OK, this is silly. My rez software (RezKey) allows me to look at what dates guests are trying to reserve. Every week I get at least 2 people looking to book last week. So of course they are getting 'no availability.' And they keep trying, by changing the departure date!
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What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Yes. RezKey also lets us see when they open the emails we send them. I hear from people who say they never got their receipt when I KNOW they have opened the receipt email 3 times!
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All saints can do miracles, but few of them can keep hotel. ~ Mark Twain
I think I'm going to ask John to not allow the calendar to go backwards. It will stop this silliness and force people to actually LOOK at what day they are selecting. Calendar should start on today and go forward only.
Odd thing about the emails - I send test emails to myself but they never show as me opening them. My email reader blocks those automatic notifications. I've stopped looking to see if guests have opened them. I guess if I had some push back on not sending an email to a guest, then I'd check.
I think I'm going to ask John to not allow the calendar to go backwards.
I don't know how many potential guests are checking last week's dates, but a thought to consider from my strange way of thinking.
Suppose I was a visitor to the area "last week" at another property, heard something nice about your place or just rode by and was impressed, maybe I'm just comparing the rate I paid and thinking of my next visit to the area, of course I could be your competitor checking rates if you were busy and I was not, again just my strange way of thinking.
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Jim & Maxine
I think I'm going to ask John to not allow the calendar to go backwards.
I don't know how many potential guests are checking last week's dates, but a thought to consider from my strange way of thinking.
Suppose I was a visitor to the area "last week" at another property, heard something nice about your place or just rode by and was impressed, maybe I'm just comparing the rate I paid and thinking of my next visit to the area, of course I could be your competitor checking rates if you were busy and I was not, again just my strange way of thinking.
The guest doesn't actually get any prices or availability, they get an error message. My experience in viewing the stats is that they then give up. They probably meant to select 'today' and picked yesterday instead. They get an error and leave the site. Like Momma, I'm going to add some text (when I figure out where) that says to 'check your dates and try again.' Or, 'Problem with dates entered, please try again.'
My core competitors are on a group site with me, we know all of our rates and availability. It's how we refer to each other.
Just need to go to Custom Text and edit this line: Search dates cannot be prior to today's date.
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The Truth and an Open Mind Shall Set You Free
You may have to educate me on how to check those stats.
We really don't have that sort of group here for me to share with, in our main town we may be about the only mom & pop left, mostly big chain places now. I can check to see what prices TA shows, but the folks I could talk too personally have faded away. In times past I usually tried to refer potential guests to others to be helpful to the public, yet the effort was never returned.
You mean the Date Picker Calendar? I get this message when I put in expired dates: Search dates cannot be prior to today's date. Several years ago we finally got him to make the bottom Availability calendar NOT go backwards, unlike Think calendars currently.
You mean the Date Picker Calendar? I get this message when I put in expired dates: Search dates cannot be prior to today's date. Several years ago we finally got him to make the bottom Availability calendar NOT go backwards, unlike Think calendars currently.
I don't know what they're using. All I know is on Saturday they put in the prior Thursday's date and I get something in the activity log showing they were trying to book for dates earlier than 'today.'
Am not sure why this is an issue? Maybe instead of using the calendar they miskey the dates? I see that happen a lot. And then they search the correct dates when they get the error message. The Activity Log records it as "In Cutoff". How is affecting us negatively? Is there an angle I haven't thought of? I also get searches for coming years like 2022 which gets the same Cut off message.
From my perspective - they are getting the message and they quit. They are not then searching the actual dates they meant to put in.
They get the invalid message and leave the page. I don't think they ever realize they entered invalid dates even tho that message pops up saying dates cannot be prior to today.
I just tried it. I might add some text that says to retry with valid dates.
I think I'm going to ask John to not allow the calendar to go backwards.
Good idea. He might do it if it's an easy fix. But he might just use a 3rd party calendar plug in or something that he couldn't easily change himself.
I've stopped looking to see if guests have opened them. I guess if I had some push back on not sending an email to a guest, then I'd check.
I love being able to check. Don't do it all the time, but at least a week I check one to make sure they got the email so I don't have to worry about them getting their door code.