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No shows

  My first two bookings were no-shows. I am now losing money using booking.com. I am now sending messages to the guests to get confirmation but none have replied. Will these be all no show also? When will the non refundable deposit go into effect and how to collect.


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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hey there,

Thanks for asking, it's quite a learning curve when you first get Booking.com.

All payments are your own responsibility. So you always need to ensure that you are able to get the payment. Some people (like myself) prefer card details only because then the guests physically can't book without loading a card onto the system. Instead of struggling to get hold of the guest to get an EFT transfer, I just swipe the card. If it doesn't go through, then I mark it as invalid and cancel the booking after the grace peroid.

I suggest doing that. I can't really tell you what to do about the other reservations that you think will be a no-show, excepto to maybe phone Booking.com and ask them to validate the guests.

Let us know how it goes, best of luck!

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Graham Fisher 5 years ago

Non-refundable deposit can be done immediately Maxima, you just say this in your Bdc terms and then collect the deposit via your card machine... using the card details provided.

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Marius 5 years ago

Graham i read your explanation ,but what is Bdc terms ?

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Maximahostal 5 years ago

Me too what is Bdc?

Also, we don't have a credit card machine.

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Friedakooms 5 years ago

i have the exact same problem and do not know how to get payment. feeling stressed. Any sraight forward simple on how to get payment please.

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Friedakooms 5 years ago

Thank you for sharing. How can l get the card machine?

Thanks.

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Friedakooms 5 years ago

l feel so lost. Thanks for sharing your experience.

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Rood Aarde 5 years ago

I also have a freaking problem with ‘no shows’! I have changed my booking policies by requiring a deposit and submitted my banking details, yet l still receive these ‘scam’ bookings!! So Booking.com advises also to charge a cancellation fee, but if l cannot accept credit/bank cards, how can l ever collect this fee from a guest?
I think it would be much easier to address this problem if booking.com would give us the option to accept or reject a booking (like Airbnb does), and also to require full payment at the time of booking (like Airbnb does) and pay the host as soon as the guest(s) has/have checked in. I find it such a nuisance that we (hosts) are left on our own to deal with a problem that could so easily be controlled by the company. I think booking.com should improve on this issue. They can control this, they should control this!

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Friedakooms 5 years ago

Thank you all for explaining. Not as simple .

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Graham Fisher 5 years ago

Apologies for the delay responding Maxima and Marius - busy, busy.

Right Bdc = Booking.com

"Bdc terms" - these are not terms set by Bdc but your own cancellation and prepayment policies written into your Bdc page. If you have not set these up before - on the Extranet click on "Property" -> "Policies" -> "Cancellation and Prepayment policies" here you can choose one of the preset policies or play around with the one that suits you best.

However, trying to operate with Bdc without accepting card payments is operating with one arm tied behind your back - their booking system (and customers) assume card payment as standard either with a system like Stripe or with you having your own card terminal. Despite being small, we have our own GPRS terminal so that I can charge for payments wherever I am in the UK - you always get someone trying to book and pay when you are away on holiday yourself, so I take the card machine with me...

If you do get your own machine - do make sure you are set up for "Card Holder not present" payments however, forget this and you have more problems.