Nickels and dimes - extra charges

[TheBeachHouse]

We are planning to charge 15% more on Bking and Xpedia next year. Has anyone tried it? Does it backfire?

 

[Morticia]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more.

 

[Arks]

Seems like I heard of someone being contacted by Bking for being higher there, since you have to agree that your posted Bking rate there is the lowest you post anywhere. They do spot checks, or have a software bot that checks. But apparently it's working for Mort. I'd sure like to do it too.
What gets me are the ones who book through Air. They pay my full rate, then Air tacks on an additional charge to them so they end up paying more than they would at my website. Don't know why people can't catch on to that.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.

 

[JBloggs]

You can charge extra for breakfast.

 

[Momma Smurf]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

 

[Arks]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.

 

[JBloggs]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.

They will never go up, B-com shows up first and everywhere.

 

[Generic]

What you can do is change HOW you do things, for example, put up your prices on your website and then offer a discount code for 15% off. So your prices come out as $117.65, but with a 15% discount it comes out as $100.00
Incidentally, research has shown that prices that end in .95 are perceived better than those that end in .00 or .99. So you may want to set your price is $99.95 and $117.59
You also can offer the products differently, for example on your website they may be able to book a specific room but on BK they can only book a Queen Room or a King Room and say in the conditions that specific rooms cannot be booked and will only be assigned on arrival.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

What you can do is change HOW you do things, for example, put up your prices on your website and then offer a discount code for 15% off. So your prices come out as $117.65, but with a 15% discount it comes out as $100.00
Incidentally, research has shown that prices that end in .95 are perceived better than those that end in .00 or .99. So you may want to set your price is $99.95 and $117.59
You also can offer the products differently, for example on your website they may be able to book a specific room but on BK they can only book a Queen Room or a King Room and say in the conditions that specific rooms cannot be booked and will only be assigned on arrival..

this is helpful stuff. thank you very much.

 

[GoodScout]

Be aware Expedia and some of the others have bots that constantly compare their rates with the other OTAs. If they find a lower rate somewhere (besides your own site, which for some reason they don't seem to check) they'll send you an email or fax reminding you that you've agreed to give them the same rate as all the other OTA, and you need to correct it our they'll "downgrade you" i.e. show you lower in search results.

 

[Lee2014]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!

I'm proud of you! You can book those 6 reservations without their cut plus the cost of Cloud etc. Count the money and you just saved a reservation of money is my guess.

 

[Lee2014]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.
.

Take two rooms off boo king for the summer and see what happens. I think with, what two B&Bs closing, being in a good location, and working well with other B&Bs you will full up your rooms yourself. Also earn more money that goes into "the kitty" instead of in a corporation. If you want you can put what you would have paid boo king into advertising your place yourself, how you want, where you want, etc.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.
.

Take two rooms off boo king for the summer and see what happens. I think with, what two B&Bs closing, being in a good location, and working well with other B&Bs you will full up your rooms yourself. Also earn more money that goes into "the kitty" instead of in a corporation. If you want you can put what you would have paid boo king into advertising your place yourself, how you want, where you want, etc.
.

Makes a lot of sense. I appreciate the helpful comments.
Everyone have a great weekend!!

 

[Hillbilly]

I don't charge that much more, but it hasn't made any difference charging more.
BTW, if you want to get you full room rate you have to charge about 22% more..

It would be whatever rounds out to the nearest $5.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.
.

Or just DITCH them! Be not afraid!!! Seriously.

I think the only reason I stay with Bking is that it was so much trouble to set up, and once I got it working, I hated to throw that away. But I probably got 6 reservations from them all year. Hardly worth the headaches of dealing with their "Extranet", and the expense of needing Clou dbeds (myal loc ator) to sync my Reskey calendar to Bking.
OK, new year's resolution. I'm dropping Bking!
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.
.

Would love to ditch them but at 50% of incoming, we are too chicken right now.
This summer will be telling. When we bought the place, we were one of 4 inns on our street. This summer we will be the only one.
There are still several inns in the town, but not in this neighborhood. I'm hoping our direct bookings go up and the third party bookings decrease.

if your the only on than you control the market. I would at least try and book everything yourselves during your busy time. Then in your slower times use them. I think you will find you will make more with less effort. If you think about it, about every 4th reservation you take from OTA's is like letting the 4th rental stay free! (Commission costs)