Taking deposits

[Madeleine]

What we've learned this week about taking deposits -
If you don't take the deposit, the guest cancels.
3 reservations made for this week were made while we were on the road so no deposit was taken. All 3 have canceled.
One guest said she was going to pay cash on arrival. She argued about paying the cancellation fee until we explained she was on the hook for the whole amount being as she is was arriving today.
One more Rez convinced dh to not charge the deposit. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

[EmptyNest]

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Weird on a holiday weekend to change plans like that. Now we know!

 

[Madeleine]

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!.

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!

We weren't home. Can't take a deposit on the road. (Please, don't everyone jump in and tell me to get Square.)
Every reservation for this week that had a deposit charged is coming. It's the ones we didn't charge or the ones who asked to pay cash who screwed us over. Of course we've learned the lesson, time and again. But until I cart the cc machine away with me I'm stuck not charging deposits on the road unless I run them all when I get home. Which is a distinct possibility in the future.
It's a lesson for those who doubt the efficacy of taking deposits.

 

[gillumhouse]

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!.

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!

We weren't home. Can't take a deposit on the road. (Please, don't everyone jump in and tell me to get Square.)
Every reservation for this week that had a deposit charged is coming. It's the ones we didn't charge or the ones who asked to pay cash who screwed us over. Of course we've learned the lesson, time and again. But until I cart the cc machine away with me I'm stuck not charging deposits on the road unless I run them all when I get home. Which is a distinct possibility in the future.
It's a lesson for those who doubt the efficacy of taking deposits.
.

You were on vacation. The taking of the reservations was interruption enough. I hope you had a wonderful time. Look at it this way, these are the people you really do not want nor need. They would have been toxic. Have a good Thanksgiving. We ALL have a lot to be thankful for.

 

[Ice]

We all make mistakes. it's when we don't learn from them, that hurts us.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

I totally agree with you about deposits. It really does make a difference on cancellations.
Food for thought. We have 3 ways we can easily take deposits when we're away. Our online booking system uses authorize dot net and the deposit is taken at the time of them making an online reservations (LOVE this feature even though it costs more). Using auth dot net we can enter in the credit card information manually and the system will charge it. The last way we can do it is to use the virtual terminal. I can log on anywhere to my auth dot net account and charge it online.

 

[An Old Tavernkeeper]

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!.

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!

We weren't home. Can't take a deposit on the road. (Please, don't everyone jump in and tell me to get Square.)
Every reservation for this week that had a deposit charged is coming. It's the ones we didn't charge or the ones who asked to pay cash who screwed us over. Of course we've learned the lesson, time and again. But until I cart the cc machine away with me I'm stuck not charging deposits on the road unless I run them all when I get home. Which is a distinct possibility in the future.
It's a lesson for those who doubt the efficacy of taking deposits.
.

Our processor allows us to call their phone customer service and charge up to a $100 deposit to a customer account at the same rate as a phone order/manually keyed transactions.
We have lowered our deposit, except for peak season to $100 anyways. It seems to be enough to keep them on their toes, but allows us to swipe more of the annual total dollars at the lower swiped rate.

 

[Madeleine]

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!.

Haven't we been telling you for years...charge a deposit. Surely you would have learned by now. TAKE IT AND CHARGE IT!

We weren't home. Can't take a deposit on the road. (Please, don't everyone jump in and tell me to get Square.)
Every reservation for this week that had a deposit charged is coming. It's the ones we didn't charge or the ones who asked to pay cash who screwed us over. Of course we've learned the lesson, time and again. But until I cart the cc machine away with me I'm stuck not charging deposits on the road unless I run them all when I get home. Which is a distinct possibility in the future.
It's a lesson for those who doubt the efficacy of taking deposits.
.

Our processor allows us to call their phone customer service and charge up to a $100 deposit to a customer account at the same rate as a phone order/manually keyed transactions.
We have lowered our deposit, except for peak season to $100 anyways. It seems to be enough to keep them on their toes, but allows us to swipe more of the annual total dollars at the lower swiped rate.
.

We have lowered our deposit, except for peak season to $100 anyways. It seems to be enough to keep them on their toes, but allows us to swipe more of the annual total dollars at the lower swiped rate.

We just switched to $100 deposits (or full amount for one night stays) for just that reason. Our processor charges an arm and a leg to call in any transaction.