Yes, I wondered whether there was an alternative option other than altering the check in times! As we have no issues with later check-ins for guests who have booked in advance.
The problem is usually when we get the instant last minute bookings on a Friday and Saturday night and the guest turns up at the flat, immediately upon booking, in the late hours.. usually we have not even had a chance to see the booking!
If our messages to the guests are going to the GUEST INBOX and THEN replicated to their email, the problem will arise with (some) guests because the email ends up in the spam folder.
I'm saying this because that was my experience when I booked through booking .com as a guest, the emails were ending up in my spam folder and I didn't know this...I just thought at the time that the HOST was just not communicating. That is the problem, if it happened to me then it will be happening to many others. And also as @Isle of Wight has pointed out, Booking.com are failing to verify the email addresses, postal addresses and telephone no. of guests. As a host we have had several guests who have provided incorrect address details where the postcode does not match with the area and we've also had instances where there has been a problem during the guests stay and their number given is INVALID. Even booking com were UNABLE to get hold of the guest at the time.
So this is a real problem, it's not that the guests are ' pretending ' not to have received the messages, (of course a few might try that!). But if our messages end up in their SPAM folder they may simply not realise to check this
Booking.com NEEDS to advise guests of the INBOX and they also need to alert guests to include booking.com in their contacts to avoid emails going into their SPAM folder! AND Booking.com SHOULD and MUST be verifying the guest details, to protect the HOST!!!
Since our last communication I'm reaching out to you to find out if the guest INBOX issue is being looked into and when we can expect this to be resolved.
Guests who don't know they have an INBOX are continuing to rate us poorly for STAFF in their reviews because they don't know we have communicated to them, so we are being marked down!
Surely this should be a concern for Booking com as well and would benefit all -- host, guest and booking.com to have a solution to this?
Thank you for picking up on this and forwarding to the teams.
I hadn't understood until now that some guests don't know they have an INBOX and how it's not obvious to a new guest to booking.com.
I don't understand why this problem/difficulty has not been resolved by Booking.com, surely it has a negative effect on anyone trying to book using this platform!? I do hope that this will be addressed.
Many Guests are not aware they have an INBOX. This is a big problem for the guest and for us - the HOSTS!
1. ITS unsettling and causes anxiety to the Guest, because they are not accessing our messages.
2. I communicate with my guests using the inbox with the acknowledgement of the booking upon the guests booking. Followed up with the WELCOME MESSAGE one to two days prior to the stay. Unfortunately not all guests know there is an inbox. So they presume the Host has failed to communicate. This causes problems resulting in:-
3. The Host gets a bad review for communication and for staff BECAUSE the guest doesn't know we have responded.
Thank you.
Yes, I wondered whether there was an alternative option other than altering the check in times! As we have no issues with later check-ins for guests who have booked in advance.
The problem is usually when we get the instant last minute bookings on a Friday and Saturday night and the guest turns up at the flat, immediately upon booking, in the late hours.. usually we have not even had a chance to see the booking!
If our messages to the guests are going to the GUEST INBOX and THEN replicated to their email, the problem will arise with (some) guests because the email ends up in the spam folder.
I'm saying this because that was my experience when I booked through booking .com as a guest, the emails were ending up in my spam folder and I didn't know this...I just thought at the time that the HOST was just not communicating. That is the problem, if it happened to me then it will be happening to many others. And also as @Isle of Wight has pointed out, Booking.com are failing to verify the email addresses, postal addresses and telephone no. of guests. As a host we have had several guests who have provided incorrect address details where the postcode does not match with the area and we've also had instances where there has been a problem during the guests stay and their number given is INVALID. Even booking com were UNABLE to get hold of the guest at the time.
So this is a real problem, it's not that the guests are ' pretending ' not to have received the messages, (of course a few might try that!). But if our messages end up in their SPAM folder they may simply not realise to check this
Booking.com NEEDS to advise guests of the INBOX and they also need to alert guests to include booking.com in their contacts to avoid emails going into their SPAM folder! AND Booking.com SHOULD and MUST be verifying the guest details, to protect the HOST!!!
Hello Didem - Commun…
Since our last communication I'm reaching out to you to find out if the guest INBOX issue is being looked into and when we can expect this to be resolved.
Guests who don't know they have an INBOX are continuing to rate us poorly for STAFF in their reviews because they don't know we have communicated to them, so we are being marked down!
Surely this should be a concern for Booking com as well and would benefit all -- host, guest and booking.com to have a solution to this?
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you.
Hi Didem
Thank you for picking up on this and forwarding to the teams.
I hadn't understood until now that some guests don't know they have an INBOX and how it's not obvious to a new guest to booking.com.
I don't understand why this problem/difficulty has not been resolved by Booking.com, surely it has a negative effect on anyone trying to book using this platform!? I do hope that this will be addressed.
Dear Booking.com,
We NEED you to fix this!
Many Guests are not aware they have an INBOX. This is a big problem for the guest and for us - the HOSTS!
1. ITS unsettling and causes anxiety to the Guest, because they are not accessing our messages.
2. I communicate with my guests using the inbox with the acknowledgement of the booking upon the guests booking. Followed up with the WELCOME MESSAGE one to two days prior to the stay. Unfortunately not all guests know there is an inbox. So they presume the Host has failed to communicate. This causes problems resulting in:-
3. The Host gets a bad review for communication and for staff BECAUSE the guest doesn't know we have responded.