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I signed up for booking dot com and I received three bookings with one person who has already completed her stay. The first person called me on the phone to change her dates so I tried changing it on the site and it wouldn’t allow it so I had to call. Calling booking dot com is a nightmare because you are either calling another country or a local place. The first customer service person was in Germany, but before they can confirm the change they have to call you back, well when she called me I couldn’t hear her, which made me have to start the whole process again.
I finally got it cleared and we were good. Well, she wanted to change her dates again… You see where I am going with this. My second person also wanted a date change so I had to do this AGAIN.
My third person emailed me directly and this is what she said:
"I have reserved your condo for April 5-8 and was wondering what the cost would be to add an additional night? So we check out on Friday.
Do you offer any discounts?
I’m also still on the fence about Covid 19. Please let me know about your professional cleaning company. It’s important to know how thoroughly they are cleaning and sanitizing after the last guest, everything from light switches, to sofa cracks, to remotes.
I have this guarantee with a hotel, which I am still considering at 7 nights just $300 more.
Since you have a high cleaning fee, I want to be sure the service includes additional care during the pandemic."
Inquiring about covid is no big deal but trying to barter a better deal because the hotel will give you more nights? Go to the damn hotel then.
I just blocked out the rest of the dates on booking dot com and will cancel next month after my final guest completes the reservation. To me the site is more of a hassle than Airbnb and VRBO and it’s not worth it to me.
And how much do you want to bet that woman will cancel at the last min?
No complaints from me with their support. Its a bit ironic to hear someone criticise their security processes and the fact you didn’t get someone in the good old USA, given that Airbnb use a call centre in the Philippines I believe…
Incidentally, changing dates with BDC is a couple of clicks.
It wasn’t the security, it’s the fact that it takes so long and the connection wasn’t good because it was in Germany and I had to start the process over again, I don’t care who I talk to from US or not.
If I could have changed dates with just a click that would have been amazing, like I can with the other sites.
I am so glad you have a great experience with them as I haven’t.
I really have been happy with my booking.com guests. For some reason they all call before their stay, but its nice to actually talk to someone thats staying in your home. I have had more cancellations thru booking, but the ones that end up staying, I have been really pleased with.
Somethings about the site aren’t easy, but I just make adjustments on the other sites to compensate and it works out.
Over the past three years or so, as best I can remember, we’ve dealt with BDC support in Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam and the U.S. Call backs rarely take more than a minute or so, unless it’s a fairly generic enquiry when they’ll deal with it there and then.
BDC is very different to Airbnb (and VRBO), it was initially aimed at the corporate hospitality industry but, likely due to the rise of Airbnb and Wimdu, then moved into STR. Many of its systems and processes are still more suited to the corporate side, and it is a bit of a learning curve, but once you work out what parts are suited to STR, it’s a doddle.
Pre Covid, our cancellation rate was not dissimilar to Airbnb, but I suspect a lot depends on your location and what your market is like. A high proportion of our bookings were folks touring Andalucia, so unless their plans changed, the vast majority fulfilled the booking.
Thanks for showing this but I followed all of these steps and the system kept saying I couldn’t make the changes. I don’t know why and customer service didn’t know why, that’s why I had to keep calling instead of changing it on the site.
