How Long Do You Wait Before Re-Listing After Missed Balance?

[Mozzie]

I would appreciate some advice. For the first time a booking has missed the balance of the rental deadline (I have 1 month before rental period begins). My procedure is to send a reminder 4 days ahead of the deadline with all the details. When the deadline was missed, I sent an email saying I hadn't received it and let me know if there was a problem. Still not even a reply. Now 2 days overdue - it is the weekend now there so I can't check my account for another day, but I do ask them to email me when they have deposited and have had nothing. Question : How long should I wait before relisting my dates on the listing site and telling the booking I have done this? They are a large group for Christmas.

[Nemo]

Ring them. Emails can go astray and things happen in people's personal life that you will be unaware of. You haven't got long enough to hang around, so a phone call, assuming you reach them, should clarify the matter quicker.

I ask for the balance 8 weeks before so I have a far greater chance of reletting within that time frame.

[Hells Bells]

I also opted to take the balance 8 weeks before, and allow a maximum of 2 weeks overdue, so that I still have 6 weeks to get a booking. If you have a phone number, call them.

[Mozzie]

Thanks Nemo, I will try that. Yeah, I will have to change my T & C to have balance paid earlier. I see most others do that and now I am seeing the benefit.

[Mozzie]

Helen - good to know. Ta.

[arkvilla]

I also have balance paid 2 calendar months before travel and my t&c's also include a cancellation policy depending on when they cancel - anyone is welcome to take a look and use any bits of it (t&c's are on my website)

[greenbarn]

The combination of the balance being payable only one month before start date, and a reminder 4 days before, is cutting it fine; the guests may well be away and forgotten the fact that the balance is due, and hence no response to the emails. With the logistics involved for a large group, the timescale is even more demanding. Yes, they presumably knew when the balance was due when they originally booked and should be on top of it, but (insert possible reason!)

That doesn't help your current situation, and you're right to be feeling twitchy. The bigger the group, the greater the possibility of the booking going wrong, and the twitchier I'd feel.

As long as potential guests have to enquire, and you don't have a system where they can automatically book if availability is shown on your listing site, I'd be very seriously thinking about listing the period as available. If you get an enquiry for the period before you've heard from the existing booking, you're faced with the problem of how to handle that, ("we've just had another enquiry; I'll need to check and come back to you" or something) but I'd rather that than be another week down the line and desperate to sell if the original booking cancels. You need to be acting to minimise your potential losses.

If you have another means of contacting them, go for it asap. If not, relist availability and send another email to the original guests explaining that as you haven't heard from them, as a precautionary measure you've relisted the period but hope they still want to go ahead etc etc flannel flannel - after all, if it all goes through as planned you want to keep the relationship sweet.

A question to ask yourself - if you don't relist it today, or tomorrow, would you relist on Monday, or Tuesday, or........

[NonnaGiulietta]

I am amazed seeing how this pattern of behavior is widespread on this forum, practically the majority. I don't think there's someone in Italy to adopt the same policy, at least I've never heard of it. In any case I doubt that a few guests would agree to pay well in advance for a service that is still far to be returned. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure it would be legal

Oh, but I must say that I'm also admired, and that I envy you. In this way the entrepreneurial risk is completely wiped off!

However, just to put you aware of the fact that beyond your borders there's a suffering world, I must tell you that, in the same situation, we would have retained the deposit in full, while re-listing the property immediately. Not only that, but the most forward-looking among us - including the undersigned - in the happy chance of a new booking for the same period, would have credited the guest with the deposit amount for a new stay to be agreed

But like I said, lucky you...

[greenbarn]

In any case I doubt that a few guests would agree to pay well in advance for a service that is still far to be returned. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure it would be legal

Depends on Contract Law in your particular country, or the country under whose law the booking contract is made.

[Lindisfarne]

Yes it's really easy for us in the UK and there is no recession over here - Well i'll sit back relax and count the money then !

[Nemo]

You may well be amazed Nonna but for most of us it's how the rest of the world works, including in your own country. I booked and paid for an Italian villa two months ahead as expected by so many businesses. There are exceptions of course, but to suggest that we are not aware of the "suffering world" is just quite frankly insulting.

English may be your second language but you know enough to insult - and this isn't the first time either!

[NonnaGiulietta]

English may be your second language but you know enough to insult - and this isn't the first time either!

I feel bitter about this reaction. I think it is completely gratuitous. Why the hell could I ever have to insult you? My post was stuffed with emoticons, what else should I do to warn of an approach fundamentally ironic? Tell me, Nemo, do you have sense of irony?

There's a beautiful American proverb which says "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". To paraphrase, I think you can see evil intentions in others only if you yourself are inclined to evil thoughts. Unfortunately, the above quotation shows that you already had something you could not swallow, I wonder what. For my part I can only confirm you that the "suffering world" was just a witticism, free you to believe me or not. And by the way, my temper is that if I wanted to insult anyone I would not use methods so oblique.

To return on the topic, mine was a generic statement, of course. I cannot exclude that there are Italians who practice this policy with Brits, knowing they can do that. At the same time, I cannot be surprised if Italians going to the Land of Albion bend to this policy, knowing there this is the ubiquitous rule.

But it's almost all the afternoon that I'm surfing on HomeAway, looking for apartments, even very expensive ones, in Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Milan, and I have not yet happened to find one that wants to be payed in full two months earlier. At the same time, I observe that more and more Internet marketplaces tie the listing score to the owner's willingness to work with flexible payments. Don't know how you think, but I see a dissonant trend in this.

I'm not saying you are wrong in doing what you're doing.
But can I at least express some marvel?

Greetings to all

PS: No emoticons so far

[Mozzie]

Green Barn - good advice thank you. It is Sunday there today so will wait till Monday before phoning out of respect and to keep things sweet. Sorry about the heated debate I started!!

[Mozzie]

Nonna - sorry you are upset over this. Interesting you mention the word oblique in your post because I have a lot of trouble understanding the meaning you are trying to express in your posts. I have rented self catering places myself and am happy to pay upfront as asked - if I wasn't I would not agree to their T & C - it is not like we aren't telling guests at the first contact how the financial arrangement will go - and they agree to it. Have a great day Nonna. P.S. When I booked airline tickets 3 months ago I had to pay immediately.

[Nemo]

Nonna. Sometimes less is more. Perhaps you say too much? The first forum rule is:

1. Be nice! It is fine to attack an opinion but not the person expressing it. Some forums are spoiled by bickering among its users. Rude posts will be deleted.

When you tell me (paraphrasing) that I see evil intentions in you as I have evil thoughts myself then I feel you are breaking that rule.

Look back at my 2000+ posts and you will see I never look for evil.

You may think you are being ironic but I don't find you so. Feel free to express your opinions but I have found by reading you so far quite judgemental. Whether that is you or your grasp of the language I cannot tell.

None of this helps Mozzie with her post so I do not wish to get drawn any further into a discussion with you of what you believe is right.