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agoodman

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Apparently I am not wording things correctly so fellow Innkeepers which part of
PLEASE CALL ME 30-60 MINUTES PRIOR TO YOUR ARRIVAL is not clear??
On my website, on 2 places on my confirmation and in addition VERBALLY for all phone resas at the time of reservation or about a week prior for all resas made on my website. I think I will just have to start CALLING the day prior to remind them!!!
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My experience with this exact situation, as the guest:
Innkeeper to me: What time will you be arriving?
Me to innkeeper: I'm not sure, we may have guests and have to clean before we leave. When is check-in?
Innkeeper: 3 PM, so call us when you're an hour away.
Me: What town on I 90 would be an hour east of you?
Innkeeper: How would I know?
Me to self: Well if you expect someone who has never been there before to know what town is an hour away, why don't you?!
We ended up leaving home around 9 AM for an 8 hour drive. I thought the innkeeper understood we would not be arriving at exactly 3 PM and that I was going to call her, following her rules, to let her know we were nearby when we WERE nearby, not at 9 AM when I left the house. So, I called at 4 PM. Check-in is only by appointment, don't show up without calling an hour out!
When I called (after figuring out on Google maps for myself what town might be about an hour away) the innkeeper yelled at me: Where have you been?
I still don't get it. I'm supposed to call and when I do I get yelled at. I'm supposed to know what's an hour away. And, I guess, I was supposed to leave home at 7 AM to get there exactly at 3!
We went back to that town 2 more times and stayed at another place that just left the keys for us.
 
I not only ask them to call an hour out, I ask ON RESERVATION for approx arr time - that way if they say "approx 6pm" I am not waiting for them from 2pm ... so I do about everything I can.
 
I not only ask them to call an hour out, I ask ON RESERVATION for approx arr time - that way if they say "approx 6pm" I am not waiting for them from 2pm ... so I do about everything I can..
If she had asked me to call when I left the house, I would have done so.
Maybe what you could do, if you don't already, is a pre-arrival concierge service. A week in advance, call the guest and ask about any changes in their plans, later/earlier flight, business meeting before arrival, do they need/want any add ons. Save yourself the 'we booked 6 months ago and don't remember anything' syndrome.
I'm here from 3-7 every single day unless we're closed. As long as guests show up during that time, I'm fine. Earlier and they can go away. Later and I just run their card and go do what I want. I've stopped asking what time they think they will arrive and I just explain the program. 3-7 I'm here. Before and after I'm probably not.
 
I don't want to call anyone when I am traveling. I am a phonaphobe. (Not sure if that is a word). If you give me the check in times I will be there within the check in time.
But then again, I am at times so confined in this business, yeah yeah be your own boss and all of that, but we have to be here when we have to be here, which is most of the time, so that my time is MY TIME. Hope that makes sense.
This is why early check ins will see a locked door and that's that. I require my own time, even if it is to have a little shower after working before check ins arrive.
back to the GPS thing, our guests are worse and worse now than ever about getting here when they say they think they will...it is out of control!
 
As a traveler, I would not be happy with what seems like a requirement by an innkeeper that we call when we thought we were about however many minutes out. I may not have a clue how much longer it is to get to your place.
I'm perfectly fine though with a request for an approximate check-in time within the acceptable range for check-ins, and then a request for calling if we somehow are delayed. I've always done that as a guest.
As an innkeeper, I was like Morticia...even if I had an idea from the rez when folks would be arriving, I'd be ready at the earliest check-in. And like Joey, don't come early than that because the door will be locked and I won't answer. We know how we get tied down, but we also have to have a bit of flexibility for travelers.
If you have a rez at a hotel, you are just expected to show up within a range for check-in.
 
I do ask for an approximate arrival time explaining I do need to schedule my day so I can be here for their arrival - when you are as small as I am you can do that. I also give the horse people a designated location to call from so I can go meet them to guide to the stable.
I do, however, know where they will be in any direction to be approx 1 hour from me should I be asked. I cannot imagine someone not knowing what is an hour from home in any direction that a guest would be coming from.
 
and...as a traveler I appreciate having a self check in when needed. Ends all the stress, if I am on vacation I want to go where the road leads me, the lodging is just where I stay to sleep for the night, not my destination.
Whenever I travel I am reminded of these facts to help be more understanding of guests doing their thang, and arriving when it suits them, they are on vacation. This is one reason most people choose hotels, for the flexibility.
 
I am READY all the time, I have a 2nd job where I work from home so I am barely out of the house. Who in this day and age cannot tell when they are approx an hour out? It's got nothing to do with being ready, it's common courtesy since we all have "errands" we all would like to plan a few minutes of downtime (I say plan cause I don't get much). B&B's are not like hotels where if one person is gone there are 2, 3, 20, 200 other "staff". And I have coded locks on my front door so absolutely I can just give them the code and tell them to "self check in" but part of MY common courtesy is being there to welcome them.
 
and...as a traveler I appreciate having a self check in when needed. Ends all the stress, if I am on vacation I want to go where the road leads me, the lodging is just where I stay to sleep for the night, not my destination.
Whenever I travel I am reminded of these facts to help be more understanding of guests doing their thang, and arriving when it suits them, they are on vacation. This is one reason most people choose hotels, for the flexibility..
When I arrived at the bride's apt for my friend's son's wedding at NOON, my friend was amazed. F-O-B asked if I had had trouble finding it (all I had was address & phone number) and my friend said, "Oh, I am not surprised she FOUND it, I am surprised she is here and it is not Midnight!"
I am known for finding interesting things and places enroute. Sad to say there was nothing between Dallas/Ft Worth airport and Abilene.
Edited to add: This was LONG before Tom-Tom, Garmin, Mapquest, or Google.
 
Sorry, but it would rub me the wrong way as a guest to have to call the innkeeper 30-60 minutes before my arrival. Give me a check-in time frame and I'll be there or I'll call as soon as I realize I won't actually make it in that time frame.
 
agoodman said:
Apparently I am not wording things correctly so fellow Innkeepers which part of
PLEASE CALL ME 30-60 MINUTES PRIOR TO YOUR ARRIVAL is not clear??
On my website, on 2 places on my confirmation and in addition VERBALLY for all phone resas at the time of reservation or about a week prior for all resas made on my website. I think I will just have to start CALLING the day prior to remind them!!!
thud.gif
People don't read. So they will not call you. You may have to find someone to hire as a "baby sitter" for that window of time that you are leaving work to come home. That's what I did. Have them iron sheets while they wait or something like that.
Riki
 
Riki I work my 2nd job from home TG!!! so fortunately i don't have a commute, and I have also asked them verbally
ALL it really was a rhetorical question, again to me it's common courtesy .....
 
Riki I work my 2nd job from home TG!!! so fortunately i don't have a commute, and I have also asked them verbally
ALL it really was a rhetorical question, again to me it's common courtesy ......
agoodman said:
Riki I work my 2nd job from home TG!!! so fortunately i don't have a commute, and I have also asked them verbally
ALL it really was a rhetorical question, again to me it's common courtesy .....
Oh then you're in better shape than me! But seriously, even my nicest guests don't read confirmations or my emails that I send to them just days before arriving..so I don't know what you can do.
RIki
 
Riki I work my 2nd job from home TG!!! so fortunately i don't have a commute, and I have also asked them verbally
ALL it really was a rhetorical question, again to me it's common courtesy ......
agoodman said:
Riki I work my 2nd job from home TG!!! so fortunately i don't have a commute, and I have also asked them verbally
ALL it really was a rhetorical question, again to me it's common courtesy .....
Oh then you're in better shape than me! But seriously, even my nicest guests don't read confirmations or my emails that I send to them just days before arriving..so I don't know what you can do.
RIki
 
Yes thank goodness I am in podunk so any "decent" jobs would be 35-45 mins commute each way .... and since I am on my own there is no way I would feel comfortable being away all day (although it would be a nice break I guess) but I hate commuting, dislike corporate (been there, done that) and in this weather AM VERY grateful to have a WAH "real" job......I have been working for WAH companies for the last 8 years and although most have cut pay cut pay there are some "benefits" although generally not the medical / dental / vacation type ones!!
 
I would love to know when people were going to arrive. It doesn't happen. We have generally very courteous, connected, thoughful guests, but they just have stuff going on, and they just show up, generally 4:00 to 6:00.
If I am going out before 4:00 I may call to ask when they will arrive, or post a note on the door saying call me on the inn phone (a cell phone). Then I can verbally give them the electronic door code and guide them to their room: "In the front door, go down the hall, down stairs, take a left, see the pile of laundry? maybe you could start on it since you arrived early and I'm not home yet to check you in ..."
Part of my thinking about developing B&B stays as an alternative to hotels is to be careful to add to the experience and not subtract too much of the convenience. We have to have a more rigorous cancellation policy than a good hotel, but we don't want to have guests feel they have to keep an appointment.
OK, different innkeepers, different constraints, I know. I, too have a WAH job, and my office looks out over the front drive, so for me it is relatively easy, but think convenience, and remember younger guests often respond to a text message. Try it. R U here B4 4? XO B&B
 
I would love to know when people were going to arrive. It doesn't happen. We have generally very courteous, connected, thoughful guests, but they just have stuff going on, and they just show up, generally 4:00 to 6:00.
If I am going out before 4:00 I may call to ask when they will arrive, or post a note on the door saying call me on the inn phone (a cell phone). Then I can verbally give them the electronic door code and guide them to their room: "In the front door, go down the hall, down stairs, take a left, see the pile of laundry? maybe you could start on it since you arrived early and I'm not home yet to check you in ..."
Part of my thinking about developing B&B stays as an alternative to hotels is to be careful to add to the experience and not subtract too much of the convenience. We have to have a more rigorous cancellation policy than a good hotel, but we don't want to have guests feel they have to keep an appointment.
OK, different innkeepers, different constraints, I know. I, too have a WAH job, and my office looks out over the front drive, so for me it is relatively easy, but think convenience, and remember younger guests often respond to a text message. Try it. R U here B4 4? XO B&B.
Good thoughts, Tom. Like the text msg...Some middle aged guests like to text too.
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What a great idea! As an inngoer, I would much prefer a text to a call, if possible, somehow seems more casual!
 
Or an email about noonish to ask when they expect to arrive would probably also do the trick. Obviously not everyone would be able to get email on the road but enough would that it might help.
 
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