Lay My Hat

So, just for the record here's my latest 'Reservation Request' experience 'twixt me and the guest/enquirer.

Yesterday evening I received this request but didn't respond until this morning. As I am on OD subscription, and will remain so as long as possible as I still receive the guest email. This enables me to send a quote first from PIMS then reply from OD with my quote and inform the guest I've also emailed them directly, check junk mail etc.

So, my OD quote is more expensive then my direct quote 'cos of the Service Fee added by OD, so I can only hope the guest is savvy enough to make the right choice.

This afternoon I received a call from the guest a little confused, particularly from the OD perspective. Suffice to say, the conversation ended with his decision to book direct through me.

He'd also emailed me in reply from my direct email:

This email comes as a bit of a shock, we had no option to pay through yourselves, we had to pay at the time of booking.

We have therefore paid £1187.28 already. I assume that is for the rental, the extras which we would have had anyway and the £300 damage fee.

So in reality we have paid £142.50 more than we should have done if we’d have booked through you, which as we weren’t given any option isn’t a very good way to start a holiday.

Do I need to contact the company to discuss this situation with them or can you sort it out for me?

Kind regards

D

So, not only was he not happy with the extra fee, but ALSO confused who to call about it, he did in fact call OD, not happy at having already been charged but being charged extra. Also, he confirmed there was NO fee breakdown between my charge and the service fee, one price plus VAT.

Bit by bit, our interaction with the guest is being taken completely away from us.

This is what they want, of course, but not what we paid for.

Well I'd be very interested to hear the response from OD, but we all know the answer to that one. Good luck to him. He also seems very confused about who is to blame for not giving him the option to avoid the fee. There is an inference in his tone and asking you to sort it out for him, that he believes that you are in cahoots with OD and are quite happy for your guests to be charged the service fee. It sounds to me like he believes hosts are guilty by association. So, if OD will not 'sort it' for him, is he going to cancel?

I am a bit confused as to the situation right now because you say

Sam V wrote:Suffice to say, the conversation ended with his decision to book direct through me.

He'd also emailed me in reply from my direct email:

This email comes as a bit of a shock, we had no option to pay through yourselves, we had to pay at the time of booking.

We have therefore paid £1187.28 already.

So he has paid and now understandably wants to cancel. I think the only way he can do that and get his money back is to get you to cancel his booking? Will that affect your standing in the listings? I guess you become one of 'OD's unwanted' then and get shoved downwards in the listings? But does he not have a case for a chargeback on his credit card if the service fee is not made completely clear in his payment details?

If Sam cancels, won't Sam also get stung with a reverse credit card fee?

At no point did I accept his booking via OD, I just emailed him from my dashboard and via PIMS. The enquiry dashboard enquiry has now expired, it appears it was only 'available' for 24hrs. I agreed I would 'cancel' the booking request but as it had already expired the only alternative I could see to do was send a 'not available' email, so if a payment has been taken from his cc by OD it should hopefully confirm to now cancel, I hope. His grievance wasn't with me, but OD for adding the service fee he'd not agreed to nor was aware of and he was more than happy to book direct with me. I advised him to check out ODs FB page too!

Bunny wrote:...he believes that you are in cahoots with OD and are quite happy for your guests to be charged the service fee. It sounds to me like he believes hosts are guilty by association...

I spotted that same erroneous way of thinking when reading that "Reject Owners Direct" trail of postings on FB. Someone there thought the service fee was added by OD for the benefit of the owner, who then pocketed it!

This is a big mess, Dara, as you may find out to your cost.

Didn't the You and Yours Radio 4 programme discover the same thing? In other words, even though the guest simply requests a booking, they're charged for it anyway, regardless of whether the booking is taken, rejected, or expires.

If this is still happening, then I can't see OD winning many friends on the traveller side of things.

So if the booking request had expired and you hadn't clicked 'not available', would he have got a refund automatically anyway, and without affecting your ranking?

Please let us know if he reveals any more to you about his conversation with OD concerning the service charge, and whether you get any repercussions from OD for not responding in 24 hours.

Bunny wrote:So if the booking request had expired and you hadn't clicked 'not available', would he have got a refund automatically anyway, and without affecting your ranking?

Please let us know if he reveals any more to you about his conversation with OD concerning the service charge, and whether you get any repercussions from OD for not responding in 24 hours.

I did send a response within 24hrs, his original enquiry was at about 19:40 on Sunday, I replied with a quote in the morning, the enquiry then expired Monday evening, by which time he'd booked direct with me. I can't recall if I've had an enquiry 'expire' before, maybe there's something in settings I'm not aware of (recently added by OD perhaps?)

The additional admin OD are creating for me is wearing me down!

Ah, I think I understand the conversation now. So although he has 'paid', in fact OD don't take the money from his card unless you press 'accept'? That is the hope anyway. A 'hold' on the money. Still very inconvenient for people with a low limit on their card.

Bunny wrote:So if the booking request had expired and you hadn't clicked 'not available', would he have got a refund automatically anyway, and without affecting your ranking?

Please let us know if he reveals any more to you about his conversation with OD concerning the service charge, and whether you get any repercussions from OD for not responding in 24 hours.

I did send a response within 24hrs, his original enquiry was at about 19:40 on Sunday, I replied with a quote in the morning, the enquiry then expired Monday evening, by which time he'd booked direct with me. I can't recall if I've had an enquiry 'expire' before, maybe there's something in settings I'm not aware of (recently added by OD perhaps?)

The additional admin OD are creating for me is wearing me down!

FelicityA wrote:Ah, I think I understand the conversation now. So although he has 'paid', in fact OD don't take the money from his card unless you press 'accept'?

That was my experience as a holidaymaker this weekend - wrote about it here: viewtopic.php?t=26670

From what I remember from the Radio 4 program, in this situation OD don't take the money from the CC. They put a reserve (don't know the technical term) on the amount of money in the guest's CC account. When DD take the actual booking, more often than not because the client thinks they have already paid, they take the reserved money.

The guest thinks the money has gone at enquiry stage. Although the money is still in their CC account they cannot use it as OD have reserved it. I have no idea how long OD take to unlock the reserved money.

The European CEO of OD was interviewed and stated that this was normal retail practice!!! I thought his questioning by Radio 4 was not of their normal challenging level. I don't think the interviewer fully understood the issues. Can anyone?

They do the same thing when you buy fuel at a self service pump where you pay by card. It will authorise a maximum spend, usually way in excess of the amount your tank will hold, and that money is effectively frozen and takes a few days to be released again. Mostly you don't notice but I know someone who had a difficult few days financially because of it.