Sigh, guess I have to book your room in case everything else falls through.

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LA Hostel

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Ya gotta be kidding me, this fella emailed me, that he "have to book" a room in case his multible other pending arrangements are falling through... and asked what he had to do. I told him to read the cancelation policy very carefully and then make a booking online, the policy states that all nighte inside 7 days from cancelation is non-refundable.
Then I hopped on the booking engine and discovered that I had only two rooms in the nights he wanted and promptly marked availability "0" for one night, figure I will turn them on again in a week or two. We are booked solid so Im convinved we will be OK, but im "steamed" that he would suggest booking my room for 10 days "just in case everything else falls through" F*&%# - so basically if anyone of his couchsurfing friends calls him back, Im stuck with a empty room. Grrrr.
What do others do... Im ticked.!
 
I had a call for just one night that was the same thing. 'Well, if I call back and cancel in 2 hours, you won't charge me, right?' Wrong. I suggested that she wait until her plans were firm before making the reservation so I assume she called someone else because she never called back.
 
I had a call for just one night that was the same thing. 'Well, if I call back and cancel in 2 hours, you won't charge me, right?' Wrong. I suggested that she wait until her plans were firm before making the reservation so I assume she called someone else because she never called back..
Yeah - good point - I should add a minimum on all cancelations - I have been refunding if they are more than 7 days away, but really should put a $40 cancelation fee on the agreement.
This guy just got to me, I build all of these rooms all last year, and when people show so little respect for my work and business... dang it, I get get cranky. must go make fresh espresso..! Ahhh.
Bo
 
I had a call for just one night that was the same thing. 'Well, if I call back and cancel in 2 hours, you won't charge me, right?' Wrong. I suggested that she wait until her plans were firm before making the reservation so I assume she called someone else because she never called back..
Yeah - good point - I should add a minimum on all cancelations - I have been refunding if they are more than 7 days away, but really should put a $40 cancelation fee on the agreement.
This guy just got to me, I build all of these rooms all last year, and when people show so little respect for my work and business... dang it, I get get cranky. must go make fresh espresso..! Ahhh.
Bo
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This is just the wrong week for me on cancellations...4 so far in one week. One of whom swears she never made the rez in the first place.
 
This is common during wedding seasons, they book up as much as possible for relatives then cancel them all except a room or two. Actually graduation weekend is the same. It sucks but it is part of doing business, unless you stretch out your cancellation period or charge a fee for cancelling any time, like $15 or $15 to make it not worth their while to stuff you around.
 
We have a similar situation with one of our conferences here it is soo busy that people book all the rooms they can just in case. That is why at these super busy times I have payment in full a month in advance and it is non refundable so it makes them firm up their plans really quickly and I can easily sell any left rooms with a month to go. It also means that any people still looking have a bit of a chance to find something.
 
I would not accept the booking. When you get calls like that the percentage that they will be a no show are high and even if they check the policy I don't want to fight the credit card companies that too often side with the cardholder. If you only have two rooms left you might fill them anyway?
If he does show up since you are his "backup" he might not be that much fun to have either.
riki
 
I would not accept the booking. When you get calls like that the percentage that they will be a no show are high and even if they check the policy I don't want to fight the credit card companies that too often side with the cardholder. If you only have two rooms left you might fill them anyway?
If he does show up since you are his "backup" he might not be that much fun to have either.
riki.
Riki,
Definately - I figure it is a 100% chance of canceling the day before. But if I understand it right, we are not permitted to "not accept" a reservation, being we may not discriminate. I do my filtering my requiring booking at least 2 days ahead of the date in question and minimum 2 nights, that solved a lot of problems, however the ones who book 2 weeks 1 month from now with the intention of canceleing are hard to filter out.
Bo
 
Bo, you are in CA where things are much different to the rest of the USA. You already know that. I will say it is your business and you can accept or decline any booking you wish, as long as it is not done for discrimination reasons. You reserve the right...etc You might wish to contact an attorney who deals with this sort of thing to have your ducks in a row. When we first opened we had a situation where I contacted one and found out what my rights were, since we lived in our business and also have children here. We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us."
 
Bo, you are in CA where things are much different to the rest of the USA. You already know that. I will say it is your business and you can accept or decline any booking you wish, as long as it is not done for discrimination reasons. You reserve the right...etc You might wish to contact an attorney who deals with this sort of thing to have your ducks in a row. When we first opened we had a situation where I contacted one and found out what my rights were, since we lived in our business and also have children here. We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us.".
JB - :)
Sounds like sound advise to me.!
Bo
 
Bo, you are in CA where things are much different to the rest of the USA. You already know that. I will say it is your business and you can accept or decline any booking you wish, as long as it is not done for discrimination reasons. You reserve the right...etc You might wish to contact an attorney who deals with this sort of thing to have your ducks in a row. When we first opened we had a situation where I contacted one and found out what my rights were, since we lived in our business and also have children here. We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us.".
Joey Bloggs said:
....... you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us."
How about "you seem to be a pain in the
potty-mouth.gif
therefore you won't be staying with us"?
 
Bo, you are in CA where things are much different to the rest of the USA. You already know that. I will say it is your business and you can accept or decline any booking you wish, as long as it is not done for discrimination reasons. You reserve the right...etc You might wish to contact an attorney who deals with this sort of thing to have your ducks in a row. When we first opened we had a situation where I contacted one and found out what my rights were, since we lived in our business and also have children here. We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us.".
Joey Bloggs said:
We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us."
Actually, 'ugly' isn't a protected class under the law, so you could say that. Neither is 'PITA'.
 
Bo, you are in CA where things are much different to the rest of the USA. You already know that. I will say it is your business and you can accept or decline any booking you wish, as long as it is not done for discrimination reasons. You reserve the right...etc You might wish to contact an attorney who deals with this sort of thing to have your ducks in a row. When we first opened we had a situation where I contacted one and found out what my rights were, since we lived in our business and also have children here. We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us.".
Joey Bloggs said:
We were given sound advice, obv you cannot say "You are ugly therefore you won't be staying with us."
Actually, 'ugly' isn't a protected class under the law, so you could say that. Neither is 'PITA'.
.
hahaha....Muirford, you are too funny! That made me laugh.
teeth_smile.gif

 
I would not accept the booking. When you get calls like that the percentage that they will be a no show are high and even if they check the policy I don't want to fight the credit card companies that too often side with the cardholder. If you only have two rooms left you might fill them anyway?
If he does show up since you are his "backup" he might not be that much fun to have either.
riki.
Riki,
Definately - I figure it is a 100% chance of canceling the day before. But if I understand it right, we are not permitted to "not accept" a reservation, being we may not discriminate. I do my filtering my requiring booking at least 2 days ahead of the date in question and minimum 2 nights, that solved a lot of problems, however the ones who book 2 weeks 1 month from now with the intention of canceleing are hard to filter out.
Bo
.
LA Hostel said:
Riki,
Definately - I figure it is a 100% chance of canceling the day before. But if I understand it right, we are not permitted to "not accept" a reservation, being we may not discriminate. I do my filtering my requiring booking at least 2 days ahead of the date in question and minimum 2 nights, that solved a lot of problems, however the ones who book 2 weeks 1 month from now with the intention of canceleing are hard to filter out.
Bo
Ugh! Can you tell them that you need all their credit card information and need to charge the one night deposit per your booking procedures? That will often change their minds when they are trying to pull something...?
RIki
 
I had a call for just one night that was the same thing. 'Well, if I call back and cancel in 2 hours, you won't charge me, right?' Wrong. I suggested that she wait until her plans were firm before making the reservation so I assume she called someone else because she never called back..
Yeah - good point - I should add a minimum on all cancelations - I have been refunding if they are more than 7 days away, but really should put a $40 cancelation fee on the agreement.
This guy just got to me, I build all of these rooms all last year, and when people show so little respect for my work and business... dang it, I get get cranky. must go make fresh espresso..! Ahhh.
Bo
.
LA Hostel said:
Yeah - good point - I should add a minimum on all cancelations - I have been refunding if they are more than 7 days away, but really should put a $40 cancelation fee on the agreement.
This guy just got to me, I build all of these rooms all last year, and when people show so little respect for my work and business... dang it, I get get cranky. must go make fresh espresso..! Ahhh.
Bo
We have a $35.00 cancellation fee for anything under 14 days. Under 7 days, they forfeit their first night's deposit. Less than 24 hours or no-show, they lose the full reservation.
People are cheap. The cancellation fee really works.
 
I would not accept the booking. When you get calls like that the percentage that they will be a no show are high and even if they check the policy I don't want to fight the credit card companies that too often side with the cardholder. If you only have two rooms left you might fill them anyway?
If he does show up since you are his "backup" he might not be that much fun to have either.
riki.
Riki,
Definately - I figure it is a 100% chance of canceling the day before. But if I understand it right, we are not permitted to "not accept" a reservation, being we may not discriminate. I do my filtering my requiring booking at least 2 days ahead of the date in question and minimum 2 nights, that solved a lot of problems, however the ones who book 2 weeks 1 month from now with the intention of canceleing are hard to filter out.
Bo
.
LA Hostel said:
Riki,
Definately - I figure it is a 100% chance of canceling the day before. But if I understand it right, we are not permitted to "not accept" a reservation, being we may not discriminate. I do my filtering my requiring booking at least 2 days ahead of the date in question and minimum 2 nights, that solved a lot of problems, however the ones who book 2 weeks 1 month from now with the intention of canceleing are hard to filter out.
Bo
You don't have to "refuse" the reservation, just make it expensive for them to cancel. If you do that, they'll either make the reservation work for them or they'll go somewhere else. If the latter, good riddance!
 
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