We had a toilet break and flood the room. The plumber arrived and only managed half the job because of waiting for cement to dry and re-tiling around the toilet. We were forced to tell a lovely couple who arrived that we could not accommodate them. We had spent the entire morning attempting to find somewhere else in peak season and eventually we booked them into the last remaining room at a hotel 2 miles away. We paid the full price which was €200 above what they had paid us and gave them a copy of the bill so they had a proof of payment at the hotel - they could therefore see we had paid well over what they had given us in re accommodating them. Further we drove them to their new hotel and left them in the hands of the receptionist having confirmed all was paid for. That was all 'paid back' in a 10/10 review from them saying how kind we were and thanking us for all we had done - they never actually stayed 1 day in our establishment.
Tough one. I would say middle aged men who are here on business, book in with a business card and are never in - just coming back late to buy a bottle of wine before retiring and then leaving early so the cleaners can access their room. The worse are women with long dark hair that seems to be moulting on the bedding, floor and clogging the sink and shower whilst also appearing in clumps around the dressing table. Next worse are the children that are hyperactive and insist on running everywhere and leaving sticky sweets on the floor which attract columns of small ants.
That information came from a Booking.com communication to me saying I was not meeting the criteria for preferred partnership programme. Not much I could do other than to restrict other agencies - I work on first come first served basis so it is totally possible for Booking to c70% - if they give me the guest bookings faster!
What no one has mentioned, 70% of your inventory needs to be with Booking.com. I have had a 9.4 Review score over 5 years but since taking on Expedia as well - our sales are now:
1) Booking.com
2) Expedia
3) Direct Bookings
The issue now is that Expedia and Direct Bookings combined have reached 40% so Booking.com is writing telling me I now fail to meet the criteria. What am I to do - Expedia monitors our inventory and if we allow more rooms to Booking than them we run foul of our agreement with them - we are suppose to offer same rates and same spread.
What is happening is that Booking.com are failing to sell enough rooms in time and the slack is being taken by an increase in Direct Sales (commission free to us) and Expedia.
I work on the principle that although preferred partner is great, if I cannot be in it and Booking sell less, I will simply have more exposure in their competitor so it is a bit of a own goal by Booking.com in my view.
You should not decline them - that would be discriminating. I would say that the fact you took the pains to warn them and they feel the accommodation will suffice you are covered. We had a gentlemen who came in a wheelchair but he could travel short distances of about 200 yards with a stick.
We also had stand up showering cubicles but we have non slip shower mats and a suction cup disabled handle to assist standing. You can also put a small plastic stool in the shower. They managed OK and we had no issues.
In the unlikely event they turn up and then complain bitterly about the facilities, you produce your emails and basically say 'tough cheese'. If they decide to go elsewhere, you are entitled to your cancellation fee if you have one.
The end of the year is not the busiest for us - our peak is March - October - but I understand the question.
We revisit our rates and look back on the previous system and re-evaluate our rates for next year. Especially useful is the comparison software provided by Booking.com to compare our rates to competitors - we made changes during the year based on this. You really want to launch with correct rates so advance bookings are accurate as possible and you are not undercutting yourself!
Something we also do during the quieter 'off season' when rooms are empty, and that is the time to wash walls, repaint if necessary, fix things that fell apart but could not be fixed properly while guests were on site. I had two rooms where we had water leaks - fixed but requiring post fix decoration. We hid the unpainted plaster from a fix behind a chest of drawers! Not ideal, but the plaster has to dry out and we had no opportunity to repaint the wall while the room was booked up solid!)
It is also the time to review your linen, rugs and items of furniture - check plastic balcony chairs - they start to get fatigue cracks for the UV light and people 'riding' the chairs on two back legs. Replace if they look dodgy - cheaper than a claim if one should break with a guest on it!
We had a toilet break and flood the room. The plumber arrived and only managed half the job because of waiting for cement to dry and re-tiling around the toilet. We were forced to tell a lovely couple who arrived that we could not accommodate them. We had spent the entire morning attempting to find somewhere else in peak season and eventually we booked them into the last remaining room at a hotel 2 miles away. We paid the full price which was €200 above what they had paid us and gave them a copy of the bill so they had a proof of payment at the hotel - they could therefore see we had paid well over what they had given us in re accommodating them. Further we drove them to their new hotel and left them in the hands of the receptionist having confirmed all was paid for. That was all 'paid back' in a 10/10 review from them saying how kind we were and thanking us for all we had done - they never actually stayed 1 day in our establishment.
Tough one. I would say middle aged men who are here on business, book in with a business card and are never in - just coming back late to buy a bottle of wine before retiring and then leaving early so the cleaners can access their room. The worse are women with long dark hair that seems to be moulting on the bedding, floor and clogging the sink and shower whilst also appearing in clumps around the dressing table. Next worse are the children that are hyperactive and insist on running everywhere and leaving sticky sweets on the floor which attract columns of small ants.
That information came from a Booking.com communication to me saying I was not meeting the criteria for preferred partnership programme. Not much I could do other than to restrict other agencies - I work on first come first served basis so it is totally possible for Booking to c70% - if they give me the guest bookings faster!
We are using Siteminder and our Direct booking is handled by them too, under the software name 'Booking Button'.
Very easy to use, reliable and covers most 3rd party booking agents.
What no one has mentioned, 70% of your inventory needs to be with Booking.com. I have had a 9.4 Review score over 5 years but since taking on Expedia as well - our sales are now:
1) Booking.com
2) Expedia
3) Direct Bookings
The issue now is that Expedia and Direct Bookings combined have reached 40% so Booking.com is writing telling me I now fail to meet the criteria. What am I to do - Expedia monitors our inventory and if we allow more rooms to Booking than them we run foul of our agreement with them - we are suppose to offer same rates and same spread.
What is happening is that Booking.com are failing to sell enough rooms in time and the slack is being taken by an increase in Direct Sales (commission free to us) and Expedia.
I work on the principle that although preferred partner is great, if I cannot be in it and Booking sell less, I will simply have more exposure in their competitor so it is a bit of a own goal by Booking.com in my view.
What country are we talking about here? I presume if we are in different countries we can ignore this?
You should not decline them - that would be discriminating. I would say that the fact you took the pains to warn them and they feel the accommodation will suffice you are covered. We had a gentlemen who came in a wheelchair but he could travel short distances of about 200 yards with a stick.
We also had stand up showering cubicles but we have non slip shower mats and a suction cup disabled handle to assist standing. You can also put a small plastic stool in the shower. They managed OK and we had no issues.
In the unlikely event they turn up and then complain bitterly about the facilities, you produce your emails and basically say 'tough cheese'. If they decide to go elsewhere, you are entitled to your cancellation fee if you have one.
The end of the year is not the busiest for us - our peak is March - October - but I understand the question.
We revisit our rates and look back on the previous system and re-evaluate our rates for next year. Especially useful is the comparison software provided by Booking.com to compare our rates to competitors - we made changes during the year based on this. You really want to launch with correct rates so advance bookings are accurate as possible and you are not undercutting yourself!
Something we also do during the quieter 'off season' when rooms are empty, and that is the time to wash walls, repaint if necessary, fix things that fell apart but could not be fixed properly while guests were on site. I had two rooms where we had water leaks - fixed but requiring post fix decoration. We hid the unpainted plaster from a fix behind a chest of drawers! Not ideal, but the plaster has to dry out and we had no opportunity to repaint the wall while the room was booked up solid!)
It is also the time to review your linen, rugs and items of furniture - check plastic balcony chairs - they start to get fatigue cracks for the UV light and people 'riding' the chairs on two back legs. Replace if they look dodgy - cheaper than a claim if one should break with a guest on it!