Lay My Hat

Hi
Had a reservation through OD on Saturday, accepted and sent payment details. Haven't yet had a response or payment. Mailed them from personal email, which I said I would and told them to check their junk mail too. Have contacted them through OD too. Booking is for a week away. Don't know what to do. Their personal circumstances are, maybe ill and that's why they haven't replied. How long should I leave it before I cancel the reservation?

This is the main problem of using alternative payments.

If you are going to continue to use OD, then you need to sign up to HA payments as then the guest has to give a credit card to make a reservation and as soon as you accept their booking, the money is taken from their card.

This begs the question: What's the difference nowadays ( ) between an enquiry and a booking?

Of course, it could just mean that the guests are not used to doing anything with any great urgency. I do have some like that - they seem oblivious to the fact that I might have other enquiries for the same dates.

newtimber wrote:This is the main problem of using alternative payments.

If you are going to continue to use OD, then you need to sign up to HA payments as then the guest has to give a credit card to make a reservation and as soon as you accept their booking, the money is taken from their card.

I must agree with Newtimber; if you want to use OD in the future you will have to sign up to on-line payments - sooner than you might think or you'll be dropped.

Wirksworth13 wrote:Hi
Had a reservation through OD on Saturday, accepted and sent payment details. Haven't yet had a response or payment. Mailed them from personal email, which I said I would and told them to check their junk mail too. Have contacted them through OD too. Booking is for a week away. Don't know what to do. Their personal circumstances are, maybe ill and that's why they haven't replied. How long should I leave it before I cancel the reservation?

Give them a deadline - "payment within 24-hours or the dates go back on general sale".

I never mark dates out as booked until I get my hot little hands on the money, so if another enquiry comes your way for that week tell the new enquirer that you have a provisional reservation but will revert to them shortly, give the original enquirer a very rapid deadline and if they do not come up with the goods go back to enquiry number two with a clear conscience.

Casscat wrote:I never mark dates out as booked until I get my hot little hands on the money, so if another enquiry comes your way for that week tell the new enquirer that you have a provisional reservation but will revert to them shortly, give the original enquirer a very rapid deadline and if they do not come up with the goods go back to enquiry number two with a clear conscience.

I think OD blocks out the calendar as soon as you accept the booking request. The only way to free the dates is to cancel the booking - which OD will no doubt penalise you for if you don't give the guest plenty of time to pay.

This is a commission listing, yes? Another reason why I avoid them.

It's not a commission listing, but it blocked it out on the calendar as soon as I accepted it.
All worked out in the end as we received a reply and payment last night. Thank you everyone for your replies.