Booking.com being unhelpful

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Andy & Lana
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:20 pm
Location: St Blazey Gate, Cornwall
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Booking.com being unhelpful

Post by Andy & Lana »

Took a worried phone call yesterday from the lady across the road, who now she's on her own has scaled-down her B&B to a one-room part-time basis - she was asking if we'd had any dealings with booking.com, as they were being very unhelpful in the current situation...
....her age means she is in the high 'at-risk' group, and should therefore be self-isolating for 12 weeks - however, she currently still has a booking for Easter weekend, which has not yet cancelled. My understanding is that booking.com have told her if she initiates the cancellation, then she will be liable for any/all of that guest's expenses in regard to alternative accommodation...
....so despite the government's advice in regard to her own safety, advice to everyone to avoid unnecessary social contact, and to avoid non-essential travel, instead of being helpful booking.com appear to simply be siding with the guest who, quite frankly, shouldn't now be coming anyway...
....any suggestions on what she can do?
Took the plunge, bought a guest house!
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

She should contact another local B&B run by younger people and offer to the guests to pass the booking to them.

(Surely she can do this without including B.com??? - I don’t use them so wouldn’t know).

Or, pay someone to do the meet and greet and any guest contact. Maybe you could do this for her??
It’s only the personal contact she needs to worry about. If she follows government advice she is not at risk from anything else.
Andy & Lana
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:20 pm
Location: St Blazey Gate, Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Andy & Lana »

We have already suggested that she could redirect them to us, as we still have an as of yet uncancelled booking for the two nights beforehand...
....but we might be passing that stage already - there is such outrage growing here following some platforms promoting the area as a place to 'escape' to, that the local MPs have been in contact with No.10 to have holiday travel officially ruled as non-essential: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornw ... ts-3967417 - and the local tourist organisation has now issued the following statement: https://www.visitcornwall.com/coronavirus-covid-19 ...

....and further, we are aware that a suggestion has been made to one of those MPs that local authority Environmental Health departments could be instructed to order accommodation providers to close completely...
Took the plunge, bought a guest house!
chaletgirl
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:14 pm
Location: slovenia + NorthLancashire

Post by chaletgirl »

It’s possible to cancel a booking now through b.com without penalty as long as you are not going to charge the guest anything. We first contacted them by phone after 3 of our upcoming guests wanted to cancel. They advised us that we could cancel on the extranet, the guest would then receive a message to agree to the cancellation- no fee was charged for us or the guests. The guest can also request a free cancellation which the renter can agree to - again, no fees for either party.
kerbut
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2020 5:01 pm
Location: Sutton Poyntz and Dorchester

Post by kerbut »

Yes, I cancelled 2 Booking.com bookings by clicking on the cancel booking tab in the extrarnet page, I clicked the Guest wishes to cancel tab and it refunded in full with no penalty to the Guest (s) who mailed me thanking them for cancelling them and allowing their deposit returned in full,
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