The OTAs (booking.com and alike) methodology in taking bookings has created a new consumer behaviour – “I can cancel any time regardless”. Although this is a great selling point for OTAs, it is not helpful to B&B owners. In order to protect our members from cancellations on a whim, we have made a number of changes to our booking system.
- Guests will not be able to cancel unconfirmed bookings for 24 hours to allow time for B&B Owners to respond.
- After 24 hours a guest will be able to cancel unconfirmed bookings with no consequences and no cancellation charges.
- Guests may cancel confirmed bookings via https://your-booking.com at any time but they are advised they will lose any booking fee or Deposit (Charged by the B&B owner upon confirmation) and that they should take out travel insurance to cover this event.
- As booking confirmation trends suggest immediacy, we need to respond more quickly. Our booking system will now auto decline unconfirmed bookings after 3 days and not 4 (as is current) if a B&B owner has not confirmed a booking. We have now added
a SMS Text to the Owner for each reminder (twice a day for 2 days)
How can you help?
- Make sure you have set up the booking notifications in your “My B&B” dashboard – we provide email, SMS text to your phone and push notifications in your browser (Chrome & Firefox Only).
- Respond within 24 hours – this means responding to email & texts and logging on to your dashboard. You can do this from your smartphone, tablet, laptop or pc.
- If you have a Stripe Account – take a small deposit on confirming the booking – just one click!
- Make sure your Cancellation Terms are correct – you can amend them here…..
Dashboard >>Side Menu >>Bookings >> Terms & Conditions
Hopefully, this will help stop so many cancellations and capture more profitable business for you all.
Kind Regards
Michael – B&B Owners Association
Helping you compete more effectively