High season is here and, unfortunately, so are the bad weather reports! Bad weather can sour plans for both you and your customers, and sometimes your only option is to cancel the trips on your calendar. We all know how messy this can be!
Here’s some advice on how to cancel a trip as efficiently as possible, so both you and your customer can get back on the water as soon as conditions improve.
How to Cancel a Booking Due to Bad Weather
If bad weather strikes and you decide that running a trip is not possible, there are a couple of things you can do. First of all (this is the most important thing), you need to let us know that the trip has been canceled due to bad weather.
To do this, go to “Manage Bookings,” find the booking you want to cancel, and click “Request Cancellation.”
Then, choose the reason for canceling it. Select “bad weather” and submit your request.
If bad weather hits just before the trip and the start time of the trip has already passed, click the “Report No Show/Cancel Trip” button on the app. We’ll contact you as soon as possible to confirm what happened.
If you’re accessing your bookings through a browser, click the “No Show” button. Don’t worry – this won’t cause any problems for the customer, it’s just your way of letting us know that the trip didn’t happen.
You can also send an email or a text message to our Customer Happiness team about the cancellation, and they’ll arrange everything for you.
What NOT to do When Canceling a Trip
It’s a common misconception that the best thing to do when canceling a trip due to bad weather is to let the customer inform us their trip is not going to happen. This looks like the easiest way to do it, but in fact, it’s the long way around, and your prospective customers will be waiting for their money back much longer.
If a customer lets us know that their trip is canceled, we still have to call you and double check what happened. That usually takes longer than anticipated, because it can take several hours to get to you and confirm what happened.
We can’t release the deposit back to the customer until we hear directly from you that the trip was canceled because of the weather. This is not good news for the customer, or for you.
Instead, you should cancel the trip directly from the app or from your browser. Then, we’ll inform the customer and release the deposit to them directly.
Use this procedure for any problematic situation on your side – from bad weather and boat malfunction to personal issues. When you follow these steps, everything will be more efficient and keep you and your customer happy.
Offering an Alternate Date
While you inform us about bad weather, it’s time to get the trip back on the road. Do this by offering an alternate date. There’s a good chance that the customer will still want the trip to happen, even if it’s on another day.
This is a good idea because the customer is more likely to book with you again when they see you went out of your way to make their trip happen. And who doesn’t want more returning customers?
You will see the option to offer alternate dates on your Cancellation Request, and all you have to do is set up a date that works for you.
If you get double-booked, choosing alternate dates for the canceled trip is very important – it’s your last chance not to lose the customer.
We understand how bad weather or any kind of issue can wreak havoc on your schedule and make things complicated. But we’ll always do our best to simplify everything so that you get the most out of a difficult situation!
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