3-night stay and Booking.com offered them a rate that has Flexible as the first night and Standard as the 2nd and 3rd nights. Why is this happening?

My understanding of how this works is that it should either be Standard all the way ... OR ... Flexible all the way. With how Booking.com does it, the customer has 2 different cancellation policies. Unfortunately, on the booking confirmation, it gives the customer the Flexible cancellation policy ... which is disadvantageous to me as the host as they are paying the lower rate. I am losing out on potential income.

Is this really how it works? Or is something wrong in the set up?

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11
BrookAve 3 years ago

 

Hi AP

 

Yeah its bizarre alright, so I have sent a message to the Support team to find the definitive answer.

 

Will post once I get a response

b
11
BrookAve 3 years ago

I just got a response from BdC support on this.

I copied it in verbatim.... and the bloody muppet in BdC Support decided to look at my setup and claimed he found something wrong and made changes without consulting me..

Talk about being thick as a plank, its like going to the petrol station to get petrol, while the attendant is filling it up you go to the shop and when you come out , he has spray painted the car a different color.

grrr    

 

 

Dear Partner,

We've found an error in your policy structure that made the rates mix in an incorrectly way. They must be mixed, when possible, with the best price and the most restrictive policy, but in you case was not working properly.

We've updated your policy structure avoiding this issue to happen again.

Whenever you need us, we're always here.

--
Rodrigo F.
Booking.com Partner Support Team

you did what? why would you do that without phoning me first.
and also the fact I wasnt even talking about mine.

what do you mean it meant to be mixed? No its not!

If someone picks a NR rate plan offer, then all nights unless set differently in the calendar view should always be the same.

and not offered one rate for first night and then another rate for the remaining nights.

this is the scenario that was asked in partner community and i came here to get an answer. I copied it in here verbatim and yet you have not answered it , and went off and made changes to my setup without my permission.

I expect a follow up phone call

 

What we learned from this fiasco.... apart from Rodrigo's serious lack of judgement.

 

A partners policy structure, should offer the guest the best price and most restrictive policy.

 

I can see this enraging plenty more partners to now only discover this has always been the case and also some of us may be having the issue Rodrigo discovered on mine.

 

As to whether or not the bug on my setup was in my favour or disfavour is currently unknown.

 

So it may be worth contacting BdC Support to have them check your policy setup.

 

 

 

Kind Regards

a
1
AP 3 years ago

I tried contacting BdC Support with no success. First, they replied and said it is supposed to be that way to give the guest the best rate. Very generic reply without even looking at the consequences.

 

When I complained further and said it should not be that way (ie it should be that the rate plan is followed for the duration of the entire stay) -- and that it was giving mixed cancellation policies -- they made a second reply to say it was a bug in the system and that it had been fixed.

 

When I got another booking with the same scenario, I complained again and got a third reply to say they will investigate further. I have not heard anything since.

 

Does anyone know what is going on here? Shouldn't a rate plan be consistent for the entire guest stay?

b
11
BrookAve 3 years ago

already asked and answered, no further action.

b
11
BrookAve 3 years ago

Just saw a follow up message from BdC:


saying that exact same thing I already told you above.

 

Dear Partner,

My name is Flavia and I am the Costumer Service specialist who received your message today.



I would have called to discuss the issue, but we received your message too late at night.



Rate Mixing is a Booking.com site feature allows our system to find the best possible deal for our guests. By using Rate Mixing we increase the partners' availability, and we provide more options for our guests.



It should, however, result in a reservation having the same cancellation policy for the duration, as you said.



We apologize for the confusion regarding the last correspondence. However, it resulted in an internal error in your property being caught early.

If you have any further question, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Whenever you need us, we're always here.

--
Flavia *.
Booking.com Partner Support Team

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