Sticking to policies in the face of complaints.

[Morticia]

You've heard me say that we've gotten calls for one nighters on 2-night min weekends. We get grumbling, complaining, whining and requests for 'just this once.' All of which we turn down when the weekends are still months away. Today we took a call for 4 rooms for 3 nights on the one weekend everyone has asked for one night only.
It PAYS to stick to your policies. If I had taken the one nighters I'd have been up the creek.

 

[EmptyNest]

STICK TO YOUR POLICIES!!!! Let 'em bitch all they want..it is your place and you make the rules. Everyone wants a deal...but you have to make a living. If YOU want to change the rule then go ahead..but that is your choice.

 

[user 26]

oh bree, it is so hard when you are looking ahead at empty rooms. but i would not relax that policy until the last minute and only if you choose to. it happened quite a lot that we would get a call a week or so ahead of time wanting 3 nites and i could only offer 2 so they went elsewhere! bummer. plus you know it is a lot more work to completely flip a room than to fluff it.

 

[NW BB]

I totally agree!!! Good for you for sticking to your guns!
This past weekend was a case in point. I got calls for 1 night reservations and turned them down. I know I can almost always fill up for just Sat night, but I figure I would rather have 2 of my 4 rooms filled for the weekend, than all 4 rooms for 1 night. Same money and half the work!
As it turned out, I got two 3 night reservations for the weekend. Yippee! That's 6 room nights instead of 4 and WAY less work.

 

[Copperhead]

Good for you. Yes, it is hard when the calendar is bear and you know the bills are not going away but time was on your side. I have always said to those wanting one night at a time when we have a minimum, we welcome you to call back the week of and if we have rooms, we will take a one nighter at that time. Yes all I get is gruff, but I have had a few takers too.

 

[Morticia]

oh bree, it is so hard when you are looking ahead at empty rooms. but i would not relax that policy until the last minute and only if you choose to. it happened quite a lot that we would get a call a week or so ahead of time wanting 3 nites and i could only offer 2 so they went elsewhere! bummer. plus you know it is a lot more work to completely flip a room than to fluff it..

oh bree, it is so hard when you are looking ahead at empty rooms. but i would not relax that policy until the last minute and only if you choose to. it happened quite a lot that we would get a call a week or so ahead of time wanting 3 nites and i could only offer 2 so they went elsewhere! bummer. plus you know it is a lot more work to completely flip a room than to fluff it.

Given these one-nighters were prefacing their requests with 'everyone else is full,' yes, it was hard to look at those empty rooms and hold out for longer stays!

 

[muirford]

oh bree, it is so hard when you are looking ahead at empty rooms. but i would not relax that policy until the last minute and only if you choose to. it happened quite a lot that we would get a call a week or so ahead of time wanting 3 nites and i could only offer 2 so they went elsewhere! bummer. plus you know it is a lot more work to completely flip a room than to fluff it..

oh bree, it is so hard when you are looking ahead at empty rooms. but i would not relax that policy until the last minute and only if you choose to. it happened quite a lot that we would get a call a week or so ahead of time wanting 3 nites and i could only offer 2 so they went elsewhere! bummer. plus you know it is a lot more work to completely flip a room than to fluff it.

Given these one-nighters were prefacing their requests with 'everyone else is full,' yes, it was hard to look at those empty rooms and hold out for longer stays!
.

You go, girl. It's like phone calls after 9:00 - I am never happy with the results when I break my own rules.

 

[happykeeper]

Absolutely important to stick to the rules if you can. Yes we can!
We're a little different, because we use a sliding scale for all reservations.
Those guests that are seeking our level of accomodations don't flinch at the single night rate. For those that have a budget, we have a budget inn about ten miles away that we refer them to.
We get calls for drive by single night stays that we could reel in if we wanted to, but the amount of work involved is significant in camparison.
Our average night stay has doubled and our work load has been greatly reduced, AND we didn't go out of business. In fact, we see it as a chance to build that reservation karma.

 

[egoodell]

Yeah Bree!
I just had the same thing happen for March. I will take one nighters Jan and Feb excluding Valentine Weekend, and got a lot of one night begging for March 15 weekend I think it was, held out, and got a four night booking!
On the other hand, I was dreading a graduation weekend booking. Son/student made the booking and stepmom called to announce she wanted the room to have two queen beds as she was bringing her 12 year old. When I said we didn't take children she stormed the regular "traveled all over the world and never heard of a B&B not accepting children"
I got the idea to email the son since he made the booking with a copy of the form he filled out for "party of 2". Then he called and asked if he could cancel, feeling bad about the whole thing. OH JOY YOU BET!
Now I have the only room available that weekend for miles. Will book right away no problem and yes, I am going to grill them before accepting.
**Whew** got out of that one. Would have been horrible.
RIki

 

[Morticia]

Yeah Bree!
I just had the same thing happen for March. I will take one nighters Jan and Feb excluding Valentine Weekend, and got a lot of one night begging for March 15 weekend I think it was, held out, and got a four night booking!
On the other hand, I was dreading a graduation weekend booking. Son/student made the booking and stepmom called to announce she wanted the room to have two queen beds as she was bringing her 12 year old. When I said we didn't take children she stormed the regular "traveled all over the world and never heard of a B&B not accepting children"
I got the idea to email the son since he made the booking with a copy of the form he filled out for "party of 2". Then he called and asked if he could cancel, feeling bad about the whole thing. OH JOY YOU BET!
Now I have the only room available that weekend for miles. Will book right away no problem and yes, I am going to grill them before accepting.
**Whew** got out of that one. Would have been horrible.
RIki.

I started off with 2 night min for V-Day as it is a 3 day weekend for most. Got one booking and that was it. Switched it to no min and now I'm getting calls but just for Saturday night. Things are tight I guess.

 

[Proud Texan]

Yeah Bree!
I just had the same thing happen for March. I will take one nighters Jan and Feb excluding Valentine Weekend, and got a lot of one night begging for March 15 weekend I think it was, held out, and got a four night booking!
On the other hand, I was dreading a graduation weekend booking. Son/student made the booking and stepmom called to announce she wanted the room to have two queen beds as she was bringing her 12 year old. When I said we didn't take children she stormed the regular "traveled all over the world and never heard of a B&B not accepting children"
I got the idea to email the son since he made the booking with a copy of the form he filled out for "party of 2". Then he called and asked if he could cancel, feeling bad about the whole thing. OH JOY YOU BET!
Now I have the only room available that weekend for miles. Will book right away no problem and yes, I am going to grill them before accepting.
**Whew** got out of that one. Would have been horrible.
RIki.

I started off with 2 night min for V-Day as it is a 3 day weekend for most. Got one booking and that was it. Switched it to no min and now I'm getting calls but just for Saturday night. Things are tight I guess.
.

We were getting so many request for one-nighters, we increased our rates for single nights and offer a "discount" for two nights or more. The discount is roughly equivalent to what our regular rate was before the increase.
Surprisingly, there hasn't been a significant drop in reservations. We'll see if it continues.

 

[Morticia]

Yeah Bree!
I just had the same thing happen for March. I will take one nighters Jan and Feb excluding Valentine Weekend, and got a lot of one night begging for March 15 weekend I think it was, held out, and got a four night booking!
On the other hand, I was dreading a graduation weekend booking. Son/student made the booking and stepmom called to announce she wanted the room to have two queen beds as she was bringing her 12 year old. When I said we didn't take children she stormed the regular "traveled all over the world and never heard of a B&B not accepting children"
I got the idea to email the son since he made the booking with a copy of the form he filled out for "party of 2". Then he called and asked if he could cancel, feeling bad about the whole thing. OH JOY YOU BET!
Now I have the only room available that weekend for miles. Will book right away no problem and yes, I am going to grill them before accepting.
**Whew** got out of that one. Would have been horrible.
RIki.

I started off with 2 night min for V-Day as it is a 3 day weekend for most. Got one booking and that was it. Switched it to no min and now I'm getting calls but just for Saturday night. Things are tight I guess.
.

We were getting so many request for one-nighters, we increased our rates for single nights and offer a "discount" for two nights or more. The discount is roughly equivalent to what our regular rate was before the increase.
Surprisingly, there hasn't been a significant drop in reservations. We'll see if it continues.
.

Sounds like you have some wiggle room there. If you want the 2 night or more stay, then doing this will at least garner more money for the aggro.

 

[happyjacks]

Yeah Bree!
I just had the same thing happen for March. I will take one nighters Jan and Feb excluding Valentine Weekend, and got a lot of one night begging for March 15 weekend I think it was, held out, and got a four night booking!
On the other hand, I was dreading a graduation weekend booking. Son/student made the booking and stepmom called to announce she wanted the room to have two queen beds as she was bringing her 12 year old. When I said we didn't take children she stormed the regular "traveled all over the world and never heard of a B&B not accepting children"
I got the idea to email the son since he made the booking with a copy of the form he filled out for "party of 2". Then he called and asked if he could cancel, feeling bad about the whole thing. OH JOY YOU BET!
Now I have the only room available that weekend for miles. Will book right away no problem and yes, I am going to grill them before accepting.
**Whew** got out of that one. Would have been horrible.
RIki.

I started off with 2 night min for V-Day as it is a 3 day weekend for most. Got one booking and that was it. Switched it to no min and now I'm getting calls but just for Saturday night. Things are tight I guess.
.

Valentine's day falls on a long weekend here, too. We've got a 2-night min and have been booked full for a couple weeks. Until this past weekend when I had two cancellations. Arg.
One I refilled within a couple hours. The other is still open and--unlike the title of this thread--I won't be charging a cancel fee. The cancel is from repeat guests who booked this months ago and have since been emailing back and forth with me, eagerly planning all their fun stuff for the weekend. She called Friday to tell me she just lost her job to cutbacks.