Lay My Hat

On the plus side this evening I've received two enquiries within the space of an hour for next year. On the down side they are both requesting the same dates within a day of each other!

The first enquiry is from OD, 6 adults, two weeks from 25 August. I have the option to either accept the booking or reply first and/or, as I am on subscription, I also have her email address, so can reply directly. If I accept the booking via OD then I won't see a penny until nearly September next year!

The second enquiry is for 2 adults, 3 kids, from 24 August, 7/8 nights. This enquiry has come through direct to me, so if they book I'll get the deposit straight away and balance in June.

Ill reply to both in order of receipt and keep my fingers crossed I don't get both wanting to book and that awkward moment. My gut feeling is I'd have a better chance of a repeat booking from the family, plus extremely likely to get a booking for the following week anyway.

Will the OD enquirers not pay you directly? I wasn't aware that OD withhold payments. I have only had one person pay via the OD 'online payments' method but I received both the deposit and the balance payments within about four days of the guests sending payment.

From experience if you are on subscription with OD and the guest pays online you do receive both the deposit and the balance as separate payments from OD (via Yapstone) and this takes about 7 days to come through to your account from the time you are notified that the guest has paid (less the card transaction fee on the payment).

Sam if you are on subscription and have not been receiving payments shortly after your guests had paid then you need to be onto OD soonest.

I would choose the one that suited me best and reply to them saying that whilst it is available, you had another enquirer wanting to book just an hour later than their enquiry. I would explain that you offer it to whoever enquired first, but under the circumstances you would need a decision/deposit payment within 24 hours as you have to let the other enquirer know if it is still available.

I would then contact the other party and say that you had just offered it to someone else just before their enquiry. I would tell them that you have given the other enquirer a deadline and will let them know if it is still available in the next 24 hours. If they really want your property for a whole year away, I'm sure they'll wait to see if you can offer it to them instead.

It's always worked out for me doing it that way. I personally, wouldn't offer it to two people at the same time unless I told them that it was offered elsewhere and it was a case of first to pay the deposit gets it.

Bunny wrote:I would choose the one that suited me best and reply to them saying that whilst it is available, you had another enquirer wanting to book just an hour later than their enquiry. I would explain that you offer it to whoever enquired first, but under the circumstances you would need a decision/deposit payment within 24 hours as you have to let the other enquirer know if it is still available.

I would then contact the other party and say that you had just offered it to someone else just before their enquiry. I would tell them that you have given the other enquirer a deadline and will let them know if it is still available in the next 24 hours. If they really want your property for a whole year away, I'm sure they'll wait to see if you can offer it to them instead.

It's always worked out for me doing it that way. I personally, wouldn't offer it to two people at the same time unless I told them that it was offered elsewhere and it was a case of first to pay the deposit gets it.

That is exactly how I do it, though I would reply to the OD enquiry through the dashboard to keep response rates up AND ALSO send them a personal email pointing out that if they book through OD they will get a whopping 'service charge' added to the cost of their break.