ZaK F.A.Q. - How to deal with a no show?

    What is it?


    First of all, a no-show occurs when a guest books an accommodation at your property but, at check-in, does not show up. The reservation is still confirmed, but the guest never arrives.

    What happens in case of no show?


    If a guest does not show up, you can apply the penalties specified in the cancellation policy. Each reservation is always associated with a cancellation policy (non-refundable, flexible, etc.), which the guest sees during the reservation process. Therefore it is essential to have correctly configured your policy, so that your penalties are clear and transparent.
    When the guest books, it means that he accepts these conditions and is aware of any penalties. Therefore the cancellation policy is like a "contract" between you and the guest, it is also stated in the reservation voucher and can not be changed.

    For more information, please check the cancellation policy documentation:


    How to report a no show?


    In case of no-show, you can access the reservation details and change its status to "Cancelled: NoShow". In order to do that, click on the pencil icon:


    Now edit the status as in the picture and save:


    NOTE: For reservations from Booking.com, Zak will notify Booking of the no-show status as well. Therefore, if you open the reservation from your Booking Extranet, you will find it marked as a no show.

    Zak also tries to help you detect possible no-shows. In the following menu, you will find a specific section, which shows reservations whose check-in day has passed, but you have not yet marked them as arrived.

    If it is just an oversight, we suggest marking them as arrived so that they disappear from this section. Otherwise, you will find the "NO-SHOW" button. By clicking it, the status will automatically be changed to "Cancelled: NoShow".


    How to reduce the risk of no-show?


    In addition to clearly defining your cancellation policies as mentioned above, the best way to reduce the no-show risk is to always ask the guest for a guarantee when booking, so they are less likely to not show up.

    In Zak you can do that by using guarantee methods, which provides you with 4 options:

    1. Ask the guest to enter his Credit Card details only
    2. Ask the guest for authorization to charge his Card later, in case he does not show up or in case you want a payment (total or partial) before check-in
    3. Ask the guest for a pre-authorization on his Card, so that an amount is temporarily frozen and you can charge it within X days
    4. Ask the guest to pay immediately to complete his reservation (the total amount or just a part)

    For more information, here is the documentation on guarantee methods, which explains how to configure and use them:

    ☞ Docs: ZaK - Guarantee methods for reservations


    Another idea to reduce the no-show risk is to create Non-Refundable rates, especially for high season periods. Or you could contact the customer a few days before the cancellation deadline to make sure everything is ok and that he remembers the reservation. You can set up automated emails with Zak Templating System, here is the specific documentation:

    Tags
    no show no-show
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