No show who shows up the next day?

[bbinnsitters]

When I am on a job and someone is not showing up I tend to pick up the phone and call - is that not SOP for B&B's? You'd still have the dilemma of whether to charge them or not, but you would have known what the problem was a day ahead..

When I am on a job and someone is not showing up I tend to pick up the phone and call - is that not SOP for B&B's? You'd still have the dilemma of whether to charge them or not, but you would have known what the problem was a day ahead.

What time do you call?
.

In our case we ask folks to call us as the boat is leaving the dock or they are walking to the small plane (we are an island, so we have to know their arrival plans ahead of time for pick up). When there is no call, after about 30min to 1 hour (depending on how busy I am at that time) I call.
.

You have a different situation. The guest MUST contact you and you already know what times the planes or boats stop and start operations.
I want to know from Sue at what time she calls a guest who has not arrived. At what point does she determine they should be there and she needs to know where they are?
.

If a B&B has a certain check-in time - let's say 4-6pm - and no one is there by 8pm I would place a call. But Muirford said it best - if they said 2pm on their resv. and I have errands to run (like buy the food for their brekkie) I would call at 4 to check up on them and let them know I have to step out, etc. Of course the best way to handle this is run errands b4 check-in time so that you are just hanging around the rest of the day. But when I am at a place where I am doing all the cleaning etc, the rooms are my 1st priority - get them clean and then run errands - either b4 or after the guest shows up. But if they are not showing up I call them so that I can be prepared.
Alibi, in your case you would have found out they were not showing up at all and then could have had the convo with them about the availability of the next night (when they thought they were supposed to be there)
No shows don't happen often and so my simple answer would be 2 hours after either the check in time or the time they said they would be there.

 

[Paradise]

When I am on a job and someone is not showing up I tend to pick up the phone and call - is that not SOP for B&B's? You'd still have the dilemma of whether to charge them or not, but you would have known what the problem was a day ahead..

When I am on a job and someone is not showing up I tend to pick up the phone and call - is that not SOP for B&B's? You'd still have the dilemma of whether to charge them or not, but you would have known what the problem was a day ahead.

What time do you call?
.

In our case we ask folks to call us as the boat is leaving the dock or they are walking to the small plane (we are an island, so we have to know their arrival plans ahead of time for pick up). When there is no call, after about 30min to 1 hour (depending on how busy I am at that time) I call.
.

You have a different situation. The guest MUST contact you and you already know what times the planes or boats stop and start operations.
I want to know from Sue at what time she calls a guest who has not arrived. At what point does she determine they should be there and she needs to know where they are?
.

"You have a different situation. The guest MUST contact you and you already know what times the planes or boats stop and start operations."
Yes, our situation is different, but still other properties here do not ask guests what time they will be arriving (also no pick up) so they can just show up anytime (first boat 4am-last can, if off schedule-highly normal-arrive 11, 12pm or later....).

 

[Samster]

hmmmmmm....
Remember I had certain guests that were traveling in bad weather and arrived late, without luggage?
Also, had a guest stuck on the interstate from the airport to here for 4 hours - they arrived the next day (at 1:30 am)! They were charged from the beginning of their rez & that's what they expected. Had they arrived later in the morning, I'm sure that I would have charged them in that scenario too.
Never had the exact same thing happen as you but I would be inclined to charge them, unless it was an error on my part. If I had the paperwork from their online rez, the room was held for them and only them.
fyi...I recently discovered what it's like to be traveling alone & have your mobile phone die. Do you know how hard it is to find a pay phone these days?

I was getting ready to buy a "throw away" cell phone!

 

[Generic]

hmmmmmm....
Remember I had certain guests that were traveling in bad weather and arrived late, without luggage?
Also, had a guest stuck on the interstate from the airport to here for 4 hours - they arrived the next day (at 1:30 am)! They were charged from the beginning of their rez & that's what they expected. Had they arrived later in the morning, I'm sure that I would have charged them in that scenario too.
Never had the exact same thing happen as you but I would be inclined to charge them, unless it was an error on my part. If I had the paperwork from their online rez, the room was held for them and only them.
fyi...I recently discovered what it's like to be traveling alone & have your mobile phone die. Do you know how hard it is to find a pay phone these days?

I was getting ready to buy a "throw away" cell phone!.

It can also be expensive as a foreigner. When I am in the US, I am charged $2 per minute for mobile phone use on my pay-as-you-go phone. It's discounted down to $1.45 per minute if I was on a monthly plan. And data roaming? 3c a kilobyte... which sounds cheap... except that's over $30 a megabyte and $30K a gigabyte. Even sending an email can be expensive. (AT&T Prepaid in the US is 1c for 5kB. Which makes my roaming 15x the price.)
Which might explain why I have a seperate sim for Europe and never use my mobile in the US... EVER! I could buy a US SIM, but they expire the credits too quickly. 90 days is all you get and then you lose your phone number and credit. Though, thankfully the price is down to $6 for AT&T, from $20.

 

[egoodell]

hmmmmmm....
Remember I had certain guests that were traveling in bad weather and arrived late, without luggage?
Also, had a guest stuck on the interstate from the airport to here for 4 hours - they arrived the next day (at 1:30 am)! They were charged from the beginning of their rez & that's what they expected. Had they arrived later in the morning, I'm sure that I would have charged them in that scenario too.
Never had the exact same thing happen as you but I would be inclined to charge them, unless it was an error on my part. If I had the paperwork from their online rez, the room was held for them and only them.
fyi...I recently discovered what it's like to be traveling alone & have your mobile phone die. Do you know how hard it is to find a pay phone these days?

I was getting ready to buy a "throw away" cell phone!.

It can also be expensive as a foreigner. When I am in the US, I am charged $2 per minute for mobile phone use on my pay-as-you-go phone. It's discounted down to $1.45 per minute if I was on a monthly plan. And data roaming? 3c a kilobyte... which sounds cheap... except that's over $30 a megabyte and $30K a gigabyte. Even sending an email can be expensive. (AT&T Prepaid in the US is 1c for 5kB. Which makes my roaming 15x the price.)
Which might explain why I have a seperate sim for Europe and never use my mobile in the US... EVER! I could buy a US SIM, but they expire the credits too quickly. 90 days is all you get and then you lose your phone number and credit. Though, thankfully the price is down to $6 for AT&T, from $20.
.

It can also be expensive as a foreigner. When I am in the US, I am charged $2 per minute for mobile phone use on my pay-as-you-go phone. It's discounted down to $1.45 per minute if I was on a monthly plan. And data roaming? 3c a kilobyte... which sounds cheap... except that's over $30 a megabyte and $30K a gigabyte. Even sending an email can be expensive. (AT&T Prepaid in the US is 1c for 5kB. Which makes my roaming 15x the price.)
Which might explain why I have a seperate sim for Europe and never use my mobile in the US... EVER! I could buy a US SIM, but they expire the credits too quickly. 90 days is all you get and then you lose your phone number and credit. Though, thankfully the price is down to $6 for AT&T, from $20.

We have had luck asking our foreign guests if they can send us an email once landed. This way if we don't hear from them we can figure they may be delayed. It seems to be easier for them to email than call.
RIki

 

[Tom]

This basically happened to us tonight - except that we at least got a phone call (rather late!) explaining that they were too far away and weren't able to make it, so shifted rez a day. Okay, we are not going to charge them for tonight if they come tomorrow.
In your situation, I wouldn't double charge dspite the technical no-show. You have to use your innkeeper's sixth sense as to whether this is an honest if foolish mistake in the booking dates. We have had ... I estimate not quite 2% ... guests make mistakes in online booking and we have to fix it over the phone after they (or their partner) read the confirmation..

And they did come the next day. Nice folk from very far away; having a hard time getting through customs set them way behind. I am sympathetic, although I sleep much better at night knowing how hard it is for people to sneak in from Canada. Do I need to add ... ?

 

[Samster]

hmmmmmm....
Remember I had certain guests that were traveling in bad weather and arrived late, without luggage?
Also, had a guest stuck on the interstate from the airport to here for 4 hours - they arrived the next day (at 1:30 am)! They were charged from the beginning of their rez & that's what they expected. Had they arrived later in the morning, I'm sure that I would have charged them in that scenario too.
Never had the exact same thing happen as you but I would be inclined to charge them, unless it was an error on my part. If I had the paperwork from their online rez, the room was held for them and only them.
fyi...I recently discovered what it's like to be traveling alone & have your mobile phone die. Do you know how hard it is to find a pay phone these days?

I was getting ready to buy a "throw away" cell phone!.

It can also be expensive as a foreigner. When I am in the US, I am charged $2 per minute for mobile phone use on my pay-as-you-go phone. It's discounted down to $1.45 per minute if I was on a monthly plan. And data roaming? 3c a kilobyte... which sounds cheap... except that's over $30 a megabyte and $30K a gigabyte. Even sending an email can be expensive. (AT&T Prepaid in the US is 1c for 5kB. Which makes my roaming 15x the price.)
Which might explain why I have a seperate sim for Europe and never use my mobile in the US... EVER! I could buy a US SIM, but they expire the credits too quickly. 90 days is all you get and then you lose your phone number and credit. Though, thankfully the price is down to $6 for AT&T, from $20.
.

Exactly! Really expensive for folks from another country to use their mobile phones if they will even work at all here. I agree, next time we travel abroad, we will buy a cheap phone there that works on their network(s). I have a phone that you can't pull the sim card and swap it out & it's not enabled for international roaming. The iPhone really grabbed the market in that respect. (although I had a guest from France who had to share another colleagues iPhone charger that would work here in the States.
Whatever did we do before technology?? (Pay phones were easier to find, I suspect)