Booking.com

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
Gettingthere
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Booking.com

Post by Gettingthere »

Has anyone tried listing with booking.com?
If so how are you finding it?

Newtoit
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

For me, it's been fine now that I've sorted out an initial problem with no-one wanting to pay for their bookings. Now I can accept cards and ask them to add the CVC code to the booking, I've had no problems. Most of my summer bookigs were through them this year. I had a referral link for 5 commission free bookings, but they seem to have suspended the programme for now, so if anyone else still has a link available perhaps they can offer it to you?
Gettingthere
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Post by Gettingthere »

So do you get sent all the client's contact details to deal with them direct, or is it all confined to the booking.com platform as with TA, OD etc?

If you're taking payment independently, how are they ensuring they get their commission? (which is how much btw?)

Cheers
petitbois
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Post by petitbois »

been with them 5yrs - good for increased B&B bookings, not so for gite (holiday cottage) bookings. Mostly short stays & we have ltd B&B to 2nts minimum & gites to 3-5 nts minimum. Increase prices to absorb the 17% commission. Down side - no-one reads the small print so can lead to problems, Up-side - a great way to gain new regular guests. Everyone is now listing with them so competition is fierce - we have a third of our past level of bookings via them this year, but have also gained a lot now guests book direct. French in particular know about the commission so now phone us to negotiate a price beneficial to us both. Someone who booked a 1 nt stay 3 yrs ago, returned last year for 3nts 2rooms & this year booked the entire estate for whole family for a week - would probably never have found us otherwise.
JP
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Post by JP »

I am getting plenty of bookings through them, I let them handle all the payments which seems to stop all the none payment cancellations some people report, The only down side is I don't get paid until 16th of the following month but for me this isn't a problem. My bookings range from 2 nights to a 2 week booking I have just received from Canada.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

They invoice me at the end of the month following departure for the commission, and it is taken by direct debit.
sylvainbg
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Post by sylvainbg »

I have most of my clients from booking.com. Works great for me. It's also said:
"We’re sorry but our free commission programme is currently on hold, please come back soon. You can still track your previous rewards below."
Woz
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Post by Woz »

We have had a lot of bookings via Booking.com and have generally found them to be fine. We use them to take payments for their bookings and this, too, has worked out well. The only thing I wish they would do that they don't is to manage damage deposits and damage deposit refunds. They won't do this so you have to arrange to handle these yourself. This has put a few guests off and caused some issues when we approach guests who have booked and paid through Booking.com to request our damage deposit payment via our own online payment portal.
Gettingthere
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Post by Gettingthere »

Thanks for this. I've started to fill in an entry with them. So far I can only see a way to enter a per-night price. Do they allow a minimum number of nights? Our set-up costs are fairly high, so we don't take bookings for less than 3 nights. Is that going to be possible? And if so, can you remember how?
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Yes, you can set minimum nights. Click on the range of dates in the calendar to set prices and add other info. Min nights is one of them,advance notice of booking is another.
Gettingthere
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Post by Gettingthere »

Great - got that thank you.
Now I can't work out how to discount for longer stays. I front load charges to cover set up costs, but if someone is staying for say 6 nights, i don't want to charge them twice as much for 3 nights. This can be done on airbnb but I cant see how to on booking.com
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

If you have questions phone customer services. They have always been of great help to both us and the guests we have had though them.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

I sorted that by charging a 'linen and cleaning charge' separately from the nightly price. It is added as a compulsory charge to all bookings as a fixed fee, regardless of how many nights. This fee has the added bonus of not attracting commission.
Gettingthere
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Post by Gettingthere »

Thanks Hells Bells. Very helpful suggestion. And not one I imagine booking.com would have suggested!
sylvainbg
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Post by sylvainbg »

I have also a service fee (don't want to called cleaning fees as guests will think they can leave the place dirty)
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