Booking.com FAQs

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Booking.com Frequently Asked Questions


 
 

What is the "Pay later" option?

When you enable the "Pay later" option in Booking.com, it creates virtual cards with 0 balance. To know the chargeable amount, check Booking.com extranet and charge it in Mews on activation of the virtual credit card. 
 

What is the sustainable badge in Booking.com?

Booking.com recently launched the sustainable badge for eco-friendly properties. As per Booking.com statistics guests are more likely to book properties with the sustainable badge. Properties can get their certification directly from Booking.com. More information in the Booking.com partner guide here. 

Note: All properties working with Booking.com, including those which do not have the direct integration can apply for certification. 
 

What products does Booking.com allow to create as value adds?

You can find a list of available products that Booking.com allows to create as value adds here. You cannot add these products yourselves; you need to contact their support team or your Booking.com account manager to help in adding those in their extranet. Once you create them, you can continue with the below steps to map those products.

  1. In Mews Operations, go to main menu  > Marketplace > My subscriptions.
  2. Locate the Booking.com integration and click on Edit to go to the settings page. 
  3. Click Channel manager products, and then click the + button.
  4. Under Product code, enter the number for the specific add on product from the list above.
  5. Under Product, choose the product you want to map.
  6. Click Save. 
Repeat steps 3 - 6 for every product that you have available in Booking.com. 

All add-ons are not taxable in Booking.com. This means the unit price, i.e., the price you see in the extranet is always GROSS . This causes problems for properties working in net pricing environment, where Mews reads the add ons as NET and adjusts the price for VAT.
 

I set up my products but my reservation prices are still wrong? 

This happens when you create products in Booking.com with VAT/ tax. Mews use this in the reservation XMLs to calculate the correct nightly price in Mews. But if VAT is missing in Booking.com, contact Booking.com support to request it. 
 

I received the error message: Authorization required, on sending updates. What do I do?

  • You receive this error when your connection isn't active yet, and you need to wait for the activation to go through.
  • Alternatively if the connection is already successfully established, it could be due to a glitch at Booking.com's end. You should contact Booking.com support for further assistance.

 

I don't have a negative occupancy adjustment in Mews, why do I need single room prices?

Mews sends single room price based on the capacity of the space category. For example, a double room with a capacity of two has a single room price. If there is no negative occupancy adjustment set in Mews, the normal price and single room price are the same, but Mews does send both.
 

How does Booking.com consider room occupancy for children in the extranet?

From January 2020, Booking.com started to add child prices to room price. Before it was "To be paid on arrival".

You need to configure rooms to have child occupancy in Booking.com extranet. Otherwise, it considers children as adults. Note: Booking.com adds all extra fees that you configure as "per person" in Booking.com for the adults only.
 

How to fix frequent overbookings?

It is highly unlikely for overbookings to occur due to auto-replenishment. But reservations can be created despite restrictions in case you enable the "Reopen closed rooms auto-replenishment" setting. 

Booking.com has a feature called Auto-Replenish. It is an automatic default function that puts cancelled rooms back up for sale on Booking.com. 

This helps properties to sell more because they can offer maximum availability without having to go into the system to update it manually. Auto-replenishment also guarantees more visibility on Booking.com, and therefore a better ranking. You can read the Booking.com help guide here for more details. Detailed explanation of the settings is as follows:

  • Default auto-replenishment: When a reservation is partially or fully cancelled, Booking.com automatically adjusts the property’s availability as the cancelled room goes back on sale for those dates. You cannot disable this.
  • Reopen closed rooms auto-replenishment: The difference here is that unless you deactivate this setting, Booking.com auto-replenished any cancelled rooms, even if you have closed sales for that date. If you deactivate this option, cancelled rooms remain unavailable to book. You can disable this.

The Auto-replenishment workflow:

  1. The system cancels the reservation in Booking.com.
  2. It auto-replenishes this availability in Booking.com.
  3. Mews receives a reservation cancellation from Booking.com.
  4. Mews immediately adjusts availability and sends an availability update to Booking.com.
  5. Availability between Booking.com and Mews matches.

 

What is the Risk-Free feature in  Booking.com?

Booking.com has a feature called Risk-Free. When there's a cancellation, you do not receive a booking cancellation message right away. This can delay the cancellation, and the possible outcome is that:

  • Booking.com looks for a new guest for the same dates.
  • If they do find a replacement, the original reservation, which is technically cancelled now, receives a modification notice via XML under their original ID number with the details of the new guest.


Note: This also applies to all other channel managers connected to Booking.com
 

Why did the reservation import not work?

When you import reservations with the Download future reservations operation in Booking.com direct, always check the Channel manager queue as there is a chance that reservations may time out and are not created. To check the Channel manager queue:

  • In Mews Operations, go to the main menu  > Queues > Channel manager.
  • There you can view if all the reservation processing jobs were Success. If not, click  image.png and then click Execute. In case more than one job timed out, execute them one after the other.
  • Refresh the page to see if the job ended with Success.

 

Reservation has only name and last name. Why did Mews not send the rest?

There are two types of reservation XMLs that Mews receives from Booking.com direct:

  • Reservation was made when a property had connection with any channel manager. This means that the XML contains all details, such as name and last name, email, extras booked.
  • Reservation was made when a property did not have a channel manager connection. This means that Mews creates a reservation only with a name and last name, and total price.

 

Reservation has two customer profiles for the same person. Why didn't Mews catch this?

If Booking.com sends two customer profiles in a reservation, the first one has an email and all the other customer information, while the second one has only the guest's name, Mews sends the second profile all together, and not divided into name and surname. 

Sometimes, the second profile is missing part of the name or it is in the opposite order, for example "Allison Chihak" instead of "Allison Elaine Chihak" or "Chihak Allison" instead of "Allison Chihak". In these cases, Mews creates a new customer profile because the second profile isn't exactly the same as the first profile.
 

Reservation price in Mews differs from Booking.com. How does Mews process the price?

Mews processes only total night price from the hotel component.
 

Why did my restrictions not go through?

If you create special deals in Booking.com, they supersede the minimum/ maximum LOS restrictions sent from Mews.

Note: To avoid errors in sending restrictions, you need to set advance restrictions in Mews Operations for a period not exceeding 360 days. 
 

How does Mews send minimum and maximum advance restrictions to Booking.com direct?

Mews supports minimum/ maximum advance attributes in Booking.com API. Mews sends the actual mAdvance restriction information for the highlighted attribute as seen below and Booking.com closes the inventory as per the mAdvance. 

restrictions.png

 

How do I migrate from my old Booking.com connection to a new one?

When you migrate from one Booking.com connection to another, you might experience some discrepancies in the availability updates, i.e., the updates might not show up in the extranet.   

The reason for this is a Booking.com internal procedure, when they put a "hard closure on room level" i.e., an availability block, in order to avoid any inventory issues during migration. You cannot control this type of closures via API, therefore you cannot fix them at Mews end. 

In this case you can contact your Booking.com local support team via extranet Inbox tab. 

Note: You can also try to remove the closure yourselves from Open/ Close Rooms Tab, i.e., select dates + Entire Room + Open. However, this depends on the access rights and might not be possible.
 

Migrate.png

 

Why did I receive an email saying "Price is too high" / "Price is too low"?

It means you have to review your settings in Booking.com, because there exist limits on price adjustments. And if you update prices too high/ low which are not within Booking.com limits then it triggers this notification email.
 

What is a price too low percentage warning?

A Price too low percentage warning means that the price sent from Mews to Booking.com is less than 10% of the maximum price for that room-rate combination on that date. To fix this, you need go to that date and lower the maximum price for the room-rate combination in Booking.com or raise the price for that room-rate combination in Mews.
 

Is it possible to disable emails for Booking.com reservations?

The emails that Booking.com sends have a unique generated email address which appears in the interface under the specific booking. Mews emails are linked to booking.com, and if you remove an email in Mews, Booking.com can still send out the email. 

The email that goes from booking.com has exactly the same text as the client email set up in Mews. It looks as the same email as in Mews, even if you do not set up anything in booking.com. There is no way to stop sending emails to @guest.booking.com.

You cannot disable all other automatic messages that Mews sends to Booking.com. 

Why is Booking.com blocking links in certain emails? 

Booking.com has implemented new security measures that may block certain links in emails sent to guests. To resolve this, you need to manually add specific email addresses and URLs to your allowlist within the Booking.com extranet to ensure these links function properly. To do so:

  1. Ensure the email [email protected] is allowlisted. 
  2. Add the following URLs to the allowlist:

Note: If you are using custom property domains, ensure they are also allowlisted.  

If these steps do not resolve the issue, review your Booking.com extranet security settings or reach out to their support team. 

 

Why do I see the error INVALID_GUEST_AGE_BAND_ID?

This error appears when Mews sends age-based price updates to Booking.com, but the children policy in the Booking.com extranet is not set up correctly.

 

When this happens:

  • The system automatically disables the Upload Availability, Upload Rates, and Upload Restrictions options in the Booking.com integration.
  • The error message "INVALID_GUEST_AGE_BAND_ID" appears in the channel manager queue.
  • The issue occurs if the standard children policy is active in the Booking.com extranet without properly configured age buckets.

To resolve this issue, update the age buckets in the Booking.com extranet:

  1. Click Property > Policies.
  2. Under Children Policies, click on Edit.
  3. Under Flexible, click on Reactivate.
  4. Click on Reactivate flexible child rates.
  5. Once activated, set the age buckets.

Note: This solution is provided by the Booking.com team and may require additional steps depending on your setup. If the issue persists, contact your Booking.com account manager for further assistance.

 

This error is more common when the Use age category in inventory option is selected. If you continue to experience issues, check your Booking.com settings to ensure the correct configuration.

 

Can I send and receive Booking.com messages directly in Mews?

You can send messages to guests through the Mews Guest Portal, but you cannot send or receive messages from Booking.com directly in Mews.

 

To manage messages from Booking.com, check the Booking.com messaging platform.

 

You can learn more about Booking.com direct integration for Mews Operations here. 

 

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