t
1

Suggestion for Fake Credit Cards and Genius Clients

Dear Sirs.

We have a large number of Invalid/Fake Credit Cards from Booking.com clients. Many of them make large bookings and try to cancel for free during the last days before the check-in, or doesn´t show up at all. If you have a fake credit card, you are oblied to accept a free cancellation.

I am surprised to see that many of this customers are ´´Genius Client´s´´ and, after providing fake credit cards, they remain with the 10% discount from a ´´Genius Client´´.

I see Genius Program as an opportunity for customers and hotels. But from the moment that a customer is lacking in ethics with the Hotel and with Booking.com, by providing and updating invalid credit cards, they should lose the Genius discount, at least for some time (example: 3/6/12 months depending how frequent that happens). Please consider this or other options regarding some kind of ´´punishment´´ to Genius customers that have this type of behavior.

Best Regards,

PMA


Profile picture for the user f
8
fluff 5 years ago

Most partners on here share your sentiments. I fear the only cure is to somehow (depending on country and banking arrangements) have a system for taking off-line credit cards.

You can then check card validity.

You can ask for advance deposits at time of booking.

You can have a no-refund policy, linked to cancellation-policy, no-shows and deposits, that actually works.

There is also agreement on the Genius bookers being the worst offenders and, yes, I agree, one report of misconduct and status should be lost. BDC should also increase the requirement (but they won't) to achieve the status. A minimum spend spread over at least 6 bookings in a two year period would be more appropriate. Note I said spend i.e. money spent, not just bookings.

As it is now, a booker can book two stays, cancel them and then become a member!? Some know this well, I had several recently, book as normal, cancel and then rebook the same stay as Genius members.

We then get a report from BDC saying how much of our income is now generated by Genius members, are we supposed to be pleased? There is just less and less non-members remaining!

This can only lead to more and more partners leaving the Genius programme, are you listening BDC? No, didn't think so.

Hmmmm, maybe a boycott thread!!! Mru-Ha-Ha-Haaaaaaaaaa

j
2
Jem 5 years ago

In our country this problem is part of a massive immigration scam, taking advantage of the odd quirks in the booking.com system.
I'm thinking possibly some of the genius members using fake cards are the ringleaders in these people trafficking criminal schemes.
These people are using the booking.com system to get fake confirmations, using stolen or fake credit cards, for immigration scams to show proof of accommodation. We get several of those everyday. And the 24 hour wait due to the strange policy of forcing us to wait 24 hours on replacement of stolen or fake credit cards, together with the system of instant confirmation with no credit card checks, indirectly encourages the fraudulent immigration scam to continue.
We are now trying to work with immigration, the non paying scammers get deported, and hopefully they'll leave us alone, with immigration and the airline now calling us to verify reservations from the particular culprit country. Losing a bit more time, but if it prevents us wasting hours on the fake bookings it's worth it.
But sadly due to booking.com's platform system that seems almost to encourage the problem, I guess another hotel will end up with the same issue.