Booking.com - Corona(COVID19) - Change in Payments by Booking.

All virtual cards (vcc's) will be chargeable only on date of check-in.

In this situation, for payments facilitated by Booking.com, they refund guests who cancel their reservations. In turn, Booking.com is asking properties to refund the money to the virtual credit card payout they receive from them..

The ongoing and unusual circumstances create many uncertainties for customers, resulting in high volumes of cancellations. Boooking.com appreciates that managing these cancellations and refunds - very often within a short time frame - can create a high operational workload on our mutual partners. It could also lead to a situation where properties charge virtual credit cards in situations where Force Majeure may apply.

That is Booking.com has decided to change the activation date of all outstanding and future Virtual Credit Cards (VCC) to one day after check-in, with immediate effect.

How does this impact you?

• We and Booking.com are not foreseeing any impact on our APIs. The new information will be visible in the Reservation API. 

• Booking.com is aware of the impact that this will have on our mutual partners, and we are making sure that properties are informed and supported around this change. However, you might experience increased inbound on this topic. Please redirect the properties to the related Partner Help Center Article.

How does this change of Booking.com impact the properties?

• For reservations that are NOT subject to Force Majeure, the following applies. 1. If guests honour the reservation and stay at your property, properties can charge the virtual credit card one day after check-in date.2. Should guests cancel their reservation after the deadline or do not show up, properties are also able to charge the virtual credit card one day after the original check-in date.

• For reservations that are subject to Force Majeure, guests will be allowed to cancel for free. In that case properties will not charge the virtual credit card.
• For all virtual credit cards with reservations made in the past, Booking.com will collectively change the activation date into ‘the day after check-in’.

Today and tomorrow, properties might experience some temporary disruptions when charging virtual credit cards, which is related to the change Booking.com is implementing, as outlined above.