Has anyone tried Booking.com?

[Alexandra224]

Hello, recently i found that somehow my bookings on Airbnb dropped :(, and i got in Booking.com also, so i could have both at the same time, anyone has thoughts about it?, it looks sketchy, and obviously i love Airbnb and so used to this, but since the drop of RSV i wanted to try it out...  

[Russell-and-Vicky0]

Yes we have used Airbnb for quite a while but there seems to be issues with the calander being reset and casuing issues with bookings.

We dediced to try booking.com  

We loaded the profile on Monday this week 18th Sept2017 and by tues afternoon we had 5 Major bookings bringing in more money in a week than AirBnB ever did.  The one downside is 15% commsion which is high. 

But the WEB presence is massive world wide and massive hits

Airbnd needs to up thier game and provide a better stable relaible platform with more Web Presence 

If they spent more money adverstising the service its a win win for both sides 

I like the idea of AirBNB but they need to up their game

The last 8 weeks no bookings at all and soon as we go to Booking.com Almost full after 2 days for the next coming week 

It speaks for itself the 15% is worth it as far as we are concerend we will Keep AirBnB and see how it goes for coming months 

Who knows what will happen 

[Jeff158]

Hi, the commission on airbnb is the same as B.com

Abb 3% host fee + 12% guest fee, B.com 15% host fee, no guest fee. You just add 12% to your rates on B.com

If you cancel a booking on B.com, it could cost you dearly as B.com will find the guest alternative accommodation at your cost.

[Lisa515]

@Alexandra224 @Jeff158 I never even considered Booking.com.  This is good info! The fact that fees are the same, there's no reason not to use both.  I guess you just have set up the syncing calendars between the two.    

[Russell-and-Vicky0]

Yes Sync your ical in both Airbnb and Booking.com

Good luck it works for us 

Although we are paying a higher commision 15% rather than 3%

[Scott-and-Sherryn0]

I'm amazed at how many people can't do math, 3% + 12% = 15% same as booking.com

You pay 3% out of the money that you earn, the guest pays 12% fee on top of your money, bottom line is that airbnb gets 15% of the total money that the guest pays, just like booking.com.

The guest only cares what the total booking costs and that is what their choice is based on. At best you will be just under 2% better off with airbnb.   

[Josie-and-Paul0]

Hi Russell and Vicky,

Thank you for your helpful information.

I registered to use booking.com last week (Friday 15th September). I called them on Saturday morning and they said it up to 3 weeks to have the listing verified and and registered before we can use it.

Did you have this waiting period before you were able to use your profile?

Also, as a new member, were you able to have booking.com handle the payments for your listing, or does booking.com make you select "pay at the property" for new members?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Josie

[Russell-and-Vicky0]

They set us up in two days fully working 

Also they handle payments for us 

We said we dont take card cash only for breakfast onsite 

Its great we are now getting bookings coming in every day now full for this weekend the first time in a year

[Josie-and-Paul0]

Thanks for getting back to me. 

I think I will call tomorrow to discuss my listing. I do believe if they can take payments on my behalf it would tremendously help with increasing bookings. Definitely keen to investigate. 

Thanks

[Josie-and-Paul0]

So I spoke to booking.com this morning. They advised in Australia there is no option yet for them to take payments on behalf of the property. I have set my profile up, but just not sure what to do regarding "guest payment option". It's currently set up as "you only accept cash", which isn't true because I do not want to accept cash on arrival... If I do start using stripe or square as recommended by other users, what do they put their payment option as?

[Fred13]

I started out on Bookings.com; their clientele didn't fit my offering at all, and after 5 guests I got the 'impression' they were more a 'hotel booking' kind of agency, not one of adventurers, which is my primary target. Otherwise, why not try them, nothing to loose.

[Monica4]

I tried them for a while but didn't like the template for setting up my listing. What I found is that, for an entire house or apartment, Villa.com should be used. It is part of Booking.com. I also didn't like the fact that people could book instantly and therefore I no longer have my listing on that account.

One thing you have to remember is that Booking.com only accepts legal establishments, so if you are operating under the wire you will be regected.

[Russell-and-Vicky0]

We are Legal 

Full Planning permission and all the L2 Fires systems and  Fire doors etc Food hygine 

I believe a lot of airbnb people are not up to current standards and the councils are now checking this so it will not be long before everyone has to be legal.

As far as council is concerned as soon as you take payment from anyone to stay, you must be up to the current regs for Fire Etc its classed as a commercial peoperty 

[Daniel911]

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[Delphine-And-Michael0]

Last time we used booking.com they did not process payments passing card information onto the host only, has that changed?

If it hasn't changed In the United States what credit card processor do you use for foreign credit card payments?

Our processor stated they would not necessarily process all foreign credit cards.