I Booked the Non-Existent Room

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Well, last night disaster struck. Someone calls, they have a reservation and will be arriving in about 2 hours, is that okay? Okay?!?!?! All my arrivals are in! I check online and sure enough a BK reservation is in the system with NO ROOM. Apparently something happened when they modified the reservation or something happened in ResKey on MA... I don't know who is responsible, but I now have an emergency....
We took responsibility (no one to pass the buck to and even if we did, this poor family would be stuck without a place to stay). We call around and find them a room for the two nights.... so we process their card for the two nights, go over to the other place and pay them for the stay. Leave the guest a gift. Give the host a gift, for helping us accommodate them (not that he's unhappy, he's getting paid for two night for a room). Leave them an apology letter, a copy of the CC receipt and a printed receipt as well as some money to help pay for the cab fare there. Call the guest. Give them the information, so they can get there. Apologize again. Tried to call the guest after they checked in to see if all is okay and left a message.
So, I think I averted a crisis and everyone was happy. Do you think I should call back and talk to them again and make sure everything went well... or do you think that may be nagging them? I can't email, since it's via BK's email system.
 
Very lucky to dodge a bullet here. I think you've done enough. Any more contacts and you may start to irritate them. Problem solved. They're ready to move on.
I think.
 
Deja vu!
Had a guest book with B**king but changed her mind. She called me direct. I told her she had to cancel with them. She later emailed me to say she had but received no confirmation from them. I just cleared the room on ResKey so I could fill it. I did, directly from my own site.
Day of the reservation, it was still on the books on B**king's info so I called them myself to say that the customer had cancelled. No problem they said, we'll cancel it. Half an hour later, my husband says that it shows a room available for that night when we are full. Sure enough, it shows empty on their admin page AND available on MyAllocator grid. Somehow they made the room available again. Fixed that quick but it could have ended up like you Charlie. And it would have been a mess because everyone is booked up around here.
 
You did a good job. Let it be. Maybe they will contact you when they are home, maybe not.

RE: the double booking. This same scenario (first part) played out with another innkeeper on another forum I read. Yesterday! B.C had double booked them as well. A day of booking at that. The innkeeper contacted B.C because the same room had been previously booked through them, the room was 'sold out' yet someone was able to book. B.C would not take ownership of the problem. They were sold out as well. The innkeeper was frantic to find an alt place and frustrated because they felt B.C should have assisted.

Sounds to me that B.C has some major hick-ups to correct.
 
You did a good job. Let it be. Maybe they will contact you when they are home, maybe not.

RE: the double booking. This same scenario (first part) played out with another innkeeper on another forum I read. Yesterday! B.C had double booked them as well. A day of booking at that. The innkeeper contacted B.C because the same room had been previously booked through them, the room was 'sold out' yet someone was able to book. B.C would not take ownership of the problem. They were sold out as well. The innkeeper was frantic to find an alt place and frustrated because they felt B.C should have assisted.

Sounds to me that B.C has some major hick-ups to correct..
Plus, they are collecting the commission twice on the same room!
 
from what I understand from my neighbours who update Book manually - if a guest changes anything ie from 1 night to 2, moves dates etc it can temporarily open up the room - my neighbour ended up 3 rooms over due to this problem.
We use a channel manager which would immediately slam it shut again but I appreciate many don't - have had various cases of this in my neighbourhood so know its not the BB's but book.
In this case you did everything you could possible to help the guests - however I would be wary of asking book for help in this situation as they have a naughty tendency to blame you and to make the customer happy book them into the most expensive place they can find and bill you the difference. ie they give guest 3 choices to pick from and say it will be the same price so they (the guest) picks the most lush - they don't know we are footing the bill.
 
You did EVERYTHING right. You handled an awful situation like the true pro you are. I wouldn't contact the guest again.
I sure hope that all of you who use b.com get a lot of business from them because all the horror stories I read from innkeepers, b.com makes so many grevious errors and doesn't care about their clients, which are the innkeepers. It affects b&bs more than hotels, because the public expects those types of errors from hotel, but never from us. Also, a bad review on a hotel is just par for the course and they're not affected as much as b&bs by those bad reviews.
in 14+ years, I've only double booked once. It was when I was switching over to ResKey from my previous system. It turned out to be a horrendous situation and resulted in bad reviews all over the place. I'll never go to b.com
 
I'm always terrified of something like that at this time of year, I know I'd really struggle to find someone with a vacancy around here.
 
Got a text from the guest and sounded positive. And thanked us for the gift we left too.
 
Got a text from the guest and sounded positive. And thanked us for the gift we left too..
Whew! Looks like you dodged that bullet! Glad it all worked out for you and for your guests. You did exactly the right thing.
 
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!
 
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!.
2cat_lady said:
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!
Lets say you get a rez from booking for your last room. They send an email saying you now have no availability on that date. BUT, if someone cancels that room thru booking, it goes right back into inventory unless you have gone in and blocked that date from being booked.
Now, maybe the channel manager and booking didn't sync up fast enough. I notice that the 'hey you're full' email is about 6 hours delayed from the 'hey you have a reservation' email.
 
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!.
2cat_lady said:
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!
Lets say you get a rez from booking for your last room. They send an email saying you now have no availability on that date. BUT, if someone cancels that room thru booking, it goes right back into inventory unless you have gone in and blocked that date from being booked.
Now, maybe the channel manager and booking didn't sync up fast enough. I notice that the 'hey you're full' email is about 6 hours delayed from the 'hey you have a reservation' email.
.
I usually laugh when I get those. By the time I get them... The room has usually been booked.
 
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!.
2cat_lady said:
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!
Lets say you get a rez from booking for your last room. They send an email saying you now have no availability on that date. BUT, if someone cancels that room thru booking, it goes right back into inventory unless you have gone in and blocked that date from being booked.
Now, maybe the channel manager and booking didn't sync up fast enough. I notice that the 'hey you're full' email is about 6 hours delayed from the 'hey you have a reservation' email.
.
Morticia said:
2cat_lady said:
But I DO use a channel manager and it still opened up my booked room. The whole point of the channel manager is so you don't need to worry about it. Ugh!
Lets say you get a rez from booking for your last room. They send an email saying you now have no availability on that date. BUT, if someone cancels that room thru booking, it goes right back into inventory unless you have gone in and blocked that date from being booked.
Now, maybe the channel manager and booking didn't sync up fast enough. I notice that the 'hey you're full' email is about 6 hours delayed from the 'hey you have a reservation' email.
When ever I get a reservation through them I go in and mark the room closed. i have been told that if it is marked closed it will not revert to open if the guest cancels. So far so good, knock on wood and all that! Additionally it stops the 'sold out; email which hit in the middle of the night.
 
Great fix on their horrible job! Why didn't they send you something about booking that room? Glad my aunt didn't get us on them.
 
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