I just say that I'm so sorry but just we have nothing available for them. If there's a motel in the area (that's not a boutique motel but a standard roadside motel), I refer them there. Sometimes I'll refer them to a vacation rental agency if that's suitable.
But I don't give reasons. IMHO, nothing good is going to come from that. Folks who are on the s@#t list are on there generally because they're not reasonable..
I'm thinking along the lines of what I get a lot from callers, repeats included, 'I'm looking at your availability calendar for such and such date and I see you have 5 rooms open, can you tell me about them...'
There's no telling them the 'inn is full' so rather than contend with them making an online booking over and over, it's better to get it out there in the open right off and help them find another place.
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