Granular cancellation policies

  • 16 October 2023
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Nienke Wilbrink
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Good morning everyone, would love to test the beta at all hotels of Rastelli Group, could you please enable it?

Hi @SimonR ,

Thank you so much for your interest in this functionality! 

At the moment we are still in the development stage of the functionality, but I will ensure to keep this conversation updated, so if we are entering the next stage of testing, I will make sure to notify you here :D 

However, we would greatly appreciate your feedback on the design we are currently implementing to ensure it’s as per your needs. Would you perhaps be available for a 30 minutes call with me and my team? I could propose (on a short notice):

  • Friday 9/2 between 12:00 and 13:00

  • Friday 9/2 after 16:00

Looking forward to hearing from you! 

Warmest regards, 

Nienke 

Product Manager
SimonR
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Tomorrow at 12:00 would work for me!

 

Nienke Wilbrink
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Tomorrow at 12:00 would work for me!

 

Thank you so much for your flexibility! I have invited you for tomorrow afternoon :D 

Looking forward to speaking with you! 

 

Product Manager
Nienke Wilbrink
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Hello all!

@Eric Kröll @dvdb @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling @Sara_LeClay @Max @SimonR 

Happy Friday!

I would like to post the following question:

 

Case:

A guest is staying for 2 days in the hotel;

The first day has cancellation policy A and settlement rule A

The second day has cancellation policy B and settlement rule B

The strictest (most revenue generating) policy is to be charged of the stay when the reservation is cancelled. 

 

We understand that the Strictest (most revenue generating) policy is to be charged. However, does that mean that the Strictest policy is determined by looking at the cancellation policy solely, or is there a dependency on settlement rules as well when determining the Strictest policy?

 

Hoping to hear your insights!

 

Warmest regards and have a great weekend ahead. 
Nienke 

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

Hi Nienke,

could you describe the case a little more detailed please?

eg. 1st night  is being cancelled within the clx policy => not refundable and 2nd night is cancelled in time? is this the case? then only the f1st night should be charged via the corresponding settlement rule. 

 

But I don't know if I got your case correctly..

 

Max

Nienke Wilbrink
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Hi @Max ,

Thank you for your reply! 
Sorry for the confusion here :) So the case is that you have set up a cancellation rules as follows:

  • Cancellation policy A and settlement rule A are valid from 1 March - 14 March 2024
  • Cancellation policy B and settlement rule B are valid from 15 March - 30 March 2024

A guest books a reservation from 12 March till 17 March 2024; and so the reservation has stamped both cancellation rules.

Now the guest cancels the reservation. 

Mews will charge the guest the strictest cancellation rule for the guest. However, I am looking into; what is the strictest cancellation rule. 

I understand the strictest cancellation rule is the one that generates to highest revenue to you as the property.

Does that mean, we should look into the Cancellation policy only to determine the strictest cancellation rule, or both the Cancellation policy and the Settlement rule?

Hope this clarifies the case a bit more, but please do not hesitate to reach out if there are still further unclarities.

Hope to hear! 

Warmest,

Nienke

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

Hmmm. What is the definition of “generating the highest revenue”?

In your example the 1st nicht could be the night with the tougher clx policy. The price could be lower than for the 2nd night. So which night is “generating the  highest revenue”? The cancelled night prob not, or?

 

I would say that I only want to charge the € that cannot be cancelled any more, be it a higher or lower price. In your case this would be the first night. But if I got you correctly the 2nd night could be cancelled free of charge. So I would say I do not want to collect the € for the 2nd night. Otherwise I had to reimburse it again.

 

Does this help?

 

M
Userlevel 2

reading your explanation again, I would say the cxl policy is important. The settlement rule is just collecting the money. But as I said, if I collect money in advance for a booking that still can be cancelled by the guest without a fee, I’d have to reimburse the money. That’s not my goal. That’s why I say: Just collect the money for the night that cannot be cancelled any more.

M
Userlevel 2

Hi @Max ,

Thank you for your reply! 
Sorry for the confusion here :) So the case is that you have set up a cancellation rules as follows:

  • Cancellation policy A and settlement rule A are valid from 1 March - 14 March 2024
  • Cancellation policy B and settlement rule B are valid from 15 March - 30 March 2024

A guest books a reservation from 12 March till 17 March 2024; and so the reservation has stamped both cancellation rules.

Now the guest cancels the reservation. 

Mews will charge the guest the strictest cancellation rule for the guest. However, I am looking into; what is the strictest cancellation rule. 

I understand the strictest cancellation rule is the one that generates to highest revenue to you as the property.

Does that mean, we should look into the Cancellation policy only to determine the strictest cancellation rule, or both the Cancellation policy and the Settlement rule?

Hope this clarifies the case a bit more, but please do not hesitate to reach out if there are still further unclarities.

Hope to hear! 

Warmest,

Nienke

Hi Nienke, 

I almost completely agree with Max, the main driver is the strictest cancellation rule.

the settlement rule is “just” for collecting the open amount.

 

am I right to assume that the strictest cancellation policy would apply for the full booking? (when using your example, for the booking 12-17 march would only apply the cancellation and settlement rules A. 

or would the system differentiate per night?

 

In addition, when using granular cancellation and settlement rules, It would be a necessity to also show this on the guest confirmation letter (via Placeholder in the email template) so the guest is always aware that the booked stay has different cancellation and settlement rules as “hotel default”

 

Best regards,

 

Martijn 

Nienke Wilbrink
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reading your explanation again, I would say the cxl policy is important. The settlement rule is just collecting the money. But as I said, if I collect money in advance for a booking that still can be cancelled by the guest without a fee, I’d have to reimburse the money. That’s not my goal. That’s why I say: Just collect the money for the night that cannot be cancelled any more.

@Max ,

Thank you! This is indeed what I was thinking as well with regards to cancellation policy! Great point on the Settlement rules and the reimbursement of money as well, let me discuss this with the payments team a bit more and get back to you :) 

Thanks so much again for your great insights. 

Warmest,

Nienke

Product Manager
Nienke Wilbrink
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Hi @Max ,

Thank you for your reply! 
Sorry for the confusion here :) So the case is that you have set up a cancellation rules as follows:

  • Cancellation policy A and settlement rule A are valid from 1 March - 14 March 2024
  • Cancellation policy B and settlement rule B are valid from 15 March - 30 March 2024

A guest books a reservation from 12 March till 17 March 2024; and so the reservation has stamped both cancellation rules.

Now the guest cancels the reservation. 

Mews will charge the guest the strictest cancellation rule for the guest. However, I am looking into; what is the strictest cancellation rule. 

I understand the strictest cancellation rule is the one that generates to highest revenue to you as the property.

Does that mean, we should look into the Cancellation policy only to determine the strictest cancellation rule, or both the Cancellation policy and the Settlement rule?

Hope this clarifies the case a bit more, but please do not hesitate to reach out if there are still further unclarities.

Hope to hear! 

Warmest,

Nienke

Hi Nienke, 

I almost completely agree with Max, the main driver is the strictest cancellation rule.

the settlement rule is “just” for collecting the open amount.

 

am I right to assume that the strictest cancellation policy would apply for the full booking? (when using your example, for the booking 12-17 march would only apply the cancellation and settlement rules A. 

or would the system differentiate per night?

 

In addition, when using granular cancellation and settlement rules, It would be a necessity to also show this on the guest confirmation letter (via Placeholder in the email template) so the guest is always aware that the booked stay has different cancellation and settlement rules as “hotel default”

 

Best regards,

 

Martijn 

Hi @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling ,

Thank you for your reply and invaluable insights.

We will indeed take the strictest for the full reservation, and not differentiate night by night when it concerns an entire reservation covering various cancellation policies. Is that how you expect it to behave?

The cancellation policies will indeed be shown in the guest confirmation (via a link to the guest portal - as done currently), booking engine, and in the future in the reservation module. Here we are planning on already showing the “strictest” cancellation rule for the entire reservation.

Thanks again for your feedback here :D 

Looking forward to your reply! 

Warmest regards,

Nienke

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

Aha! IMHO that is indeed an issue! It’s not so uncommon that a guest books eg from March 12-March 17. on March 15 is the start of a trade fair, therefore the cxl policy is stricter. 2on March 10 he decides to change his arrival to March 13. in your scenario the money for the entire stay is being collected already eg 4 weeks prior to the start of the trade fair. But the cxl policy for up to March 15 is ‚same day‘.

now we have to reemburse our guest for the nights from March 12- March 14. But that’s not what we want. I‘d prefer that news only collects the nights that cannot be cancelled anymore. Otherwise my front desk gets totally confused and we have more work with reembursing guests than with our operations.

max

 

 

 

Nienke Wilbrink
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Aha! IMHO that is indeed an issue! It’s not so uncommon that a guest books eg from March 12-March 17. on March 15 is the start of a trade fair, therefore the cxl policy is stricter. 2on March 10 he decides to change his arrival to March 13. in your scenario the money for the entire stay is being collected already eg 4 weeks prior to the start of the trade fair. But the cxl policy for up to March 15 is ‚same day‘.

now we have to reemburse our guest for the nights from March 12- March 14. But that’s not what we want. I‘d prefer that news only collects the nights that cannot be cancelled anymore. Otherwise my front desk gets totally confused and we have more work with reembursing guests than with our operations.

max

 

 

 

Hi @Max ,

Thank you for your further explanation!

Interesting point of view, and the first time I hear this, which is good :) So the guest will not have insight in that they are “mixing” cancellation policies, and will only be seeing the “strict” cancellation rule of the entire stay, which they confirm upon when booking. The guest is not aware of the other cancellation rule when booking, and so I foresee that there will not be a need for reimbursements due to this. 

Would this be against your expected behaviour? If so, I would love to have a further discussion in a call if you would be open for that. 

Looking forward to hearing! 

Warmest,

Nienke

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

No, then is all good. I just want to stick to the booking conditions. If the guest knows the entire stay is nonnref, then it’s all good. We will charge him.

M
Userlevel 2

Hi @Max ,

Thank you for your reply! 
Sorry for the confusion here :) So the case is that you have set up a cancellation rules as follows:

  • Cancellation policy A and settlement rule A are valid from 1 March - 14 March 2024
  • Cancellation policy B and settlement rule B are valid from 15 March - 30 March 2024

A guest books a reservation from 12 March till 17 March 2024; and so the reservation has stamped both cancellation rules.

Now the guest cancels the reservation. 

Mews will charge the guest the strictest cancellation rule for the guest. However, I am looking into; what is the strictest cancellation rule. 

I understand the strictest cancellation rule is the one that generates to highest revenue to you as the property.

Does that mean, we should look into the Cancellation policy only to determine the strictest cancellation rule, or both the Cancellation policy and the Settlement rule?

Hope this clarifies the case a bit more, but please do not hesitate to reach out if there are still further unclarities.

Hope to hear! 

Warmest,

Nienke

Hi Nienke, 

I almost completely agree with Max, the main driver is the strictest cancellation rule.

the settlement rule is “just” for collecting the open amount.

 

am I right to assume that the strictest cancellation policy would apply for the full booking? (when using your example, for the booking 12-17 march would only apply the cancellation and settlement rules A. 

or would the system differentiate per night?

 

In addition, when using granular cancellation and settlement rules, It would be a necessity to also show this on the guest confirmation letter (via Placeholder in the email template) so the guest is always aware that the booked stay has different cancellation and settlement rules as “hotel default”

 

Best regards,

 

Martijn 

Hi @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling ,

Thank you for your reply and invaluable insights.

We will indeed take the strictest for the full reservation, and not differentiate night by night when it concerns an entire reservation covering various cancellation policies. Is that how you expect it to behave?

The cancellation policies will indeed be shown in the guest confirmation (via a link to the guest portal - as done currently), booking engine, and in the future in the reservation module. Here we are planning on already showing the “strictest” cancellation rule for the entire reservation.

Thanks again for your feedback here :D 

Looking forward to your reply! 

Warmest regards,

Nienke

Hi Nienke,

thanks for the clarification and info on guest confirmation

your explanation is also how I would expect it to behave. :)

 

Best regards,

Martijn 

Nienke Wilbrink
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@Max @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling Thank you both so much for your input! 

Have a great day ahead and speak soon :D

 

Warmest,

Nienke

Product Manager
Nienke Wilbrink
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Hi @Max, @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling and others,

Hope you are both well and long time no speak :D 

We are progressing with development on this feature and we are aiming to enter the beta phase in 1 or 2 months from now.

However, a question on the above mentioned “strictness” of the policy. Would the strictness be defined mostly by the fee or by the time interval when there are overlapping policies during 1 reservation?

 

(1) For example:

Reservation of 2 days covering 2 policies.

 

Day 1 the policy is:

Fee 100

Applicability offset 7 days

 

Day 2 the policy is:

Fee 110

Applicability offset 9 days 

 

Which one would be defined as the strictest and should be charged to the guest? 

 

Another question I have is the following, in case of various cancellation policies on the rate (group) and a reservation mixing various intervals, which should we charge to the guest? 

(2) For example:

Reservation of 2 days covering 2 policies.

Day 1 the policies are:

  Cancellation policy A that charges 100 fee if you cancel the day before check in
  Cancellation policy B that gives you 50 fee if you cancel a week before check-in

Day 2 the policies are:
  Cancellation Policy C that gives you 125$ fee if you cancel 2 days before check-in

 

Which one would be defined as the strictest and should be charged to the guest? 

 

Hoping to hear and learn from you! 

Warmest, 

Nienke 

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

Hi Nienke,

thank you for your update :)

to better understand your examples, could you clarify if the “Fee” in your examples 1 & 2 are values/currency or percentages%.

im a bit confused. :-s

 

thx!

Martijn 

Nienke Wilbrink
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Hi Nienke,

thank you for your update :)

to better understand your examples, could you clarify if the “Fee” in your examples 1 & 2 are values/currency or percentages%.

im a bit confused. :-s

 

thx!

Martijn 

Hi @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling ,

Let’s say it’s in Euro’s :D

Nienke

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

Hi Nienke,

good to hear your are making progress. I followed your presentation yesterday. I am not 100% sure if we are yet on the same page regarding the restrictions.

I pasted in a quick example. We usually charge the booked room price if a guests cancels a reservation after the restriction date kicks in. So our FEE would be 100% x room price.

The example shows a booking for 3 nights. No matter if the guest cancels the entire booking or single nights from this booking the cancellation costs (fee) would be as shown above. If you cancel the entire stay you see the Total cxl FEE in the right column.

Lets suppose there are 3 different rates for each day of the reservation: MOFLEX, SEMIFLEX and NONFLEX.

IN the above example, where do you see the “strictest restriction”? I do not really understand the idea? Pls. help us understand what you mean with “strictest” and what the consequences should be?

Cheers Max

Nienke Wilbrink
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Hi @Max and @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling ,

 

I’ve recorded a video that explains the use-case in Mews in the new set-up to hopefully make the question a bit more understandable 😅

 

 

Product Manager
M
Userlevel 2

From my point of view you should apply the default policy for the first night and the exception policy for nights 2 and 3.

What I don't understand in your example: Do you charge a flat cancellation fee for the whole stay or per night. Generally we always look into nights. If you cancel 1 night of your stay, guests pay according to the policy for that particular night. eg. if the first night of your 3 night stay is not cancellable, then you pay the cancellation fee (e.g. 100% of the price for the first night).

I am having difficulties with your example, that you charge a fixed fee even if you only cancel the first night. What do you charge if the guest cancels the 1st and 2nd night and how is it different if he cancels all 3 nights?

 

M
Userlevel 2

Hi Nienke, thanks for the video :) 

in my point of view the “default” policies (should be) are always “less strict” that the exception policies, both in time and money. as a general note.

one should also differ between cancellation of a booking and reducing of nr of nights (which is a booking adaptation.) in case of reducing one could charge the default/valid policy for that certain night. (the revenue manager might have set a minimum stay restriction.. basically not allowing reductions/stays for less nr of nights)

however in my POV the exception policy should be shown to the guest when it is stricter than default. 

a few other PMS which I worked with, this was also the case

In your example case the exception policy with stricty $fee values but less strict time value doesnt really make sense in “my world” 

 

Best, Martijn 

 

Nienke Wilbrink
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From my point of view you should apply the default policy for the first night and the exception policy for nights 2 and 3.

What I don't understand in your example: Do you charge a flat cancellation fee for the whole stay or per night. Generally we always look into nights. If you cancel 1 night of your stay, guests pay according to the policy for that particular night. eg. if the first night of your 3 night stay is not cancellable, then you pay the cancellation fee (e.g. 100% of the price for the first night).

I am having difficulties with your example, that you charge a fixed fee even if you only cancel the first night. What do you charge if the guest cancels the 1st and 2nd night and how is it different if he cancels all 3 nights?

 

Hi @Max ,

 

Interesting, thank you for sharing your thoughts! 

If we would take this logic into account and decide to communicate the different cancellation policies per day with the guest, what would that look like on the confirmation email? Our thinking is that that could be quite overwhelming, and so we are thinking of just communicating one policy to the guest (which is the one that generates the most revenue for the property). The guest does not know about that in the configuration there are overlapping policies due to this.

But I will give this a thought! Curious to hearing your answer. 

Warmest,

Nienke

Product Manager
Nienke Wilbrink
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Userlevel 5
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Hi Nienke, thanks for the video :) 

in my point of view the “default” policies (should be) are always “less strict” that the exception policies, both in time and money. as a general note.

one should also differ between cancellation of a booking and reducing of nr of nights (which is a booking adaptation.) in case of reducing one could charge the default/valid policy for that certain night. (the revenue manager might have set a minimum stay restriction.. basically not allowing reductions/stays for less nr of nights)

however in my POV the exception policy should be shown to the guest when it is stricter than default. 

a few other PMS which I worked with, this was also the case

In your example case the exception policy with stricty $fee values but less strict time value doesnt really make sense in “my world” 

 

Best, Martijn 

 

Hi @Martijn Coolen Slow Traveling ,

I think we are quite aligned on this in this case and definitely agree that likely the exception will be often more “strict”, but defining in the code what is more strict is quite a puzzle to crack 😅.

In the case of my example, which one would you prefer to communicate and charge to the guest? Would that be the Default or the Exception, and why? 

 

  • Default:
    • Cancellation policy A that charges 100EU fee if you cancel the day before check in
    • Cancellation policy B that gives you 50 fee if you cancel a week before check-inDay 2 the policies are
  • Exception:
    • Cancellation Policy C that gives you 125$ fee if you cancel 2 days before check-in

Curious to hear :D 

 

Warmest,

Nienke

Product Manager

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