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HW / HB - credit card charging for no shows

Front Desk Operations

billkcs started this discussion 13 years 11 months ago

Since we got started, we have had to live with the occassional no shows from HW and HB bookings. I believe this is a norm and most of you hostel managers would have to face every now and then.

The standard policy I believe is that for no shows / cancellations without prior notification, the hostel holds the right to charge the guests for their first night. However, this is not possible as HW and HB do not provide the credit card CVV / CVC code (apparently due to data privacy etc laws).

I suppose this is all fair but I do wonder then how do the other hostels handle these No Shows. While most bookings from HW and HB do translate into actual guests staying with us, how do we recover i.e. charge those who did not show up? During peak periods, this is a loss of potential revenue to us as we had to reject other bookings from other stream. :(

Do you guys do anything differently or do you also just write these bookings off?

:) Cheers

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Scotch Argus

13 years

On our electronic credit card machine you can do a charge for a no-show without CVV number. I can't remember how, but we have done it. This only applies to credit cards, and not debit cards. If you choose to accept debit cards they can't be charged for a no-show. On HW the customer gets a message when they book telling them that they have to ring the hostel before midday on the day of arrival to confirm, or the booking may be cancelled.

Apparently you can't charge for a no-show without cvv number in France however - or on a French credit card.

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HostelDonPilon

13 years

What we do is to email our HW/HB guests 48 / 24 hours before their arrival to confirm the reservation and asking if they have any change...most of the times they reply to us and works.

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livaus

13 years

We use our POS terminal by making an offline purchase. In those (very rare) cases when CVV number is required, we contact the guest and they usually provide necessary info.
Emailing everyone day before takes too much time and expecting every guest to get in touch with us by calling day before is not possible in every case (expensive phone calls, no access to internet etc).

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decepe

13 years

We reduce the booking to one night and charge the first nights accommodation.

Our PDQ machine allows us to do this. From memory we enter the amount, long card number/expiry (taken from HW/HB), then when it asks if the customer is present we say no. It then asks for the CVV, postcode etc but we just "enter" past that. 9/10 times it works.

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euro

13 years

That is a very big misadvatage of HW/HB. The condition that is possibile to cancel 24 hours before arrival (often unterstand less) and only possibile to charge 1 day is awfull.
Often the guest knows this and play on this booking more hostels for the same time.
That can be in worst case 50% loss for the hostels.
That is very bad in these systems. Better as used with hotels where it is possibile to charge the whole booking and cancellation possibile 3-7 days before arrival only

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Art Hostel Rio

13 years

This is a problem here in Brazil, as the credit card machine company will not allow a transaction without CVV under any circumstances.

We spoke to HW and they confirmed they cannot provide the CVV due to privacy laws, so it is up to us it seems - do any other hostels email the customer after a booking and ask for the CVV? As that is the only viable option we can think of...

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Andrew November...

13 years

as long as your have a PDQ machine you can charge the guest usually its for the first nights stay or how ever long your cancelation policy is. Usually its fake cards booked from nigeria but the name on the credit card is steve jones ha lots of scams from people CC normally declines but you do get the odd person who dosent show and you can charge them, its normally automatically added in the hw or hb terms and conditions but i would always had it to your profile page or website saying you will charge for a first nights stay if there is a no show

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hosteltraveler

13 years

Problem Solved !
If you cannot charge for no-shows or cancellations for some reason, HostelTraveler.com (Instant World Booking) has the solution. It is IWB Payments, an online virtual terminal for credit card payments. No CCV required, and hostels can easily recoup their losses for no-shows, regardless of what the source of the original booking is (HW, HB, etc.)
IWB Payments Service

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BenjaminYap

13 years

That is a very big misadvatage of HW/HB. The condition that is possibile to cancel 24 hours before arrival (often unterstand less) and only possibile to charge 1 day is awfull.
Often the guest knows this and play on this booking more hostels for the same time.
That can be in worst case 50% loss for the hostels.
That is very bad in these systems. Better as used with hotels where it is possibile to charge the whole booking and cancellation possibile 3-7 days before arrival only

To charge 1 night is awful: indeed. I remember that the cancellation policy stated on every hostel/property on their site used to be 48 hours, that was changed to the current "This property has a 1 day cancellation policy.
Failure to cancel within this time will result in a cancellation charge equal to the first night of your stay." early this year. The loss could be greater than 50%.

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billkcs

13 years

If you would like to change the cancellation policy stated in HW, just notify your buddy and they will reflect it for you. :)

Will have a look at the online and pdq option. Not sure if it will work here though. Thanks!

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