Lay My Hat

We currently give 7 days for both. Generally folks return the BC within hours and payment within a day or so. But, as always the ones who demand xyz and push the boundaries are always the ones to pay at the 11th hour, leaving me wishing they would change their mind and go elsewhere (currently have one such senario on the go).
Sometimes I mark the days as unknown but in most cases leave open until something is received.
Hope others on this forum will give me an indication if our time limit is to generous and what they allow?

I stipulate that I will hold the dates for five days. Generally the prospective guests are in email contact during that time so it is rarely an issue. If I feel they are deliberately delaying payment I email them advising I have another query for overlapping dates and require them to finalise or loose the booking.

On a side issue I now just email them a copy of my booking terms and conditions and ask them to confirm agreement by email rather than by printing, signing, and returning. Not sure how legal this is but most guests are happy with this. I also offer the old option signing the contract if they prefer.
Declan

48hours!

3 days but now not accepting cheques will change to 2 days.

I don't give them a timeframe at all, knowing that if I say I'll hold it for 3 days they will take 3 days. If I get another enquiry for the same period, I email them and ask them to pay within x amount of hours which will be the same day, or to confirm that a cheque/bc is in the post. I don't block it off the calendar until they've paid. 7 days is way too generous and not necessary with today's technology. I've recently had a booking deposit take two weeks to materialise. Luckily for them no one else enquired for the same period, but had they have done I probably would have just taken the other booking and emailed the original guest to say that the period was no longer available. Gosh I sound hard.

I don't stipulate a time frame but if deposit not received within 48hrs I will send a reminder & the dates do not get blocked of until deposit received. We do still take cheques as we have quite a few older couples who prefer it & they usually are well organised & book in advance.

I've shifted down to 48 hours, particularly as I'm now taking online reservations. Once I agree the booking, the clock starts ticking - the dates are marked as provisionally booked until I get form and payment, or until the 48 hours is up if I'm being hard nosed. Natch I tell the guest to blame it all on the booking management system I use automatically making dates available again after 48 hours, although the reality is that I do it manually (after the reminder from PIMS )

This has just given me a brilliant idea for another PIMS feature to give e-richard yet another headache - when dates are provisionally booked, how about if PIMS showed a countdown clock instead of just a different colour? Now that really would focus the mind! All in favour?

greenbarn wrote:when dates are provisionally booked, how about if PIMS showed a countdown clock instead of just a different colour? Now that really would focus the mind! All in favour?

Why not? That's what Airbnb do to me to remind me to respond to an enquiry in reminder emails! Mind you it does irritate me.

I was five days and I reduced that to three last year in line with faster payments being more across the board. If they're paying by cheque I mark it in my system so I know there will be a delay in receiving funds. A recent guest said they'd pay by cheque, but rang me today as she hadn't sent it and was a concerned she wouldn't lose the dates as the third day had passed. She then paid by bank transfer to secure them and I got immediate payment.

I don't provisionally reserve dates on my calendar - I will only block them out when the deposit is received. If I get an enquiry which crosses over the dates from the earlier one then I notify the party, which tends to focus their mind and put an end to procrastination!

I don't block my dates either. That's why the guest was keen to secure them - she knew they could potentially be booked by someone else. In reality I wouldn't send another booking form to a second party but I would make contact to secure the original booking or release them for the second.

I'll hold provisionally for 72 hours pending final decision and booking form; then guest has 7 days to get deposit into my bank account.

I know this is much more generous than most, but I'm very happy with it. I can honestly say that it's never been taken advantage of and the offer of 72 hours breathing space is much appreciated.

It works for me because we're a bit of a niche market: we get relatively few enquiries, but convert 95-100 per cent of them. If you tend to be on the other end of multiple fired-off enquiry forms then I can see it would be a PITA. Like everything else, horses for courses.

French Cricket wrote: Like everything else, horses for courses.

Absolutely - I've just blown my 48 hour rule out of the water because a guest needs to confirm flights, which is not a common situation for us - but I know it is for plenty of others!

Casscat wrote:I don't provisionally reserve dates on my calendar - I will only block them out when the deposit is received. If I get an enquiry which crosses over the dates from the earlier one then I notify the party, which tends to focus their mind and put an end to procrastination!

+ 1

No pay no stay!

I use to allow 48 hours but now allow only 24. This way, if I have another inquirer asking me to send the booking form for the same dates, I tell them that I have already sent the booking form to a guest but would they like to go on a waiting list in case the first guest does not go ahead with the booking. This way I do not loose the second guest because most times they will go on the waiting list because they know they will find out in 24 hours if the house will be available for them.