domestique
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2010
- Messages
- 41
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Hello, long time lurker and Innkeeper coming up on 8 months into a year long "try before we buy" arrangement. It has been a great year, very busy, and much more work than I expected, (well duh, you're all thinking) but tons of fun too.
We are in the middle of a badly needed re-design of our website and now I need to start the process of adding on-line reservations, but I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping you will be able to help me wrap my mind around. We are currently using Rezovation but I plan to switch to Res Key.
I know this is going to be the best thing, but I am a little nervous about making the change. As it is now, I talk to every person that makes a reservation, getting a sense of personality, what their story is, and the ability to head off potential problems like bringing kids, pets, etc... by our conversation. I also know at any moment how many rooms are booked for the night, how many are having breakfast, and so on. My concern is that I don't know how the new system will affect my daily life. Do you check your smartphones obsessively to see if reservations have been made while you are out grocery shopping or going to a concert? Do you allow same-day reservations up until a certain time? I fear that I will be losing control. I am an extreme plan aheader.
My second area of concern is just the mechanics of switching systems. I have the option of having Res Key do the whole switchover for a fee, or trying to do it myself. What do you all recommend? I went to their website and they have a free 30 day trial, but I don't know what "happens" if I try it and that freaks me out. The Inn computer system is an old PC, and I have always used Macs, so there is somewhat of a technology confusion that occurs for me as well. Should I put the system on my MacBook or the PC or both? Probably a really dumb question, but I only know enough to be dangerous!
I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions of things I need to ask about before I contact Res Key again to begin. Sometimes you don't even know what you don't know when you start in on projects like these.
A few more things about the Inn. We have 5 rooms with private baths, and two "swing" rooms that are set up as TV rooms, but can sleep 1-2 people if they share a bath with one of the existing rooms. We never allow anyone to reserve these swing rooms without reserving one of the existing rooms, so these are usually where families stay. We are located two blocks from a very large recreational lake, about 20 minutes west of metro Minneapolis, MN and are on the main street of the village --2 blocks lined with cute shops and restaurants. We start getting really busy in March, and by May it is insane clear thru to October. November and December were surprisingly busy this year as well, and January has come in well ahead of the previous years, so we feel like we're doing something right!
Thanks in advance for your help!
We are in the middle of a badly needed re-design of our website and now I need to start the process of adding on-line reservations, but I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping you will be able to help me wrap my mind around. We are currently using Rezovation but I plan to switch to Res Key.
I know this is going to be the best thing, but I am a little nervous about making the change. As it is now, I talk to every person that makes a reservation, getting a sense of personality, what their story is, and the ability to head off potential problems like bringing kids, pets, etc... by our conversation. I also know at any moment how many rooms are booked for the night, how many are having breakfast, and so on. My concern is that I don't know how the new system will affect my daily life. Do you check your smartphones obsessively to see if reservations have been made while you are out grocery shopping or going to a concert? Do you allow same-day reservations up until a certain time? I fear that I will be losing control. I am an extreme plan aheader.
My second area of concern is just the mechanics of switching systems. I have the option of having Res Key do the whole switchover for a fee, or trying to do it myself. What do you all recommend? I went to their website and they have a free 30 day trial, but I don't know what "happens" if I try it and that freaks me out. The Inn computer system is an old PC, and I have always used Macs, so there is somewhat of a technology confusion that occurs for me as well. Should I put the system on my MacBook or the PC or both? Probably a really dumb question, but I only know enough to be dangerous!
I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions of things I need to ask about before I contact Res Key again to begin. Sometimes you don't even know what you don't know when you start in on projects like these.
A few more things about the Inn. We have 5 rooms with private baths, and two "swing" rooms that are set up as TV rooms, but can sleep 1-2 people if they share a bath with one of the existing rooms. We never allow anyone to reserve these swing rooms without reserving one of the existing rooms, so these are usually where families stay. We are located two blocks from a very large recreational lake, about 20 minutes west of metro Minneapolis, MN and are on the main street of the village --2 blocks lined with cute shops and restaurants. We start getting really busy in March, and by May it is insane clear thru to October. November and December were surprisingly busy this year as well, and January has come in well ahead of the previous years, so we feel like we're doing something right!
Thanks in advance for your help!