The way you manage your bookings is the key to increasing your efficiency and revenue.
For a vacation rental property manager, nothing is probably scarier than overbooking.
You can’t afford to lose visibility because your competition never sleeps. Definitely, by using a more extensive distribution strategy we get more exposure for the business. But keeping an eye on each and every one of these platforms to make sure you don’t make a mistake is a very stressful and time-consuming job.
Double bookings are not only a nightmare for vacation rental managers, but also for travelers.
Overbooking occurs when a short-term rental is sold to more than one guest during a specific period. Although it is a situation that often occurs by accident, some accommodation providers do it on purpose for strategic reasons.
What is the cause of double bookings?
- Putting the same property on multiple sales platforms without synchronizing the channels.
You can get more exposure and ultimately increase bookings. However, you must ensure that your calendars are synchronized. Otherwise, there will be discrepancies in your availability across channels.
- Have multiple listings for the same property
When a guest books a room within your home, your home will still appear free and bookable for the same dates.
- Allow late check-out or early check-in.
This is a nice gesture that can make life easier for your guests and, in turn, earn you good reviews. However, make sure there are no overlapping stays, especially when the guest wants to arrive a day early or stay an extra night.
- Last minute incidents
If your property is at capacity and a problem arises where repairs need to be made or you have to close a room unexpectedly
- Manual listing management
Overbookings can happen too, when you update and manage your inventory manually, without any help.
No matter how careful you are, a single overbooking in a vacation rental can damage the reputation of your business.
But, what are the most common ways to protect against overbooking? and what is the best solution to make your business more profitable?
There are several consequences when vacation rental overbooking occurs.
- Loss of time and resources to compensate the guest and resolve the issue. Finding a new location for guests, offering the same standards and paying the differential rate.
- Bad guest experiences. It is important to strive to offer unique experiences that make them want to repeat their stay.
- Negative reviews. Overbooking creates negative impressions on customers, and there is always the risk that they can leave you a bad review.
For all these reasons, we must make every effort to prevent this type of situation.
How to prevent double bookings?
This is where synchronization comes into play! The good news for vacation rental owners is that you can sync all your sales channels and get real-time updates on the availability of your accommodations.
A good, effective calendar management system is just one solution to this potential headache. It can give you the peace of mind you need and save you valuable time.
Another more complete alternative is to have a Channel Manager. A quality software can solve all the complicated difficulties mentioned above. It will allow you to advertise all your rooms on all booking channels at the same time (Airbnb, Booking, Expedia, Vrbo,…).
It improves your efficiency by distributing your availability and rates across multiple booking channels in real time.
By integrating with a powerful Channel Manager to help you manage your properties, you can benefit from increased visibility and exposure. In addition keep everything in sync and minimize the risk of double bookings.
If you want to avoid overbookings once and for all, we recommend that you stay out of the way and let a channel manager handle your distribution.
Contact Hostify via our contact form. We will help you find the best way to boost your rental business.
