How to Charge a No Show and Minimize Losses at Your Hostel
A no show can be a frustrating experience for any hostel owner. It happens when a customer fails to arrive or cancels their reservation upon arrival. In this article, we'll provide information on how to handle no show policy and credit card access to minimize losses at your hostel.
To protect your business from customers not turning up, you are entitled to charge a fee equivalent to the cost of the guest's first night's stay in case of standard booking and the full cost in case of non-refundable booking. This fee will help cover some of the losses incurred due to the no show.
If you're using Hostelworld Inbox, you can find the guest's credit card details by bringing up the booking page, clicking into the booking, and then into the "CC details" link. This article can help you - How to view Credit Card Information via Hostelworld Inbox?
However, if you're using a channel manager, the ability to view credit card details through it will depend on whether or not your channel manager supports this feature. We have a large number of channel managers, such as Myallocator, ASSD, Cubilis, Staah, Chanex, Counter, Wubook, and others, where you can access credit card details directly. If the channel manager you currently use does not support this functionality, you will need to log into Hostelworld Inbox to obtain the credit card data.
As Hostelworld is PCI compliant, there are several restrictions on credit card details, including storing them in the system only up to seven days after the scheduled check-out date. Additionally, the CVV/CVC code cannot be stored or displayed. However, if your business is listed as an accommodation provider, you should be able to charge anyway by bypassing the code. Contact your bank or the credit card company for more information.
If the booking was for more than one night, it's advisable to cancel the booking to try and resell the beds. Hostels have a lot of "last-minute" demand, and you don't want to lose out on those bookings.
To learn "How to cancel a booking in Hostelworld?", please, read this article
By charging a no show fee and canceling bookings for more than one night, you can minimize losses at your hostel and maximize your revenue potential.