New booking guarantee functionality as the basis for distribution control
We launched a new version of WebDesk as the technology foundation that will enable more hoteliers to overcome the "Booking.com pays" discount, one of the biggest challenges for marketing and direct sales today.
PSD2 and the emergence of "Booking.com pays".
Taking advantage of the entry into force of the PSD2 regulation in 2021, Booking.com made a big effort to receive payments from customers and pay the hotel later by virtual card or transfer.
Although this was a logical move, which could even benefit many hotels, Booking.com took the opportunity to make as much profit as possible out of the situation, with practices that are questionable to say the least.
Unfortunately for hotels, Booking.com saw a great opportunity in the possibility of being able to make discounts by reducing its margin, with the aim of improving the final price offered to the customer, the famous "Booking.com pays" discount.
Booking.com blackmail?
As of today, any hotel that wants to activate payments on Booking.com must expose itself to the "Booking.com pays". In other words, it is not possible to receive prepaid or guaranteed bookings from Booking.com without activating the discount. Taking advantage of its dominant position, Booking.com forces all hotels that want to receive secure payments on its platform to accept that the discount can be applied.
A discount does not have a fixed value, nor does it always appear to all customers. Booking.com determines when to apply or not to apply the discount to a particular user's search, and what is the ideal amount to achieve the sale. This makes control of the PVP completely impossible.
The solution, disabling payments, only for the brave?
The only possible option to avoid manipulation of the final price by Booking.com is to deactivate payments on the platform.
However, this forces the hotel to carry out the deposit collection and booking guarantee procedures, which, due to the entry into force of PSD2 and the inability to charge cards without authorisation, causes problems, errors and, above all, a great operational burden for the reception and reservations teams.
Manual payments by dataphone and automatic or webservice payments offer fewer and fewer guarantees, so that the only viable alternative is the so-called "pay links", i.e. sending the customer a link so that they can pay the deposit or guarantee the booking by authorising subsequent payment.
Theoretically it is simple, but in practice we encounter problems that make the operation complicated and tedious. Mainly lack of security, friction and also rogue traders.
Firstly, we have to wait for the client to make the payment to guarantee the reservation and, secondly, the payment process can generate friction that can even lead the client to cancel. During the booking process on Booking.com, it is not clear whether a fee will be charged or not, something that may "confuse" some customers, who may consider it as a "second payment".
WebDesk, your ally against "Booking.com pays".
WebDesk was born as a new version of GuestPro's online check-in, but it did so with the vision of being a complete booking management tool, the customer's app. This has been a year of great advances in WebDesk, and being able to offer the possibility of booking guarantee was one of our priorities.
The advantages of a system like WebDesk over payment links are very significant. WebDesk attacks the guarantee problem on all fronts: its neat interface provides security, reduces friction, and significantly increases the chances that the guest will successfully make the guarantee payment, whether it's a deposit or non-refundable, or a €0 authorisation for non-deposit policies.
Bringing context, usability and control to the customer
A link to the WebDesk makes it possible to better show the customer the need to secure the booking, and does so within the context of the booking and the hotel: in addition to securing the booking, the customer can check in online, upgrade their booking (upselling), or consult and/or modify billing details.
This not only reduces friction, but is even positive because it brings the guest closer to the hotel.
Improved customer confidence
The customer feels in a secure environment, due to the control offered by the user interface, and the possibility of carrying out other booking operations. The client has no doubts that he/she is within the hotel's own tools. The booking guarantee is presented in a natural and well-explained way with an ad-hoc dialogue in the main booking view.
Increased number and quality of contacts
By having a single environment for all interactions with the guest, in all communications with the hotel, whether by email, WhatsApp or messaging from each OTA, we will always direct the customer to the same interface, which will end up being safe and familiar.
Every time the customer accesses WebDesk they will be exposed to the booking guarantee dialogue, which increases the number of opportunities for them to make a successful booking guarantee.
Improved user experience
The booking guarantee dialogue includes accurate messages of the amount paid, and to be paid. For Booking.com bookings, a message is displayed explaining that the hotel does not participate in the prepayment programme, and that no charge has been made yet. And the payment process is smooth, straightforward and intuitive.
Improved processes
WebDesk automatically determines whether a booking has already been guaranteed or not. If a guarantee is required, it will offer the customer payment of the necessary amount. In the case of bookings without a deposit, the card authorisation will be offered at 0 €.
In all cases, the card is securely tokenised on the hotel's payment platform, usually using COF (Credential on File). This is a tokenisation with express authorisation from the customer, which allows the accommodation to make subsequent charges according to the booking policy, making the exposure to chargeback drastically reduced.
New automation strategy
We believe that this new functionality is very useful to replace the payment links that until now used the booking voucher, as WebDesk now allows this management in a more user-friendly environment. To do this, we recommend our customers to replace the payment links ({link.voucher_card}) with {link.webdesk} in our templates.
Give your direct sales a chance
In our opinion, the fact that Booking.com is forcing hotels to accept "Booking.com pays" in order to enable online charging is abusive and yet it has been allowed so far, so hoteliers should adapt as best they can to the situation.
There is no doubt that by deactivating Booking.com payments we will be doing a great favour to our distribution and direct sales, however, it is a difficult decision due to the operational changes that we will have to take on. We believe that having better tools at our disposal allows hotels to face the new situation with a greater guarantee of success.
In our experience, many of the clients who have worked with pay links up to now, do not have major problems and we believe that the new WebDesk will substantially improve the operation and the success rate, reducing the number of bookings that need attention.
The new functionalities of WebDesk make it a great ally to defend direct sales and the right as hoteliers to set the final price in each channel.
The new version of WebDesk is now available free of charge to all GuestPro customers.
