How to Avoid Cancelled GDS Booking Fees

One of the most frequent inquiries at the RezStream billing department is disputes over GDS cancellations.  What properties need to understand is if a guest wishes to cancel, they must do so by way of the original site of the booking or your property will still incur the GDS $15.50 per booking fee.  If the guest calls your property directly to process a cancellation instead of cancelling through the original portal of the booking, and the cancellation is entered into your desktop software, the original booking agent (InnLink & RezStream) will have no knowledge the cancellation occurred and will still process the GDS $15.50 booking fee as if the cancellation never happened. 

It’s important that your front desk staff members know that GDS reservations must be cancelled through the original booking site.  RezStream also recommends that your property maintain a set cancellation policy to offset these charges should an improper cancellation or no show occur.  GDS cancellation policies can be defined or modified through your InnLink account.  When defining your InnLink cancellation policy, remember that you have the option to select a “cancel by” date.  For example, if you set a seven-day cancellation policy, a guest would not be able to cancel a GDS reservation within seven days of their arrival date.  If your property chooses to set such parameters, however, and a guest attempts to cancel after the specified date outlined in your policy, the GDS system will not allow the cancellation to take place and fees will still be assessed to the property even if the guest attempts to cancel properly by going back to the original booking agent.  Many properties don’t realize what happens in this scenario and become frustrated when they are still charged the GDS booking fee for reservations they thought were cancelled correctly. 

If you believe that you were charged for a GDS reservation that was properly cancelled, the best thing to do is contact the RezStream billing department at billing@rezstream.com or 303.872.0217.  RezStream will work with InnLink’s customer support staff to determine what went wrong with the cancellation and if a credit can be justified.