How to cut no-shows and late cancellations, booking site by booking site

• Bookings made far ahead on free cancellation are the likeliest to be cancelled. Booking.com says reservations made in longer book windows on a flexible policy are more likely to end in cancellation.
• Guests whose questions go unanswered may cancel and book elsewhere, Booking.com says.
• Guests whose plans move. Booking.com says more than half of the cancellations made because guests wanted to change their booking were about dates.
• Cards that don't work, and bookings from guests who never meant to come.

On Booking.com, the extranet's Cancellation characteristics report, under Analytics, shows what share of your bookings are cancelled and when, against properties near you. Its first graph, Reservation Status per Book Window, shows which booking windows cancel most, and its third, Cancellations Prior to Check-in, shows how long before arrival most cancellations come. Keep a simple count of your own too: each month, the no-shows and the cancellations in the last three days, by site.

• Offer a flexible price and a non-refundable one side by side, with a clear difference in price, so that guests choose. Booking.com warns that offering only non-refundable prices may leave you with fewer bookings in all.
• Booking.com recommends allowing free cancellation until one or two days before check-in, if it fits your business.
• Make the terms stricter for your busiest dates only, such as festivals and long weekends, with a temporary exception, and keep them easy for quiet dates.
• Write the terms the same way on every site and on your own website, so that no guest is surprised by a fee.

On Booking.com, create a policy and then link it to your rate plans:

1. 1Sign in to the extranet and go to Property, then Reservation policies.
2. 2Click Create new cancellation policy.
3. 3Choose whether to offer free cancellation, and the free period.
4. 4Choose what guests pay for late cancellations or no-shows, and click Save.
5. 5Go to Rates & Availability, then Rate plans, click the rate plan and Edit, go to Policy and click Edit, select the policy and click Save.

For busy dates, go to Property, then Reservation policies, then the Advanced Settings tab. Under Temporary policy exceptions click Edit, then Create temporary exception, make your changes and click Create temporary policy exception. Your usual policy stays for every other date.

When you set a cancellation policy on Booking.com you can also ask for payment in advance. Booking.com lets you set the cancellation charge at the whole price, half of it, or the cost of the first night, and that sets how much the guest prepays, and when. To add it:

1. 1In the extranet, click the Property tab, then Reservation policies.
2. 2Under Cancellation and prepayment policies, click Edit on a policy, or Create new cancellation policy.
3. 3Under Prepayment preference, select Yes under Do you require guests to pay in advance?
4. 4Read the Prepayment summary, which shows how and when guests will be charged, and click Save.

• With Payments by Booking.com, Booking.com collects the prepayment for you. If you take payments yourself, charge the amount in your policy, or agree the payment with the guest by message if you don't take cards.
• If a guest doesn't prepay on time, use Request to cancel: Booking.com gives the guest 24 hours to pay, and you can cancel after that.
• Pre-authorisation holds an amount on the guest's card without charging it, and checks the card is valid. Booking.com says it may help reduce no-shows. Set it under Property, Reservation policies, Advanced settings, then Pre-authorisation preferences.
• If you can't charge a card, open the booking under Reservations and select Mark credit card as invalid. The guest is asked for new details within 24 hours, or 12 hours for bookings made within 48 hours of check-in, and you pay no commission on the booking. If no valid card comes, you can cancel until 15:00 your time on the check-in day.
• Let guests move the dates of a non-refundable booking once: under Property, then Policies, Date changes for non-refundable bookings, click Edit, tick the box, choose the deadline and click Update preferences. The new dates must cost the same or more.

Booking.com counts a guest as a no-show when they haven't arrived by midnight on the planned check-in date. In the extranet:

1. 1Click the Reservations menu and select the reservation.
2. 2Under Reservation actions, select Mark as a no-show.
3. 3When asked “Would you like to waive the no-show fee for this reservation?”, choose Yes, waive fee or No, charge fee.
4. 4Click the Mark as a no-show button to confirm.

• The button is there from midnight on the planned check-in date until 48 hours after the planned check-out date. In the Pulse app: Bookings, find the reservation, Mark as a no-show, then Yes.
• Booking.com charges no commission on a no-show marked in that time with the fee waived. If you charge the fee, it charges commission on the fee.
• Any change not marked within 48 hours of the planned check-out is charged full commission on the original booking.
• When a guest asks you to cancel, use Request to cancel reservation, up to 48 hours before check-in. The booking stays live until the guest accepts, and is then cancelled free of charge, with no commission. Closer to check-in, send the guest to Booking.com's Customer Service.
• If you want your cancellation fee to apply, ask the guest to cancel through their confirmation email, their Booking.com account or Customer Service.

To set a cancellation policy on Agoda, sign in to Partner Portal and go to Property, then Cancellation policies. Click “Add cancellation”, set the stay dates, choose the policy and the rate plans it covers, and click “Save”. When several policies could apply, Agoda uses EasyCancel if you offer it, then the strictest of any Seasonal or Essential promotion's, then the strictest of the rest.

For a Property Collect booking, which the guest pays at the hotel, Agoda gives you the guest's card to check:

• Open the booking, click “Payment & pricing”, then “Verify now”. You can verify a card once.
• You can view the card three times at most, from 7 days before check-in, with a code Agoda sends by SMS. Agoda then deletes it, and never shows the CVV.
• Agoda says not to charge the card before the guest arrives, and not to hold an amount on it to secure a booking, even at busy times.
• Once you have viewed the card, collecting any cancellation fee is your job. If you haven't, Agoda tries to collect it for you.
• If the card fails, “Request new card” sends the guest a secure link, and they have 44 hours to give new details. Agoda asks that card details are exchanged only that way, never by phone or email.

If a Property Collect guest hasn't arrived by midnight on the check-in date, Agoda suggests waiting 24 hours and checking for a late check-in request first. Then:

1. 1Go to Bookings, then Reservations.
2. 2Click the booking.
3. 3Click “Mark as no-show”, within 72 hours from midnight of the arrival date.

After 72 hours, and for bookings the guest paid Agoda for, report the no-show through “Need Help” with the booking ID. The fee follows the booking's cancellation policy. Agoda also advises taking a refundable room deposit at check-in, against damage, and says it doesn't collect one for you.

Cancellation rules for both sites are in the InGo-MMT extranet, under the “Property” tab, in “Cancel Rules”. MakeMyTrip offers these:

• Free Cancellation till Check-in: a full refund until the check-in time. Once it is on, all your other policies become refundable until check-in too.
• Free Cancellation Upto 24 Hours, 48 Hours or 72 Hours: a full refund up to that long before check-in, and no refund after it or for a no-show.
• A non-refundable booking is paid to you like any other if the guest cancels; a booking cancelled within its free period is not paid.

1. 1Under “Add New Policy”, choose “Hotel Level”, or switch the toggle to “Rateplan Level” for one rate plan.
2. 2Choose the “from date” and “to date” the policy covers.
3. 3Select one of the three ready-made templates.
4. 4Click “Yes”.

When policies overlap, a promotion's policy wins over a rate plan's, and a rate plan's over the hotel's, so a non-refundable promotion makes its bookings non-refundable. Free Cancellation till Check-in overrides them all. MakeMyTrip has a filter for free cancellation, and says flexible policies stand a better chance of being booked.

When MakeMyTrip pays by a virtual credit card, its help says when you may charge it, by the booking's terms:

• No free cancellation: three days before check-in.
• Free cancellation up to 48 hours before check-in: two days before.
• Free cancellation up to 24 hours before check-in: one day before.
• Free cancellation until check-in: after check-in.

To charge it, open the “Bookings” tab, click “Get VCC Voucher” beside the booking, enter your VCC password and charge the amount on the voucher. A cancelled booking's room goes back on sale by itself.

For a Hotel Collect booking, which the guest pays you, Expedia checks the card when it is booked. Your part:

• Look at the card in Partner Central as soon as the booking comes: on the Reservations page, select the guest's name, then See card details in the Guest credit card section. You can view it three times, within 4 days of booking, from check-in until 4 days after check-out, and within 4 days of a cancellation.
• Expedia suggests checking cards at least 3 days before check-in, so that there is time to get a new one.
• Don't charge the card before check-in unless your deposit policy asks for part payment before arrival.
• If the card doesn't work, select Request updated card, choose the reason and select Request card. Expedia writes to the guest for you.
• If no valid card comes, you can cancel: 48 or more hours before check-in once the card has been marked invalid for 24 hours, or within 48 hours of check-in once it has been marked invalid for 12 hours, or for 2 hours on a stay of 10 days or more.

Expedia asks you to cancel only when the guest asks. A booking cancelled without the guest's request can mean the guest is moved to another hotel at your expense. For a no-show:

• Expedia Collect, where the guest paid Expedia: from 5:00 AM your time on the day after check-in until 30 days after check-out, open the booking and use Mark as no-show. Charge the fee in your policy or waive it.
• Hotel Collect: reconcile the booking, from 5:00 AM the day after check-in until the 4th day of the month after check-out. Go to the Payments page, select Mark a Hotel Collect no-show or cancellation (reconciliations) in Quick tasks, open the booking, select Reconcile, choose Mark as no-show and select Save.
• Collect any fee before you reconcile: the guest's card details are gone afterwards. Each booking allows two changes at most, a reset included, and a guest marked as checked in can't be marked as a no-show.
• If you don't reconcile in time, Expedia's invoice is based on the original booking.

• Show your cancellation and payment terms in plain words before the guest pays, and in the confirmation.
• Take an advance for busy dates, by a payment link or UPI, and say in writing when it is refunded and when it is kept.
• Ask for the arrival time when the guest books, and note it on the booking.
• Never ask for card numbers by phone or WhatsApp. Use your booking engine's or payment provider's secure page.
• Release a room only as your written terms say, and tell the guest when you do.

• Answer every message quickly. Booking.com says guests who get quick answers are less likely to cancel, and its messaging tools can send automatic replies and scheduled messages, such as a welcome when the guest books.
• A few days before arrival, send directions, the check-in time, parking and whom to call, and ask what time they will arrive.
• The day before, confirm the booking by message. A guest whose plans have changed often says so then, and the room can go back on sale.
• On the day, check for a late arrival message before you mark anyone as a no-show.

• Turn on auto-replenishment on Booking.com, so that a cancelled room reopens by itself: Rates & Availability, Calendar, Auto-replenishment, Yes.
• Use a last-minute offer on the sites for nights still empty a day or two ahead (see our guide on increasing hotel occupancy).
• Booking.com suggests its Visibility Booster to put you higher in its search after a run of cancellations.
• Keep a short list of guests who asked for a room on a full night, and call them first.