October is my very worst frenemy

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Don Draper

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Finally getting some beautiful weather (NOT that we are able to enjoy it, as we're running around like lunatics) but the apple harvest is wonderful this year and the leaves are finally getting some color. Along with:
* Three cancellations for a total of 13 room nights NEXT WEEK because of death, maiming, whatever. What do you mean my deposit isn't refundable???
* Guest locked himself out of his room last night and attempted to Brutus-style mangle the doorknob to get in. We couldn't even get the extra key to work, DH had to crawl onto the roof, bust the screen out and crawl into the room (thankfully the window wasn't locked) and even then he couldn't manually unlock the door because the guy had mangled it so badly. DH had to remove the whole assembly with a screwdriver, then replace with the knob from OUR personal bathroom (of course this happened at 8 pm). THEN the guy bolted in the morning with no breakfast and took our key with him. So trip to the big box store for new doorknob and new key.
* This morning at breakfast room guest (who's been here for two days) finally decides to tell me their are no wash cloths in their room. Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize. Their next door neighbors pipe up to say "Oh, we took them, we needed extra and there was no one staying in that room". THAT guest is here for SEVEN nights. I closed my mouth and walked away, it was all I could do not to throttle her.
24 more days.......
WHY does it have to be like this EVERY year? October was truly the biggest surprise to us as innkeepers. The people are horrible and it is relentless. I just don't get it.
 
Don Draper said:
* This morning at breakfast room guest (who's been here for two days) finally decides to tell me their are no wash cloths in their room. Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize. Their next door neighbors pipe up to say "Oh, we took them, we needed extra and there was no one staying in that room". THAT guest is here for SEVEN nights. I closed my mouth and walked away, it was all I could do not to throttle her.
Lock your empty rooms.
 
Don Draper said:
* This morning at breakfast room guest (who's been here for two days) finally decides to tell me their are no wash cloths in their room. Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize. Their next door neighbors pipe up to say "Oh, we took them, we needed extra and there was no one staying in that room". THAT guest is here for SEVEN nights. I closed my mouth and walked away, it was all I could do not to throttle her.
Lock your empty rooms..
Yep, we usually do and as we are so busy this week we forgot to do this one and OF COURSE little Miss Help Yourself exploited that. If you don't think of every little thing they will find it...in the house, booking online, whatever. They are exhausting, all of them.
 
Sorry dude, you will get through it...the count down is on!
Poor DH, you will laugh about it in six months.
pita.gif
 
Don Draper said:
* This morning at breakfast room guest (who's been here for two days) finally decides to tell me their are no wash cloths in their room. Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize. Their next door neighbors pipe up to say "Oh, we took them, we needed extra and there was no one staying in that room". THAT guest is here for SEVEN nights. I closed my mouth and walked away, it was all I could do not to throttle her.
Lock your empty rooms..
Yep, we usually do and as we are so busy this week we forgot to do this one and OF COURSE little Miss Help Yourself exploited that. If you don't think of every little thing they will find it...in the house, booking online, whatever. They are exhausting, all of them.
.
Think of your guests as running water and your B&B as your yard on a slope. When it rains, water will seek out its natural course. You can't stop it. However, you can control the flow and divert it by channeling it in the direction you decide.
Guests will seek and exploit everything that is not tied down. This includes PITAS and very nice guests alike. What you have do to is divert your guests with locks and signs and any other means to keep them where you want them and out of the places you don't.
Some of them are easily distracted can be diverted with cat toys on a string while others require a sledge hammer to the head.
 
Sorry dude, you will get through it...the count down is on!
Poor DH, you will laugh about it in six months.
pita.gif
.
His new nickname is "Spiderman" for scaling the roof. I just wish it wasn't this way EVERY year. I always give myself a pep talk, it will be different this year, people will be better...and then I get kicked in the teeth.
 
Don Draper said:
* This morning at breakfast room guest (who's been here for two days) finally decides to tell me their are no wash cloths in their room. Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize. Their next door neighbors pipe up to say "Oh, we took them, we needed extra and there was no one staying in that room". THAT guest is here for SEVEN nights. I closed my mouth and walked away, it was all I could do not to throttle her.
Lock your empty rooms..
Yep, we usually do and as we are so busy this week we forgot to do this one and OF COURSE little Miss Help Yourself exploited that. If you don't think of every little thing they will find it...in the house, booking online, whatever. They are exhausting, all of them.
.
Think of your guests as running water and your B&B as your yard on a slope. When it rains, water will seek out its natural course. You can't stop it. However, you can control the flow and divert it by channeling it in the direction you decide.
Guests will seek and exploit everything that is not tied down. This includes PITAS and very nice guests alike. What you have do to is divert your guests with locks and signs and any other means to keep them where you want them and out of the places you don't.
Some of them are easily distracted can be diverted with cat toys on a string while others require a sledge hammer to the head.
.
Yes, we know all of this and do our best to fight it, but you can't compete with stupid. You will never cease to be surprised as an innkeeper, they just keep finding new ways to amaze you. Also, this is inside OUR house, 9 rooms 24/7, non-stop for 9 months, so they completely outnumber us as well which makes it even harder to anticipate every little thing they might do. By the time we get to October it feels like we are trying to sprint the last mile of a marathon...pretty well impossible to do.
 
Don Draper said:
* This morning at breakfast room guest (who's been here for two days) finally decides to tell me their are no wash cloths in their room. Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize. Their next door neighbors pipe up to say "Oh, we took them, we needed extra and there was no one staying in that room". THAT guest is here for SEVEN nights. I closed my mouth and walked away, it was all I could do not to throttle her.
Lock your empty rooms..
Yep, we usually do and as we are so busy this week we forgot to do this one and OF COURSE little Miss Help Yourself exploited that. If you don't think of every little thing they will find it...in the house, booking online, whatever. They are exhausting, all of them.
.
Think of your guests as running water and your B&B as your yard on a slope. When it rains, water will seek out its natural course. You can't stop it. However, you can control the flow and divert it by channeling it in the direction you decide.
Guests will seek and exploit everything that is not tied down. This includes PITAS and very nice guests alike. What you have do to is divert your guests with locks and signs and any other means to keep them where you want them and out of the places you don't.
Some of them are easily distracted can be diverted with cat toys on a string while others require a sledge hammer to the head.
.
Proud Texan said:
Think of your guests as running water and your B&B as your yard on a slope. When it rains, water will seek out its natural course. You can't stop it. However, you can control the flow and divert it by channeling it in the direction you decide.
Guests will seek and exploit everything that is not tied down. This includes PITAS and very nice guests alike. What you have do to is divert your guests with locks and signs and any other means to keep them where you want them and out of the places you don't.
Some of them are easily distracted can be diverted with cat toys on a string while others require a sledge hammer to the head.
You have a way with words PT - and spot on!
 
As I relocked a door that guests unlocked into another guest room (adjoining door) I was thinking about this thread.
No matter what you do,
  • a locked door means "I have to go and see what is in there"
  • and unlocked door means "Oh it's closed but it is not locked, I guess we can go in"
  • a private sign means "Must be something really good in there!"
  • a staff only sign means "oh there is where they keep the chocolates!"
  • a check in time begins at 3pm means "Let's bang on the door I know I hear someone in there!"
As our NM innmate says "Gotta roll with the punches" sometimes they hit ya in the face, but we try to dodge as many full on a possible.
The more guests the more pitas, the more problems, as stated it is simple math. Now back to clean up the milk that a guest spilled over the solid green carpet...no I am not going to cry over it. I feel like slapping the POs for putting such a ridiculous solid dark colored carpet in that room!
 
We suffered with an amazing number of cancellations this month. It's what put me over the edge to start deposits with the new year. NO refunds if the room doesn't rebook. I started taking the money loss personally. There goes MY vacation when the credit cards were bad or I let the guest walk to avoid confrontation. No more.
 
Oh hey yeah, Happy November everyone!!!! We made it!!!
Although now we roll into the incredibly awkward shoulder season...Just 8 guests for breakfast this morning and some really stilted conversations with some very odd personalities. As soon as my web guy gets the new specials posted we are transitioning to no breakfast on the weekdays, I am so looking forward to it.
 
Guest locked himself out of his room last night and attempted to Brutus-style mangle the doorknob to get in. We couldn't even get the extra key to work, DH had to crawl onto the roof, bust the screen out and crawl into the room
We have deadbolt locks on all guestroom doors. IF the little button that holds the lock "open" is engaged when the lock is locked, even a key will not unlock it. Several years ago a little kid was left in a room alone and managed to lock the lock ON lock. As the kid is wailing and we are trying to get the kid to push the button up and failing. Moi - old, fat moi lifts the window in the bathroom, crawls out onto the back porch roof, manages to push the screen up, and pushes the window open to crawl into the room and open the door. I did manage to restrain from clipping the kid (I was proud of me on that one). Thankfully, there has never been a repeat performance required.
 
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