Will booking a holiday home always be the same?

[Margaret]

Apart from possibly marking the dates as taken, which seems to be regarded as optional (?), I can't see the difference between that and the way we operate - the PG just changes the check box at the top of our form to 'Booking' from 'Enquiry'. Without immediate payment of deposit, it is not automated booking as far as I am concerned. And, LV, even if people send in a booking for a particular apartment and it is reserved or not suitable for them, I have no problem with going back to them and explaining and offering an alternative and the guests have never had a problem with this either. I think it is the immediate payment aspect which concerns me most. I do agree that, once someone had paid for one particular property, they will be less pleased to be offered something else, unless it is better at no extra cost. But without the immediate payment option it just isn't automated booking in the sense of booking.com, laterooms and all the rest.

[Hells Bells]

I too would have no qualms about refusing an automated booking if it was unsuitable and returning the money paid. Pets, infants, children and over-occupancy would all be filtered out or in by the questions on the form. Unless of course they lied, and they can do that by email or telephone too.

[la vache!]

And, LV, even if people send in a booking for a particular apartment and it is reserved or not suitable for them, I have no problem with going back to them and explaining and offering an alternative and the guests have never had a problem with this either

Yes Margaret, but my point is that if the apartment is showing as reserved, you aren't going to get an enquiry for it anyway, are you? That is why my availability calendar shows availability that isn't actually there, so I can maximise bookings using the other cottages when appropriate.
And I don't think any payment system could beat the %age commission I with Payboxmail - I wouldn't want to go the Paypal route as it would be too expensive.

[Margaret]

I agree LV. I have the facility to show reservations on my own booking calendar but I don't use it. I don't mark the dates as booked unless I have the booking form and the money. But I do keep my calendar right up to date or else there is no point having it. There are plenty of people who don't look at it or don't believe it who I can try to persuade to take something else - at the moment I am being quite successful at persuading people to take a combination of 1 bed apartments if the family apartments are full - it works really well as long as the the children are old enough or they are all adults!

[LaVilleauTady]

I too would have no qualms about refusing an automated booking if it was unsuitable and returning the money paid. Pets, infants, children and over-occupancy would all be filtered out or in by the questions on the form. Unless of course they lied, and they can do that by email or telephone too.

Helen, at the point of accepting payment, you would have entered into a legally binding contract. It might not be as simple as returning the money paid. What if they had gone on to book travel arrangements secure in the knowledge that they had booked and paid for the accommodation?

It could be quite tricky to try and back out at that stage.

[mitchellbryson]

Sounds like the ideal way to take automated bookings is to set a few ground rules so you never want to decline an automated booking.

e.g.:
valid phone, email, address
limit to the number of guests allowed
are pets allowed
are children allowed
minimum stay
days before their arrival they are allowed to cancel
days before arrival that they have to pay full balance (assuming you collect a deposit to confirm the booking)
percentage deposit to collect to confirm booking
e.t.c...

basically have it do all the checks you would normally do yourself. You can be as strict or as open as you like.
This would stop any human mistakes in quoting the wrong rates at the wrong times, or missing vital information such as telling them where to pick the keys up!

[Hells Bells]

It does state in my terms and conditions that bookings are not confirmed until they have actually received the confirmation document as well as paying the deposit.
I did get a legal bod to look this over when I wrote it.
And they do need to answer questions on the booking form in order to proceed.

[stork]

I believe its the guests who will drive this and not us owners, so I pose a question for those owners who are anti-automation:
How often have you refused a booking as a result of initial personal contact ?

Once, I think - I just got a very bad feeling (the guy seemed weird). Anyway, I managed to do it indirectly, he wanted long term which we do not normally do.