BDC allow just about anything in reviews. You can do little or nothing about it.
On the plus side, people will see one bad review among lots of excellent reviews as a problem with the person posting the bad review, not as a problem with the hosts or the property. Keep up the good work and don't let it worry you too much.
I wish I could navigate the BDC culture. Maybe I will never understand a culture in which hosts and guests alike are ignored, problems with internet systems are ignored, and the staff spend time reading books.
I would love to celebrate BDC actually fixing one of the many bugs and problems in their systems. Just one. Even a serious response to a bug report would be a big step forward - something to give us all that little glimmer of hope that BDC is taking these problems seriously.
But yes, we should focus on the positives. AirBnB are making great strides forward. VRBO have been very responsive and are also making many improvements to their systems. The world does not rely on Booking.com and for that, I'm sure that many of us are very thanksful.
I don't have a problem with the concept of BDC using affiliates - affiliates should benefit all of us - but there are serious problems with the way BDC are using them and, in particular, not passing information to the guests.
Didem, I hope you can raise with BDC management as an issue. There is no excuse for unhappy guests.
You're not the first, you won't be the last. BDC will allow guests to do this. They support guests, not us. In fact, BDC really don't care about us at all. To BDC, we are something that a dog left on the pavement.
Make sure you require the guests address, email address and phone number for the booking - this way, you can take legal action against them if you need to.
Always take a damage deposit - never let guests stay without paying it. If they take or damage something, you can claim on the damage deposit - or if needed, take legal action or report to the police etc. Damage deposits are VERY useful.
And don't worry too much about a 1/10 review. We're all going to get one from time to time and it tends to stand out and be seen as "problem guest", not "problem owner". Continue providing the good service and the overwhelming majority of guests will be very happy.
So it's now over 2 months since we reported the bug that prevents new properties being added to our group account. I ask twice a week but get the same "we cannot give a time frame" nonsense.
It took 2.5 years for BDC to start taking damage deposits for all of our properties.
We've been reporting the calendar sync bug for around 2.5 years too. It's still not fixed - BDC are in complete denial of any problems, despite the numerous reports in this community.
I'm not sure where BDC have lost themselves, but it's certainly not in the service of others .....
Check your calendar in List mode and tick the Restrictions box - you might see it there
If not, send a message to Booking.com support from your Extranet asking them to set up the restrictions for No Arrivals / No Departures - we have to do this for every property and they normally get it set up within a couple of hours
BDC allow just about anything in reviews. You can do little or nothing about it.
On the plus side, people will see one bad review among lots of excellent reviews as a problem with the person posting the bad review, not as a problem with the hosts or the property. Keep up the good work and don't let it worry you too much.
I wish I could navigate the BDC culture. Maybe I will never understand a culture in which hosts and guests alike are ignored, problems with internet systems are ignored, and the staff spend time reading books.
I would love to celebrate BDC actually fixing one of the many bugs and problems in their systems. Just one. Even a serious response to a bug report would be a big step forward - something to give us all that little glimmer of hope that BDC is taking these problems seriously.
But yes, we should focus on the positives. AirBnB are making great strides forward. VRBO have been very responsive and are also making many improvements to their systems. The world does not rely on Booking.com and for that, I'm sure that many of us are very thanksful.
Base price and "top up". If base = 100, then AirBnb=104 and BDC=117 (not exact, this is just a very basic example)
Thanks Brooke
I don't have a problem with the concept of BDC using affiliates - affiliates should benefit all of us - but there are serious problems with the way BDC are using them and, in particular, not passing information to the guests.
Didem, I hope you can raise with BDC management as an issue. There is no excuse for unhappy guests.
You're not the first, you won't be the last. BDC will allow guests to do this. They support guests, not us. In fact, BDC really don't care about us at all. To BDC, we are something that a dog left on the pavement.
Make sure you require the guests address, email address and phone number for the booking - this way, you can take legal action against them if you need to.
Always take a damage deposit - never let guests stay without paying it. If they take or damage something, you can claim on the damage deposit - or if needed, take legal action or report to the police etc. Damage deposits are VERY useful.
And don't worry too much about a 1/10 review. We're all going to get one from time to time and it tends to stand out and be seen as "problem guest", not "problem owner". Continue providing the good service and the overwhelming majority of guests will be very happy.
So it's now over 2 months since we reported the bug that prevents new properties being added to our group account. I ask twice a week but get the same "we cannot give a time frame" nonsense.
It took 2.5 years for BDC to start taking damage deposits for all of our properties.
We've been reporting the calendar sync bug for around 2.5 years too. It's still not fixed - BDC are in complete denial of any problems, despite the numerous reports in this community.
I'm not sure where BDC have lost themselves, but it's certainly not in the service of others .....
Yup, but sadly the positives of a service mindset do not outweigh the negatives of a poor online booking system like Booking.com.
It's time for Booking.com to fix their systems so that we can all stop apologising to guests for the mistakes made by Booking.com
Check your calendar in List mode and tick the Restrictions box - you might see it there
If not, send a message to Booking.com support from your Extranet asking them to set up the restrictions for No Arrivals / No Departures - we have to do this for every property and they normally get it set up within a couple of hours