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Cancelling online bookings

Internet Marketing

Tim started this discussion 14 years 7 months ago

Because of the recent volcanic activity I've had several travellers email to cancel bookings they made through BUG.

Because the bookings on BUG are handled by Hostelbookers, I just emailed them to cancel the booking and then refunded the customer's booking fee (Hostelbookers won't refund booking fees, but I will always do this if someone cancels a booking they made through BUG).

This morning a customer who I cancelled a booking for, emailed a response from Hostelbookers saying that she now has to contact each hostel directly to cancel her booking!

Is this normal? Wouldn't cancelling through a booking agency mean that the booking is cancelled? Why contact the hostel if the booking wasn't made through them?

This whole process makes me think I am working with some sort of mickey mouse operation. If I wanted to cancel a holiday I booked through a travel agent, I would expect them to handle everything for me. I certainly wouldn't expect them to then ask me to call up each airline and hotel to cancel the booking myself.

The worst thing is that because Hostelbookers have co-branded the booking system on BUG, people are now blaming me for this appauling customer service.

If the service is branded by my company I want my customers to get good customer service. If they contact me to cancel a booking and I pass this request on to the booking service, they should handle everything.

From a hostel manager's perspective is there a logical reason for this?

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AndrewC

14 years

From a hostel managers perspective I can only see this creating confusion.

Many guests don't understand their deposit hasn't gone to the hostel when booking through HW or HB. Surely having the guest contact the hostel directly to cancel is going to strengthen the idea the guest has made a transaction directly with the hostel.

If someone books through HW or HB, but contacts us directly we're happy to cancel their booking, but are sure to make clear that we received no deposit and they need to take any enquiries regarding that up with HW.

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Tim

14 years

I may have been a little harsh on HB in my original post, but I run my site for the benefit of travellers and I am thinking from their perspective. Hearing opinions from hostel managers will help me understand the reason behind this so I can better inform travellers when they complain to me about it.

In my opinion when a traveller uses an online booking service they want convenience. And it is not convenient to contact three people (BUG, HB and the hostel) when they want to cancel their booking. It is also confusing as the traveller thinks that they have already cancelled their accommodation when they emailed me about it.

It would just be so much easier to contact one person and leave them to handle everything. In the future that will be me.

Now I am aware about travellers need to cancel directly with a hostel (when they didn't book through the hostel). In the future when a traveller emails me to cancel their booking, I will contact HB and the hostel and send a refund deposit instead of expecting the traveller to do all this.

Customer service should mean providing the customer with service, not telling them to do it themselves.

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Plakian

14 years

It's a number of years since I used HW as a guest as I prefer to contact the hostel direct. However, here are the conditions attached to my last booking:

* The outstanding amount is payable to the property directly upon your arrival.
* Cancellations must be notified directly to the accommodation provider at least 24 hours prior to arrival
* In the event of a no show, your card will be charged for the first nights accomodation total.
* For any changes to an existing reservation, please contact the accommodation provider directly
* Should your credit card expire or your credit card details change prior to arrival, please contact the accommodation provider directly with the amended details
* In the event of cancellation, the booking deposit and booking fee are non-refundable.
* Please read our Terms & Conditions
* If you have a question, please see our FAQ.

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Tim

14 years

If someone books through HW or HB, but contacts us directly we're happy to cancel their booking, but are sure to make clear that we received no deposit and they need to take any enquiries regarding that up with HW.

I think it is easiest to have a single point of contact. When a customer hears something from three different people, she gets three different stories which just leaves her confused.

This is what happened in a recent case:

A traveller contacted me to cancel a booking (her flight was cancelled due to volcanic ash). I told her that I would send her a gift voucher to the value of her booking deposit as a refund - we didn't take the credit card so we can't simply reverse the transaction - and I said I would contact HB to cancel the booking.
I contact HB to explain the situation.
HB contacted the customer saying that they don't do refunds but in this case they will if she provides documentation to prove that her flight was cancelled (I previously told the customer that I will give her a refund no questions asked). HB also tells the customer that she has to contact the hostels herself (after I told her that HB will sort it all out)
Now the customer emails me to tell me that I lied to her, because HB said that she needs to contact the hostels directly. So I have to contact her and explain the whole thing and assure her that I have sent a refund.
The customer is unhappy with my company, even though this all comes down to her contact with HB.

Now I think HB are great to work with (not perfect, but better than the alternatives), but having to make contact with three people to sort out a relatively simple issue is too much hassle for a customer who is having to deal with the stress of a cancelled trip.

To make matters worse, this whole process took place over several days during which time the date that she had initially booked to stay had passed meaning that she may not be eligible for a refund (even though she had initially contacted me allowing enough time to cancel her booking).

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hostelworld

14 years

Hi all, Orla in Hostelworld.com here (I am the Customer Services Manager). We recently came across this thread and since we were mentioned, we thought we would pop in and explain some of what we do in regards to this situation.

During the Volcanic Ash situation, we have been crediting all customers that had taken out cancellation protection against their booking, who cancelled because of this situation, regardless of whether they purchased cancellation protection through us or not… and also without a need for the customer to show us proof of their flight being cancelled. (Cancellation protection is a service that customers can avail of that means that their deposit is secure in the event of cancellation).
We also dealt with requests for refunds instead of credit on a case by case basis. If a customer booked through an affiliated website, we refunded the deposit and booking fee, no questions asked. We didn’t want to leave any of our customers stranded in a city, with the added worry of not getting their charges refunded when costs were already mounting for them.
With regards to cancellations, in the Volcanic Ash situation, we were cancelling bookings for customers as we were conscious of the fact that they may have been stuck in an airport without any internet connection or funds for a phone call. Once we cancelled, a notification automatically goes to the hostel… cutting out the need for the customer to write a separate email or make a phone call to the hostel directly, and having to wait for confirmation.

In other circumstances where customers need to cancel, we do tell customers to contact the hostel directly to cancel, so this ensures that the customer can get their cancellation in on time to the hostel within the cancellation policy time. However, customers who book through us also have the option of cancelling online. Meaning they can log in at any time to their account, and click on the “Cancel” button beside their booking. When they do this, the hostel is automatically notified.

Hope this helps clear up hostelworld.com’s approach to cancellations.

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Tim

14 years

It's interesting to read Hostelworld's perspective, although my post wasn't really a criticism of Hostelbookers. As Plakian's post shows, Hostelworld's cancellation policies are at least as strict as any other booking service.

I'm still happy with Hostelbookers and will most likely be working exclusively with them for quite some time. Although there are still a handful of Hostelworld booking links on BUG they should be removed within the next month or so, which will make Hostelbookers BUG’s exclusive booking partner. Basically I think I can serve travellers better if the booking procedure is the same for all hostels on the site.

I was just frustrated with a one-off incident and was looking for feedback so I could work out a better system for handling cancellations.

I wanted to get the hostel manager's point of view regarding cancellation procedures so I could let my customers know the reason why they need to make separate cancellations directly with each hostel. I assumed that there must be some reason that I wasn't aware of and I wanted to see it from the hostel manager's perspective.

I think BUG's system for handling cancellations could be improved and it is something that I can work on by working with Hostelbookers. However the hostels' needs have to be considered too (and a lot of hostels have very strict cancellation policies), so I feel it is important to gauge the general opinion of hostels.

We very rarely have customers cancel a booking, but when I do I like to treat the customer the way I would expect to be treated. I will always refund the booking deposit no questions asked (this usually involves me sending the guest a gift voucher as I can’t reverse the credit card transaction as I didn’t process the card). It can be time consuming (hence my desire to work out a more efficient procedure for handling cancellations), but I think it is money well spent. Spending $10 on a refund is a small price to pay to keep a traveller happy.

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Scotch Argus

14 years

I'm happy to cancel a booking for a customer who calls of course - in an ideal world they'd do it through their hostelworld account, and it would be done automatically, with no action needed on the hostel side. The huge majority understand that the 10% they paid is non refundable, and haven't had any arguments about that. I don't think many people would think that it's reasonable that we refund a deposit we never took in the first place. I think if a booking engine doesn't act leniently in the case of extraordinary circumstances then they will encounter resentment and bad publicity in the long run.

If a customer rang us to cancel inside the 24 hour cut-off that hostelworld stipulates but had a good reason such as a cancelled flight, there's no way I'd charge them the 1st night, it's just going to create resentment.

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