Recent content by Arks

Luckily, in my section of the continent, nobody ever heard of Yelp. Also, I ask on my reservation form how the guest found me. I have not seen TA mentioned in about 2 years. It's mostly Google searches and word of mouth. And since (back to the original post) Google asks everybody to...

Another one on the Properties Tab you might want to look at, if you're interested. Select Properties Tab then on the left at the bottom select Yield Management. This is where supply and demand can earn you some easy extra money, like several hundred dollars/year, with no effort! You can set...

What scale do you use to weigh the packages?

I need to do that. I generally box it up, mail it, then add a couple of dollars to the postage cost and charge it to the card they used to book the room. But the other day when I tried a card for postage, it had insufficient funds...for a $9 charge! By making them all $15, I could charge the...

I would think so. It just adds a surcharge if a one night stay is booked. If another rule does not allow a one night stay then the surcharge question would should not come up.

Keep us posted! Things may bloom!

I've charged $9 extra for one-nighters for years. In ResKey... Go to Properties tab. Select Rate Plans on the left. Select a room you want to set a surcharge for 1 night stays. Under Rate Rules, select the > at the far right of Rates. Midway down under Adjustments, look for Surcharge. Set it to...

I had the same and it was awful. A physician who came once a month to cover the hospital when the local doctors were unavailable. The hospital paid his lodging bill. He always had one of the local nurses in the room with him, and that was none of my business. But he also had an "I am...

More than once I've had day-of requests and I've just not been in the mood to deal with it that evening, so I run to Reservation Key and block off all the empty rooms that day so they don't call back and say, "But your website shows you have rooms available." As you say, the joy of innkeeping!

I just don't understand people who make first contact at 5 p.m. asking if I have a room for tonight. In the long ago that was common. But now we have the WWW and TA and it's so easy to do advance planning and have your overnight stops all arranged in advance. I say this because, lately, I've...

Good for you! That was not anywhere near my own experience, back when I asked for reviews. But I was very passive with it, just asking at the bottom of an email.

I used an architect when I remodeled my old building to make it ready for overnight guests. He specified carpet in all the upstairs bedrooms, and on the stairways. When I asked why (many people think carpet is dirty and passe) he said without the carpet people downstairs would hear every step...

Same here. People are sick of being bothered with review requests, and most won't comply, so I stopped asking for reviews a few years ago. And when I did ask, it was only at the bottom of a "thank you for your stay" followup email. Basically, the ones who love the place and the ones who have a...

Every place I visit leads to a request for a Google review now. "How did you like McDonald's?" "Can you tell us about [my inn name]?" "Can you answer some questions about Walmart?" Every day, I get 2 or 3 requests from Google for reviews or answers to questions like, does this place have free...

Had to tell someone. Just found a message on my recorder, wanting a room for tonight, and it started off, "First off, your voice is absolutely precious, boy." Sadly, no availability tonight, so flattery doesn't always work!