Do you receive emails or solicitations from your guests after the fact?

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JBloggs

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Another thread prompted this one.
I know I have had some strange things come into my email from guests after they have left. From sponsoring their family on a mission trip to family newsletters sharing details of a family member's death (that I never met) or a son's graduation from college. On ocassion we somehow get stuffed into their email address book and get things like FWDs and political diatribes or jokes.
What other strange things have you received and how did you handle it? Did you just delete or ignore or reply?
 
One guest emailed me a link to some contest. In order for her to win I had to click the link and answer some questions. It seems the contest kept telling her I never clicked the link and she kept emailing me the link. I had to tell her the link didn't work for me but she never came back again after that.
That's about it.
 
What timing! I had an e-mail this afternoon from a guest from last year who said they were here last Thanksgiving and had a marvelous time. She wondered if we had rooms available Thanksgiving weekend this year. I looked her up - love that RezKey - and they were here all right but in JUNE! I remembered the couple from last Thanksgiving because they were the only ones inn-house and had a baby and it was NOT these folks.
I have a few repeats who have become friends and did have one guest who added us to her Christmas newsletter list. We returned (sent) cards and thankfully dropped off her list when she retired.
 
Hm...we've gotten the saucy emails forwarded to everyone in their address book...
But we got an outright solicitation from a guest who deals in electric..um...IDK what you call it. Distribution? Anyway, the rate is WAY better than what we're currently getting. Now, to get finished with this contract....
 
I'm on somebody's list for toy train information. Once a month - it finally is getting marked as spam.
 
Several times I've been solicited by former guests for donated room nights to their kids school, church auction, etc. It's very awkward. They always say what a wonderful time they had with us and they knew it would be such a wonderful addition to their favorite cause.
When this has happened, I know for certain that after I turn them down, I will NEVER see the couple again!
 
Several times I've been solicited by former guests for donated room nights to their kids school, church auction, etc. It's very awkward. They always say what a wonderful time they had with us and they knew it would be such a wonderful addition to their favorite cause.
When this has happened, I know for certain that after I turn them down, I will NEVER see the couple again!.
So far, never been solicited in this way. I don't mind outright donations, but we never donate rooms... ever! To me, this is a recipe for disaster. With my luck, I will end up with someone who bid the minimum $1 and no one else wanted to travel to use it and then complains the whole time they are here.
Did you really expect them to come back if you donated a room? Because my guess is that they were planning on buying it for the $1 at the auction...
 
We have had guests contact us several times for donations. If it's local we sometimes do it but only for wine tours, never for rooms. I simply tell them that we can't write it off so it is very costly for us to donate.
riki
 
Several times I've been solicited by former guests for donated room nights to their kids school, church auction, etc. It's very awkward. They always say what a wonderful time they had with us and they knew it would be such a wonderful addition to their favorite cause.
When this has happened, I know for certain that after I turn them down, I will NEVER see the couple again!.
So far, never been solicited in this way. I don't mind outright donations, but we never donate rooms... ever! To me, this is a recipe for disaster. With my luck, I will end up with someone who bid the minimum $1 and no one else wanted to travel to use it and then complains the whole time they are here.
Did you really expect them to come back if you donated a room? Because my guess is that they were planning on buying it for the $1 at the auction...
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Eric Arthur Blair said:
Did you really expect them to come back if you donated a room? Because my guess is that they were planning on buying it for the $1 at the auction...
At first I thought some people might come back or at least keep us in mind for 'overflow' at the holdiays. Nope. So, now I go into it with the model that I'm doing something good for an organization I like. They GC's all expire within 6-9 months so not even worried about them hanging around forever.
Almost all of the guests who have showed up with a charity GC have thanked us for supporting something they also believe in. No one has been awful. And none of them have returned. As most people say, 'We don't stay where we live when we go on vacation.'
And I never, ever ask what they paid and I don't ever look it up, either! It would kill me! Friends who did a charity auction had the guests demand the B&B refund their money. But that's not ever happened here.
 
Interesting....never got contacted for donations, but we got on a couple of newsletter lists and openings for the various musicians and artists that we hosted. I actually sent my gmail address to a couple of them because I hope to make some of their shows!
 
I had a guest give me a sample package of cosmetics (the kind that are sold by "independent representatives" or whatever they're called). She followed up by email AND with a phone call to ask how I liked them and to let me know how I can order more. They're good products (natural, swiss) but not something I would buy.
It was a little awkward, especially the phone call, but she wasn't pushy and I give her kudos for working her biz and following up on potential leads.
"Life is series of sales situations and the answer is 'No' if you don't ask." - Patricia Fripp
 
I had a guest give me a sample package of cosmetics (the kind that are sold by "independent representatives" or whatever they're called). She followed up by email AND with a phone call to ask how I liked them and to let me know how I can order more. They're good products (natural, swiss) but not something I would buy.
It was a little awkward, especially the phone call, but she wasn't pushy and I give her kudos for working her biz and following up on potential leads.
"Life is series of sales situations and the answer is 'No' if you don't ask." - Patricia Fripp.
HJ, sounds like one of my neighbors who said I should talk to another neighbor about this great face cream that she found. Gee, thanks! Am I looking that wrinkled?
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif
Anyhoo, so I see her at a party and do the whole chit-chat thing, "You look great and so&so told me to ask about this face cream that you're using that you think is super?" (I was really being nice because the other neighbor asked me to talked to her about it - she is like 70 and has very wrinkled sun damaged skin.) Well, turns out she's a rep for this stuff and gets it cheaper if she has people order it through her. Jeez...why not just tell me the setup from the get-go? I'd have more respect for you. But I side track....haha...
 
I had a guest give me a sample package of cosmetics (the kind that are sold by "independent representatives" or whatever they're called). She followed up by email AND with a phone call to ask how I liked them and to let me know how I can order more. They're good products (natural, swiss) but not something I would buy.
It was a little awkward, especially the phone call, but she wasn't pushy and I give her kudos for working her biz and following up on potential leads.
"Life is series of sales situations and the answer is 'No' if you don't ask." - Patricia Fripp.
HJ, sounds like one of my neighbors who said I should talk to another neighbor about this great face cream that she found. Gee, thanks! Am I looking that wrinkled?
whatchutalkingabout_smile.gif
Anyhoo, so I see her at a party and do the whole chit-chat thing, "You look great and so&so told me to ask about this face cream that you're using that you think is super?" (I was really being nice because the other neighbor asked me to talked to her about it - she is like 70 and has very wrinkled sun damaged skin.) Well, turns out she's a rep for this stuff and gets it cheaper if she has people order it through her. Jeez...why not just tell me the setup from the get-go? I'd have more respect for you. But I side track....haha...
 
I had a guest give me a sample package of cosmetics (the kind that are sold by "independent representatives" or whatever they're called). She followed up by email AND with a phone call to ask how I liked them and to let me know how I can order more. They're good products (natural, swiss) but not something I would buy.
It was a little awkward, especially the phone call, but she wasn't pushy and I give her kudos for working her biz and following up on potential leads.
"Life is series of sales situations and the answer is 'No' if you don't ask." - Patricia Fripp.
You reminded me of a guest who gave us cleaning products. We kind of had to listen to their sales pitch while they were eating breakfast. Never heard back from them after one email.
 
We also had guests who work for 3M give us a boot-box size box of products (tapes, papers, office supplies) just as a gift or tip and that was GREAT!
 
We had a guest once send us some "all-natural", "organic" insect repellant because we keep "toxic" (their word) chemical stuff in our guest cottages. I really don't care if guest use insect repellant or not, but don't come crying to me when you get lyme disease from a deer tick.
 
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