I'm not waiting. Really.

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Morticia

Morticia

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Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
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Call at 5 for a room tonight. Guest gave me a precise arrival time based on gps. That time passed 3 hours ago.
I've run the card, set up the late arrival but cannot get to sleep.
Oh well. Back to my book.
 
Well, that doesn't happen very often - they never showed up.
 
Morticia said:
Well, that doesn't happen very often - they never showed up..
Click to expand...
That is odd.
We got an 'on our way' email once. Never showed up. I sent an email saying, 'Hope everything is ok.'
He wrote back huffing and puffing and angry because he had knocked on the doors and gone up the stairs and the house was dark....
I wrote back and said, Our house was lit up with outside and inside lights. The front door was open. We don't have outside stairs. I'm afraid you were at the wrong house.
A few emails back and forth and he finally admitted he'd been banging on the door of some poor neighbor.
 
TheBeachHouse said:
Morticia said:
Well, that doesn't happen very often - they never showed up..
Click to expand...
That is odd.
We got an 'on our way' email once. Never showed up. I sent an email saying, 'Hope everything is ok.'
He wrote back huffing and puffing and angry because he had knocked on the doors and gone up the stairs and the house was dark....
I wrote back and said, Our house was lit up with outside and inside lights. The front door was open. We don't have outside stairs. I'm afraid you were at the wrong house.
A few emails back and forth and he finally admitted he'd been banging on the door of some poor neighbor.
.
Click to expand...
TheBeachHouse said:
A few emails back and forth and he finally admitted he'd been banging on the door of some poor neighbor.
Click to expand...
We do what we can to give guests good directions and address info to find us. After that, we've done our part. It really has to be up to the guest to find the place he booked. No refund!
 
TheBeachHouse said:
Morticia said:
Well, that doesn't happen very often - they never showed up..
Click to expand...
That is odd.
We got an 'on our way' email once. Never showed up. I sent an email saying, 'Hope everything is ok.'
He wrote back huffing and puffing and angry because he had knocked on the doors and gone up the stairs and the house was dark....
I wrote back and said, Our house was lit up with outside and inside lights. The front door was open. We don't have outside stairs. I'm afraid you were at the wrong house.
A few emails back and forth and he finally admitted he'd been banging on the door of some poor neighbor.
.
Click to expand...
We tell them that we put a sign in the door. If they don't see the sign... they are at the wrong place :)
 
Two days ago, I had a guest who booked through an OTA arrive unexpectedly at 1:30am. I called and texted their cell phone at 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30pm. Even sent an email. I thought for sure they were a no show, even though I'd charged their card for 3 nights during the previous week. Finally, I moved the booster for my Ring doorbell to the outlet by my bed and set the cordless phone on my nightstand. At 12:30am they called from the airport asking if their reservation was still valid!
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times and it states in the 2nd sentence "Check in is 4-6pm. Call us if you need to arrange a later arrival time" in large, bolded text that's highlighted yellow, they never thought to contact me and say their flight leaves CA at 4pm so they'd be arriving late.
The stories of guests knocking on the wrong doors crack me up! I've only had 1 neighbor tell me that occurred once in our 6 years. I really wish we could have a shingle like some B&Bs, but our neighborhood has strict historic codes :(
 
notAgrandma said:
Two days ago, I had a guest who booked through an OTA arrive unexpectedly at 1:30am. I called and texted their cell phone at 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30pm. Even sent an email. I thought for sure they were a no show, even though I'd charged their card for 3 nights during the previous week. Finally, I moved the booster for my Ring doorbell to the outlet by my bed and set the cordless phone on my nightstand. At 12:30am they called from the airport asking if their reservation was still valid!
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times and it states in the 2nd sentence "Check in is 4-6pm. Call us if you need to arrange a later arrival time" in large, bolded text that's highlighted yellow, they never thought to contact me and say their flight leaves CA at 4pm so they'd be arriving late.
The stories of guests knocking on the wrong doors crack me up! I've only had 1 neighbor tell me that occurred once in our 6 years. I really wish we could have a shingle like some B&Bs, but our neighborhood has strict historic codes :(.
Click to expand...
notAgrandma said:
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times...
Click to expand...
I'm loving how Reservation Key shows me that they have opened the email I send, and how many times. It takes away a lot of worries about knowing they got the info, unless they are like your folks and repeatedly don't read it, or don't think it's important.
 
notAgrandma said:
Two days ago, I had a guest who booked through an OTA arrive unexpectedly at 1:30am. I called and texted their cell phone at 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30pm. Even sent an email. I thought for sure they were a no show, even though I'd charged their card for 3 nights during the previous week. Finally, I moved the booster for my Ring doorbell to the outlet by my bed and set the cordless phone on my nightstand. At 12:30am they called from the airport asking if their reservation was still valid!
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times and it states in the 2nd sentence "Check in is 4-6pm. Call us if you need to arrange a later arrival time" in large, bolded text that's highlighted yellow, they never thought to contact me and say their flight leaves CA at 4pm so they'd be arriving late.
The stories of guests knocking on the wrong doors crack me up! I've only had 1 neighbor tell me that occurred once in our 6 years. I really wish we could have a shingle like some B&Bs, but our neighborhood has strict historic codes :(.
Click to expand...
We have given up waiting. We use electronic keys set to their phone number. This way we can even leave the instructions on the door (sans phone number) and go on with our lives.
 
Morticia said:
Well, that doesn't happen very often - they never showed up..
Click to expand...
We get very few last minute bookings like this, but of the ones we do a large proportion of them don't show up.
I didn't used t take card details for last minute bookings but got let down so many times I now do.
 
Arks said:
notAgrandma said:
Two days ago, I had a guest who booked through an OTA arrive unexpectedly at 1:30am. I called and texted their cell phone at 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30pm. Even sent an email. I thought for sure they were a no show, even though I'd charged their card for 3 nights during the previous week. Finally, I moved the booster for my Ring doorbell to the outlet by my bed and set the cordless phone on my nightstand. At 12:30am they called from the airport asking if their reservation was still valid!
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times and it states in the 2nd sentence "Check in is 4-6pm. Call us if you need to arrange a later arrival time" in large, bolded text that's highlighted yellow, they never thought to contact me and say their flight leaves CA at 4pm so they'd be arriving late.
The stories of guests knocking on the wrong doors crack me up! I've only had 1 neighbor tell me that occurred once in our 6 years. I really wish we could have a shingle like some B&Bs, but our neighborhood has strict historic codes :(.
Click to expand...
notAgrandma said:
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times...
Click to expand...
I'm loving how Reservation Key shows me that they have opened the email I send, and how many times. It takes away a lot of worries about knowing they got the info, unless they are like your folks and repeatedly don't read it, or don't think it's important.
.
Click to expand...
"I'm loving how Reservation Key shows me that they have opened the email I send, and how many times. It takes away a lot of worries about knowing they got the info, unless they are like your folks and repeatedly don't read it, or don't think it's important."
Me too! It's a great CYA when folks say they never saw our cancellation policy, too.
When a res comes in from Expedia, the status is set to be different than ones through our website, so I have a separate template that is linked to OTAs. I now state "Check-in is 4-6pm." in HUGE, Bold, highlighted text. Anyone with half a brain would notice it (of course, it was highlighted & bold for the 1:30 guests, too. But now it's bigger font :D ) I follow up this statement with "If you need a check-in later than 6, CALL US." and "We cannot accommodate check-ins before 4pm". OTA guests seem confused and show up at all hours of the day. Had one arrive at 9am!
 
Generic said:
notAgrandma said:
Two days ago, I had a guest who booked through an OTA arrive unexpectedly at 1:30am. I called and texted their cell phone at 5:30, 7:30, and 9:30pm. Even sent an email. I thought for sure they were a no show, even though I'd charged their card for 3 nights during the previous week. Finally, I moved the booster for my Ring doorbell to the outlet by my bed and set the cordless phone on my nightstand. At 12:30am they called from the airport asking if their reservation was still valid!
Even though the guest had opened their confirmation email FOUR times and it states in the 2nd sentence "Check in is 4-6pm. Call us if you need to arrange a later arrival time" in large, bolded text that's highlighted yellow, they never thought to contact me and say their flight leaves CA at 4pm so they'd be arriving late.
The stories of guests knocking on the wrong doors crack me up! I've only had 1 neighbor tell me that occurred once in our 6 years. I really wish we could have a shingle like some B&Bs, but our neighborhood has strict historic codes :(.
Click to expand...
We have given up waiting. We use electronic keys set to their phone number. This way we can even leave the instructions on the door (sans phone number) and go on with our lives.
.
Click to expand...
Generic said:
We have given up waiting. We use electronic keys set to their phone number. This way we can even leave the instructions on the door (sans phone number) and go on with our lives.
Click to expand...
I have a lockbox and program it to be the last 4 of the guest's cell #. However, with OTA guests, I prefer to meet them bc many are clueless about what a B&B actually is so I "show them the ropes", so to speak. If I'd known that these guests were going to arrive at 1:30am, I would have left a key. It turns out that greeting them was best bc the husband was super angry about "staying in someone's house". We were their first B&B. If I hadn't greeted them & explained their stay was already paid for, they might've left & then I'd have a chargeback to deal with. I almost handed them their money back bc I was really aggravated by the hubby griping and swearing at 1:30am, but I ignored it & was my usual cheerful self. They loved their stay! Husband could not stop raving about our home, my cooking, the neighborhood, etc. He's coming back for a week for his birthday :D
 

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