We have received quite a bit of feedback recently about email confirmations not being received by guests and B&B Owners. I would stress that this is a problem that we have warned about for years. Due to extraordinary amounts of spam being sent, Internet Service Providers have to provide protection to their email users – this is done in many ways and occasionally they have to apply over zealous amounts of spam filtering. If you are not receiving confirmation emails please contact the company that provides your email. We understand that business has been lost because of this both currently and in the past and we have added several features to our service to overcome this problem.
- Every guest is given a booking reference number at the time of booking and told that they can check the status of all their bookings on http://your-booking.com – this shows whether accepted or declined and also provides them with full details of their booking, your email & tel number – plus a map and directions.
- Bookings that are not confirmed or declined by B&B Owners are automatically declined after 3 days to allow guest to book elsewhere. Please make https://my-bnb.com (Your admin Panel) the default page of your browser so that you can check bookings easily regardless of whether you receive a confirmation email or not
- SMS Text: we introduced confirmation by text some time ago – this is very reliable – this service is free to Full Members of B&B Owners and 1% additional commission to others. Please let us have you mobile number if you wish to avail of this service.
I have not been receiving notification of reservations and have already lost a family room for August. One woman rang me one day this week to see why I didnt reply to her request and this really allerted me to this problem!!!I would appreciate being contacted of bookings in the future.
Hi Patricia
This is an Eircom problem – every B&B Owner in Ireland that uses Eircomhas the same problem.
This has happened before – complain to their customer care 1901.
The emails are coming from messenger@book-a-bnb.com if you are not receiving them its because Eircom are blocking them.
Regards
Michael – B&B Owners
I’ve just had a phone call from a guest who made a booking last Thur and I never got any notification about it. This is the 3rd time this has happened to me since early June. I’m not with Eircom so it cant be an Eircom problem.
Caroline
The biggest problem about this is, if we dont reply with in a certain time frame to online bookings, the web site will automatically send them an email to decline the booking. How many potential guests did that happen to ? And how much earnings am I losing ? I’m with another online booking company and this never happens there.
Caroline
We can say no more about this. We have warned B&B Owners for a number of years now about the downside of relying on emails.
With regard to the auto decline feature – we try to keep a balance – guests expect instant confirmation of their bookings these days – this is not always practical for B&B Owners, so we allow them 3 days to reply – this gives guests the chance to book elsewhere.
The good news is that after a great deal of work and implementing members feedback we are close to full trials on a new room rates and room allocation module. This will allow you to show all of your availability on your website or webpage – 2 or 3 clicks will remove availability when booking come in from 3rd parties.
I’m just wondering from the comments above should I wait till this new system is set up or is email ok.
Not sure what you mean by new system? Could you clarify