Some booking channels, such as Airbnb, handle payment collection on their end, making them responsible for implementing fraud prevention strategies and making sure the reservation gets paid. Other booking channels, such as Booking.com, or reservation sources, like the Guesty Website, do not collect the payment, making you responsible for fraud prevention and payment collection.
Our suggested best practices can help you make sure your reservation gets paid and identify potentially dishonest guests. See the information below.
Minimize fraudulent bookings
Even if you accept last-minute reservations to maximize bookings, we recommend setting an advanced notice of at least 24 hours, to give you enough time to screen your guest.
Tip:
See which of Guesty's Marketplace partners can help you with fraud prevention.
Make sure the reservation gets paid
If you are setting up an auto payment rule to collect 100% of the payment at once, make sure you set it to be collected at confirmation, not check-in: Requiring guests to pay before checking in will filter out guests that may be planning not to pay after checking in.
Don't send a booking confirmation message until you have checked and confirmed that the payment went through (this requires manually sending the message). You can send a booking confirmation with a rental agreement or a link to a document to ask for additional information regarding the guest required for handling their reservation.
If you want to send a booking confirmation message, don't include any information, or send a rental/verification request. Only send the check-in instructions only 2-3 days prior to check-in. This should be done only if the reservation was made more than 1 day, and as a general rule we recommend not allowing last minute reservations on Booking.com.
If you do not want to set up a non-refundable policy for Booking.com reservations, you can join their ‘risk-free’ program, where if a a guest cancels and the room is not re-booked, Booking.com will take the cost.
Avoid problematic guests
Send potential guests a check-in form to find out more details about them before their stay and most important - verify their identity via the "Guest verification" section. We recommend sending the form in an automated message set to be sent at confirmation.
- Only accept guests:
- with a verified phone number.
- with a valid email address.
- provided their address details.
- that have a previous stay on Booking.com.
- Add an age limit to avoid younger guests, who may be less likely to take care of the property.
- Instant book: Potential guests book available dates, and once their credit card is validated the dates are automatically booked.
- Inquiry: Potential guests can request to book available dates, and once you approve their request, their credit card details are obtained and validated manually.