Chapter 4

Managing Reservations on Booking.com

Booking.com has made easy work of managing your reservations directly from your extranet dashboard so that you can easily oversee even a substantial portfolio of properties. Designed to be super-streamlined and connective to third-party calendars, like those of Airbnb or other rental platforms, Booking.com has made it a priority to make the reservation management process as transparent as possible. You can also export and import your Booking.com calendar to maximize the synthesis of your various booked listings. 

If you’re a Lodgify customer, you can easily integrate with Booking.com, as well with other listing sites and see all of your reservations in one place. 


How to Update Your Availability Calendar

Getting started means making sure that your calendar reflects the correct availability for your rental property. Booking.com gives listings the option to update availability up to 16 months in advance, and it is to your benefit to post when your listing is open as far out into these 16 months as is reasonable. This might not be possible for all owners, but posting availability that far into the future can be a boon for potential renters who prefer to shop in advance for components of their travel. 

When we cannot even remember our own plans for next week, though, how are we to track so many months into the future? Here Booking.com has you covered with calendar options that are easy to both understand and update.

You can make changes to your unit’s availability by visiting the “Rooms & Availability” page and selecting your calendar. Booking.com offers two calendar formats from which you can use: a list view calendar and a monthly view calendar. Regardless of which format you prefer, you can easily select dates – either day at a time or a “bulk edit” for longer periods. 

However, if you’re a Lodgify customer, all changes in availability should be done in your Lodgify account. 

If you use the list view calendar and want to change one day of availability, you can locate the date and underneath it find the “Rooms to Sell” cell. Clicking on that cell will illuminate it in blue, which means it is editable, so you can change the number of rooms or units available on that day, then press Enter to save your changes. If you want to change availability for multiple days or weeks, you can either highlight multiple “Rooms to Sell” cells in a row, or click on the “Bulk edit” button. If you use the monthly view calendar, you can adjust availability using the cells in the upper right-hand corner. Enter your start and end dates for and then select if your unit is open or closed. 

There is also the possibility that a sudden cancellation will leave a big hole in your bookings. If this happens, you can log in and update the availability within your extranet. You can also set up auto-replenishment of your units, which will revert that unit to being available automatically. This service is currently on hiatus due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, however, the hope is that it will return in the future because it can be an asset for those who have multiple listings on Booking.com. 

How to Manage Your Rates on Booking.com

Managing your rates for your listings on Booking.com is as easy as managing your availability calendar. Changing your rates for a specific date range will look a little different, though, depending on whether you are using the list view or monthly view calendar format. 

If you are within the list view availability calendar within the “Rate & Availability” tab and want to change the rates for several days in a row, like for a holiday weekend or the days of a popular festival, you can select the date cells you wish to update in the row labeled “Rate plan” and enter your new rate within the pop-up box that appears. If you wish to change rates for many days or out into future months, you can use the “Bulk edit” option so that you can select a bigger range and update the price. Always make sure to click “Save” so that your rate changes are preserved accurately. 

Remember: if you’re a Lodgify customer, you can easily make your rate changes from your Lodgify account and easily sync it to your Booking.com and other integrated channels.

How to Create Special Offers and Promotions

Booking.com offers the ability to have a standard rate plan (meaning the price for your rentals that all Booking.com users see), targeted rate plans (that is, the special prices applied to users like their Genius program), and promotions, which are temporary discounts or other perks that might incentivize a potential renter to commit. Booking.com offers several types of promotions that include: 

  • Free Nights: when this promotion is in place, you are offering your renters a free nights’ stay in exchange for booking a certain number of nights. For example, if a renter books six nights, you might offer them a seventh night free.
  • Early Booking: this deal offers renters who are booking accommodations far out into the future a lower rate than average for that time of year.
  • Last-Minute Booking: this deal is for renters who book at the last minute (or are looking for lodging within the next seven days); this can give renters a deal but it can also mean you fill listings that would have otherwise been empty.

Setting these promotions or special offers up is easy as well. You can add such promotions under the “Promotions” tab These can be set up on a seasonal basis – for instance, an off-season discount – or on a more short-term basis. 

There are other forms of incentives you can put in place for your Booking.com listings to woo potential guests to your page. These might take the form of: 

  • Non-Refundable Rates: these discounted rates can be added to your unit by selecting “Add non-refundable rate” under “Rates & Availability.” This can also be done through the “Promotions” tab.
  • Children Rates: offering a discounted rate for children can be a major asset for families traveling together. These deals can be added under the “Policies” tab within the
    Property” page. Find “Children & extra beds” to modify whether children can stay for free or for a lesser rate. 
  • Secret Deals: these are deals that are only visible to a certain segment of the Booking.com community and can be set up by selecting “Secret Deal” when prompted to answer “Who will see this promotion?” within the “Promotions” tab. 
  • Value Deals: another promotion for your property is the “Value Deal,” which is a credential that Booking.com applies to properties when their rate and amenities are optimum for a certain locale. You, as the property owner, cannot set a Value Deal up, but you can boost your chances of earning this credential by ensuring your rental price is competitive. 
  • Limited-Time Deal: similar to the last-minute booking deal noted earlier, this promotion offers your unit at a deep discount and at the top rank for searches in your area. This deal is only accessible, though, to Booking.com property owners who have already established a strong reputation on the site with high traveler ratings. 

Tracking your promotions is easy because they remain listed on your “Promotions” tab. Changing them is straightforward too: simply click the “Deactivate” to cancel these deals or “Reactivate” if you wish to bring them back under the “Promotions” tab. 

Pulse, The Booking.com App

The Booking.com app, Pulse, is a fantastic resource to help property owners manage their rentals. It allows you quick and easy access to:

  • Update the availability of your unit
  • Update the rate of your property 
  • Assess the status of your unit visually with a convenient color-coded system of available (green), booked (yellow), or unavailable (red)

Though downloading the Pulse app is not required, it can be an incredibly valuable resource for those who list numerous properties or units on Booking.com because it is so streamlined and provides an important snapshot of your booking schedule. This can be particularly valuable when you are on the go: if a guest cancels while you are on vacation, you can relist that unit using the Pulse app rather than running to your closest desktop computer or laptop to log into the Booking.com extranet.