Hi pibomarco, I have tried to do the same thing that you have suggested (sending a message template after booking) but I have had my first ever massive complaint for receiving this information only AFTER the booking. We normally allow 7 days for a free cancellation but what happens if the booking is last minute? Now to deal with this we are having to allow guests an extra 24 hours after sending the message to make sure they are happy with everything. Well, we have had a few cancellations because of this. I have put pictures of the bedroom from every possible corner but people still struggle to understand that the bathroom is not en suite. Once they paid, they pay more attention to what you say... But this means for us that the room remains blocked for those 24h in which many other people could have booked and for us is a lost.
I am afraid I will no longer want to collaborate with BDC if this doesn’t get sorted.
Hi Corinne, I agree with you and I have thought about doing that, but my cat is particularly good looking and when I moved to England I have paid almost a thousand pounds to import him as well from my home in Rome. You can immediately see he’s not like any other cat and he’s only 7 months old. I really do not want to encourage people to come here thinking that if we go out the can steal him or the kids can bother him or what so ever. And I can’t even post pictures of the kitchen as I do not want them to think that they can use it. It’s very tricky and I am really not happy with what BDC is doing. We are having to text guests to make them aware of many things and many times they request to cancel for free a non refundable deal.
Hi Karen and M Adamopoulou. I totally agree with both of you as I rent a room in my own home as well. I have tried several times to ask if I could add extra rules that guests can read before booking in order to avoid to have to tell them only after, which can be really annoying, but this was not even considered by BDC. They suggested to send a private message after booking, which is absurd. This was fine until I got a terrible review from a guest that did not read that message and was very disappointed. So if this has to impact on my business then no thank you. Much better with Air bnb despite the fewer guests.
If you go on the description of your property, you can click on “request a change”. And so I did, asking to show My description of MY property, including those house rules that I want to be super clear to everyone. I have been told I can’t as it would impact on the search tool and I would probably get less bookings! I said I rather having less bookings but from aware people, and they said they basically don’t care about what I think. All this is purely because less booking for me would simply mean less money for them. I find this absurd as it’s my house and I want to be able to do what I want with it. The person that left a shit review actually had an allergic/ asthmatic wife that came into MY HOME and looked at my cat as it was a piece of poo only because she didn’t read the message that stated that we have a cat.
I believe they want to get more people to rent their spaces on BDC so they are involving shared homes, but their system has not been adapted to this type of renting and we end up paying the price.
People think about BDC as an app they can use to book hotels. Very few know that homes are also an option and it is not enough clear.
Continue to contact the costumer service people! Something has to change!
I agree with what has been said above. Booking.com should make the rules very clear to guests and should also take a deposit to make things less awkward. And what if a guest refuses to give me the security deposit once he has already arrived?
Do others of you rent a private room in their own flat? Because although I have written the rules both on an Airbnb listing and in a private message, a guest still managed to break them. This for us meant a loss of money and privacy, apart from the fact that we are both vegetarian and he absolutely filled the fridge with meat (he was not even allowed in the kitchen, for 25£ a night).
I am now always including rules in the messages and I also ask to read them, understand them and agree prior to confirmation. How do you prevent problems?
Hi pibomarco,
I have tried to do the same thing that you have suggested (sending a message template after booking) but I have had my first ever massive complaint for receiving this information only AFTER the booking. We normally allow 7 days for a free cancellation but what happens if the booking is last minute? Now to deal with this we are having to allow guests an extra 24 hours after sending the message to make sure they are happy with everything. Well, we have had a few cancellations because of this. I have put pictures of the bedroom from every possible corner but people still struggle to understand that the bathroom is not en suite. Once they paid, they pay more attention to what you say... But this means for us that the room remains blocked for those 24h in which many other people could have booked and for us is a lost.
I am afraid I will no longer want to collaborate with BDC if this doesn’t get sorted.
Hi Corinne, I agree with you and I have thought about doing that, but my cat is particularly good looking and when I moved to England I have paid almost a thousand pounds to import him as well from my home in Rome. You can immediately see he’s not like any other cat and he’s only 7 months old. I really do not want to encourage people to come here thinking that if we go out the can steal him or the kids can bother him or what so ever.
And I can’t even post pictures of the kitchen as I do not want them to think that they can use it. It’s very tricky and I am really not happy with what BDC is doing. We are having to text guests to make them aware of many things and many times they request to cancel for free a non refundable deal.
Hi Karen and M Adamopoulou. I totally agree with both of you as I rent a room in my own home as well. I have tried several times to ask if I could add extra rules that guests can read before booking in order to avoid to have to tell them only after, which can be really annoying, but this was not even considered by BDC. They suggested to send a private message after booking, which is absurd. This was fine until I got a terrible review from a guest that did not read that message and was very disappointed. So if this has to impact on my business then no thank you. Much better with Air bnb despite the fewer guests.
If you go on the description of your property, you can click on “request a change”. And so I did, asking to show My description of MY property, including those house rules that I want to be super clear to everyone. I have been told I can’t as it would impact on the search tool and I would probably get less bookings! I said I rather having less bookings but from aware people, and they said they basically don’t care about what I think. All this is purely because less booking for me would simply mean less money for them. I find this absurd as it’s my house and I want to be able to do what I want with it. The person that left a shit review actually had an allergic/ asthmatic wife that came into MY HOME and looked at my cat as it was a piece of poo only because she didn’t read the message that stated that we have a cat.
I believe they want to get more people to rent their spaces on BDC so they are involving shared homes, but their system has not been adapted to this type of renting and we end up paying the price.
People think about BDC as an app they can use to book hotels. Very few know that homes are also an option and it is not enough clear.
Continue to contact the costumer service people! Something has to change!
I didn’t think about that! Good idea, thank you
I agree with what has been said above. Booking.com should make the rules very clear to guests and should also take a deposit to make things less awkward. And what if a guest refuses to give me the security deposit once he has already arrived?
Do others of you rent a private room in their own flat? Because although I have written the rules both on an Airbnb listing and in a private message, a guest still managed to break them. This for us meant a loss of money and privacy, apart from the fact that we are both vegetarian and he absolutely filled the fridge with meat (he was not even allowed in the kitchen, for 25£ a night).
I am now always including rules in the messages and I also ask to read them, understand them and agree prior to confirmation. How do you prevent problems?