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Angela @Promhills
We are a small (5 room), family run, self contained cabin property, we live onsite and like to welcome each guest personally. We love to travel ourselves (especially cruises).
WOW, you're in a busy area with lots of competing properties! My area has just 7 properties (and I'm 1/7). You could try increasing your property page score by ensuring your listing is complete. You need to try and get your property to rank higher. Try to secure more bookings and more reviews to rank-up.
Did you mark the booking as a no show or a cancellation? If you did, then b.com should have never sent them a review email and you could contact b.com and insist they remove it as you had already advised the guest did not stay
If you wish to allow him to cancel but get no refund, then click on "we can not fill this request". It will then be up to him to cancel the booking knowing he wont get refunded or to keep the booking, either way you'll get paid. This is normal and happens for us with pretty much every cancellation handled by b.com call centre - they seem to have a protocol to request the property to waive the cancellation fee and issue a refund - it's very frustrating they do this. I always reply that we only process cancellations according to our policy and this cancellation is within the no refund period. You have every right to enforce the policy as the guest agreed to when booking, they're just trying to avoid the charge.
I think you should state that parking is NOT available. With parking possible for only 10% of your rooms, I would not consider this a feature of your property. Save your 10 parking spots for direct bookers or people who call and request parking. Where do you expect the other 90 apartment occupants to park? Is there plenty of street parking? If so, perhaps change your description to say street parking is available, people then realise that they need to search for a street spot and wont expect a reserved space.
If you are still charging the guest for the cancelled night and therefore it wont affect the commission you will pay to b.com, just agree with the guest and make the change in your system, no need to alter b.com if nothing is changing on their end. However, if you are not charging the guest, it must be done via b.com to alter the commission they will charge you. In this case, the guest should do it either via phone, the b.com app or website. If you telephone b.com to change it, they will then phone the guest to confirm before they make the change anyway, don't waste you time on hold with b.com, if the guest wants to change their booking, tell them they need to change it with b.com as that is how they booked.
Make sure the pictures are beautiful but also a true representation. Guests like to receive what they expect and what they have seen online, make sure they do get what they think they are getting, but also present your property from the best angle in the best light
WOW, you're in a busy area with lots of competing properties! My area has just 7 properties (and I'm 1/7). You could try increasing your property page score by ensuring your listing is complete. You need to try and get your property to rank higher. Try to secure more bookings and more reviews to rank-up.
Did you mark the booking as a no show or a cancellation? If you did, then b.com should have never sent them a review email and you could contact b.com and insist they remove it as you had already advised the guest did not stay
If you wish to allow him to cancel but get no refund, then click on "we can not fill this request". It will then be up to him to cancel the booking knowing he wont get refunded or to keep the booking, either way you'll get paid. This is normal and happens for us with pretty much every cancellation handled by b.com call centre - they seem to have a protocol to request the property to waive the cancellation fee and issue a refund - it's very frustrating they do this. I always reply that we only process cancellations according to our policy and this cancellation is within the no refund period. You have every right to enforce the policy as the guest agreed to when booking, they're just trying to avoid the charge.
Great suggestion re photos Mike - photos often sell a room!
I think you should state that parking is NOT available. With parking possible for only 10% of your rooms, I would not consider this a feature of your property. Save your 10 parking spots for direct bookers or people who call and request parking. Where do you expect the other 90 apartment occupants to park? Is there plenty of street parking? If so, perhaps change your description to say street parking is available, people then realise that they need to search for a street spot and wont expect a reserved space.
I normally do it the morning after their reservation date.
If you are still charging the guest for the cancelled night and therefore it wont affect the commission you will pay to b.com, just agree with the guest and make the change in your system, no need to alter b.com if nothing is changing on their end. However, if you are not charging the guest, it must be done via b.com to alter the commission they will charge you. In this case, the guest should do it either via phone, the b.com app or website. If you telephone b.com to change it, they will then phone the guest to confirm before they make the change anyway, don't waste you time on hold with b.com, if the guest wants to change their booking, tell them they need to change it with b.com as that is how they booked.
Make sure the pictures are beautiful but also a true representation. Guests like to receive what they expect and what they have seen online, make sure they do get what they think they are getting, but also present your property from the best angle in the best light