Playbook, holiday rental
Can we shift our week, and who is allowed to shift it
A date move looks like the friendly alternative to cancelling and it is far more constrained than guests expect. A holiday let runs on fixed changeover days, so a week does not slide by two nights. It runs on minimum stays that differ by season, so a July week does not simply become a February one. And if the booking came through a listing site, the owner cannot amend it at all, whatever they would like to do.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for rescheduling and cancelling holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Changeover day is the hard constraint that has no equivalent in an appointment diary: a property let Saturday to Saturday cannot start on a Tuesday, because the clean and the next arrival are built around that day.
- Moving from one season to another changes the price, so a move is usually a move plus a payment or a credit, and guests who expect a straight swap find that out at the worst moment.
- An owner can amend a direct booking in a spreadsheet or a calendar in a minute, and can do nothing at all to a booking held by a listing site, so the first thing this answer has to establish is where the booking was made.
- The balance payment date moves with the dates, which is the detail everybody forgets, and a guest who shifts to a stay six weeks away can find the balance due almost immediately.
How it arrives
- can we move our week to september
- we booked through a listing site can you change our dates
- can we start on the friday instead of the saturday
- can we shorten the stay by two nights
- how many times can we change the dates
- if we move do we pay the new price
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Changeover days and minimum stays by season | Which day the property changes over on, whether that differs in and out of season, and the minimum number of nights in each period. This is the constraint that decides whether a move is even possible, and it is almost never written down as a rule the way it is applied. |
|---|---|
| Your position on moving dates | Whether a move is allowed at all, how far ahead of arrival it has to be requested, whether it can be done more than once, whether an administration charge applies, and whether the original terms follow the booking to the new dates. |
| What happens to the money when a stay moves | Whether the guest pays the difference when they move into a dearer season, whether anything is refunded moving the other way, and when the balance becomes due against the new arrival date. Guests assume a move is financially neutral and it very rarely is. |
| What the owner can amend and what they cannot | A plain statement that direct bookings are amended by the owner and platform bookings are amended through the platform under its rules, with the route for each. The assistant will otherwise quote your direct process to somebody it cannot possibly apply to. |
The reply
Moving dates is usually possible if the property is free, but it is more constrained than it sounds. The cottage changes over on a fixed day, so a stay moves in whole weeks rather than sliding by a night or two, and minimum stays are longer in the summer than out of it [1]. If the new dates fall in a dearer season the difference is payable, and the balance date moves to sit against the new arrival [2]. I cannot see the calendar or change a booking. If you booked directly, leave me your name, the email you booked with and the dates you would prefer, and the owner will check. If you booked through a listing site, the change has to be made there, because the owner cannot amend it.
The changeover day is explained before anything else, since it is the constraint that makes half of these requests impossible and guests have no reason to know it exists. The money and the balance date are raised unprompted, because those are the two surprises that turn an agreed move into a complaint. The channel split is the last line and it is unambiguous, which saves a guest a week of writing to the wrong party.
Where it stops
The trigger. The guest names dates they want to move to, asks whether a specific week is free to move into, or wants to cancel rather than move.
I cannot see which weeks are free and I cannot change a booking. Leave me your name, the email on your booking, your current dates and the dates you would like, and the owner will check the calendar and reply. If the booking came from a listing site, it has to be changed through them.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say the new dates are available, because the calendar is not visible from here and two families arriving on the same Saturday is the worst failure this trade has.
- Never agree a move, waive a charge for one, or say the old price will be honoured in a dearer week.
- Never tell a guest a platform booking can be amended by the owner, which sends them to argue with somebody who genuinely cannot help.
- Never say a stay can start on a day that is not a changeover day, since the clean between guests is built around it.
Questions
- Can it move a booking if we connect our calendar?
- No. It does not connect to a calendar, a booking system or a spreadsheet, and it cannot write anywhere. It answers from your published material and hands the request over with the dates already gathered.
- Is it better to allow date moves or refuse them?
- That is your call and the assistant just repeats it. What matters is that whichever you choose is written down, because an unwritten policy gets negotiated in every single message.
- Why does it keep asking where the booking was made?
- Because the answer is different and the guest usually does not volunteer it. A direct booking and a platform booking look identical in a chat window and lead to completely different routes.
Keep reading
- Everything for a holiday rentalWhat is provided, deposits and cancellation terms answer well. The exact address and the door code stay back until a booking exists.
- Handling rescheduling and cancelling in generalNotice periods and charges are answerable. A specific booking is not. Hiding the policy produces complaints, not fewer cancellations.
- The cleaner found a phone charger and a small teddyA charger on the bedside table, a child's toy in the wash, a chipped basin. What the assistant may say about posting things on and about deductions.
- Nobody is at the cottage and the owner is two counties awayThe owner has a day job and lives elsewhere. Arriving at eleven at night, a boiler on a Sunday, and an honest answer about when a reply comes.
- A waiver, a deposit and a policy are three different thingsA waiver is not a deposit and neither is insurance. What the owner's own cover does, and why the assistant never says a claim will be paid.
Try it on your own material
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