Managing Business Disruptions
Managing business disruptions
For many hosts times are rough at the moment. We have put together a knowledge base to help help you deal with the situation.
Contents
1 Beds24 tools and functions which help during business disruptions
2 Accept requests only instead of confirmed bookings
In SETTINGS->PROPERTIES->BOOKING RULES you can change your „Booking Type“ to „Request“. This means that guests enquire and you confirm or decline each booking manually.
3 Offer cancellable bookings
If your bookings are normally not cancellable you could add an additional offer with a cancellable price. This help page explains how to set up additional offers.
4 Close availability at channels
If you accept direct bookings or requests but do not want to sell all rooms or any rooms at OTAs at the moment you can reduce or close availability at the channels via SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER->CHANNEL INVENTORY.
5 Completely disconnect channels
If you want to close the availability at the channels close the availability in Beds24 first. Check at the channels that the rooms are closed. You can then disconnect in the channel.
You find information on how to do this on the channel help pages for example for Booking.com when you go to SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER->BOOKING.COM and then click on HELP in the top right.
Disconnecting a channel in Beds24 first will not close the property/rooms at the channels.
6 Automatically adjust prices
If you do not use dynamic pricing via Pricelabs or RoomPriceGenie you can use the yield optimizer in SETTINGS->YIELD OPTIMIZER to automatically adjust prices based on availability.
7 What you can do if you are forced to close
7.1 Close your property for new bookings
You can set a „Blackout“ in the CALENDAR to close your property for new bookings for a certain period.
For other methods to close a property please see here
7.2 Cancel existing bookings
7.2.1 Direct bookings
Best is to deal with every guest individually. If you can not handle the process individually you can set up an Auto Action which changes the status of the booking to „Cancelled“ and sends an Email to the guest. Click here for instructions.
7.2.2 OTA bookings
For most OTAs cancellations have to be made in the OTAs. Check which each OTA what their conditions are right now.
7.3 Reduce Beds24 fees when you are closed
You can lower the number of rooms and if you have remove sub accounts and disconnect channels.
If you keep the channels open after disconnecting them you will need to manage your bookings and your availability manually.