This is very interesting since we’re located right on the Swiss border and guests that have come from Australia or the US did book 3 days because they do a city tour through Europe. Surely there will always be a demand for both short- and long term stays but the distance from the guests’ home didn’t necessarily correlate with the length of their stays - at least with us.
In St Lucia, lots of guests split their stay between the north and south part of the island, so there are a number of guests that only want 3 nights even though they are on-island for a week. But I don’t target those guests unless I have a “hole” to fill, and I set up my channel manager software to avoid getting many 3-4 night holes.
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Sure, that’s just one factor. But I am located in a touristy little Mexican surf town that is a “destination” tourist trap. For sure, I do get some guests who book for a few nights, and then move on to some other area of Mexico, but for the majority, this is their only destination. (One guest I had was in town for 2 weeks, but had booked 3 other places besides mine for that time period, as she figured if she didn’t like one place, she wouldn’t be stuck there for the whole trip, so that can also be a factor in how long guests book for)
In Europe, travelers who come a long way may want to take advantage of that long trip by visiting as many different countries as possible, and experiencing as many different cultures as possible, and as travel distances between countries isn’t that huge, it’s not hard to do.
While visiting a big city like Guadalajara or Mexico City is certainly a different experience than staying in a small coastal village, and there are all sorts of different landscapes and climate zones, with a land mass of almost 2 million square kilometers, travelers to Mexico don’t experience a different culture or language no matter how much they move around.
My friend’s hotel had a double booking during holiday times (when doubles are likely to happen).
cancelled the BKC guest. Let’s say it was 2 nights hotel at $300/night. Booking.con said the only place they could find for the guest was a vacation home at $1500/night. And my friend’s hotel had to pay for it.
So the policy is just completely out of whack. This is if you cancel them right away within minutes. It’s not like the reservation was sitting there for months and you cancel on them at the last second. It’s like a small inventory error that is basically impossible to prevent can cause a massive penalty.
I quit bkc after I got fed up when they did something similar to me and never paid them.
I am expecting a $2000 + refund from b.con because the host cancelled my accommodation for 8 guests the I booked 6 months ago for my daughters wedding …. They cancelled 2 months before the wedding in our school holidays period.
They offered completely unsuitable replacement accommodation that was over an hour away or a resort with bunk beds for adults- the host behaviour was absolutely appalling and I am complaining to every tourist authorities going!
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Yeah. that sucks and is a good use case for the policy. Why did they cancel and why do you THINK they cancelled?
They said that they were taking it off hosting sites……
Then there’s the hosts who put their place up for sale, but wanting to wring every last penny out of it, continue to take bookings far in advance, then cancel on all the guests when the sale closes.
Or if they sell it to someone who is going to continue to use it as an str, simply assume they can transfer the listing, along with the booked guests, as if they were part of the furnishings.
Got the refund today from BDC for the cancelled by host booking for my daughters wedding
First booking was $1997, replacement booking was $3300, refund was $1303……….
Has taught me to never ever cancel a BDC booking, it’s expensive!
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Happy to hear it all worked out in the end for you!
Of the three major platforms (BDC, AirBnB, Vrbo), BDC has, by far, the most onerous cancellation penalty for owners unless there are a lot of similarly-priced properties nearby. The downside is that it scares off legitimate hosts (like us) that don’t play games but know that sometimes sh#t happens and you have to cancel a booking and the nearby alternatives are far more expensive.
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