Booking.com - Overbooking. Urgent advice please

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Kiz
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Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 9:51 am
Location: Cotswolds

Booking.com - Overbooking. Urgent advice please

Post by Kiz »

I have been renting my property for 4 years and have recently listed my property with Booking.com. Reservations have been coming in nicely. I have synced my calendars with my other online booking platforms - all appears to be good....
Except a reservation came through via booking.com yesterday for dates which are already booked! They are telling me its my fault because I have not been using Channel Manager and therefore my reservations weren't showing up properly and I now have to find alternative accommodation for my guests and I will need to cover any extra expense!!
I don't understand how having synced calendars doesn't work?! I advertise with 3 other online companies, all calendars are synced and this has never been a problem before?
Any one had this problem? If so, how did you deal with it?
Many thanks
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

It happened to me twice and I don't use channel manager, just try to keep the calendar up to date myself. One was a same day booking when my terms are minimum 4 days notice and also I wasn't there. Second was a mistake on my part having forgotten to do an update. In both cases I rang the local help line to explain and they let me off the hook. Talking to someone at BC is the best option.
Honi soit qui peu y boit
Kiz
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 9:51 am
Location: Cotswolds

Post by Kiz »

Glad its not just me!! Still finding my feet with booking.com and I'm getting bookings, so its working, but obviously I don't want to double book! I have just spoken to the help line (I called them yesterday and they wanted to look in to why it was happening) I don't understand how just syncing the calendars isn't reliable as that works with everything I else I work with?
They've found a property near me that's available and cheaper, and I also have 2 contacts who have availability so we can find alternative accommodation for them, plus their trip is in a few weeks time.
BC have been very understanding at trying to solve the problem, fingers crossed the guest is happy! I absolutely hate letting people down.
Has anybody else experienced this with booking.com?
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

A friend declined a booking as it was for over-occupancy, but as BC don't class children under 2 in the occupancy figures, they made her pay the extra for the rebooked accommodation, despite there not being enough beds for the 7 people who wanted to stay in a 5 person apartment. As it uses bunks and sofabeds, there was no room for a cot.
I've had a double-booking and they were fine about it. I was in the car on my way back from holiday and had taken a booking through my website. In those days the calendars on BC didn't synch, and I had not been able to connect to their site using my phone.
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Cymraes
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Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

My worst nightmare! I only release certain date on Bookings and I have to update my calendar manually as a result. If it's for dates released to them I make sure I do it immediately.

How often does the calendar sync? Some only do so every 24 hours. TripAdvisor is every couple of hours and I've had enquiries from them for dates that have just been booked.
Kiz
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 9:51 am
Location: Cotswolds

Post by Kiz »

That's worrying about the occupancy numbers! I'm not sure how often the calendar syncs, but the first booking was a week before the booking.com booking came through. Obviously I realise now that I should double check every time a booking comes through that all of my calendars are up to date, but I thought that was why I was syncing the calendars? Plus its never happened before to me. It was my worst nightmare too, I absolutely hate letting people down or getting things wrong, but as far as I am concerned everything should have worked properly.....
Emmy
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Booking cancellation

Post by Emmy »

This might be helpful if something similar happens in the future:
We only use B dot for a few weeks of the year but hadn't blocked off (manually) a week that we'd intended to - it was before Christmas and was for a couple of nights late in 2018. We received automated notice of a booking but luckily I was at my laptop at the time. I immediately wrote directly to the guest, apologised and asked if he would please cancel the booking. Luckily, they had a dog and our info does say that if that's the case to check with the owners before booking, and they hadn't, so that was my reason. The potential guest was fine about it and although there was a delay in their reply, so were B dot. He (guest) had his deposit refunded. There's an option to "allow cancellation without forfeiting the deposit" or something similar. It's not easy to find and I only knew I could do this because I'd done it recently as a B dot customer. I'd booked a few nights in a B&B, paid a deposit, but then found out that the B&B had a more suitable room - but only available via their website - so I arranged directly with the owner that I would cancel with B dot, he (owner) would then tick the "no penalty" box, and then I'd pay directly in full when I arrived.
ianh100
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Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:37 pm
Location: Sherborne Dorset

Post by ianh100 »

I had this recently for a 3 week booking. my ical sync had not worked (good reminder to go and check it is now). I called the guest and apologized and they agreed to cancel the booking.

I dislike booking.com but do leave dates on there for low season, it does bring in some business for us.
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