Booking.com - no, I don't want a flat full of dead hookers

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

Bunny wrote:
casasantoestevo wrote:It would not work for us either but never really saw the need to start a conversation about it.
You do realise that joining in any conversation topic is optional? :lol: :wink:
:D :D :D
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

edinburgh wrote:Oh gosh, I didn't mean to poo on anyone's breakfast.

Anyway, I like much of booking.com but I don't see why I shouldn't point point out their crazy schemes as and when they send them to me.
I for one am grateful for edinburgh's post. It's always useful to know how various booking sites regard their Customers, the level to which they don't understand their business, and the depths to which they will sink and drag their Customers with them for the benefit of their shareholders.
If I'd received the email that booking.com have sent and another one from somebody offering to poo on my breakfast, and was forced to choose between them, I'd be getting the cornflakes out. At least pooing on my breakfast would be a rather more honest approach than quietly dumping it on me, assuming I'm too stupid to realise, then charging me for it. :evil:
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Bunny wrote:
You do realise that joining in any conversation topic is optional? :lol: :wink:
No way? Well if you had not told us then we would not have realised. Thank you for your words of wisdom, they are always appreciated..........

Getting back to the serious matters of this post.
Lets get this in prospective:
All portals are breakfast poo at not giving you what you want, if this forum is to be beloved. Portals have millions of customers world wide. But why are you the only one that matters?
An email, like this example, are sent out all the time. Just like old postal junk mail it must be worth the senders time and effort or they would choose a different marketing plan.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Martha
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Post by Martha »

I've been avoiding booking.com for a long time. Their offering is far more geared towards hotel rooms, though they tried to convince me otherwise with a couple of long phone calls a year or so ago, claiming they were changing to take account of the differences in the market for holiday rental properties.


I think it's a useful and interesting point and I'm glad you posted it. More and more of the sites try and push you towards instant booking. The more instant the better, of course, as far as they are concerned, and for a hotel with plenty of capacity, this is perhaps a useful function. They don't care if they get a few no-shows, and they can get all the details at check-in.

It's very unlikely that any holiday let is going to want to book this way.

So it's useful to see that, in spite of their claims, they don't even bother to have their emailing database segmented into "hotels" and "not hotels". Portals do indeed have huge numbers of customers (millions though? I am not sure), but that is a very easy and fundamental marketing division to make for the industry they are operating in.

It confirms that they are definitely still to be avoided as far as I'm concerned.
Chalet la Foret, Chamonix
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

casasantoestevo wrote:
Bunny wrote:
You do realise that joining in any conversation topic is optional? :lol: :wink:
No way? Well if you had not told us then we would not have realised. Thank you for your words of wisdom, they are always appreciated..........

Getting back to the serious matters of this post.
Lets get this in prospective:
All portals are breakfast poo at not giving you what you want, if this forum is to be beloved. Portals have millions of customers world wide. But why are you the only one that matters?
An email, like this example, are sent out all the time. Just like old postal junk mail it must be worth the senders time and effort or they would choose a different marketing plan.
Don't you mean believed, not beloved? Or is that a Freudian slip?! :) I like reading about other sites and then I know which ones to avoid when I read things like this. Please, everybody keep posting. I don't think Edinburgh thinks he is the only one who matters and why would you mind him posting? We all matter.
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edinburgh
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Post by edinburgh »

At the end of the day, until Paulo tells me to STFU I'll carry on posting things that interest me.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

edinburgh wrote:At the end of the day, until Paulo tells me to STFU I'll carry on posting things that interest me.
....and interest (and inform) others.
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Post by zebedee »

+1

The diversity of information on this forum is fundamental to why we all read and contribute.
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Sorry your post makes no sense.
Either you want diversity, i.e. the views we have made and therefore cannot say anything about those views.
Alternatively you want to stop the diversity and thus us adding our views. :roll:
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

casasantoestevo wrote:Sorry your post makes no sense.
Either you want diversity, i.e. the views we have made and therefore cannot say anything about those views.
Alternatively you want to stop the diversity and thus us adding our views. :roll:
Well, now you have completely lost me! :roll:

Booking.com is now firmly off my list. The world has gone crazy. Thank you for posting, Edinburgh.
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Sanchisimo
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Post by Sanchisimo »

Firstly, the title of the thread seems rather flippant but it did have me bark out loud with laughter.

Secondly, with the rental portal market changing so rapidly (or so it seems to me) it is informative to see what they are up to. As we have just started renting a city apartment (soon to be two), I understand that the methods of obtaining bookings are different to our rural house up a mountain located down a dirt track. A city apartment is up against hotels and so booking . com could be a good source of bookings. Well, thanks to this post I can see the potential pitfalls of 'instant bookings' and what to look out for. The idea that I could sleepwalk into taking a booking from someone for whom I have NO details and handing over the keys to one of my major assets is terrifying.

Cheers (but don't spoil my breakfast again).
Essar
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Post by Essar »

I too find the moaning about the listing sites used tiresome - if you don't like it, step away! However, many of these whinges do lead to a meaningful discussion that digresses all over the place - these can very good and informative, sometimes even funny.

However, I see nothing wrong in keeping others abreast of what is happening in HR land and what is being sent out and received by both owners and guests.

I know I have just contradicted myself; but then I think I used to be indecisive, but now I am not so sure. :lol:
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
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roxytoo
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Post by roxytoo »

Edinburgh thank you for posting. I don't advertise with them and haven't seen this before so is important for me so I can keep on top of it all, makes me laugh too. I know I will get slammed for it but I don't care, casasantoestevo has a real problem...........
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Poxy2
Happy, secure people have no need to put others down.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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edinburgh
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Post by edinburgh »

Oh for **** sake.

I enjoy bitching about booking engines. Therefore I'll do it.

Some people enjoy my posts, some people think I'm a moaning tosser. However, given the thread title, I'm surprised anyone who finds posts moaning about booking sites objectionable even opened it.

This is the Internet. You will sometimes see stuff that you don't like.

Love

Joe
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