New to booking.com and would love advice

Hi, sorry to renew an old thread, but these are different times…Would love some updated advice regarding Booking.com.

I used them briefly two years ago, but then cancelled as they were a pain in the a$@, but willing to give it a try again as I’m a bit more experienced as a host and need the reservations.

I too am getting the banner “We’ve temporarily disabled the non-refundable and prepayment policies. As soon as we can give you access to them, we’ll let you know.” Of course I want to charge a security deposit at the time the reservation is made, then charge the entire balance to the credit card 14 days prior to arrival.

After reading this post, and a few others, does this sound appropriate? Let’s assume the reservation is 30+ days out.

  1. Reservation request received
  2. Send confirmation reply with copy of house rules, and instructions that refundable security deposit must be paid within 24 hours of reservation
  3. Charge credit card after 24 hours. Invalidate reservation if credit card doesn’t go through.
  4. Charge remaining balance on credit card 14 days prior to reservation.
  5. Day of arrival, send entry instructions.

Sound good? Thank you!

This may not be what you want to hear but I don’t think I’d try to bother. I know you said you need the money but be very careful. I think shortly we will have no control at all over this and you will have wasted your effort.

I’ve never used Booking (not appropriate for my listings). However, I strongly recommend that you close down all your listings. There should be no discretionary travel now. It simply isn’t safe.

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However, there is still non discretionary travel. If someone has a whole house separate from them and is willing to house someone coming to visit family, coming for work, etc., why not try?

To share, I have a whole-house rental and the cleaning can be done 24+ hours after departure so the risks should be pretty minimal to me or my future guests.

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Why not?

Someone will have to clean that house. After cleaning, there could then be another guest. I think both of those are untenable risks.

I don’t believe we know enough about the transmission of COVID-19, its persistence on surfaces, and its potential for aerosol transmission for even a whole separate house to be safe. How many days are required to ensure safety? Does every wall, every floor, every surface, every rug have to be sanitized?

We simply don’t know.

All I can say is that if I had a whole-house listing, I would close it down, as we’ve done with our shared-house listings.

I am not trying to dissuade you, but this is important information. We should all assume that 24 hours later any virus left behind is still infectious.

Unless they outlaw all travel and force us to close, people are still going to travel. Offering a place that’s been cleaned properly, not turned over back to back, etc could be the most responsible thing to do. Better with me or Spokane than with a desperate 23 year old laid off restaurant worker who still goes out to party with his friends each night. Or worse, with someone who thinks it’s all a hoax!

Where are travel nurses supposed to stay? People trying to get home to stay with family because they lost their jobs? Just let the poor undocumented workers at the hotels deal with it I guess.

Just a thought, I’m open to all ideas.

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And some desperate hosts are going to have to go out and get jobs like cleaning rooms in hotels. Not everyone can afford to shelter in place.

My entire-house listing is still open. I am grappling with the same worries as everyone else.

I have been explicitly warning anyone who inquires that we have confirmed COVID-19 deaths in town and that I do not recommend travel here unless necessary. So far I only have one future guest left on the books.

I have put in two days notice and two days break between stays. I have been cleaning and disinfecting everything.

It may still not be enough. I can’t decide if I should close or not.

I use both Booking and Air and I rent two rooms in my own home. I’ve shut down my listings until at least Easter.

I think with both platforms, there is an expectation now not to charge guests who have to cancel due to coronavirus. Let’s face it, if you get a booking now for a stay in the next few weeks, there is a high likelihood the guest will cancel. The way to avoid this is to close your listing.

The other point to make is that any payments you take should probably not be spent until the stay is completed. The likelihood of refunds is high, so you need to make sure the money is available to cover the refund.

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You need to look at the policies there have place. You cant set up your own rules. Are you asking them to take payment on your behalf? Are you going to take your own payments? How?

@daniellealberta Are you set up with payments-by-Booking or do you process your own payments? If you collect a security deposit, could you share with me an overview of your process?

@Debthecat I am set up with stripe to take my own payments. The last time I was with Booking.com, that was the only option I had - and it looks to be the same way now.

Like everyone, I have had several cancellations, but recently several new reservations; one for two weeks in April and others for further in the summer. I realize that the potential for cancellation is there, but I’m willing to roll the dice and see if they keep the reservation. I just had a Dr. that is traveling the US from Germany check in yesterday for a few days. I’m not quite ready to close down the rentals, nor am I ready to switch to LTR (especially now given that if they trash the place or don’t pay rent, “evictions” are being put on hold).

I don’t use BDC but I see the hosts here who do recommend handling your own payments. Stripe and Square are 2 options and you just enable that in your BDC admin panel. I set up a listing there, but after researching here, decided against listing with them so it never got published live.

I process all my own payments for my Booking.com reservations. As far as I know, that’s the only option, but I could be wrong.

I don’t collect the security deposit, but I do insist that all guess who book with me do so using a valid credit card. Depending on how far out the arrival date is, I will either take a pre-payment of one dollar, just to make sure the credit card is usable, or I will take a deposit of half the cost of the stage if the reservation has an arrival date less than 30 days away. Booking.com also offers the option of offering nonrefundable room reservations, in which case I process the full amount of the stay at the time the guest makes the booking. All of this can be set up in your listing’s policies.

I found the key to being successful on booking.com is to check the validity of the credit cards as soon as the reservation comes in. That’s why I do at least the one dollar charge as soon as I get the Booking.

If the credit card is invalid, you can mark the reservation is invalid, and the guest has 24 hours to update their information or you can cancel the booking penalty free. I NEVER block off rooms until I have a valid payment method.

The most important part of all of this is communication with the guest. You have to make sure that they understand what you’re charging them, when it’s due, and why you’re taking the payments when you are. If a credit card comes back as invalid, I always notify the guest through Booking.com, and send them a text if I’m able to. That way all my bases are covered if there is an issue.

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Processing payment yourself used to be the only option, but they offer payment processing now in some areas.

https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/policies-payments/payments-–-faqs-and-all-you-need-know

I just got a one night booking for Monday from a German who seems to be in the US since fall. What is someone in his situation going to do, they have to stay somewhere. Someone is going to have to clean their room. It may as well be me.

We get a lot of business from BDC, but use their payment system. Only drawback is that they won’t take care of damage deposits, you have to do that yourself.

JF

For folks using Square, rather than keying in the info yourself for a $1 transaction, you might try using Square’s invoicing function. I’ve been using it since Square enabled it to invoice tour clients for their 50% deposit.

You create the invoice (I think it can be done on Square’s app, but I do it on my PC), click “send” and it’s emailed to the client or guest with a link for payment on Square’s web site. You can create installment payments if you need, and it now has a very flexible reminder email function.

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