Smart Flex reservations: FAQs

Smart Flex reservations are backed up by Booking.com demand data. We use this data on a daily basis to work out when to offer a flexible cancellation policy and who to offer it to, so that you have the best chance of generating a booking that is less likely to be cancelled. Because of this, it’s possible that you won’t begin receiving Smart Flex reservations immediately after you opt in to the programme.

Each time you do receive a Smart Flex reservation, you can find it by looking for the Smart Flex tag on the Reservations page in the extranet or on the Bookings page in the Pulse app. If you use a channel manager or property management system, you can identify Smart Flex reservations by checking the cancellation policy field or the comments and remarks area.

A Smart Flex reservation works the same as any other booking you receive. The only difference is that a Smart Flex reservation has an extended cancellation period.

Even so, we’ve added some additional information in the extranet to help you understand everything about the Smart Flex reservations you receive. To find out more, take a look at this video – you can also use the subtitles to watch this in your own language.

Note: We’ll make sure you receive Smart Flex reservations when our data shows it’s most likely the guest will stay as planned. When you do receive Smart Flex reservations, please check the updated details on the Reservation details page in the extranet to make sure you’re aware of the updated cancellation policy.

You can check the cancellation policy of a Smart Flex reservation on the Reservations page in the extranet. Click on the booking number of the Smart Flex reservation you’re interested in, then scroll down to the Policies section.

If a guest cancels a Smart Flex reservation during the Smart Flex cancellation period, we’ll start searching for a replacement guest for you right away, as long as the room is still open and bookable.

First we’ll try to resell all of the cancelled nights at once. If a new guest only books some of those cancelled nights and not others, we’ll continue reselling the remaining nights. To increase the possibility of finding a replacement booking, we recommend removing the restrictions.

While we’re looking for a replacement guest, we may boost your ranking or use price incentives to make your property more attractive and encourage travellers to book with you. If we do this, we’ll cover any costs involved, and you won’t have to offer any discounts yourself.

In the end, if we can’t find a replacement guest, we’ll compensate you based on your original cancellation policy.

Once we’ve found you a replacement guest, you’ll see that guest’s booking as a new reservation. You can treat it just like any other booking.

The replacement booking will also be linked to the original Smart Flex reservation. In the extranet, you’ll be able to see the updated reservation number on the Reservation details page of the cancelled Smart Flex reservation. If you use a channel manager or property management system, you’ll be able to see the same information in the comments and remarks area.

If we foresee any Force Majeure events, we’ll stop offering free cancellations to guests from the Smart Flex Reservations programme. This way, we prevent new bookings with a higher chance of cancellation. For example, if a new lockdown is announced due to the pandemic, we’ll stop offering free cancellation from the Smart Flex Reservations programme to guests. However, we aren’t responsible for finding a replacement for an existing Smart Flex reservation according to the general terms and conditions for Force Majeure cancellations.

If a guest cancels within your own original free cancellation policy period, then the extra free cancellation period offered by the Smart Flex Reservations programme does not apply. The cancellation is therefore treated the same as any other cancellation you might have, the same process applies as your normal bookings, and Booking.com does not have any responsibility to look for a replacement.

In most cases, Smart Flex finds guests that don’t cancel their reservation and in these instances, no action is required. However, if a Smart Flex reservation is cancelled, you must ensure that the reservation remains open and bookable – with no restrictions in place, such as minimum length of stay. This helps us increase our chances of finding a replacement guest. If these actions are not performed and we weren’t able to find a replacement guest because of these limitations, we’ll not be able to compensate you for this reservation.

You can find clear instructions on managing Smart Flex reservations here (Section 2).

To allow us to find you a replacement guest, we work on a night-by-night basis. If the room is still open and bookable, first we’ll try to resell all of the cancelled nights at once. If the replacement guest only books a portion of the cancelled nights, we’ll continue reselling the remaining nights. In this scenario, removing any minimum length of stay restrictions you have in place will increase the possibility of finding a replacement guest.

If you collect payments using virtual credit cards or via bank transfer, the process works as normal. You can see the payment details on the Reservation details page in the extranet.

If you collect payments by charging the guest’s credit card, you should validate the card as soon as the cancellation period expires. If it’s valid and the reservation details don’t change, you can charge the card during check-in or check-out as you would normally. If it’s invalid, please report this as soon as possible and we’ll start searching for a replacement guest again.

Remember that we’ll charge commission on all reservations that earn you revenue, just as we would normally.

You can see the payment information for Smart Flex reservations on the Reservation details page in the extranet. In the Smart Flex rooms summary section, you can find out who to charge for the reservation and when.

When a guest cancels their reservation during the Smart Flex free cancellation period, you'll need to keep the reservation open and bookable with no restrictions. If you've actioned this and we’re still unable to find a replacement guest, we will compensate you based on the original cancellation policy you set. 

If you normally receive payments using virtual credit cards (VCC), we’ll activate a VCC for this payment after the original stay date of the cancelled reservation. You can see the VCC details in the extranet’s Reservation details page as well as in your channel manager or property management system.

If you normally receive payments by bank transfer, we’ll send this payment as a bank transfer. You’ll receive the payment according to your usual payout schedule.

You charge VCC for a Smart Flex reservation in the same way as you do for other bookings. To find out more about how to charge a VCC, take a look at this article.

You should validate each guest’s credit card as normal when the cancellation period expires. If it’s invalid, report it as soon as possible. 

If you need to charge a guest’s credit card for their reservation, you’ll receive access to the credit card details when the Smart Flex cancellation period expires. You should validate it right away. If it’s invalid, you need to cancel the reservation and mark it as invalid. If these actions are not performed within 48 hours, you might run into the risk of partial or no replacement found. To find out more about marking credit cards as invalid, take a look at this article.

When you receive a Smart Flex reservation, you can identify it by looking at the cancellation policy field in your channel manager or PMS. If you don’t have a cancellation policy field, look for the words Smart Flex Reservation in the comments and remarks area instead.

We’ll include information about Smart Flex reservations in the confirmation, modification and cancellation messages that we’ll send you as normal. All of these messages will contain the words Smart Flex Reservation so that you can easily recognise them.

To make sure you always see the full details of each booking, we also recommend you regularly check the Reservations page in the extranet.

In this situation, we’ll send a cancellation message to your channel manager or PMS. To see the details, look for the words Smart Flex Reservation in either the room description field or the comments and remarks area of your channel manager or PMS.

We’ll start searching for a replacement guest right away – as long as the room is still open and bookable. We’ll do this by first trying to resell all of the cancelled nights at once. If a new guest only books some of those cancelled nights and not others, we’ll continue reselling the remaining nights. You must ensure that any restrictions such as minimum length of stay are removed to increase the chance of finding a replacement guest. Once we find a replacement guest, you’ll see the guest’s booking as a new reservation. The booking details will contain the words Smart Flex Reservation.

If we can’t find a replacement guest, even if the rooms are open and bookable with no restrictions in place, we will compensate you based on the original cancellation policy you set.

If the guest pays for their reservation by credit card, once the Smart Flex cancellation period ends we’ll send you a modification message to ask you to check and validate the credit card details.

If you collect payments using virtual credit cards or via bank transfer, the process works as normal.

You can do this in the same way as you do for other bookings. To find out more, take a look at the ‘Channel Manager: Credit Card’ section of this page.

To opt in to the programme, log in to the extranet, click on Opportunities and then click on Smart Flex Reservations programme.

If your property isn’t in mainland France, French Guiana, Mayotte, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Pierre and Miquelon or Réunion – then you’ll be enrolled in the Smart Flex Reservations programme automatically.

We understand that this programme might not suit your property’s needs right now. If you’d like to opt out, you have two options:

If you want to stop using the Smart Flex Reservations programme temporarily, you can opt out for up to three months. After your temporary opt-out period expires, we’ll re-enroll you in the programme automatically.

If you want to stop using Smart Flex Reservations for longer than three months, you can opt out indefinitely.

To opt out either temporarily or permanently, log in to the extranet, click on Opportunities and then click on Smart Flex Reservations programme. Click on leave this programme at the bottom of the page, select indefinitely or the number of months you’d like to leave for and then click on Save.

Note: if you opt out of Payments by Booking, we’ll also remove you from the Smart Flex Reservations programme. If you later opt back into Payments by Booking, we’ll re-enroll you in the Smart Flex Reservations programme automatically.