Managing cancellations

What should you do when a guest cancels? While it may be important to capture guest demand by offering free cancellation options, it is also important to minimise harmful cancellations. 

 

Two resources in the extranet that can help you minimise cancellations are the Opportunity Centre, which suggests actions you can take to minimise cancellations, and your cancellation characteristics report, which provides in-depth insights around your property’s cancellation rates.

 

Explore these resources on your own, or jump into the two scenarios below, one for tackling last-minute cancellations and one that focuses on reducing your cancellation rate over time.

 

Go to the Opportunity Center   Go to cancellation report

Scenario 1: You have too many last-minute cancellations/no-shows

Quick steps for tackling harmful cancellations

Last-minute cancellations and no-shows can leave you without time to recover lost income, but there are steps you can take to prevent them - plus ways to resell a room at the last minute: 

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  • Review policies/rates: Examine the time between when a guest books and checks in. You may want to tighten up your cancellation policies during time periods where the most cancellations occur. Or, consider offering an attractive rate to resell rooms at the last minute. 
  • Resell your room: The earlier a cancelled room is made available again, the more likely it will sell. Consider offering a mobile-rate discount to capture the 50% of travellers who book via mobile. You can also take advantage of sales campaigns or create your own custom promotion
  • Let us refill your room: If you’re enrolled in Payments by Booking.com, let us do the work for you with Smart Flex Reservations. We make your rooms more attractive by offering guests additional free cancellation options. If they cancel, we’ll find a replacement guest for you - or take over the payment obligation for the cancellation cost.
  • Implement prepayment/deposit policies: You can fine-tune your prepayment and deposit policies in the extranet to help secure up-front revenue. For example, you could pre-authorise the cost of the first night to reduce no-shows. Pre-authorisations expire over time, depending on the policy of each credit card company, making the moment a booking becomes non-refundable a good time to pre-authorise.
  • Ask for a replacement guest: If you prefer to offer free cancellation policies, ask for a replacement guest and we'll give your cancelled room a marketing push.

     Go to Opportunity Centre

Scenario 2: You have more cancellations than similar properties 

Understanding the key factors behind cancellations 

Examine your property’s cancellation characteristics report and compare your property’s performance against the competition in your market. If you’re unsatisfied with the cancellation rate, consider making some targeted changes:

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  • Diversify rate plans: If you only offer non-refundable rates, you may simply end up with fewer total bookings. Set up diverse Rate Plans in the extranet with a mix of early-booker, non-refundable and flexible options. By offering more choice to potential guests you can get more bookings and reduce cancellations while still securing revenue from non-refundable rates.
  • Experiment with pricing: Guests perform a cost-benefit analysis when they book, and there are different ways to persuade them that go beyond offering steep discounts. For example, consider offering a meaningful price difference between non-refundable and flexible rates, so your guests can decide whether to pay for the option of a free cancellation.
  • Offer more ways to pay: Guests who pay online are 4 times less likely to cancel or not show up. Set up Online Payments in the extranet and you can also offer alternative payment methods for the growing number of people who prefer to use services like PayPal, WeChat Pay or Alipay (among many others).
  • Be responsive: Guests who have questions after booking who do not receive a timely response may cancel and book somewhere else. Two ways to combat this are to install the Pulse app for on-the-go messaging and set up messaging tools to address commonly asked questions.

     Go to cancellation report

 

Tackle the cancellations with these opportunities

Explore more ways to tackle cancellations and their impact on your business

Read our cancellations guide

 

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