Booking com booking fee. How to “jump off” Booking.com and save on booking fees

Greetings. Today I will tell how to book on bookng.com Right. All of you know this site, and if you don’t know, then here’s a fact for you: it exists. This is a popular system for finding hotels around the world - you should definitely get acquainted with it. To be friends with booking and use it successfully, you need to remember only six points.

If you need a hotel abroad, then this is your closest friend and comrade: booking.com His base is huge - there is everything.

Today we will learn the nuances that must be taken into account when working with this site. These are not pluses and minuses, these are just nuances. All of them are directly or indirectly described on the booking itself.

1. booking.com is only a search

Perhaps, this is the main thing to know. Everything seems to be clear, but there is one nuance. Yes, the site itself simply selects the results for you according to your wishes, and when you click book, then already working with the hotel where you will live. Booking is no longer involved in any way. He doesn't even take a commission.

What's the catch. When you enter your bank card details to confirm the booking, booking sends them to the hotel. And anyone can read them. In the process of data transfer, the information is encoded, but in the hotel itself it is already easily accessible. AND Booking is not responsible for anything. He has fulfilled his function. The safety of your data is on the conscience of the hotel staff. Do you trust them? Me not.

What to do? Get a separate card for bookings. First, it must be a card that you don't use anywhere else. Secondly, try to book with a zero balance on the card. Perhaps this will be enough to confirm the reservation. If the hotel refuses to book you and gives you something like “use another card”, then ... Thirdly, put on the card exactly as much as is required for booking accommodation. Fourthly, you can set a search filter for hotels without prepayment, but there are not many of them.

2. If you cancel the reservation, the money will be returned to you no earlier than one month after the cancellation.

If you still had to put money on the card and the hotel blocked it, then in case of cancellation of the reservation, they will be returned to you within 25 days. note that not calendar days, but working days.

It usually takes about a month for your funds to become available again.

Therefore, have an additional reserve of funds for travel.

3. Booking.com is not responsible for any listings posted

That is the owner of the hotel writes everything himself In his best. Naturally, he can embellish his hotel as much as he wants.

And now a few words about search on booking. And how to save money. Very simple - look for hotels with discounts. They constantly hold some kind of promotions that are displayed on the first lines of search results. Usually marked in red.

To be able to book discounted hotels, you need to be able to reschedule your holiday dates. It's the same rule, by the way. applies to buying cheap air tickets. We wrote about it in the article .

Be sure to check the cancellation policy even if you don't intend to cancel it. Everything happens in life. Cancellation conditions are written on the hotel page. There you need to scroll a little with the wheel down to the table with the cost of the rooms, there is also information about the cancellation. The table looks like this:

The left column describes the room and basic information about it, then the number of guests for which it is designed. The next column contains information about the cost of the room. This is the price for the whole stay and not per day. The next column contains the conditions for cancellation, booking, additional payment for breakfasts (I don’t recommend it - it’s rare that breakfasts in hotels are full). Sometimes, a room with "free" cancellation costs more, but this is not always the case. Next, you need to choose how many such rooms you need and click "I'm booking."

Please note that cancellation policies may vary from room to room.

4. How to choose the cheapest room with the right comfort

Let's look at the following picture (by the way, here is the -11% promotion):

Here we have the search result. How to find the cheapest hotel on booking.com- very simple - at the top there is an opportunity to change the order of the list. I have already selected in the picture function "Most low price at first"(highlighted in green). By default, "our recommendations first" will be selected. You can also change the order by the number of stars at the hotel, the distance from the city center (it is measured automatically on the map and it’s not a fact that you don’t have to go around three blocks to get there - it’s better to look at the map yourself). On the right, sorting by reviews, that is, on top there will be a hotel that people like the most. All reviews on Booking are real - you can trust.

In addition, on the left there is a list of options called "Select by criteria" - a little blue one. These are filters, check the boxes according to your preferences, and the system will remove unnecessary options. I won't list the whole list - it's huge.

5. How to understand where the hotel you like is located

From the search, select the hotel that we liked and click on it - go to the page with a description. The picture is as follows:

Right under the name of the hotel, at the top is his address.(half in Russian, half in non-Russian) and there is also an offer to see the map. Since it is difficult to navigate at an address in an unfamiliar city, click on the map. It will open and your hotel will be in the middle. Or click on the map thumbnail on the left. In our picture is shown in the lower left corner.

Not guided by the map? Scroll down the page to the bottom there will be three nearest attractions with the distance to them. In general, it is better to study the map. Booking uses a map from Google, and there all the sights are marked and photographed in detail. Scroll the scale (mouse wheel) - I'm sure you'll figure it out.

6. Where to find reviews

Booking.com is well known. Read expert reviews on the pros and cons of this popular Booking.com hotel booking engine.

Without exaggeration, Booking.com online hotel booking system can be called the most popular Internet service for self-searching and booking hotel accommodation around the world. We have all visited this resource sometime - to find out about hotels in cities of interest to us, compare prices, study photos and estimate the distance to the desired museum, shop or pub. More than 300 thousand nights are booked on the resource every day (3 nights per second - cosmic scale!), and information about current bookings is displayed on the website pages in real time. That is, you look through, say, a five-star resort somewhere in Marrakesh - and then you are so unobtrusively hinted at with a pink “pop-up”: “the last booking was made ... 1 second ago from the USA». This is definitely encouraging: they say, "rush in - do not be stingy ...", otherwise everything will be snapped up. And now the hand itself reaches for the “Book now” button, and the fantasy helpfully unfolds tempting pictures of the foreign “Dolce Vita” - albeit within the framework of the next vacation.

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About the benefits

I must say, the reasons for the popularity of Booking are quite justified. The advantages of the site are a wagon and a small cart. Let's start with the breadth of scope (which resource really managed to "hit Lisa" - read, international clients, many of whom are not sugar - are picky and obsessed with saving mania). The Booking.com database currently contains more than 200 thousand hotels in 164 countries of the world - from the monsters of the tourism industry, such as Italy, France, Turkey, etc., to the states that are not the most popular in the "guest" plan - the Cook Islands, Angola or the Palestinian territories. Although there are exceptions: for example, North Korea, for obvious reasons, does not appear on the lists.

Secondly, Booking guarantees the best price for accommodation - and not just guarantees, but undertakes to return the difference if the client finds a better offer. There are, of course, a number of limitations: the argument “my uncle Fyodor in Tambov has this hotel cheaper” will not be taken into account. Booking is made without a commission - that is, the Internet service itself does not take a penny from you (the profit comes from hotels, for providing the service, and not from customers, for using the service). In addition, on Booking.com every day there are Special offers, for which certain hotels from around the world offer accommodation at half price (you can subscribe to the "sweet" mailing list).

The payment policy is also very attractive. To begin with, let's say that such payment is made no earlier than when checking into a hotel. From which it follows that at Booking there is no risk of throwing a couple of hundred EUR down the drain if the trip does not take place for some reason. Why, then, enter the details of the "credit card" when reserving a room, you ask. Very simple: in order not to be left behind by running into a restless client booking here and there, and just in case, the hotel reserves the right to charge the cost of the first night by authorizing the guest's credit card for this amount (we emphasize: NOT for the entire cost residence). By the way, you can cancel your booking absolutely free of charge no later than one day before arrival at the hotel (in some cases - especially for resort hotels in the high season - the rules are tightened up to 3-7 days).

Other benefits of Booking.com include a ton of unbiased reviews for each hotel from users around the world, tons of photos of the hotel and its surroundings, and accurate distances to nearby attractions. Other nice features for the citizens of our vast are the interface in Russian, round-the-clock customer support (also in Russian) and our own office in Moscow.

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...and things to remember

In addition, you need to remember that despite the extensive database of Booking.com, not all hotels in a given city or at the resort you need are offered to the attention of Internet users. This is understandable: not every hotelier (especially in countries closed to modern trends, such as Libya) seeks to conclude a contract with Booking, and some - do not be surprised - do not even know about its existence. So it makes sense to do a preliminary market research: ask Google, study satellite maps and sites of tour operators working in this direction. Perhaps it was “your” hotel that fell out of the Booking.com attention zone.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the complete data credit card still have to be entered. Booking, of course, works according to the most modern standards of a secure connection, but no one will give a 100% guarantee of the safety of your funds, and danger can lie in wait not only from virtuoso hackers, but also from the notorious human factor: from a neighbor peeking over his shoulder, and password-free “wi-fi” to the hotel staff who are little versed in Internet technologies in some small but proud country where you, as if by sin, have gathered.

"Booking" - as easy as shelling pears

And finally, a brief “subtle” instruction for booking hotels on Booking.com. We select the interface language, register and confirm the account by clicking on the link from the letter sent to you by e-mail. We go to the site under our login and fill in the search box with any information available to us: the name of the hotel, city or resort, airport or attraction. Voila! - Booking.com displays all available options for us, including hotels in nearby towns and cities. We study the list, study the prices and stop at our favorite hotel. Click "book", enter the data of tourists and credit card data. We confirm the booking. We catch the confirmation email (it also contains a link to change or cancel the order), print it out and attach it to the voyage envelope with documents. At the hotel reception, we show the printout and pay for the accommodation. And that's it - a pleasant vacation begins!

Independent travel is a great way to save on travel agency services, and the choice of hotels in this case can be much wider. Learn how to book a hotel on your own.

Before booking a hotel on the Booking service, you must register.

The list of hotels already contains some information:

1. the name of the hotel and the district of the city (resort) in which it is located
2. the number of bookings at this hotel in the last 24 hours and the number of visitors on booking.com who are viewing this hotel at the same time as you. If there is only one room left in the hotel, and 5 more people are watching it with you, you should hurry up to profitable proposition not taken away from under your nose
3. average rating of the hotel based on the reviews of tourists who have been there (the rating is set on a 10-point scale)
4. the cost of a room in this hotel for the dates you have chosen (the price is indicated for the entire stay). If the hotel has several room options, the price will be indicated for the cheapest category, you can see other price options on the hotel's personal page

To see more detailed information about the hotel, click on its name or on the "select room" button.

Personal page of the hotel on booking.com

What can you find out about a hotel on its personal Booking page?

First, look at the location of the hotel on the map (if it is important for you to live in a particular given area). To do this, click the "View map" link above the hotel photo.

You can look at all the photos of the hotel - usually there are quite a lot of them, you will see not only the rooms, but also photos of the restaurant, hall, lounges and gym, and other rooms of the hotel.

We go down the page. Immediately below the photo you will find information about the hotel provided to Booking by the owner himself (usually the advantages of the hotel and its advantages compared to competitors are listed here).

This is followed by a field where you can enter the dates of the trip to find out the price of the hotel. If you have already entered them at the very beginning, Booking will automatically fill in this field. And if you left the “dates” field empty, then it’s time to fill them in, because otherwise you won’t be able to see the description of the rooms. Be sure to click "check availability" so that Booking will show you the rooms available at the hotel during this period.

Under the dates there is a field with additional filters to exclude rooms that are obviously not suitable for you (for example, you only need a double bed in the room; if you select this filter, Booking will remove rooms with single beds from the list).

Immediately below the filter you will see a list of free rooms

1. number name. Hint: if you click on the name of the room, a small additional window will open with photos of this room and its detailed description)
2. information about services in the room and what is included in the price. For example, if it says that the price does not include city tax, then you will have to pay an additional amount for it on the spot.
3. the maximum number of tourists that the room can accommodate. If two people are drawn in this column, and you are going to book a room for three, then this room will not suit you
4. price for the whole room for all days of stay
5. booking conditions. If this field contains the phrase “non-refundable”, then immediately after booking, your bank card will be charged for the stay, which the hotel will not refund, even if you cancel the reservation (as a rule, such stringent conditions are set if the room is sold with good discount). If it says “free cancellation until such and such a date”, then cancellation is possible, but after the specified date you will not be able to cancel the reservation for free - part of the room cost will be debited from your card, or the entire amount (the size will depend on how many days will remain until your check-in; the later you cancel, the greater the amount of the deduction will be)
6. the number of rooms of this type that you want to book (click the arrow to open the list)

Under the list of available rooms you will find Full description hotel services, as well as important information about the conditions of living at the hotel (accommodation with animals, time of check-in and check-out, and more).

There is another useful button on the hotel information page: "save to list". It is located in the very top left corner of the page. If the hotel seems suitable for you, save it in the list and continue to view other hotels. You can view your personal list later by clicking on the "my lists" menu item at the very top of the page.

Booking a hotel on Booking

So, you have decided on the hotel, weighed all the pros and cons, studied the description of the room and are ready to make a choice. It's time to click on the "I'm booking" button, which is located opposite the description of the hotel room.

After going to the booking page, you need to fill in the data for making your reservation on Booking.com.

The first window is intended for entering information about the owner of the reservation: according to this data, the Booking team and hotel staff will know how to contact you and where to send the booking confirmation. The name and surname must be written in Latin letters, as the hotel staff may not know Russian.

The second window is information about hotel guests. Important! In the "guest's first and last name" field, the names must be indicated in strict accordance with their spelling in the passport. If in the future you plan to submit this reservation to the consular services for visa processing, you should indicate all the people who will live in this room.

In the third window, you can enter your wishes for the room (number of floors, south or north side, and so on - the hotel does not guarantee compliance with these wishes, but will take them into account if possible. Here you can also enter the time of arrival, if you already know it - the staff will know exactly what time your room should be ready.

Press the "continue" button

We add some more information about ourselves (an emergency phone number and a way to communicate with you). If you check the box "I want to receive a reservation without printouts", you will receive an SMS from Booking.com on your phone with a confirmation link. To check in, it will be enough to show it at the hotel on the phone screen. If you are going to get a visa, it is better to get confirmation by e-mail.

Why enter a bank card number on Booking

• If you book a room for which payment is required immediately, drive a card with sufficient funds - the money will be debited from the card upon completion of the booking
• If you book a room with a limited Free Cancellation period and fail to cancel your reservation on time, your card will be charged cancellation fees after the period expires.
• In some cases, the hotel may reserve on your card the cost of staying 2-3 nights in a room, even if the free cancellation period has not yet expired. If you cancel your booking on time, the hotel will refund your money within 3-5 days

How is payment made on Booking?

Technically, the procedure for withdrawing money from your card looks like this.

Upon completion of the booking, the hotel sends a request to your bank to withdraw from the card through Booking.com Money. If there is not enough money on your card at the time of contact, the bank rejects this application, the hotel informs Booking that the payment has not been received, and your reservation is cancelled. Booking.com will send you a notice of non-payment and cancellation.

Some banks may refuse to withdraw funds, even if there is money on the card, but there is no special permission from the owner (that is, you) to debit them. It all depends on the internal regulations of the bank and the terms of service for your card account - check with the bank if such an operation is possible with your card.

Booking on Booking without a credit card

If for some reason you do not have a bank card, or you do not want to enter its data under any pretext, you can try to book a hotel for which such a card is not needed. Click on the link "No card?" Booking will offer you similar hotels, for booking which bank card need not.

Your booking.com: booking confirmation

Upon completion of the booking, you will receive an email from Booking.com with a confirmation of your booking and the ability to print it.

The letter always contains information about the hotel (name, address, contact phone number), information about the guests of the room, information about the conditions of cancellation, payment and changes to the booking, as well as a link to the booking.com page where you can view your booking.

Booking currency. What is AUD, DKK, CAD, CNY and other encodings on Booking

Booking fines

On Booking (as in any other booking system) there is a system of fines. Actually, the fines themselves are levied by the hotel, and Booking is just a tool for interaction between you and the hotel.

A fine is a penalty that you will have to pay to the hotel for canceling the trip. Usually, fines are provided if there is too little time left before your check-in, and after your refusal, the hotel runs the risk of not finding other buyers for your room.

But in general, the size and conditions of the fine are very individual, calculated by each hotel in its own way and do not have any common framework for all. When booking a hotel, you need to carefully read the conditions of the hotel before clicking the "book" button (such information is always present next to the description of the room or price).

How to cancel a booking on Booking without penalty? What should I do if I forgot to cancel my booking on Booking.com?

The only correct way to cancel your Booking booking without penalty is to cancel it before the free cancellation period expires. In this case, you will have legal grounds to demand a refund if, for some reason, the funds from your card have already been debited.

But it happens that a person remembers the existing armor too late. What can be done in this case? Let's say right away that the methods listed below are undesirable, and do not guarantee a 100% result, but in most cases they will help.

• Before canceling a booking that will definitely incur a penalty, remove all money from your card or transfer it to another account so that the penalty is not automatically debited.
• If it is impossible to withdraw money from the card, try to go to the bank office and set a ban on debiting payment without acceptance (that is, without your consent). Then cancel your booking.
• Typically, Booking.com or the hotel itself will issue a charge request no more than once or twice during the next week, so after a while you will be able to continue using your card as usual.
• If the money has already been debited from the card, it will most likely not be possible to return it, since when booking you were familiarized with the rules on the booking.com website and the deducted payment will be legal.

How to get a discount on Booking?

Few people know that at Booking you can get an additional discount on the hotel you have chosen. Booking.com has a very nice feature "Guaranteed the best price» - usually located on the left side of the screen just below the hotel search form.

You can use it within 24 hours from the moment of booking on Booking.com.

What is the point of using it: if within a day after booking you find a better offer on another site for the same hotel, Booking.com is ready to reduce your price to this level.

Important! The offer of another site must exactly match the parameters of your booking on Booking (same hotel, same arrival dates, room category, and so on). Otherwise, the price will not change. Also, Booking will refuse to change the price if you have a special discount card or other benefit program on another site, thanks to which you received a better price.

After you have registered on the Booking.com website, you can subscribe to the most interesting offers from hotels (discounts up to 50%). To do this, find a special subscription advertisement under the hotel search form, click on it with the mouse so that a box appears for entering your email address. After subscribing, you will regularly receive emails about special discounts and offers that are currently in effect on Booking.com.

Apartments on Booking

On Booking you can book not only a hotel or hostel, but also a separate apartment. To do this, you need to sort the options by the type of accommodation when selecting (that is, check this box, it is located on the left side of the screen on the search results page.

You can also check the box "Amenities in the room" (search in the same column below) in the lines "kitchen / mini-kitchen" and "washing machine".

An apartment is always understood as a room with an equipped kitchen. In Europe, ordinary apartments are most often offered as apartments.

The monopolized online booking market Booking.com is getting greedier. Now the commission will be 22%. I will tell you how to keep this money for yourself and increase sales.

Clumsy marketing in HoReCa. How to start selling?

Most hotels work with Booking.com. It is the largest housing marketplace in the world. There are alternatives to it (Expedia.com, Hotels.ru, Trivago.ru, airbnb.ru) and quite a lot. Usually hoteliers register in several housing selection services at once (more often in all possible ones) in order to get a stable flow of customers. On Booking.com, each hotel (hotel, hostel, apartment) has its own rating: visitors can share their impressions after staying at the hotel. Over time, good entrepreneurs gain a positive reputation and get more bookings, while bad entrepreneurs gain a negative one.

You just need to register with Booking and the first orders will already go. Cool? Not really…

What are the clients for? Predatory lead generation

Housing search services provide their services on a reimbursable basis. A commission is charged from each transaction (booking) from the owner of the accommodation. Here are the “prices” for clients from Booking and its peers:

• booking.com from 12% to 20% (yes, UP TO 20%!)
• hostel world 10%
• Asiarooms 15%
• tripadviser
• trivago
• agoda 17%
• sawadee 20%
• hrs 15%
• airbnb officially only 3%, in fact it turns out 22% 1

So, friends, on average, you give 15% of the booking cost to Booking. And this is the most promoted site in the Russian Federation, which brings 90% of bookings online. Where do I get this data from? Our studio works with 5 large hotels and 3 hostels in Kaliningrad. Moreover, we work with hoteliers from Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. We helped the most western hostel in Russia to break into the light, filled one good hotel on the Curonian Spit to capacity, increased the average check for a hotel in Zelenogradsk and achieved excellent results with other Customers. So the numbers (analytics), one might say, first-hand.

The economy must be economical, a few more numbers

Depending on the city (business, tourist, transit) and the type of accommodation (from a hostel to a hotel), the cost of living and the average stay differ. Averaged for Kaliningrad, we get the following figures:

• The average stay in the season is 7 days, in the off-season 4 days, total (7 + 4) / 2 = 5.5 days.
• The average price of a room per day is 2,500 rubles.

Hostels in this calculation, I did not take into account. There is a slightly different "economy" and its own characteristics of survival. By the way, the hostel can still be promoted on the Internet cheaply due to relatively low competition.

Let's calculate how much money the booking site will spend from our "average check". Total, we have, attention!

5.5 days * 2 500 r * 15% commission = 2 062 r

I note that hotels in the region are booked for fewer days. For Zelenogradsk and Svetlogorsk, the stay is 4 days. This is due to the fact that many Kaliningraders book a hotel for one or two nights on the weekend. locals they “spoil the statistics” a little, but I don’t have data separately for non-resident clients. Therefore, we get the following number:

4 days * 2 500 rub * 15% commission = 1 500 r

That is how much the owner of the hotel in the region gives for one client to Booking.

With a room stock of 15 rooms and a simple period between the occupancy of a room on one day, we get the following:

15 rooms *

30 days in a month

5.5 days guest check-in time + 1 day downtime

* 2,062 rubles commission from Booking and analogues = RUB 142,753.25

So, we get that with a full load of the room stock, a hotelier from Kaliningrad will “roll off” commissions of almost 150,000 rubles. (for the Kaliningrad region it turns out 135,000 rubles). It is noteworthy that the "quality of the client" in the resulting formula does not matter: the Booking.com commission is taken as a percentage of the cost of the stay, regardless of the length of the stay.

Working with sites like Booking.com, the hotel owner accepts the “rules of the game”. Booking is convenient to pay - the money is debited at the time of payment. No need to plan advertising budgets, risk your own funds. No need to build your own marketing and, moreover, generally think about the sources of sales. This is a selection of small guest houses and "hotels a la two stars", which do not shine with growth and which are ready to give 15-20% of their profits to the benefit of Booking.com, since they will not be able to manage the money in the best way.

Throw Booking at grandmas

This may surprise you, but there is a mandatory requirement for price sites for hotels that work with them: the prices on the hotel website and in Booking (Airbnb or others) must be the same. If you set prices on your website lower than those for which you give a Booking.com room, you will be disconnected from the system. Here is such a @#$dec. And business owners are signing up for it.

Before booking a hotel, Booking visitors like to study the website of their future place of residence. On "Booking" is usually unloaded a couple of the best photos, a little text about the institution and that's it. You can't even provide your contact details and a link to the site. To find out the menu and prices of the restaurant, see the view from the window, or contact the guest on a question of interest, he has to google and search for the hotel website and look for the necessary information there.

So, savvy merchants from Mother Russia came up with this trick: if a site visitor switched from Booking, then he is shown an offer to receive a gift when booking a room on the site. The gift can be anything (discount, dinner, transfer, etc.), the main thing is that the client wants to make a purchase on the hotel website, and not from Booking. This trick can be used, but you need to know some nuances if you do not want to stumble upon fines or disconnection from the site.

Marketing in HoReCa. Smart Sales Channels

The only plus of working with booking services is the minimum entry threshold. Connecting to the site does not cost anything. You pay money as orders come in. I don't see any more benefits. But what are the disadvantages of using booking services as the main sales channel:

• Very high deductions from profits (from 15% to 22%)
• There is no way to control the quality of leads (must process all applications, regardless of whether the room is booked for one day or for a week)
• It is impossible to increase the added value due to upsales
• High competition, which "pulls" prices down

1 About Airbnb, it must be said that in the future it will become much more popular in the Russian Federation and since 2017 it has begun to gradually squeeze the market from Booking.com. With one of our clients, we decided to connect Airbnb.ru as a source of sales. "Seduced" by their stated "only 3% commission." In fact, hidden fees and "additional fees" were invested in the contract, which ate 22% of the price of bookings. If I get my hands on it, I will write about the conditions for working with Airbnb separately.

2 Google marketers managed to introduce the neologism “to google” earlier than the domestic search engine. The author of the article does not agree with the state of affairs 🙂

The largest platform for booking hotels and apartments worldwide. Tourists love it for its large base, no commissions and a very flexible booking policy - in the vast majority of cases, you can book a hotel here without prepayment and cancel your reservation without penalty. This made Booking the most popular service among tourists. If you are traveling on your own, then you probably also had experience using it. Now let's talk about how to use Booking to rent out your housing during the World Cup.

I have experience working with both Airbnb and Booking. Initially, Booking did not host housing for private individuals. Registration was possible only if there was a legal entity. But competition in the face of Airbnb made Booking more flexible. Now private traders are represented there along with legal entities And there are more and more of them every day.

Frankly speaking, Booking loses to Airbnb in many ways. Undoubtedly, only one wins - the number of armor. That is why I continue to use it. But I know people who only list their accommodations on Airbnb and are very happy with the result. Therefore, you need Booking or you will limit yourself to Airbnb, decide for yourself.

Features of Booking

Instant bookings. This means that bookings do not require your confirmation. Having received a reservation, you cannot cancel it yourself and must keep it active until the last moment (until the last minute of a possible check-in). Any overlay - double booking, the inability to receive guests due to the failure of the apartment - you will decide at your own expense. Yes, this is exactly what will be indicated in your contract with Booking.

Commission. The property at the beginning of each month receives an invoice from Booking with a commission for all successful bookings of the past month. If the guest does not check in, no commission is charged. But, if he didn’t stop by, and according to the conditions you withheld a fine from him, then the commission will have to be transferred (accrued on the amount of the fine).

Pros of listing your accommodation on booking.com

• Booking.com is by far the largest and most popular booking platform for hotels, apartments, hostels, etc. in the world. If you are accommodated here - guaranteed to wait for bookings. Moreover, bookings will be in any season. Whereas Airbnb bookings are more subject to seasonality.


• Comfortable Personal Area, which allows you to manage your booking policy. Booking is constantly working on this and introducing more and more new options. You can independently set prices for a different number of guests, apply rates with different cancellation policies, set a prepayment (how to get it if you can’t accept cards, I’ll tell you sorry), etc. But at the same time, the property management system on Booking more complex. Even I, who have been working with her since 2012, sometimes do not remember where to change this or that option. But the hint system will help you figure it out and find the right functionality.


• Having a good support team. There is a Russian-speaking Service. The phone works around the clock. You can also contact via e-mail or messages on the Extranet. But the response to messages may be delayed. The service gives an answer in 48 or 72 hours (I don’t remember exactly). In fact, it may take longer.


• It is possible to create Special Offers that help sell "numbers" if their sale is "hanging".

• High commission for bookings. Booking does not disclose the commission rate and forbids disclosing this information in the contract. I will not disclose the exact figures, I will only say that this is at least 15% of the commission. That is, if a guest pays you 100 euros, you will give 15 euros to Booking.


• Frequent cancellations and no-shows. Having placed my ad on Booking, I was first struck by the number of armor that fell on me, and then by the number of their cancellations and no-shows. Yes, this is a common situation when people, even after confirming the reservation and reporting the time of arrival, simply do not come. Imagine how much you lose in lost profits and paying for other people's services if you resort to their help (for example, cleaning or handing over the key).


• Lack of service for accepting payments (UPD It seems that Booking has recently introduced a payment service. I haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t say anything for sure. If this is true, then this item can be considered irrelevant). Booking is just an information intermediary between the guest and the host. All financial issues are resolved between them personally. Payment is usually made at the property. The credit card details you enter when booking are simply passed on to the hotel. Booking does not make any card payments. If the hotel works with cards, then it can write off the amount of the prepayment (if this is discussed in the terms and conditions). Small hotels and apartments, as a rule, do not have such an opportunity. In addition, Booking encourages hotels to use rates with the ability to cancel without penalty. Knowing this, it is very easy for people to book hotels on Booking and cancel just as easily. They do not carry any financial risk. Well, for apartment owners, this means a loss of income. After all, the likelihood that your accommodation will be booked on the day of arrival is extremely small.


• Inability to independently write a description of their housing. Booking editors do this based on the information you provide. However, you can request any number of edits. But note that they have certain standards, so not all amendments will be made.


• Booking.com is a service more focused on the needs of the tourist. In any situation, he will be guided primarily by the interests of the guest. At the same time, hmm, they receive income from hotels.


• You cannot choose guests. Unlike Airbnbn, guests on Booking do not have profiles (I mean a profile that can give an impression of a guest). At best, you will only see the guest's name, address, phone number (which is not necessarily valid or on). In general, in essence, you get anonymous bookings. If a guest makes you suspicious (for example, I can already guess which reservation is most likely to be closed), you will not be able to close his reservation based on this. To be more precise, you cannot close the reservation at all. But, even contacting the Support Service, you will receive a polite refusal. Therefore, you need to learn how to minimize the risks of booking from booking.com (I will discuss this below)


• Longer registration and listing process than Airbnb.

To get started, you need to register. It can be done. By the way, I forgot to mention in the post about Airbnb that they have a Russian version. Booking has it too. .

During the registration process, you provide the required information. After that, Booking checks it. If there are no questions, you get access to the Extranet - to your account, from which you can manage your object.

Booking itself makes a description of your object in English and Russian (as well as in other languages ​​with which the service works). If you don't like something, feel free to ask for corrections. This can now be done via requests on the Extranet (no need to write a letter - just use the request box). You set the booking rules yourself in the Extranet.

Setting up your property on Booking: how to minimize your risks

How to reduce cancellations and no-shows

Limit your free cancellation period. Even if you can't or don't want to charge guests prepaid, set a free cancellation limit. Not everyone knows that not all hotels have the ability to process cards. The threat of losing their money makes people take a responsible approach to bookings.

Prepayment. It is even better to enter a prepayment to guarantee the reservation. The prepayment amount may vary. The standard practice is the first day, but the apartments have a variety of options. The conditions for the return of the prepayment upon cancellation may also be different. If you only want guaranteed bookings, use a non-refundable prepayment. But keep in mind that most tourists on Booking are used to booking without prepayment at all. Therefore, they may prefer another option.

Non-refundable rate . Use a non-refundable rate if you want to receive bookings with a guaranteed check-in. In order not to lose those who are not ready to book at a non-refundable rate, offer a choice - booking at a standard rate with a standard price and booking at a non-refundable rate with a discount. The greater the difference between the non-refundable rate and the standard rate, the more likely people are to choose the non-refundable one. You can close non-refundable bookings up to a certain number of days before check-in. For example, if there are 7 days left before check-in, a non-refundable rate will not be offered. The closer to the check-in date a booking is made, the less likely it is to be closed.

Please note that you need to write these conditions in the Note. To do this, you need to send a request to Booking. To avoid conflict situations, indicate the period during which guests must make payment. For example, within 72 hours. If you have not received an advance payment from the guest during this time, you have every right to demand cancellation of the reservation from Booking. If the conditions are not spelled out, Booking will not do anything. But keep in mind that immediately after receiving the reservation, you need to inform the guests about how they can transfer money to you. don't forget about it. How to get money from guests with prepayment and non-refundable tariff below.

Minimum booking duration. As with Airbnb, if you set it to 1 night, you will increase your bookings but increase your workload.

Sales end time. Indicate when Booking closes your property for sale through its system. For example, one day before the date of arrival or 2 hours before the end of the check-in. Since renting is not your only activity, you can just get busy if you get a reservation on the day you check in. And you can't cancel your booking. Therefore, for your own peace of mind, limit sales to 1 day. For example, the last opportunity to book your apartment for January 27th will be January 26th. If you want to maximize sales, don't add this constraint. But then you need to be constantly "on the lookout."

Insurance deposit. Many apartments listed on Booking require a security deposit. This is fine. But don't be too petty when inspecting the property when you move out. Guests tend to take offense at this. Still, major damage is immediately visible and quite rare. Well, you need to be prepared for the breakdown of the little things.

You will understand the rest in the ad settings. My advice: don't skip any option. Provide people with as much detailed and accurate information as possible. Check all the features of your accommodation, indicate all the equipment, say if you can stay with animals and children and under what conditions. Usually children under 6-7 years old stay free of charge if they share the same bed with their parents. This is more relevant for hotels, but may be in demand in the case of apartments. For example, one of my apartments has 2 single beds. I am ready to accept 2 adults with 1 child if the child will sleep with one of the adults. I do not charge extra for children.

Don't forget to take good photos. You don't have to have a professional camera. Even photos taken on a smartphone are now of good quality. At least meter to be placed on the booking site. Take pictures of your property both inside and out, so that guests understand what kind of house they will live in.

And now I'll tell you how you can get money from guests for prepayment or in the case of a non-refundable rate.

If your guests are from Russia, then you yourself will find the answer to this question (almost everyone can now transfer from card to card, you can also not talk about electronic money). But what to do if foreigners book? Bank transfer to Russia will be very expensive. In this case it will help PayPal. This service allows you to pay by card, even if the person does not have a PayPal account. The payment process is the same as when paying in the online store. You send a payment request to the guest. Then he simply follows the link and, following the prompts of the system, pays for the reservation with a card. You receive the money in your PayPal account. So you will have to register there. In the future, you can withdraw money to your bank account. In Estonia, withdrawing funds to a bank is free. Probably, in Russia the conditions are similar (if this is not the case, correct me - there is no time to clarify this information). But you will have to pay the commission yourself. It is 2.9% + $0.30. Yes, for the guarantee you have to sacrifice part of the income.

I tried to give general information on working with the booking.com booking platform. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments.