The answer to, "I tried booking the room online but couldn't do it, so I'm calling you."

[Aussie Innkeeper]

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares.

 

[Arks]

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares..

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares.

I've been with Booking about a year. No nightmares. They are a pain to deal with because there are very few settings in your account you control yourself. You have to tell them what they want, and they make the changes at their end. Things like check in policy and time, general property description, etc. A lot of the control they maintain is because their site translates your property info into many languages, depending on the computer the guest is using, so they keep things fairly standardized so the translations work.
I CAN go in and mark checkboxes for the amenities each of my rooms has, and I can set the rates they display.

It's a bit of a learning curve but I pretty much have it figured out now. They don't let you list and describe your rooms by name. Instead, they're set up mainly for hotels, so you tell them how many standard rooms you have, how many deluxe rooms, how many suites, how many suites with balcony, how many studio suites, etc. So you pick one of these categories for each of your rooms, and it works.

I set my five rooms up with the smallest being my 1 standard room, my suite with a balcony being my 1 balcony suite, etc. So when someone makes a reservation for a standard room, they get the small one. As I said, convoluted until you get it all worked out. But now I can have all 5 rooms available on Booking, and each one is priced correctly so I know where to put the people who reserve through them.
I currently get two or three bookings a month through them, which I'm happy to get. But also, I get all the advertising Booking does. Lots of times when I go to a Google search page, I see an ad for my place, put there by Booking. So I consider a portion of the commission I pay them to be advertising and I'm happy with that.
I'd say they're right at the edge of what I'll endure, though. If they make some policy change that makes things harder to work with them, or raise rates or something, I'm gone.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares..

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares.

We get probably 25% of our reservations through b ooking. We prefer ex pedia to work with, but both send us people.

 

[Copperhead]

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares..

So, is there any advantage to going with bkngdotcom? All I hear are nightmares.

The advantage? More exposure & possibly more bookings.

There is a price for that - 15% commission for every reservation. I do find that some people use bkingdotcom to search then call or google and book direct.
It take some effort to find out what works best for you and your business. They seem to be listening to some of our requests as their extanet has expanded what the B&B can control.
I have limited availability on their site, do not list my room names only room type which gives me a little leeway of which room I assign to them, just making sure they get the same amenities.

 

[gillumhouse]

I have a new one for you. Last night I check e-mails. Woohoo a reservation.
I copy everything to the index card I keep for backup and call to get credit card #. Get voicemail and leave message - Thank you for your reservation, I will call back to get credit card number to guarantee the reservation.
About 15 minutes later I get a call - I did not make a reservation and I asked my husband and neither did he. We will be in California on that date for a grandson's graduation. I read her the address, phone, and e-mail and yes that is them - but they have not been at that address for 3 years. No problem, I am glad we caught it early, I will go in and cancel. When I went in to RezKey - there WAS no reservation. Her info is in the list of guests, but no reservation. I go to look at the e-mail - the e-mail is gone.
Have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone?

 

[Morticia]

I have a new one for you. Last night I check e-mails. Woohoo a reservation.
I copy everything to the index card I keep for backup and call to get credit card #. Get voicemail and leave message - Thank you for your reservation, I will call back to get credit card number to guarantee the reservation.
About 15 minutes later I get a call - I did not make a reservation and I asked my husband and neither did he. We will be in California on that date for a grandson's graduation. I read her the address, phone, and e-mail and yes that is them - but they have not been at that address for 3 years. No problem, I am glad we caught it early, I will go in and cancel. When I went in to RezKey - there WAS no reservation. Her info is in the list of guests, but no reservation. I go to look at the e-mail - the e-mail is gone.
Have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone?.

That is just weird!

 

[Lee2014]

I have a new one for you. Last night I check e-mails. Woohoo a reservation.
I copy everything to the index card I keep for backup and call to get credit card #. Get voicemail and leave message - Thank you for your reservation, I will call back to get credit card number to guarantee the reservation.
About 15 minutes later I get a call - I did not make a reservation and I asked my husband and neither did he. We will be in California on that date for a grandson's graduation. I read her the address, phone, and e-mail and yes that is them - but they have not been at that address for 3 years. No problem, I am glad we caught it early, I will go in and cancel. When I went in to RezKey - there WAS no reservation. Her info is in the list of guests, but no reservation. I go to look at the e-mail - the e-mail is gone.
Have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone?.

Wow! A real live "No Show"!!!! Weird.

 

[Copperhead]

I have a new one for you. Last night I check e-mails. Woohoo a reservation.
I copy everything to the index card I keep for backup and call to get credit card #. Get voicemail and leave message - Thank you for your reservation, I will call back to get credit card number to guarantee the reservation.
About 15 minutes later I get a call - I did not make a reservation and I asked my husband and neither did he. We will be in California on that date for a grandson's graduation. I read her the address, phone, and e-mail and yes that is them - but they have not been at that address for 3 years. No problem, I am glad we caught it early, I will go in and cancel. When I went in to RezKey - there WAS no reservation. Her info is in the list of guests, but no reservation. I go to look at the e-mail - the e-mail is gone.
Have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone?.

Strange!
Are they past guest?

 

[gillumhouse]

I have a new one for you. Last night I check e-mails. Woohoo a reservation.
I copy everything to the index card I keep for backup and call to get credit card #. Get voicemail and leave message - Thank you for your reservation, I will call back to get credit card number to guarantee the reservation.
About 15 minutes later I get a call - I did not make a reservation and I asked my husband and neither did he. We will be in California on that date for a grandson's graduation. I read her the address, phone, and e-mail and yes that is them - but they have not been at that address for 3 years. No problem, I am glad we caught it early, I will go in and cancel. When I went in to RezKey - there WAS no reservation. Her info is in the list of guests, but no reservation. I go to look at the e-mail - the e-mail is gone.
Have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone?.

Strange!
Are they past guest?
.

John told me today in answer to my question about finding old reservations - go to Guests and click on the number of visits and it pops up. It appears they booked for that night in 2013 and then cancelled before they came. How it came up WITH an e-mail, tis a puzzlement. I just look at it as a learning tool now - and now know how to find when they last stayed. I am still hearing doo doo do do, doo doo do do, pling!