"Butt dialing"

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Posted on Sat, 08/28/2010 - 5:02pm

Morticia

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This should happen to everyone...have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall when your guests are pulling in? Here goes...

Where do we park? We drove past the parking. I see the cars but how do we get there? Is that where we park? The house looks bigger from the other side. This must be the front of the house. Is that where we park?(Then they must have parked because I hear the following...)

How do we get in? Do we have to go around front? How do we get around front? Maybe there are stairs. There's a sign tht says 'Guest entrance' it must be there. Oh, there's the stairs. Oh a lot of stairs. You know those Maine people all live up stairs.

I stopped listening at that point but will go back and listen some more later. That was on my answering machine.

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This comment (84193) was in reply to the Original Topic on Fri, 09/10/2010 - 8:17am

#1 TOP

Joey Bloggs

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Last night I heard this and it made me laugh after some guy drove around and just could not find the place with the gps directing:

Finally the GPS said to the driver "PULL OVER I AM GOING TO BE SICK!"

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This comment (84130) was in reply to the Original Topic on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 4:07pm

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gillumhouse

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In my confirmation letter I give directions and end with - Please part in front of the house as we do not own any of the parking lots around us

Where do they park? Either across the street in the Fire Dept lot ot across the alley from our side yatd (a LONG walk compared to in front of house) in the lot that belongs to the restaurant a block away. Actually the side lot is less of a problem than the VFD lot.

I have also had guests return from a day trip with my PRINTED routing tell me they questioned my directions to the winery but decided to follow the instructions and they did find the winery! DUH! I am going to give someone incorrect directions to something I want them to visit and hope they will SPEND MONEY......... Right!

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This comment (84083) was in reply to the Original Topic on Fri, 09/10/2010 - 8:18am

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Joey Bloggs

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Don't change directions for one set of guests.

This comment (84143) was in reply to comment 84083 on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 5:32pm

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bbinnsitters

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I worked at a place that said "check-in time is either 3-5 or 7-9 - when do you think you will get here?" That way you have from 5-7 for yourself. Now of course that doesn't always work - I know people will get there when they get there. Especially those Friday night check-ins - there is no way they can get there between 3-6 (or whatever your check in time is). Most people work on Fridays and don't get off until 5pm so it makes it impossible. You also know that if you would make your check-in time after 7pm then you would have a whole lot of people asking for earlier check-in. That is just the way the universe is!

Thought #2 - train and hire someone to do check-ins between 3 and 8pm - would it be worth $50/day to you to not have to worry about your business - 5 hours free from the stress. If you paid someone $10/hour that is what you would get!

Just trying to be helpful!

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This comment (83979) was in reply to the Original Topic on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 12:36pm

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toddburme

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That is amazing! You could not buy this info, and it came in free. Hopefully they seemed pretty normal overall and you can get a feel of a typical customer experience.

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This comment (84030) was in reply to comment 83979 on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:45pm

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Morticia

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toddburme wrote:

That is amazing! You could not buy this info, and it came in free. Hopefully they seemed pretty normal overall and you can get a feel of a typical customer experience.

I've listened to it a couple of times and it's really interesting.

This comment (84047) was in reply to comment 84030 on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 6:59am

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Emily Spiers

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Morticia wrote:

toddburme wrote:

That is amazing! You could not buy this info, and it came in free. Hopefully they seemed pretty normal overall and you can get a feel of a typical customer experience.

I've listened to it a couple of times and it's really interesting.

Mort, has it made you change anything about your directions?

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emily@paii.org

This comment (84080) was in reply to comment 84047 on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 8:45am

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Morticia

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Emily Spiers wrote:

Morticia wrote:

toddburme wrote:

That is amazing! You could not buy this info, and it came in free. Hopefully they seemed pretty normal overall and you can get a feel of a typical customer experience.

I've listened to it a couple of times and it's really interesting.

Mort, has it made you change anything about your directions?

Not a thing...mostly because they weren't following the directons.

This comment (84175) was in reply to comment 84080 on Fri, 09/10/2010 - 6:00am

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Emily Spiers

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Morticia wrote:

Emily Spiers wrote:

Morticia wrote:

toddburme wrote:

That is amazing! You could not buy this info, and it came in free. Hopefully they seemed pretty normal overall and you can get a feel of a typical customer experience.

I've listened to it a couple of times and it's really interesting.

Mort, has it made you change anything about your directions?

Not a thing...mostly because they weren't following the directons.

I didn't realize they weren't following directions. I thought they WERE and that's why it was so interesting: to hear what they thought as they did what you wrote. My bad

This comment (83960) was in reply to the Original Topic on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:56am

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Proud Texan

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We have arrow signs that say "Parking" then each cottage has a marked parking space. Guests still insist on driving up to the main house.

I have to go out each time >>smiling and waving<< and show them where to park.

I give up.

This comment (83966) was in reply to comment 83960 on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 11:32am

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wendydk

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Proud Texan wrote:

We have arrow signs that say "Parking" then each cottage has a marked parking space. Guests still insist on driving up to the main house. I have to go out each time >>smiling and waving<< and show them where to park. I give up.

Me too. Confirmation says that the guest parking area is immediately to the left after pulling in the drive...and it has a fence and room for four cars. It also says follow the brick path to the front door.

Instead, people pull in and pull around BEHIND the house to the garage (where it's completely dark) and walk across the lawn to the side door and try to open the door. Ignore the well-lit parking area, the curving brick path and the brightly illuminated front door altogether. Sigh........................

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This comment (84029) was in reply to comment 83966 on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 10:45pm

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Morticia

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We stayed at a place that had several entrances (and no advance warning of where to park or which on to use) but they had very cleverly painted footprints on the driveway right to the path they wanted guests to use./

This comment (84043) was in reply to comment 84029 on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 5:42am

#13 TOP

Horse Feathers

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I haven't opened yet, but I'm convinced no one, and I mean no one! will ever find my house. "I'm the house right on the street. Turn into the driveway and pull around back." Everyone continues down the driveway. Everyone! My new instructions will be "Turn into the driveway. Ignore the big house on the right. Go all the way down the drive. Don't worry about the howling of all the hunting dogs. They're locked up. Ask the neighbors where we live. Turn around. Go back up the drive. I'll be outside waiting for you."

This comment (84123) was in reply to comment 84043 on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 2:04pm

#14 TOP

camberleyhotelh...

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I love this! We have a big sign by the front gate that says car park at rear and the number of people who pull up at the front and go is there any where to park? surely the car park at the back implies we have a car park simply to start! DUH DUH

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This comment (82904) was in reply to the Original Topic on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 2:07pm

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Samster

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People in a strange place get turned around. It happens......

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This comment (82907) was in reply to comment 82904 on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 2:19pm

#16 TOP

Morticia

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Samster wrote:

People in a strange place get turned around. It happens......

But I got to HEAR how they got turned around, what they missed, what they saw, what they didn't understand. It was the PERFECT way to understand what the guests 'see' vs what I 'know'. They never explain it to you, they just complain about it.

Now that they are gone, I'll listen to the rest of it. I didn't want to if they got sarcastic as I still had to be pleasant to them.

This comment (82913) was in reply to comment 82907 on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 2:40pm

#17 TOP

Samster

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Oh, I get it now. I thought you were upset about them kind of "complaining".

This comment (82845) was in reply to the Original Topic on Sat, 08/28/2010 - 5:03pm

#18 TOP

catlady

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OH brother!! All I can say

"Butt dialing"

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