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Performance score for Preferred Partner Program won't go over 60%

Hi,

I am trying to get my property in the Preferred Partner Program but my performance score seems to be stuck at 60%.

I contacted my account manager several times in the last 6 months about this. Put in a lot promotions and discounts to get my performance score higher but no movement at all and stuck at 60% for several months now. 

When I compare my property in the analytics dashboard I am ranked number 4. When I compare my sales with the peer group I am selling more rooms than the average of my peer group. So far is I can see I should be part of the top 30% performing properties.

Prices are competitive and review score is far over the minimum.

My account manager thinks I might be on a waiting list because the program is full but can't confirm this. I get no more response to my messages about this topic since beginning of July. Nobody can confirm if my performance score is not good enough or if the system is blocking my performance score because the program is full. This information is quite critical to know if the system blocks a higher performance score than I won't have to put in more promotions and discounts.

Anybody any tips about this topic or advice what to do?

Thanks!

Eric

Eligibility Preferred Partner Program


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Marzena Lasocka Gios 1 year ago

Dear Eric, 

I hope you are doing well.

To be eligible for Preferred Program, your performance score needs to be in the top 30% of your UFI. I suggest for you to enter in touch with your Account Manager who can open a ticket with our Pricing Team and verify the information. 

I hope this will be helpful to you! Will you let me know if I can help further? Thank you!

Best regards

Marzena - Booking.com

 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Thanks for your reply! Can you please tell me what UFI stands for?

I've seen I need to be part of the top 30% properties but don't know which group or area is selected. So far I am guessing that would be the peer group.

I would love to know how this performance percentage is calculated and with what it is compared with but so far everybody is referring to 'the system' that makes an automatic calculation and nobody knows how this works. 

I've been in contact with my account managers since last year about this topic. So far their advice only been promotions and discounts to get my performance up. They can't explain to me why it ain't moving and suspect a block by the system but that's where the story ends. I have a very strong feeling the system is topping my performance score at 60%. If this is so, it would be fair to have an open communication about this. 

I will ask my account manager to open a ticket at the pricing team. 

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Megan 1 year ago

Hi Eric Borst  UFI means your local area — officially the city/village/town and its geographical coordinates associated with it. If you go to your extranet, Home, and click the Data tab, you can see the local area that you are being compared with.

I'll also see if I can get any additional info on this topic internally.

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Thank you! I Looked at the info on the data tab. No surprises there as I am on an island so my UFI is the whole island. Good to know! Thanks! 

Great if you can get some additional info! Much appreciated. 

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Pitaya Native … 1 year ago

I am also stuck on the eligibility score of preferred program. around 30% in my local area. despite good reviews and being active. to whom shall i ask for help on this? hoping for a response. thank you.

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Megan 1 year ago

Eric Borst and Pitaya Native Guest House all I could find out is if you reach all of the preferred partner programme eligibility criteria but still aren't a preferred partner, this is due to the 30% limit.

To ensure that we don’t saturate the market with preferred properties, there is a 30% limit in place per local area (your city/village/town). No more than 30% of all properties in this area can be part of the preferred programme. This is a legal requirement in some regions, and to ensure the programme is as valuable as possible.

When a property becomes de-preferred - if they don't maintain their performance - then a spot will become available. 

It is important to maintain your performance so you are eligible when a spot does become available.

I don't know if your account manager has more details but I would check if they can give you more insight. Hope this helps!

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

That only the best performing 30% can be in the Preferred Partner Program is information I have seen before but if that's why my performance is topped off at 60% that would be a very wrong way to communicate my property is on a waiting list.
This insinuates that my performance is not good enough and I need to put in more effort to get my performance up. This is exactly what my account managers have been saying to me for the last 6 months and advised me to put in more discounts, promotions, higher genius level, free cancelation policies etcetera, which resulted in a lower profit on my room sales. 

If I am on a waiting list it would be fair to communicate that my performance is good enough but unfortunately the program is full and I need to wait for another property to de-preferred. So far nobody can tell me if I am on a waiting list or that its coincidence that my performance score has not been moving for months and is stuck on 60%. 

I have ask my account manager to open a ticket a ticket at the pricing team. We will discuss this topic again on august 1st and I am hoping to get some straight answers at the point. It's becoming very frustrating that everybody is referring to an automated system which nobody can't explain and nobody can't control.

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

When I go to my Extranet and I open the Performance Dashboard under Analytics I only get to see my performance score in a percentage. And like I said before, this has been stuck at 60% for a very long time and not showing any movement. There is no underlaying calculation or whatsoever what this Performance Percentage is based on. 


In my search to see how my property is performing and to see if I am in the top 30% I opened a Sales Report for the last year (26 July 2021 till 25 July 2022). Reservations by 'Stay date' and compared this with the 'market'. The report shows that my market contains 215 properties and shows the ranking of my property per month compared to the total market (properties). 

To be part of the top 30% performing properties in my market my ranking should be between 1 and 65 (30% of 215 properties).

I calculated my average ranking over the last 365 days. My average ranking over the last 365 days came out as follows:

Room nights:  Ranking 36 out of 215 (Top 30% is 1 to 65);

Revenue: Ranking 63 out of 215 (Top 30% is 1 to 65).

So far I can see, based on this calculation, my property is within the top 30% performing properties of my market. This doesn't match with the 60% performance score and the statement my property is not eligible for the Preferred Partner Program because of this performance.

Can anyone at Booking.com confirm my calculation or explain why it's incorrect? Thank you!

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Ailyn Fernande… 1 year ago

Hi Eric Borst 

Performance means much more than Room Nights and Revenue. You need to include:

  • Cancellation rate ( you might be receiving 100 rooms booked but getting 80% of those cancelled)
  • Availability (you might be top 5 on ranking but you are always closed on weekends, which are the top selling days for the destination while the other properties have availability)
  • Search Views (if people are going into your profile, looking into your pictures, etc)
  • Conversion (from the amount of people that are looking at your profile, the percentage that actually books your property, so you might have 100K looking into your profile but only 0.1% book while other might get 50K views and getting 10% booked)
  • Review rating (which you have no problems for what I see)

Consider performance as an overall not only on Room nights and revenue. 

As suggested by Marzena, contact your account manager and ask to raise a ticket to the corresponding team to verify why you are still not invited.

Hope this helps.

Ailyn

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Hi Ailyn,

Thank you for your feedback!

That sounds all great but can you tell me the exact formula how the performance score is calculated? 

Part of my problem is that there is no transparency about this. Everybody is naming different factors but nobody seems to know how the performance percentage is calculated. Everybody keeps telling me that there are many factors that determine the performance score but why can't nobody tell me how the exact performance score is calculated?
And if all those factors influence the outcome of my performance score I expect to see my performance percentage go up and down sometimes, and mine doesn't at all, it is stuck at 60% for months and months and feels like its topped off at 60%.

About the other factors you say that influence my performance score: 

My cancelation rate is 7,5% while my area average is 28,7%;

I can't find any availability percentage in Extranet but all online bookings go through only Booking.com, no website bookings, only walk inns go outside of Booking.com. I am open all year round no blocked  dates so I don't think my availability is the problem. 

My property page views is 3,41% and my conversion rate is 1,54%. 
These factors are actually very contradictive because being in the Preferred Partner Program will result in a higher ranking. Higher ranked properties will get more property views and a higher conversion rate. So if I am competing with Preferred Partners that have a higher ranking this wouldn't be a fair competition, would it?

I have been discussing this topic for more than 7 months already with my account managers but so far no straight answers. When you don't get straight answers over a period of 7 months and need to remind them every time your question has not been answered it feels like not everything is out in the open.

I already asked my account manager to open a ticket to the relevant team about two weeks ago. Still waiting for feedback. When I have their feedback I will public it here. 

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Ian Robinson 1 year ago

another problem if you are full then views can't convert so your rating goes down - again it is unfair competition against larger providers. But does preferred partner status really help sit means that you may have more bookings but at a lower rate to cover the discount that BdC tell guests comes from them when actually it comes from the partners.

To me it is counterintuitive to keep offering reduced rates ethers offers or through the preferred partner status I prefer lower conversion rates at higher margin.

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Ian at Numurka… 1 year ago

i have exactly the SAME problem.  it wont go over 60%.  been stuck on 60% for a long time.   tried many things 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Interesting! Seems like I'm not the only one having the same issues! Now let's wait and see if there comes any straight answer how this is possible. 

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Ian Robinson 1 year ago

the system also seems to use factors such as availability which we cannot change-if we are constantly fully booked then there is no availability and the score goes down - how ludicrous is that, getting a message from BDC to increase the number of rooms available to improve score shows lack of understanding of the business.

I keep being told to include family room rates but we are a location specifically directed at adults so do not have family rooms. the system is geared to a specific corporate partner and does little to support smaller independent providers

 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

I agree. Lost count on how many times I got answered 'that's just the way the system works'. Imagine us saying the same thing to our guests... 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Yesterday I had another telephone meeting with my account manager about me not being eligible for the Preferred Partner Program. Although sales over the last month have been outstanding and way above market average there is still no change in my performance score. Still stuck on 60%. 

My account managers response to this was:

- My performance score will only jump from 60% straight to 70% if it was good enough Performance scores will only show rounded percentages, never a percentage between 60% and 70%. Can somebody verify this statement? Thanks!

I asked him the results of the ticket he issued at the pricing team to verify the information about the performance score, as suggested earlier. His reply was that they can only check if my prices are competitive, and that they are competitive at the moment. Performance score calculation can't be checked by anyone.

The advice from my account manager was the same recipe as the last 8 months: Put in more promotions and discounts and let's see next month if the performance score went up to 70%. 

I am seriously considering moving my online sales somewhere else and say farewell to Booking.com. This is so disappointing and demotivating for all the hard work I put in there. It feels far from any form of partnership.

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Ailyn Fernande… 1 year ago

Hello again Eric Borst 

Ok, so let´s work together to prove wrong the theory that your property is stuck at 60%. Let´s do this... I am going to list the programs/discounts/promotions that I know they work to help partners increase performance and I need you to tell me in which of these you are already participating:

Genius 1 (10% off)

Mobile Rates

Country Rates (if available in your country)

Genius 2 and 3 

Getaway 2022 Campaign 

Protected Rates

Genius Added Values (Upgrade and/or Breakfast

Genius Dynamic

Participated in minimum 3 limited time deal promotions in the last 6 months

You have non-refundable policies AND flexible (less than 7 days prior to arrival) Cancellation policies

Weekly Rates (min 7 night stay rates)

Discounts have different impact on sales, Basic discount does not impact in the same way as Mobile, the above are the programs/discounts that have the most impact.

Let me know!

Ailyn

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Hi Ailyn,

Would love to see I am wrong in my theory! 

Here are the answers to your promotions, discounts programs I am participating in at the moment:

Genius 1 (10% off): Yes
Mobile Rates: Yes.
Country Rates (if available in your country): Yes, Domestic, European Economic Area, Switserland and UK.
Genius 2 and 3: Yes
Getaway 2022 Campaign: Yes
Protected Rates: No
Genius Added Values (Upgrade and/or Breakfast: No
Genius Dynamic: Yes
Participated in minimum 3 limited time deal promotions in the last 6 months: No, 2 in last 6 months
You have non-refundable policies AND flexible (less than 7 days prior to arrival) Cancellation policies: Yes
Weekly Rates (min 7 night stay rates): Yes

Besides above promotions there is also an early booker deal active at the moment. My average reviews are 9,7 and also give me an advantage in bookings to properties in my area. 

Can you confirm the statement from my account manager that the performance score only shows rounded percentages per 10% up? 

Thanks!

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Ailyn Fernande… 1 year ago

Hi @Eric Borst

Regarding the rounded up percentage, it is correct, you will not find a 68%.

In my experience, if partners have promotions loaded for a long time with no changes, the robot at some point, does not recognize your dynamism and gets kind of "stuck" so please work with me on these changes:

a) Increase or decrease 1% your Mobile and Country discounts (remember min discount for Mobile is 10% and 5% for Country Rates). Leave this change for about 72hrs so the robot detects a change in your promos and move them back to your original discount. 

Genius: Try Genius Level 2 and 3 along with Dynamic and if it is too high of a discount with Dynamic, then try switching on Ge2 and 3 and take off dynamic, this way the robot also detects movement on your Genius rates.

Let´s repeat the above changes for about 4 weeks and see how these changes both your sales and your performance.

Please keep me posted! I am intrigued on your case, I will not rest until you are on Preferred! :)

Ailyn

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Thanks Ailyn for getting back to me! I appreciate your determination very much!

This is what I've just done:

1. Mobile rate up from 10% to 11%;
2. All country rates up with 1% (Domestic, European area, Switserland, UK);
3. Switched off dynamic discount on Genius Level 2 and 3 as I was already on dynamic discounts;

I will leave it like this for 72 hours and then change it back to it's original status. 

Will keep you updated!

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Ian Robinson 1 year ago

Reading this it appears as though you ate offering a wide range of discounted prices but getting no benefit from any partnership schemes. Is that right?

To my way of thinking all that does is reduce your income and make BdC appear better as they advertise all the discounts as coming from them and not the facility provider, I've been amazed at the number of guests who tell me they use BdC because they offer discounts that don't affect the property owner and are amazed when told that the discount comes from our income.

 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Hi Ian,

As far as I know I have never been invited to join the Preferred Partner Program. End of 2021 I wanted to improve my ranking on Booking.com and wanted to opt in the Preferred Partner Program cause this give you a much better ranking. At that time I was not eligible and so I contacted my account manager at BdC to help me get in the Preferred Partner Program. Following her advice I've started putting in more discounts, promotions, downgrading my cancelation policies etc. all to get a better performance score.
I've stopped all sales on other OTA's and even my own website to have all reservations come through BdC and get a better performance score and have my prices competitive. Since that time I am actually waiting for the lights to turn green to join the program. As there was no movement in my performance score over time I frequently consulted my account manager but I was only getting two answers:
1. Your performance is still not good enough and need to put in more discounts, promotions etc. 
2. The program might be full and you need to wait till other properties fall out of the program and will be de-preferred so you can join.

I have some inside information about properties in my neighborhood that are in the Preferred Partner Program but their previous sales over the last year and reservations for the coming year are way behind on mine. With this inside information it all doesn't add up why I am not eligible for the Preferred Partner Program so far.

It gives me the feeling the performance score is not displayed correctly as it has been stuck at 60% ever since I started looking at this. And when your account manager at BdC only keeps advising to put in more and more discounts and promotions without any results other than a lower profit it gets me quite frustrated and feels like unfair competition. 

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Ian Robinson 1 year ago

I'm just wondering what additional benefits the preferred partner schema might offer?

greater exposure on BdC yes but at what further cost. It seems like you're already doing everything possible so I wonder whether the preference will boost your sales or just further depress your income.

I've found that all the suggested offers and discounts don't fit with our business model so we would end up significantly worse off and diluting the core of our offering to try to meet their-references rather than remaining pretty unique in our area and managing without the drive to the LCD.

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Ailyn Fernande… 1 year ago

Hi @Ian Robinson

I always suggest my partners to do a correct rate structure when you have identified the type of guests that book your property so the applied discounts and the combination of the type of guests you want and you get help with your goals instead of working against them.

I will give you an example:

Ailyn´s Guesthouse goal is to be 80% occupancy and my lowest lowest rate I would accept is 100USD. Through the analytics tab I know 70% of my guests are Genius and 50% of my bookings are done through a mobile device.  My competition is on Preferred, Mobile and Genius and their selling price is between 115 and 135USD at public rate. 

Questions for you:

1) Do you load 100USD or you load 110USD considering you have 7 out of 10 guests that will get that 10% off?  

2) Do you load 110USD considering 50% of the guests receive the mobile discount and would end up paying below my desired 100? Or do you load maybe 115-118USD and see how my rate and guests react to this change?

3) As a consumer, how many pages do you go through to make a decision on buying a product? How often do you choose or consider buying the "Shopper´s Choice" vs any other option? 

I could load 100USD and take all programs off but although I have a better price than them, Preferred Partners will appear first, then the ones on Genius and then Mobile so I would probably end up in page 2 or 3. 

So I would suggest you determine your bottom rate, find out what channel works for you in Booking, what works for you in other platforms, what is your competition doing, what are your goals and work from there. 

Hope this helps!

Ailyn

 

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hostess 1 year ago

How do you find out / locate your account manager ? I’ve never had one to my knowledge but would be good to discuss this and other issues. 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Hi,

Go to your Booking.com Extranet. Under 'Inbox the tab 'Inbox' you can select 'Booking.com messages'. After you opened this page the name of your account manager and his/her phone number should be listed in a column on the right side. 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Just changed my promo's back to to it's original status it was 72 hours ago. Also re-activated the dynamic discount on Genius level 2 and 3 again. Will keep changing the promo's and dynamic discount on Genius like this every 72 hours for the next coming 4 weeks. 

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Eric Borst 1 year ago

Hi Ailyn,

In the last 4 weeks I have changed the percentage of my promo's every 3 days and turned my Genius dynamic discount for level 2 and 3 on and off. Unfortunately there has been no change in my performance score. It has been stuck at 60% all the way. 

I have again been in contact with my account manager and his district manager. I've pointed out that there are 'preferred partners' within my market that are not meeting the requirements for quite a while. There is at least one property where the average review score is below 7 and the last review dates from April this year. 

I asked what the procedure and time limit is for preferred partners that are not meeting the requirements anymore. From what I understand there is no automatic de-preferring procedure or a time limit for preferred partners that aren't meeting the requirements anymore. The district manager told me she is going to discus a cleaning procedure for the preferred partner program in my market with her superior and will let me know about this in the beginning of October.

This action supports my suspicion that the procedure for the first properties that got into the preferred partner program might have been pretty straightforward, but that there is no procedure for properties that aren't meeting the requirements anymore or a procedure for properties that should be eligible to join but can't because the local market already has 30% preferred partners in it. 

I hope I am wrong though.