A guest booked my room in wimdu for 9 nights and canceled which made me lost many opportunites to have other guests.
How to avoid such people?
I have 5 days non cancel policy so If they don t come or want to cancel, I charge all
I have my listing on strict because of this.
@Kirsty_Jane I have mine on moderate because I get quite a few bookings just a day or two before their arrival. If I move it to strict for the busy season Iâm wondering if I would lose business. The listings I see as my competitors have moderate like me. Also, I am not in a tourist town, most people are just stopping in for the night. Do you have any thoughts about this?
I think thats a lot of trouble you have to wait and renew your listing
Moderate is perfect.
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There has been quite a lot of talk in other groups about ABBâs algorithm promoting hosts with flexible cancelation policy, but I donât know if that was proven. Again, you have to know your market and if competition can sustain whatever level you choose.
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Having it set as stict wonât effects this though? Strict is more for bookings made months/weeks out - I donât want people cancelling those. People can still book last minute etc on strict. We air our one spare room.
Thatâs interesting. When I changed from âprivate roomâ to âentire houseâ (long story) I dropped in the listings. When I changed it back, I went back up.
I dropped again later ,but I wasnât sure why. Maybe itâs because I changed from âflexibleâ to âmoderateâ.
Though Iâve never been sure if Iâm at the top because they recognize itâs me, or if that also would happen if I were new to searching.
Itâs definitely because you changed to moderate! Happened to me. Youâll always be at top when you search. You need to search on air using the incognito or in private function
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If someone books months or weeks in advance I donât mind if they cancelâŚif they also cancel well in advance. But if they cancel 6 days before a night that is part of a 3 day weekend holiday, I get nothing. This happened today. Someone booked about two weeks ago for Monday the 30th which is a holiday here. They cancelled this morningâŚ6 days out. Maybe a coincidence. Maybe I can still rebook the room if I want. It may be for the best because I will have more dogs than usual boarding here. I just donât want someone holding the room in case they come and then backing out 6 days away. Maybe I should set to strict and then offer refunds on a case by case basis.
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Wimdu really pushes host to have the lowest price, the most flexible cancellation policy as well. I used to get 50% or more of my bookings from Wimdu, and thatâs gone to about 10% in the last year. I also had people cancel last minute on a moderate/flexible policy and it was a pain in the rear.
Hi K9KarmaCasa,
I know that most posters here feel very strongly that every host should set their cancellation policy to strict. This makes sense if youâre hosting in an off the beaten path listing that takes planning and effort to get to, as you probably wonât fill the dates if a guest cancels at the last minute.
I am in Los Angeles, CA close to LAX Airport. This means that we get a lot of one night guests who are either at the beginning or the end of their stay in the US. Weâve had plenty of guests cancel at the last minute or shorten their stay. When a guest cancels you are put higher in the search. As a result, weâve always had someone book for the cancelled days and itâs often a more desirable guest.
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@EllenN Thanks for that insight. Yes posters here want prices âhighâ and cancel policies âstrictâ but as @Gail_Dedrick said, it depends on my market. I am very keen on treating others the way I want to be treated so I need a cancel policy that I think is right, not just one that is profitable. I canât be concerned with what other hosts need me to do either.
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I just changed my cancellation policy from strict to moderate based on comments to this thread. In the past, I have had cancellations and provided full refunds anyway, just because it seemed like the right thing to do. My guests are usually here for a weekend to do hiking, biking, swimming, so if 5 days out it looks like itâs going to rain all weekend, I really understand that they may not want to be here for that weekend.
Same here, policy on strict, 3 days minimum stay and business is better than ever.
In the past a had too many âflaggers/fun bookersâ planning their trip 6 months ahead, and cancel 5 days before arrivel with some lame excuse.
Itâs mostly the eurotrip type of guests that I had cancelations from. Mainly US, they think they can do europe in 14 days, and after 2 days they understand that roads and distances are not the same in the US and in Europe. They end up running out of time and cancel on short notice.
So no more 1 days stays, and a strict policy.
But I do think the gap between moderate and strict is too big, there should be a strict 30 or 60.
Where the guest can cancel 30 days ahead for free, but has to pay 50% between 30 and 0 days.
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that is an excellent suggestion! I, as a guest, would love that.
I havenât had a lot of problems, I think because I have mostly Europeans and Asians who are here but traveling the east coast by bus.
But weâll see what Iâm saying come September, after my second busy summer
Absolutely! Logged in as yourself they try to make it look like youâre #1. Gotta go incognito in Chrome.