Booking.com overbookings

Mick
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Userlevel 6
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Hi everyone,

I would like to ask you about Mews PMS integrations with Booking.com. Specifically, I would like to know which integration is being used by other users - the Mews-Booking.com direct integration or the SiteMinder-Booking.com integration.

Additionally, I am interested in understanding if you have experienced any overbookings and if so, the frequency of these overbookings.

 

As background information, we migrated to the booking.com-Mews integration and do like the connection however we regularly receive overbookings via booking.com, there is a thought that with the Siteminder -Booking these overbookings could be minimised due to Siteminder holding the availability.

 

As i understand the Mews-Booking.com integration has a minimum pull and push period of 30 seconds for rates, inventory & reservations, while the SiteMinder integration has a minimum pull period of 2 for reservations and a minimum push period of 30 seconds of rates & inventory. Which leads me to believe we should have more accurate availability on booking.com thus resulting in less overbookings, though we receive many.

I appreciate any input and insights you can provide.


I should add that Booking.com generally respond with: 
 

“These bookings were made due to the auto-replenishment feature. This allows all cancelled rooms to be automatically replenished with +1. The restriction and rate values will not be changed. 

Please note that this cannot be deactivated and to avoid this happening again, you will need to apply a stop-sell when AV is set to 0.”


Thank you!


 

Mick Vazquez | Let's connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mickvazquez

12 replies

M
Userlevel 2

Hi Mick, 

Did you receive any further support or feedback on this issue? We’re also experiencing Overbooking from booking.com despite the inventory being zero. 

 

Mick
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Userlevel 6
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Hi Mick, 

Did you receive any further support or feedback on this issue? We’re also experiencing Overbooking from booking.com despite the inventory being zero. 

 

Hi @M_belanger, 

No, we did not resolve this. 

We have made the decision to migrate the connection back to Siteminder, we are just waiting for the right time to start the process. 

Sorry to not have better news. 

Mick Vazquez | Let's connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mickvazquez
Dirkjan
Userlevel 3

Hi Mick, 

 

We are quite new to Mews, and onboarded about 2 weeks ago so we do not have plenty of experience but we don’t have any overbooking with the direct booking.com integration, work with the booking.com and SMARTHotel integration. 

Could it be that siteMinder still pushes availability to booking.com?

 

M
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

You might want to check you booking.com contract / options once. There is an option where booking.com reserves the right to rebook a reservation if a cancellation occurred. In this case, the interface would transmit you a cancellation which you could sell direct, but booking com would then come later and make a booking, despite that you are already at 0. I have seen this option creating overbookings at other hotels.

Mick
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Userlevel 6
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You might want to check you booking.com contract / options once. There is an option where booking.com reserves the right to rebook a reservation if a cancellation occurred. In this case, the interface would transmit you a cancellation which you could sell direct, but booking com would then come later and make a booking, despite that you are already at 0. I have seen this option creating overbookings at other hotels.

Hi @marc agilotel, 

That is 100% the issue we are experiencing and have bene told by booking.com that it cannot be disabled and we need to send a stopsell to booking.com not a 0 inventory update. 

Mick Vazquez | Let's connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mickvazquez
coline.poussiere
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Userlevel 4
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Hi All, 

There is indeed a feature in Booking that is called the Auto-replenishment and it is something that cannot be disabled.

This article about overbookings cites 

Booking.com Auto-replenishment feature (effective April 2020)

This overbooking is most likely caused by Booking.com’s auto-replenishment feature which puts canceled spaces back up for sale on Booking.com immediately without waiting for an inventory update from Mews. Recently, Booking.com made this a default function to increase the number of bookings and revenue, as you pay a commission for each of their reservations.

 

Note that there are 2 types of auto-replenishment features:

  1. The general auto-replenishment feature is integrated by default to all properties on Booking.com and cannot be deactivated. Whenever a cancellation comes through Booking.com, the room is put back on sale automatically to give the property another chance at reselling.
  2. The auto-replenishment on closed rooms is a feature that can be deactivated at the property level, however, the general auto-replenishment for Booking.com cancellations will remain active. Deactivating this feature means that if the room/date is closed in red (stop sell), it will not be auto-replenished even if there are cancellations.

 

So apart from setting up a new restriction for the specific day and sending a manual push, there is no action that can be taken from Mews’ side.

I hope the above helps

Coline - Customer Support Representative @ Mews
M
Userlevel 3
Badge +2

Hi @coline.poussiere - thanks for the update and good (or not 😀)  to know that this is now mandatory.

I believe what Mews could do is to extend its integration, and automatically send a Closed restriction every time the availability drops to 0. If the hotel would then disable point 2 of the above explanation, the hotel would not risk to get overbooked anymore as there would be a closed restriction. I believe some channel managers offer this functionality but not 100% sure. Will put it on the feedback page once for consideration.

Thanks again! M.

Mick
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Userlevel 6
Badge +6

Hi @coline.poussiere - thanks for the update and good (or not 😀)  to know that this is now mandatory.

I believe what Mews could do is to extend its integration, and automatically send a Closed restriction every time the availability drops to 0. If the hotel would then disable point 2 of the above explanation, the hotel would not risk to get overbooked anymore as there would be a closed restriction. I believe some channel managers offer this functionality but not 100% sure. Will put it on the feedback page once for consideration.

Thanks again! M.

This is also how I understand it, I have raised with our CSM who took it to the team but didn’t look like I would be updated.

Mick Vazquez | Let's connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mickvazquez
coline.poussiere
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Userlevel 4
Badge +1

Hi @coline.poussiere - thanks for the update and good (or not 😀)  to know that this is now mandatory.

I believe what Mews could do is to extend its integration, and automatically send a Closed restriction every time the availability drops to 0. If the hotel would then disable point 2 of the above explanation, the hotel would not risk to get overbooked anymore as there would be a closed restriction. I believe some channel managers offer this functionality but not 100% sure. Will put it on the feedback page once for consideration.

Thanks again! M.

My Pleasure!

I see what you mean for the “automatic close restrictions” and that would indeed be a new Feature request as I don’t believe we have any similar system in place right now. As usual, the more people like an idea, or request a feature, the better chance we have to make it happen, and I know quite a lot of properties have had similar issues with booking 

Coline - Customer Support Representative @ Mews
mauritsbots
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Userlevel 5
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Better yet, it would be amazing to have the option to create a restriction based on occupancy; 

so that when you are at e.g. 98%, you could ‘close external inventory’ and keep that last room to sell at the desk. 

Questions? Brainstorm? Contact me!
coline.poussiere
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Userlevel 4
Badge +1

 

Better yet, it would be amazing to have the option to create a restriction based on occupancy; 

so that when you are at e.g. 98%, you could ‘close external inventory’ and keep that last room to sell at the desk. 

That could indeed be very nice, I know you can adjust the availability through the availability and occupancy report, but it is not exactly the same as sending a restriction triggered by availability.

Have you considered putting that suggestion on our feedback page?

Coline - Customer Support Representative @ Mews
mauritsbots
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Userlevel 5
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well i didnt… somebody already suggested this years ago

https://feedback.mews.com/forums/918232-mews-operations-pms/suggestions/43970076-rate-buckets-restriction-based-on-occupancy

 

 

Questions? Brainstorm? Contact me!

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