Report

Booking.com surprise

Hostel Reviews, Booking Engines, and Directories

Rucksack Brian started this discussion 11 years 1 week ago

This was fun. Due to Booking’s presentation of hostels as if they were hotels, we got a little surprise recently.

We had a booking for 4 people in a six bed dorm. 24 people showed up.

When the guests tried to reserve the beds, Booking announced “We have 4 rooms left!” We did not have four rooms left, we had four beds left. Apparently their system still isn’t set up to recognize the difference.

When the guests couldn’t book all four non-existent dorms, they called Booking to confirm that we had space for them. Apparently the misleading system even causes confusion among their own team. Someone on the Booking staff looked at our listing and confirmed to the guests that we did, in fact, have four 6-bed dorms left. Oops!

Luckily we found space for everyone, and the extra 20 people were thrilled to be welcomed as walk-ins with no commissions to pay. I was thrilled too! Thanks Booking.com!

Comments

Report

Rucksack Brian

11 years

We only recently allowed Booking to start selling our dorms.

In an unexpected twist, they told us that it is not possible to set our prices in our local currency. Despite selling properties all over the world and having an office here in our own capital, they claimed that their system can only accept rates that are set in Euro. Surely those of you working in USD or GBP can set your prices in the correct currency, right? Not us.

Our next challenge came in the form of several reservations for multiple people in one dorm bed. In one case we received a booking for eight people in one bed for three nights.

I can imagine the guests making the booking. “It may not be comfortable, but all eight of us can share one bed for 12EUR a night. Let’s take it!”

When we talked to the service rep, she said that they had forgotten to press the button that sells a separate bed to each person in the booking. Oops again!

I get the distinct impression that the self-proclaimed “largest accommodation booking site on the planet” is still not ready for the complexity of hostels.

Report

kphinds

11 years

Very Good - I had the same thing today with Booking.com - 4 dorm beds one night in a Mixed Dorm -Became 16 people paying a massive

74 Euro all in!!

I have written to the client to ask her to confirm she actually booked for only 4?

We shall see

Report

John Moriarty

11 years

I used sell the dorm beds on booking.com but now only privates. One of the reasons was the following

For me on my tripadvisor listing the two OTAS that show are hostelbookers and booking.com

As HB are 12% and B.COM 15% I have different prices on both.

Now I prefer to get bookings from HB as the slightly lower commission but the way b.com shows their prices it looks lower as they subtract the taxes and add in after clicking.

So with the dorms on HB and privates on B.com it always looks like HB is the best and people click more onto this.

Report

Rucksack Brian

10 years

We were just the opposite. We only listed private rooms for a long time, and then just recently let them sell dorms to see if there was any demand. Their commission is included in the price, so it sets us quite a bit more expensive than the competition. We haven't seen many reservations come through, possibly because of the price difference. I'm not willing to change this, so if we get any bookings at all through the newly listed dorms I'll consider it a cash bonus.

Oddly enough, the only pricing options that show up for us on TripAdvisor are from Booking for a private room. Listing the dorms hasn’t changed this. I’m not sure why none of the hostel OTAs show up there.

Report

slushysnow

10 years

I'm having a stupid issue with booking.com at the moment - usually I have no problems with them.

Had a no-show yesterday morning. One booking for 3 dorm beds.

I go to charge the card for one night as per our no-show policy only to find that the card expired in the same month the booking was made - Jan 2014.

We receive a lot of no shows from Booking.com that we can't charge due to cancelled cards, insufficient funds etc.

But this is just silly.

I've questioned the fact that they've allowed a booking to be taking with a card that expires before the check-in date and their response is below:

Thank you for your message.

As we do not take payment, or interfere in any way with the customers credit card, there isn't any way that we check the card for you.

We give full control to our hoteliers to do this.

What we would suggest , as you do not take a deposit - some credit card or eftpos machines have the ability to do an "inprint" or "pre-authorisation".

What this means is you can run a card number through the machine under one of these options, for a certain amount. This sends a message to their bank to 1. Find out if the card is valid and 2. Determine it has funds on it and 3. Holds those funds there.

If in the instance that the card declines, we have a procedure for this which is to mark the reservation as "invalid" on the booking.com extranet.

Within the bookings tab , beside a customers name, you have a grey button " mark credit card as invalid". Pressing this sends a message to the guest to be in touch with you asap.

The benefit of this is that they have an opportunity to get in touch with you to keep their booking and supply you with correct information.

However if after 48 HOURS, you do not hear from the guest, you have the option to cancel the booking.

The only way to cancel that booking is to log back into the booking.com/extranet Bookings tab, and beside that customers name there will be a new button that says " no new credit card given"

Clicking on this cancels the booking completely, so you don't have to worry about loss or revenue, and can resell the room.

Please also be sure you are making these no shows, as "no shows" on the bookings tab as well, as we do not charge you commission.

The reason I find this response stupid is that as far as I am aware a pre-authorisation only lasts for about 1 month - am I wrong in this?

*edit* - my post makes it seem like I'm angry - I'm not, it just seems like a stupid policy to me to accept card details that expire before check-in.

Report

Rucksack Brian

10 years

I’m not sure it’s even that long. I thought a pre-authorization was valid for about 2 weeks. Maybe it depends on your bank. If you used Booking's process to check all the cards 2 weeks before the arrivals, then at least you could flag the card as invalid and get the guest to send you a new one or cancel the reservation and still have time to resell the beds. It’s an awful lot of extra work though. You’re right that it should not be possible to confirm a reservation with a card that expires before the dates of stay.

Report

Mostar Hostel Bojo

10 years

Oddly enough, the only pricing options that show up for us on TripAdvisor are from Booking for a private room. Listing the dorms hasn’t changed this. I’m not sure why none of the hostel OTAs show up there.

Yes, same situation here. And it seems that, since Google Maps take the info from booking.com, the same (higher only) price shows up in Google Maps too :-(

The reason I find this response stupid is that as far as I am aware a pre-authorisation only lasts for about 1 month - am I wrong in this?

I think you are right. When I have anything reserved on my Mastercard, it lasts as reserved (in any case unavailable for me to use it) for 30 days. If it is not taken within those 30 days, it goes back to my card.

Search form

Report 'Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Report 'Re: Booking.com surprise'?

Join the world's largest community of hostel professionals.

Check Your Email