Guest trouble with using the web to pay...hmmm???

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CafeMae

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So, we're opening within a month, and I've gotten my first couple reservations
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...Yay! I think. We're in a small, remote village. I don't want to worry about payments and their complication, so I've said that we will charge for the reservation at the time of the booking. This lets me process online, right. Done, I don't have to worry about it.
Here's the thing - two out of my three reservations, have had apparant problems figuring out how to enter their CC information online. To me, it really doesn't seem that complicated.
I don't want them to have this bad memory of how horrible it was to reserve a room, so I ended up saying to one of them to just to pay us when they get here...but I am suspicious -it doesn't seem that people should have this amount of trouble.
Is this normal? Do you all have problems with guests not understanding how to input their credit card numbers online? What do you do about it?
Or the newbie that I am, am I falling for their ploy not to pay up front?
 
My first thought is WARNING!!! Is there any way that they can give it to you over the phone to process?
 
What reservation system are you using? Is there a way you can give us a link to a website that uses it so we can look to see what's happening? I've had people not want to put their credit card numbers online, but confused on how to do it? Nope!
My gut instinct is screaming BEWARE!
 
We use PayPal to take deposits through our website, occasionally get people saying "paypal wasn't working" or the such like, but seldom, most come through without issues.
2 /3 sounds very high, I'd have said 1 in 25 for us, in fact I've been pleasantly surprised how many folk, especially older folk are happy to book and pay deposit online.
 
We take almost 100% of our reservations online. I have had maybe a dozen with a problem and I usually walk them through on the telephone (because they want the online discount, it's cheaper to reserve online) and almost always been successful. I think twice we took it by telephone, one case he paid the premium, he had no PC and the second was software related error, so we manually gave them the discount.
We have had a number of people try to circumvent the system and not provide a CC to reserve. Or in one case, a generic number to reserve. To us, it's a warning sign and we refuse the reservation. If they are a problem before they get here, they are likely to be a problem when they stay.
 
Guests who 'have trouble' with figuring out the online booking end up calling me. What you can do is have them call you or email you with the information. Then you fill out the form. It's not good to start wavering on the policies before someone has even shown up for the first time.
 
I'm with the rest here. It could be a sign of trouble lerking OR just someone not wanting to put their info online but doesn't want to say that.
While they are on the phone, complete the form FOR them, marking that they agree to the policies etc. and enter the CC info.
Stick to your policies, you have them for a reason!!!
 
there might be a problem with the form ... don't waiver ... if you don't want to share the link, how about you go to your website as though you were going to book a room and see if you have any difficulty.
 
You don't have to share the link to your website if you want to remain anonymous, but if you can give us a link from another website that uses the same reservation system it will help us understand if there are any problems.
 
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys...
 
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys....
CafeMae said:
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys...
No, you need to make sure every booking comes in ONLINE and they check the box agreeing to your policies. Why would you need a plan B? Intl has nothing to do with it, anyone can order anything online from anywhere.
Reskey is set up for you to customize it, if people are having difficulty with it, then you need to rethink how you have it set up. It should be VERY SIMPLE and EASY to book online.
#1) people coming from out of the area s/b used to booking online, #2) this online system s/b your greatest amenity, for them and for you. Don't rethink it, get it sorted out.
 
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys....
Get online with Reskey and find out what's going wrong and how to fix it, or switch software. You need people to book online, you need your policies agreed to, or one day someone will cancel and you will have trouble with the CC company.
 
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys....
email one of the forum buddies here using reskey so they can try to make a reservation. That way they will see if you have it set up correctly. There is no mystery to booking with it. My client has never had any problems with on line reservations with it. If that many people have a problem, then you must need to change your set up. Fix it and move on.
 
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys....
Maybe it is situational. People are not wanting to enter their cc info out of the country. Not that they can't, they dont want to. Make sure it is very obvious that yours is a secure site.
If guests are contacting you via email to say they 'can't' enter their info, ask a few questions about what the problem is that they are encountering, so you can 'tell the programmer so it can be fixed'. Then tell them you'll be happy to take all of their info via email if that works better for them.
I know everyone else gets 95% of their reservations online, but we don't. Exactly half of my reservations are made online. The rest are via phone or email. Rather than give up the booking, give the guest another way to make the rez. Email. Skype.
 
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys....
CafeMae said:
Sigh...I guess nine people saying the same thing is pretty telling. I use the same reservation system that many folks here do (reskey)...I don't think that's it unless they have some type of script blocker.
All (as in all 3) of my reservations are international, as we're in latin america near the rainforest and its the people from outside the country who are interested in seeing it. I need to get up to speed on how best to make international calls, or figure out a plan B.
Thanks guys...
No, you need to make sure every booking comes in ONLINE and they check the box agreeing to your policies. Why would you need a plan B? Intl has nothing to do with it, anyone can order anything online from anywhere.
Reskey is set up for you to customize it, if people are having difficulty with it, then you need to rethink how you have it set up. It should be VERY SIMPLE and EASY to book online.
#1) people coming from out of the area s/b used to booking online, #2) this online system s/b your greatest amenity, for them and for you. Don't rethink it, get it sorted out.
.
CageMae, JB is spot on. If they are contacting you to say there is a problem find out exactly what the problem is AS you take the reservation via the contact at that moment.
 
ResKey is SIMPLE! Period! When I have had a guest say they couldn't book online, it was because they didn't want to put in their CC#. Some because they didn't want to put it in the system (online) a couple of others because they wanted to pay CASH when they arrived. If there is a problem, John will help you through it but please message someone here that uses ResKey and let us try it to see if their IS a problem first.
A plan B is always needed, IMHO anyway. Businesses should always have 2 methods to book, make the customer comfortable from the start. Any business that forces me to purchase online with no method makes me move to another company. If I can't contact them to purchase, what if I have a problem with my purchase. Same goes in the hospitality industry.... REASON they call it HOSPITALITY!!!!
 
No I am not saying don't have a plan B, but get plan A sorted out. Don't go to Plan B. Get plan A in order.
A phone # is always required for any business. I didn't say not to offer online reservations, but if you are booking intl guests you need to have everything in place for online reservations.
 
OK, I just tried to make a rez. You do not have a field for guest address but you allow guests to hit the button under cc info that says 'Use contact info'. I don't want to click to actually make the rez and take up your only room that is open for the dates I selected so I'm just going on the first page to tell you what I see.
If that is the only room that is open you should at least put the photo of it on RezKey.
The form is confusing to me because the required fields are pink. There is nothing that tells me that. It looks like those fields are blocked and if guests are complaining, maybe that is what they are encountering as well. White fields are the ones that are not required is what I am guessing. Don't make me guess what the colors are supposed to mean. Have a statement that says, 'Pink fields are required info.' And get the address info in there. It's missing.
Because you only have one room open it is hard for me, as the guest, to find out what room is open and when. The first thing I got when I selected a date was a form to be put on a waiting list. Maybe THAT is the problem. I had to find the link to look at the calendar. Until you have many rooms open maybe it is best to see if you can start the calendar at that date rather than having it start now, when you don't have any rooms open.
Then, I clicked back on the calendar and got the form to fill out for the wait list. Now I can't get back to the calendar again. That is a problem. If the guest is on the calendar and can't move around back and forth and keeps getting stuck, they will give up.
Also, once on that form I cannot get back to your website. I am stuck. There is no way to clear the dates on my original selection so every time I go back to the calendar (from the 'book now' button on the rooms page) I end up with the dang wait list form.
Yes, you have a problem with your rez software setup!
 
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