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Rate is being listed cheaper than the actual rate

Hi guys,

On the BCD, I just found out one of the date's rate is being listed at 275.08NZD with a discount of 8%. I have double checked the Extranet and the Channel Manager to confirm the rate is 299NZD, and I didn't create any promotion for these dates. Has anyone met this situation before? This has been reported to the support team, but they can't find the problem. Is BCD offering a discount separately for the public?

Thanks,

Best regards,

Shirley


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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Dear Shirley,

There could be a few factors that can add a discount to your rate:

- genius option is open for your property and you've taken part in it

- you've chosen a campaign (attention, not promotion)

- you've set a rate that gets automatically reduced by a set %

This is what I could think of.

Hope that helps in the troubleshooting.

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Shirley Ye 4 years ago

Thanks for your help,

I can tell you are really an expert!

I have emailed via Extranet's inbox and received the reply :

This discount appears to be our Early Payment Benefit. The Early Payment Benefit program creates a more compelling price for our customer if we have indication that we might not receive the most competitive rate.

This indication is determined as any partner that does not have a Price Quality Score (PQS) of 70 or above. To find out more about your PQS, please visit the Price Performance Dashboard in your Extranet.

The rates shown are specifically designed for our customers and have the added partner benefit of:

· Increasing the likelihood for you to sell your inventory
· Limit search costs for consumers by assuring the most compelling price when available
· Lower cancellation rate & instances of invalid credit cards as all bookings are guaranteed payment
· No cost to the your property, you receive the same end rate

Kind regards,
Booking.com Partner Support Team

Have you heard this program before? Our property was automatically joined without a notice.

So I have continued to make the reservation and found out that:

The guest can choose to pay in advance and enjoy the discounted price at 275.08NZD or pay at arrival at 299NZD. If the guest chooses to pay in advance, our property will get a Booking.com Virtual Card with a same rate at 299NZD, which means the Booking.com uses the 15% commission we paid to them (299*0.15=44.85NZD) to pay the difference (299-275.08=23.92NZD) while offering discount to the guest. They only get 44.85-23.92=20.93NZD after all.

It has no cost for our property, but just this kind of way seems not fair to our official website's best price guarantee. By the way, Agoda has been offering same program to attract more bookings. If Booking.com continually promotes the discount, we might change the rate to the Booking.com.

I am still following up with the Support team.

Thank you!

Shirley

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Sales 4 years ago

Hello Shirley,

Same issue with our properties. Something more. This early prepayment benefit breaks the price quality score in other channels like Expedia for example.

We also thing to have a different price policy to Booking.com.

Regards,

Vasil Ivanov

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Shirley Ye 4 years ago

Hi Vasil,

Thanks for your comment,

Yes, it did break down our Expedia Quality Score which was shown Poor now due to the channel comparisons. I will have to talk to the local account manager if Extranet Inbox didnot reply.

Stay tuned,

Best regards,

Shirley

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Hunterhouseonthehill 4 years ago

Hi

I am not happy that this has been automatically been applied to my properties without any permission from me the owner and host.

Why is it not being offered as a PROMOTION like all other options? I believe that Booking.com is in breach of its contract in applying this 'EARLY PAYMENT BENEFIT' without my permission.

Using the PQS (Price Quality Score) of 70 or below as a reason to be able to instigate this benefit is not acceptable and no excuse for taking the power of decision making away from the host.

I have contacted Booking.com directly and have asked for it to be removed from my properties post haste. It breaches my agreement with other websites about offering similar competitive rates and is just not acceptable. I wonder how Booking.com would feel if I just put a totally different price on their website compared to other websites I list with, I bet there would be an uproar!!!

Best regards

Susan

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Michael McCarthy 1 year ago

Were you able to opt out? I got added to this as well no advance notice

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Michael McCarthy 1 year ago

Were you able to opt out? I got added to this as well no advance notice

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Dorte Suurballe 4 years ago

I completely agree with you Susan. I am appalled by the business "ethics" shown by booking.com. This discount has also automatically been applied to our property without any permission from our side or any notification from booking.com.

Best regards,

Dorte

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Briarscottage 3 years ago

I don't do discounting, want all channels including ourselves to be the same, just found out we're on the scheme too with 6% discounts being given without our permission. have asked to be removed, let's see what we get back.

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Briarscottage 3 years ago

We had been signed up to Booking Sponsors Benefit programme. They were quick to remove us when asked, but only after giving us a marketing spiel on how good it was for us, ie. reducing prices at booking.com cost (and undercutting us), etc, etc.

now that we’re out of it, it’s now popping up as a an Opportunity to sign up :) 

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Briarscottage 2 years ago

It came back a few months ago and this time they refused to stop discounting. Spoke to so,wine who was rather rude and passive-aggressive . However I worked out that you need to be signed up to accept prepayments to “participate” 

wondered why we were getting so many virtual credit card bookings - undercutting 

we opted out of prepayments and discounting ceased 

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BrookAve 3 years ago

 

 

ah lads come on dont be so thick , BdC didnt enable those features that give discounts and stack, you did it yourself.

 

 

BdC doesnt enable them , they just tell you about them as popup banners etc and you thern click to enable or opt-in, blaming anyone else is counterproductive, and a misconception.

 

Then it spreads the misconception to others and round and round it goes.

 

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Vicki Webber 2 years ago

Actually.  

BDC DO discount without telling/asking you at all.  They call it "Booking Sponsored Benefit Program".  

BDC set it up, and the only way to get off it is to call them.  It has nothing to do with the owner setting it up - accidentally or otherwise.

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Still Point Lodge 2 years ago

They have done it to us twice now, without consent or opting in. The first time it was removed by simply asking (September 2021) then reactivated by Booking.com. Now they will not remove it and support just keeps passing me around various levels of manager. Now they are ignoring us altogether. AWSOME partnership!

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Briarscottage 2 years ago

Opt out of accepting prepayments - they can’t discount and fund discount out of their commission, worked for us 

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Michael McCarthy 1 year ago

What are the drawbacks of prepayment? I just started it with BC today.

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Omeo Motel 2 years ago

This has just happened to my property too....... feel like a right idiot telling the guest they are wrong with rate :(  Did anyone else have any luck getting discount removed Thanks Margie

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Vicki Webber 2 years ago

Yes. We just called the normal support line and they took it off immediately with no issue.  They tried to spin it as a plus for us which we weren't having.  It is not a policy which you can opt in or out (even by mistake) on the booking dashboard - in fact, it is not even there.  Booking.com apply it automatically, without consultation or agreement, and they are the only ones who can remove it.  We put a complaint in about it but have heard nothing back.

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BrookAve 1 year ago

 

NOTE: you should never tell a guest its wrong rate ,as the universal golden rule, is the price displayed is the price paid.

the only exception is if a rate is for say one person and 3 turn up and its occupancy based.



 

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Michael McCarthy 1 year ago

So guests paid reduced rate and your payout was also reduced?

 

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Michael McCarthy 1 year ago

I just noticed I had this activated without any notification, there appears to be no way to opt out, am guessing in the long run thiy benefits BC more than us

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jJeannette Ellis 1 year ago

After almost 10 years without using any booking platform, I decided to put just one room on booking.com. Only this week a guest contacted me confused about paying only £204 for a stay advertised at £272!!!! Like many others on here I knew nothing about this. At this time I am unable to opt out of the Booking Sponsor Benefit. This goes against everything I have worked towards, on my own, to create a successful business. For prices to be compared with other local businesses is quite unfair. All businesses offer a different service. It is direspectful to so many of my regular guests who have been staying with me for many years and paying the advertised prices.

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Briarscottage 1 year ago

Opt out of accepting prepayments - they can’t discount and fund discount out of their commission, worked for us