Boo's latest attempt to appease on cancellations

[GoodScout]

Boo continues to try and get ahead of its horrible reputation for cancelled reservations ... and half-asses it. To quote Ron Swanson, "Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."
Here's their email:
We know cancellations can have an impact on your business. To help you save time and keep your availability open, we’re making a few changes to when and how we show your free cancellation rates to specific customers that are highly likely to cancel.
This will affect only customers that have made multiple reservations for the same dates and have a high likelihood to cancel rate. They will only see your non-refundable rates, or be offered a shorter timeframe for free cancellation.
We hope that these changes will reduce the number of cancellations you receive.
If you don’t want us to make the above changes, no problem – just opt out below.
So they're going to take "free cancellation" off of some of the worst customers, or more likely, just give them a slightly shorter window.
There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

 

[Generic]

We gave up on free cancellations with BK and X a long time ago. There were too many placeholder reservations.... and now with a one night non-refundable charge... no more placeholders.

 

[notAgrandma]

I had a real person place a reservation with me via Ex, then called in a panic bc she noticed *after* placing it that it was nonrefundable. It had only been an hour, so I let her cancel. She booked at a cheaper B&B 2 blocks away, also via Ex. I told the innkeeper to charge the guest ASAP.

 

[Highlands John]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead".

 

[GoodScout]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.

 

[Highlands John]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.
.

The only OTA with use is Air. All other bookings it's 25% deposit and charge the full amount if cancelled 5 days or less.

 

[Anon Inn]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.
.

The only OTA with use is Air. All other bookings it's 25% deposit and charge the full amount if cancelled 5 days or less.
.

Air here too as only OTA. Our cancellation policy is three days. On Air 5 I think (moderate). A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.

 

[Highlands John]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.
.

The only OTA with use is Air. All other bookings it's 25% deposit and charge the full amount if cancelled 5 days or less.
.

Air here too as only OTA. Our cancellation policy is three days. On Air 5 I think (moderate). A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.
.

A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.

I find that people will happily book with air, but try and cancel direct. Nope! Tell air, not me.
Friends on boo find this a lot, especially people trying to weasel out of deposit/full payment. Quite rightly they tell them to contact OTA too.

 

[Generic]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.
.

The only OTA with use is Air. All other bookings it's 25% deposit and charge the full amount if cancelled 5 days or less.
.

Air here too as only OTA. Our cancellation policy is three days. On Air 5 I think (moderate). A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.
.

A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.

I find that people will happily book with air, but try and cancel direct. Nope! Tell air, not me.
Friends on boo find this a lot, especially people trying to weasel out of deposit/full payment. Quite rightly they tell them to contact OTA too.
.

I say the same thing... I don't own your reservations, they do. I can't make any changes. Talk to them.

 

[Morticia]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.
.

The only OTA with use is Air. All other bookings it's 25% deposit and charge the full amount if cancelled 5 days or less.
.

Air here too as only OTA. Our cancellation policy is three days. On Air 5 I think (moderate). A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.
.

A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.

I find that people will happily book with air, but try and cancel direct. Nope! Tell air, not me.
Friends on boo find this a lot, especially people trying to weasel out of deposit/full payment. Quite rightly they tell them to contact OTA too.
.

I say the same thing... I don't own your reservations, they do. I can't make any changes. Talk to them.
.

I say the same thing... I don't own your reservations, they do. I can't make any changes. Talk to them.

I think I'm switching back to totally non-refundable. This year hasn't been too bad, but almost all of our booking guests have not received any of the emails ive sent.
They get their confirmation from booking, so I'd like them to see it's not refundable from the start.

 

[Generic]

There's only two types of people who make multiple reservations for different places for the same date: Travel agents and hackers. And travel agents are like dinosaurs.

Not here, especially during the busy season. People will book a place and then nearer the time find something better or cheaper and cancel or even No-show for the first.
People also book a couple of places and then depending on how their day pans out stay at the most convenient, and again probably no-show the other(s).
Experienced it several times before we took deposits. Had a no-show one night, called them at 22.30 and woke them up, asked them what time they'd be arriving to be told "Oh, we didn't realise how far it was to your place so we decided to stay In Edinburgh instead"..

I've posted it here before, but we require 100% of the Boo stay at time of booking for just this reason. And cancel within 30 days, we refund zero.
.

The only OTA with use is Air. All other bookings it's 25% deposit and charge the full amount if cancelled 5 days or less.
.

Air here too as only OTA. Our cancellation policy is three days. On Air 5 I think (moderate). A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.
.

A few have cancelled via Air and Air deals with it.

I find that people will happily book with air, but try and cancel direct. Nope! Tell air, not me.
Friends on boo find this a lot, especially people trying to weasel out of deposit/full payment. Quite rightly they tell them to contact OTA too.
.

I say the same thing... I don't own your reservations, they do. I can't make any changes. Talk to them.
.

I say the same thing... I don't own your reservations, they do. I can't make any changes. Talk to them.

I think I'm switching back to totally non-refundable. This year hasn't been too bad, but almost all of our booking guests have not received any of the emails ive sent.
They get their confirmation from booking, so I'd like them to see it's not refundable from the start.
.

We have an automated email sent to the booking guests specifically giving them our direct email address... just in case. So far the emails seem to get there... but with one night non-refundable, they think before reserving anyway.