Advice- booking terms

[pigeon]

We are new to the gite business this year and at the moment only accept deposits in cash or cheque form,however we've got an enquiry from some one that after seeing my terms&con wants to pay by visa, are there any problems with this , I smell a rat, as this enquiry is from New Zealand and they only want one week next year, what are the security implications with this method of payment.

[Miki]

[quote user="Viv"]We are new to the gite business this year and at the moment only accept deposits in cash or cheque form,however we've got an enquiry from some one that after seeing my terms&con wants to pay by visa, are there any problems with this , I smell a rat, as this enquiry is from New Zealand and they only want one week next year, what are the security implications with this method of payment.[/quote]

Explain that you don't take credit cards and ask them to go to their bank and get a bankers cheque made out to you in the currency you like to receive payments in. Or, an Iban/Swift transfer from their bank to yours, one problem though with an Iban, is that this can be quite expensive for the sender. Can you receive PayPal ? If not, open an account with PayPal, very simple and take deposits  by that method. We have Ozzies and New Zealanders who just stay one week, so don't worry unnecessarily on that score.

[Jhc]

Hi - there's  no need to smell a rat at all.  Our NZ, Australian, American and Canadian customers generally only want to stay one week as thay are usually on a European tour and want to see several different locations.  Many ask if they can pay by visa as most people are used to paying for package holidays, hotels, airline tickets etc by visa.  We feel it would cost us too much to get set up for visa and would not be a justifiable cost to us - we always just reply that we only accept payment by direct transfer into our UK acc or by a sterling cheque in the post.  We have never had anyone not book as a result of this approach.  Incidentally, this year we had several Australians who were able to make internet banking transfers from their home internet banking set up.  Australia is the only country that I am aware of who can do cross currency transfers with their home internet banking system.  In UK and France our home internet banking systems only allow transfers to be made in own currency.  It will be very useful when more countries allow cross currency transfers to be made via internet banking. 

American customers are the only ones who ever seem to struggle with getting a sterling cheque or bank transfer.  Many Americans bank with local banks who are not set up for international transfers.  If they struggle too much we usually just give in and suggest they get a dollar bank cheque (not a personal cheque from their cheque book at they take for ever to clear).  However, it costs us money to credit these to our acc and from this year I am going to ask them to add an extra 15 US dollars on to the amount to cover our exchange costs.  In extremeis I would adopt the same approach with Aussie and NZ customers but I have never had any of them get back to me and say they have been unable to get a sterling cheque or transfer.

I see that Mikki suggest Pay Pal - we have looked into this several times and always decided it costs us too much.  If around half of your customers are from non UK ( as ours are) and decide to use Paypal (as they probably will once they know it's an option) then with 2 payments per person (for deposit and balance) it add up to a lot of cost to us.  You could always add a charge for payment by Paypal -  while our current method works and does not loose us customers I think we will stick to our current method.

 

[pigeon]

Thanks for the advice it's been very helpful, I've now told my prospective client and he's e-mailed me back saying no problem so we wait and see.

[Mark]

[quote user="Jhc"]

we always just reply that we only accept payment by direct transfer into our UK acc or by a sterling cheque in the post.  We have never had anyone not book as a result of this approach.  [/quote]

Just out of intereste Jhc, do you also accept cheques in Euros, or do you just have an English bank account?  Not being nosey, I'm in the process of setting up payment options for my own B&B, just wondered why you seemingly only deal in sterling [:)]

[Le Chant]

We also suggest deposits are paid by sterling cheques. These are then deposited into our French bank account. The balance is then payable either upon arrival (for the campsite) or by further sterling cheque at the 8-week prior to arrival point. This costs us a small amount only, as we bank quite a few cheques at once. Many UK guests cannot understand, or do not want the hassle of obtaining Euro cheques to send to us, so rather than make life hard for them, we do it this way. It works just fine.

The Aussie/NZ/Canadian guests we've had have rarely stayed beyond a week, as they love to see as much of the country as possible in the time they've allotted whilst in Europe. Don't worry about it.