We would like your opinion - as a member of our community and, perhaps, a member to Gingerbread Lane specifically - about a scenario that we hold two views on. I'll lay out a scenario and ask a couple questions afterwards. It is about responsibilities and expectations pertinent to a birthday party booking. Let me present a couple facts first:
1) When you book a birthday party at Gingerbread Lane, it is required that you place a $75 non-refundable deposit. This is standard practice with any party-hosting establishment.
2) Gingerbread Lane has a fully scheduled birthday calendar - often completely booked each weekend - with many of our customers coming to Gingerbread Lane by word-of-mouth.
3) Gingerbread Lane tries to ensure that the full party experience is positive and supportive to the family that has booked a party while maintaining a professional service
Now - here's the scenario - all details are hypothetical.
A family has booked a birthday party at Gingerbread Lane for a Saturday in February but the week before the party, the birthday child has developed a highly contagious virus and the family can not host the party as planned. Gingerbread Lane, offers to book an alternate date and shift the deposit to the new date rather than have the customer lose the deposit entirely. Because of the short notice, Gingerbread Lane is not able to book a replacement party in the now-empty time slot and no party occurs on on that Saturday in February. As the upcoming weeks are heavily booked, the customer is disappointed to learn that they can not reschedule to a date / time that is already booked and is upset that this request is not accommodated. Gingerbread Lane offers 5 alternate dates/times within three weeks - at least one of which is during the customers preferred time slot. The customer books a the second date and proceeds with party plans.
The date of the rescheduled party arrives and the day before it, the weather is calling for snow squalls and poor weather. The customer asks if she cancels the party due to weather, does she receive her deposit back. There are 3 other parties the same day as this rescheduled party and none have inquired about canceling. This is where your opinion is required -
a) should Gingerbread Lane provide a refund to the deposit?
b) is Gingerbread Lane responsible for the circumstances leading up to both cancellations?
c) would fair policy be to provide another rescheduled date? a credit on file?
d) what is your understanding of "non refundable" when detailed in booking descriptions?
With all of this said - I'd love to hear your comments / thoughts / feedback to this scenario. Your input will help us to best understand how to meet the needs of our customers while not compromising professional standard. Please post comments by clicking "Comments" below. I will post a follow-up email in the next while to let you know the direction we might have taken with this scenario. Thanks all!
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4 comments:
the customer should have up to 1 year to reschedule the party, and up to 3 tries at a successful booking. with small children, unforseen circumstances occur quite often, and cannot be helped. this seems like a fair policy.
I believe reasonable attempts were made to accomadate this individual and I do not think a credit is due. A non refundable deposit is just that 'non refundable'. Unforseen circumstances arise with little ones and our weather at that time is unpredictable however there still has to be rules in order for your establishment to operate successfully.
I think that if the deposit is credited to an 'account' for future party booking within a reasonable amount of time (6 mos or a year) then all parties should be satisfied. The customer, since the money will not be lost, and the company as they still keep the deposit and are continuing their 'non-refundable' policy. I think that if the deposit is lost, some unfortunate word-of-mouth advertising might occur and in the end hurt your business.
Non-refundable means non-refundable. This is a business, afterall. Having said that, a good business, especially a child and family focused business, should consider unexpected cancellations such as illnesses. I think that offering a credit that expires in 6 months time would be fair. What is even better is if the credit can be appllied to any gingerbread lane services.
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