OTAs - Cancellation Frequency?

[MtnKeeper]

Recently put property back on book ing and have had two cancellations in less than two weeks - these are long distance visitors so they are holding rooms as others mentioned before to see if a better deal comes up or to give themselves flexibility in their plans. I never have more than 8 cancellations an entire year so to have this happen it's obviously a trend with these bookers. We take a deposit and I noticed that my listing now says no fee for canceling up to 14 days out, full refund. I'm making them change it as now I'm out the credit card fees on this (yes my mistake for not seeing it wasn't set as it had been previously). Do you get many more cancellations on the OTA bookings vs. those who book direct with you? I noticed that my competitors all have free cancellation - if you take a deposit like we do this can add up to a good deal of money.
My concern is that if I put next year's midweek summer rooms on there then I go ahead and charge the normal 50% deposit, I will be refunding large amounts of money next May June when they all start canceling. What do others do? Do you take a deposit on these and do you allow free cancellation? Thanks.

 

[Copperhead]

It does seem that the OTA bookers are now canceling more often than in the past. With BK dot com starting to boldly state no cancellation fee AND they have been changing our property settings without telling us, I have pulled away from them for now. I haven't asked to be removed yet but have not put any availability in their system and are not being shown at all in their feed.

One option you may want to consider is to set all rooms to be non-refundable. You will not get as many to book well in advance but it does take care of the problem. This was suggested to me by my Rep.

I never put more than 3 months inventory in their system at a time. And that is one reason why I do not use a system to sync my booking system with theirs. A 2nd reason why I do not sync is that by keeping a close eye on my extranet, I see when they have changed some of my settings - like same day booking (which I never used), or not needing personal info, or not needing to have a CC to book. Yes they have changed these on me several times. You need to have a close watchful eye.

 

[JBloggs]

Yes you will be.
We went with them after weeks and weeks of work to get the listing up and within the first week had one snafu after another. Guest booking rooms that were not open and so on. It was an endless nightmare, I cannot imagine using them with all the mess and havoc they reap. If became a full time job to manager the bucking- dotcom, way more headache than value, imo.
You had your place so organized and ever i dotted and t crossed and then you get bucking - com that pull the rug out from under you. It was not worth it to us in the end. It brought only hotel people who don't care about all you work so hard to do and provide. My 2 cents against it. Others will have 2 cents for it. They do promote your place online, if not you then the other places.

 

[Lee2014]

Yes you will be.
We went with them after weeks and weeks of work to get the listing up and within the first week had one snafu after another. Guest booking rooms that were not open and so on. It was an endless nightmare, I cannot imagine using them with all the mess and havoc they reap. If became a full time job to manager the bucking- dotcom, way more headache than value, imo.
You had your place so organized and ever i dotted and t crossed and then you get bucking - com that pull the rug out from under you. It was not worth it to us in the end. It brought only hotel people who don't care about all you work so hard to do and provide. My 2 cents against it. Others will have 2 cents for it. They do promote your place online, if not you then the other places..

Yes you will be.
We went with them after weeks and weeks of work to get the listing up and within the first week had one snafu after another. Guest booking rooms that were not open and so on. It was an endless nightmare, I cannot imagine using them with all the mess and havoc they reap. If became a full time job to manager the bucking- dotcom, way more headache than value, imo.
You had your place so organized and ever i dotted and t crossed and then you get bucking - com that pull the rug out from under you. It was not worth it to us in the end. It brought only hotel people who don't care about all you work so hard to do and provide. My 2 cents against it. Others will have 2 cents for it. They do promote your place online, if not you then the other places.

We were on or bit z for a grand one week, one booking, and three month to get our money for that one booking…. that is just the tip to the iceberg! Nope! No thanks! The business man was really nice that booked, the only plus!

 

[JBloggs]

CH that same day setting was something that happened to us, we weren't even open!
Many of the settings would switch on their own. Also we had a separate setting for B-com as breakfast was not included (they could add it on) and the only guests we had it was a mess, they assumed they could eat like the rest, it really was a nightmare. Non refundable is a great suggestion!

 

[Morticia]

Generally speaking, if you make your listing totally non refundable, the problem goes away. Those place holders don't book.
We get very few cancellations from OTA bookings.
My listing said (I should check) first night deposit taken at booking. Refund less cancellation fee.
Yes, it still says that.

 

[Jcam]

Would at the very least charge some kind of deposit or fee - non refundable stops the place holders plus if they don't read then you can make a tidy profit out of it. Ie neighbour to me does $50 non refund then full charge when reach cancellation deadline - does well out of the $50's

 

[Baygirl]

We use X pe dia and run a 50% deposit at time of booking. If they cancel outside the 14days we refund their deposit minus a $25.00 cancellation fee and if they cancel within the 14days they lose their deposit and are charged for the balance. Before we started charging a fee we were getting cancellations a lot more frequently, now not so much.
So far for the most part it's been going well. I don't offer big discounts so I don't attract the deal hunters as much. We may offer a 10% off during the week to fill our empty rooms.

 

[MtnKeeper]

I'm dropping book ing com after just two months (I should have trusted my gut). Got a call this morning to cancel for free a reservation for next week. The girl booked with them and then emailed me directly asking me to give her another night at a big discount so she could give her boyfriend a longer stay. Told her she was through them and had to book another night through them. She emailed back saying she decided instead to just stay the one night. Yesterday morning emailed me directly asking for recommendations for a couples massage. This morning she told book ing that she lost her job and could no longer afford to stay at our property. LOAD OF CRAP!!!! Probably called around and got two cheaper nights somewhere and then could afford the massages too. I refused to do it for free as I charged her card already so I stuck to a $25 cancellation fee. That's 3 cancellations now in less than a month (all of course wanting it to be at no cancellation fee) and I barely have that many in a year.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I'm dropping book ing com after just two months (I should have trusted my gut). Got a call this morning to cancel for free a reservation for next week. The girl booked with them and then emailed me directly asking me to give her another night at a big discount so she could give her boyfriend a longer stay. Told her she was through them and had to book another night through them. She emailed back saying she decided instead to just stay the one night. Yesterday morning emailed me directly asking for recommendations for a couples massage. This morning she told book ing that she lost her job and could no longer afford to stay at our property. LOAD OF CRAP!!!! Probably called around and got two cheaper nights somewhere and then could afford the massages too. I refused to do it for free as I charged her card already so I stuck to a $25 cancellation fee. That's 3 cancellations now in less than a month (all of course wanting it to be at no cancellation fee) and I barely have that many in a year..

The ones that irritate me are the ones who call directly to cancel even though they didn't make the reservation directly. We tell them, 'I don't own your reservation, so I can't cancel it.'
The irritation comes from the fact that they can find us just fine to cancel, why couldn't they find us to make the reservation in the first place???
Then I had a guy yesterday who changed the credit card we had on file because, 'that one charges me 3% and this one is free!' I bit my lip until it bled so as not to blurt out, 'oooh, bking charges ME 15%! But if you go direct, it's free!!!!!'

 

[Morticia]

Sorry, didn't see this was an older post...

 

[MtnKeeper]

I'm dropping book ing com after just two months (I should have trusted my gut). Got a call this morning to cancel for free a reservation for next week. The girl booked with them and then emailed me directly asking me to give her another night at a big discount so she could give her boyfriend a longer stay. Told her she was through them and had to book another night through them. She emailed back saying she decided instead to just stay the one night. Yesterday morning emailed me directly asking for recommendations for a couples massage. This morning she told book ing that she lost her job and could no longer afford to stay at our property. LOAD OF CRAP!!!! Probably called around and got two cheaper nights somewhere and then could afford the massages too. I refused to do it for free as I charged her card already so I stuck to a $25 cancellation fee. That's 3 cancellations now in less than a month (all of course wanting it to be at no cancellation fee) and I barely have that many in a year..

The ones that irritate me are the ones who call directly to cancel even though they didn't make the reservation directly. We tell them, 'I don't own your reservation, so I can't cancel it.'
The irritation comes from the fact that they can find us just fine to cancel, why couldn't they find us to make the reservation in the first place???
Then I had a guy yesterday who changed the credit card we had on file because, 'that one charges me 3% and this one is free!' I bit my lip until it bled so as not to blurt out, 'oooh, bking charges ME 15%! But if you go direct, it's free!!!!!'
.

Exactly - if she found my email on my website to email me asking for the second night at a big discount then she certainly could have contacted me first to book the entire thing at the special military price we give (would have been so much better for her). Oh well, I'm just so done dealing with cancellations and the push to get us to refund all of the money and not charge anything.

 

[Jcam]

I'm dropping book ing com after just two months (I should have trusted my gut). Got a call this morning to cancel for free a reservation for next week. The girl booked with them and then emailed me directly asking me to give her another night at a big discount so she could give her boyfriend a longer stay. Told her she was through them and had to book another night through them. She emailed back saying she decided instead to just stay the one night. Yesterday morning emailed me directly asking for recommendations for a couples massage. This morning she told book ing that she lost her job and could no longer afford to stay at our property. LOAD OF CRAP!!!! Probably called around and got two cheaper nights somewhere and then could afford the massages too. I refused to do it for free as I charged her card already so I stuck to a $25 cancellation fee. That's 3 cancellations now in less than a month (all of course wanting it to be at no cancellation fee) and I barely have that many in a year..

The ones that irritate me are the ones who call directly to cancel even though they didn't make the reservation directly. We tell them, 'I don't own your reservation, so I can't cancel it.'
The irritation comes from the fact that they can find us just fine to cancel, why couldn't they find us to make the reservation in the first place???
Then I had a guy yesterday who changed the credit card we had on file because, 'that one charges me 3% and this one is free!' I bit my lip until it bled so as not to blurt out, 'oooh, bking charges ME 15%! But if you go direct, it's free!!!!!'
.

Ah but if they book with book it says free cancellation all over - your site doesn't so they think book with them get free cancellation - they don't realise its a pile of horse manure!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

I'm dropping book ing com after just two months (I should have trusted my gut). Got a call this morning to cancel for free a reservation for next week. The girl booked with them and then emailed me directly asking me to give her another night at a big discount so she could give her boyfriend a longer stay. Told her she was through them and had to book another night through them. She emailed back saying she decided instead to just stay the one night. Yesterday morning emailed me directly asking for recommendations for a couples massage. This morning she told book ing that she lost her job and could no longer afford to stay at our property. LOAD OF CRAP!!!! Probably called around and got two cheaper nights somewhere and then could afford the massages too. I refused to do it for free as I charged her card already so I stuck to a $25 cancellation fee. That's 3 cancellations now in less than a month (all of course wanting it to be at no cancellation fee) and I barely have that many in a year..

The ones that irritate me are the ones who call directly to cancel even though they didn't make the reservation directly. We tell them, 'I don't own your reservation, so I can't cancel it.'
The irritation comes from the fact that they can find us just fine to cancel, why couldn't they find us to make the reservation in the first place???
Then I had a guy yesterday who changed the credit card we had on file because, 'that one charges me 3% and this one is free!' I bit my lip until it bled so as not to blurt out, 'oooh, bking charges ME 15%! But if you go direct, it's free!!!!!'
.

Exactly - if she found my email on my website to email me asking for the second night at a big discount then she certainly could have contacted me first to book the entire thing at the special military price we give (would have been so much better for her). Oh well, I'm just so done dealing with cancellations and the push to get us to refund all of the money and not charge anything.
.

We tend toward pretty lenient in our policies, but his one is in stone. Every time we change anything with the card company, they charge us money! Why should I pay for it? The fee applied. It just does.