Experience the difference of "Elite".

Disentangling from BDC

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 2, 2019 5:18 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I finally had it. Just not worth it. Sent them email to discontinue my properties. I have couple of pending stays.
Properties show "closed/not bookable", but how do I know they truly are - when I go onto calendar on BDC it still shows some green dates?
How long should I keep channel connected to prevent bookings?
Right now I set arrival time from 2 to 3 days in future, that should essentially prevent new bookings. Their help article says I need to block calendar o their site but I cannot do that as it is controlled by channel. help?

Chris Hynes
Nov 2, 2019 5:36 PM
OR Team Member Joined Oct, 2012 1400 posts

Ouch, sorry to hear it!

BDC support should be able to set a closed flag on their side on the properties which may be the best as then it's their responsibility.

Or you could go into the Channel Manager section of booking.com and disconnect from OwnerRez. Then you'll be able to set the calendar manually on the BDC side.

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 3, 2019 12:39 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

I have disconnected on Bdc side, how do I disable on OR side? thnaks

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 3, 2019 12:55 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

After a 1+ year and 3 properties (initially 2), that platform is a total dud. I used channel manager, and even with that was exceedingly hard.
1)One of my properties was on my own (ownerrez ) payments. My settings were 60 days no cancellation.
Initially BDC would pass CC info to channel manager at time of booking, channel manager validates and stores card on file.
If card not valid it would send guest email to update card.
If not done, it would cancel within 24 hrs.

Well BDC decided to change rules mid flight on my already existing property. They STOPPED sending CC info to channel .. channel expects card due to settings.. I am emailing and calling BDC.. mess goes on for 2 weeks. Until finally someone at BDC says that oh yeah, they will NOW only provide cc info 2 WEEKS prior to arrival. Great idea (NOT!). So if the card is bad, the reservation would have occupied my calendar all that time till 2 weeks prior to arrival??? Then CS says you can switch to BDC payments and they will validate the card. Great, but I am not able to - the dashboard says I am <<already>> on BDC payments (which I am not - I am on channel payments). They say they are looking into it (I guess still looking to this day). So property stuck neither here nor there and cannot be corrected.
2) My property 2 is on channel payments.
3) property 3 is on BDC payments.

I ask BDC - can we make it all the same, one way or another? apparently not with BDC. Coz there is some glitch. and they change settings on the fly do everything conflicts with everything now.

With all that torture, I maybe had 4 bookings that actually stayed in 1+ years among 3 properties. Not much for all that trouble. Add to that one bogus chargeback (renter claimed it was "fraud" after booking, sending me her ID and signing rental agreement - I guess she did not realize she could not cancel) and overly "slow" renters. The platform is HORRENDOUS, buggy, ever changing and UTTERLY unsuitable for vacation rentals. I cannot fathom how they can be #1 anywhere. FWIW

Ken T
Nov 6, 2019 3:16 PM
OR Team Member Joined Aug, 2019 1545 posts

We've deactivated the connection on the OR side. It'll show as Pending Activation - and it can just sit there forever, it won't hurt anything and it isn't doing anything. Sorry you had those problems, we do seem to have a lot of complaints about Booking.com. But then, they seem to work fine for other people in other markets, so who knows.

BlueMtnCabins
Nov 6, 2019 7:54 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1115 posts

Ken T said:

We've deactivated the connection on the OR side. It'll show as Pending Activation - and it can just sit there forever, it won't hurt anything and it isn't doing anything. Sorry you had those problems, we do seem to have a lot of complaints about Booking.com. But then, they seem to work fine for other people in other markets, so who knows.

thank you. BDC was a complete dud.