Lay My Hat

Apex Blue - yes, I have a strict cancellation policy but ABB are trying to override and are clearly taking the view that owners should take the losses, not the guest. Home Away have just sent an email to owners giving advice that "in the event of a cancellation, in the spirit of good hospitalit...

I've had 4 cancellations in the past 3 days - 3 of these are trying for a full refund from ABB (currently they are only due 50%) and I have had their Support Team on my back for each one suggesting that I give a full refund. One party is in the UK, the others are overseas. The latest email from them...

Can't tell you the amount of times I've given a small occupancy discount only for my Housekeeper to call up to let me know the house is completely full. Rule now same price if it's 1 guest or 7 guests end of.

That's terrible - name and shame the owner? If that is how they treat you, I wonder how they treat their guests.

Thanks Vacancesthezan - I do send an attachment with the booking confirmation with all contact details, etc. but I need to send the paypal request to their email. If I got a paypal me link I wonder if it would work on a .pdf file? Even so, I like to send a proper invoice with the booking ref, dates,...

Thanks Felicity - it is ridiculous! Wish me luck having to try and explain that one. I have a few properties so wonder if the alternative payments option will just expire at renewal time.

HA/OD now don't release the guest email and phone number until I have marked as paid. So how then do I send them the Paypal link for payment? Do I just mark as paid (even though they have not) and then send the Paypal payment request and confuse my guests even more than they are already. Nearly with...

The worst (so far) was I have a family turn up for the wrong week! We only found out after they had been in 6 nights! House hadn't even been changed over - You'd have thought she would have at least been in touch to mention that.

My first thought is, guests will book, they then find out as they always do they could save a packet booking through my website, then mess me around by cancelling and booking direct.

How strange - one listing is as usual in the old style, which I have just updated. The other has gone to the nightly calender today and keeps crashing every time I try to update. Doing some checks on that listing, I have now gone to a fixed nightly charge of £82.00 - God knows where that has come fr...

I don't accept any bookings at all during peak season and restrict the calendar to only a few month's ahead - I think I've only risked 1 full week's booking via Airbnb ever - it just doesn't work for me other than for short infill breaks.

Both ads are astonishing examples of how to get it wrong. And it's our money that they are wasting big time on this.

I must be getting old - it's true that more and more guests don't seek direct contact and prefer the 'book now' approach as my growing bookings via Airbnb testify. I always send a personal thank you to everyone that stays, check all was ok with their stay, hope to welcome them back soon, etc etc. So...

I've just received it too - so all contact details will be hidden from now on to protect us? Come on. Not sure what the auto-decline clause is all about - does this mean if we don't get back after 24 hours the property is hidden off the site? Sometimes I answer questions or raise a question and need...

Apexblue at least they used a reputable and trusted Locksmith then! Between us we probably keep them in business