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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
margaret Nov 26, 2018 1:20 PM (in response to astraglam)If I understand correctly, you received 2 reservations at the exact same time and both bookings were accepted by the system. How did this show up on your calendar? Were they R2B or IB? Did you cancel one of the reservations and get dinged for doing so? It seems odd that both reservation went through at the exact same time.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 26, 2018 2:46 PM (in response to margaret)It was IB. I have not taken any action yet
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
margaret Nov 26, 2018 3:24 PM (in response to astraglam)That should happen! Don't cancel, have the guest cancel by following these instructions-
Log into your traveler account
Click My Trips
Select the reservation that needs to be cancelled
Click Request Cancellation
You can then approve the cancellation by choosing guest requested to cancel. The guest will get a full refund and you will not be penalized if these instructions are followed. I would continue to follow up with CS to find out how this can be avoided if I were you.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 26, 2018 7:47 PM (in response to margaret)I have asked her several times, she is not going to do it
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
sage Nov 26, 2018 3:51 PM (in response to astraglam)they refuse to take the ding and penalty off because they do not do it for sync issues
This does not sound like a sync issue, as that would apply only if the other booking was on a different site that did not have its calendary synced with your HA calendary. When both bookings were done as IB through HA it seems to be a problem with the HA programming accepting multiple bookings for the dates.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
margaret Nov 26, 2018 5:15 PM (in response to sage)I agree, I think this needs to be followed up on until it is explained how this could happen.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
twomoreyears Nov 27, 2018 6:51 AM (in response to astraglam)Is this the sequence of events? 1) you start revising your rates 2) a few minutes after you start revising your rates, you get a BOOKING from HA/VRBO for a week 3) and then, moments later, you get a BOOKING from HA/VRBO for a month that includes a portion of the days that were booked moments earlier.
(Edited at 6:50 AM central time to add) And by BOOKING I mean an instant book, not a reservation request. Although HA has said a reservation request will block dates even while it is pending.
If that's the case, ask Erinn to help you, because the issue is not your rates but the HA/VRBO programming that allowed two overlapping instant bookings to happen. You cannot honor the second booking.
But about your rates, I'm not going to sugarcoat my response: if you did not have the right rates posted, you should either honor those rates or cancel the guest yourself and take the "ding". If I was the person that booked your place for a month and now you tell me the price is twice and that I should cancel, I'd say no - and then I'd give you a bad review after staying for trying to raise the price on me.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
georgygirl1955 Nov 26, 2018 9:32 PM (in response to twomoreyears)I am thinking that the first booking was "by request", and the 2nd booking at the old low rate was an IB.
And the IB became top in priority over the requested reservation and processed through the system, thus closing down days that appeared open.
So the IB went through and logged and processed, and then the other requested booking was accepted even though the dates were by then no longer avail.
Is that scenario possible?
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 27, 2018 7:00 AM (in response to twomoreyears)@twomoreyears how do I ask her for help? As for rates, generally I agree with you. The difference is that I JUST updated them. If this reso came in 10 minutes before- all my fault.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
twomoreyears Nov 27, 2018 8:18 PM (in response to astraglam)homeaway_community_manager - can you help astraglam?
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
homeaway_community_manager Nov 28, 2018 9:43 AM (in response to twomoreyears)Hi All,
We have spoken to the OP about the situation. Thank you.
Erinn
HomeAway Community Manager
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
georgygirl1955 Nov 26, 2018 9:38 PM (in response to astraglam)Can you clarify further as it does seem a bit confusing still.
I am not comprehending how this all happened at the same time.
"I got a booking for my house on homeaway for a week a couple of days ago ".
Am I wrong in assuming there was at least a couple of days in between the 2 reservations?
How did you accept the first booking?
It seems as though it was days later then that the 2nd reservation....and IB you mentioned, came in for a full month and at your older rates.
Can you provide more detail on the chain of events and the processing?
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 27, 2018 6:55 AM (in response to astraglam)Hi everyone, I am here to get guidance on what is better to do now. I would love to hear advice, if anyone has any. I am not going to drill homeaway on why and how. I have called them three times. It is just no longer relevant. What is relevant is a recommendation from someone on best way of handling the situation. Thank you greatly
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
feibus Nov 27, 2018 8:29 AM (in response to astraglam)What situation exactly? If you had the wrong rates up, that's on you, not the platform. If you got reservations from two different sources at the same time, that's just what happens and you get to make the call about which reservation you want to keep and which one you want to cancel.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 27, 2018 9:08 AM (in response to feibus)feibus thank you for chiming in! You are clearly have taken the time to read my post and bothered reply in such a kind way. Happy Holidays! I wish you problem free hosting
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
twomoreyears Nov 27, 2018 8:27 PM (in response to astraglam)One thing to keep in mind is that none of these websites sync immediately. Unfortunately, you found that out the hard way. Booking dot com said their calendar only syncs three times a day, and they won't forgive you for a double booking just because the calendars didn't sync - AND you have to pay to re-house the guest into a comparable or better property.
I actually manually sync calendars between sites. I don't trust them to sync quickly enough to protect us from a double booking. So the first thing I do when I get a booking (not a request or inquiry) is to go to the other sites and either sync the calendar manually or block off the dates. Then I reply to the guest.
The reason georgygirl1955 and I were asking for clarity on the events is that if HA truly had a bug and allowed bookings to overlap on their own platform, we'd recommend you escalate this (and why I suggested contacting Erinn). You should not get punished by a cancellation for their programming problem. But if you don't want to pursue it any longer, I recommend you cancel the month-long booking. You don't get "dinged" harder on a one-month cancel than on a one-week cancel.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 27, 2018 8:49 PM (in response to twomoreyears)twomoreyears i realize they do not sync instantly but thought they would be a little easier about waiving it in that case. Airbnb usually would just waive the ding (not that I had that many, but between four listings and two years of hosting it happened i think twice). I did ask to escalate and got a no. How do I contact Erinn (if you know?) or is that the person copied above? Sorry, I am pretty new to this forum.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
twomoreyears Nov 27, 2018 9:05 PM (in response to astraglam)Yes, Erinn is the community manager. She's very good about getting us help when the CS reps can't and has helped many of us when we were at our wit's end on what to do.
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 27, 2018 9:07 PM (in response to twomoreyears)twomoreyears thank you!
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Re: Double booking due to sync issue- any advice?
astraglam Nov 28, 2018 7:02 AM (in response to astraglam)interestingly, I just got the following pop up. So we can no longer manually assure it is syncing
The calendar that travelers see on your listing is automatically updated when you make a change in your reservations calendar. Since these updates are automatic, we've removed the "calendar update" button.
An up-to-date calendar helps ensure you only receive bookings you can actually accept. It also prevents double-bookings that you might end up having to cancel. Click hereto learn more about how accepting and honoring bookings affects your property's search position on HomeAway.