After having stayed up for several - some arrived, some no-shows, we are done with that!
If I get a call at 7 and they are still hours away, that is my que to ask if they are coming straight here or stopping along the way. 'Are you in route?' (Learned from experience not to assume anything.) If they give me any indication that they will be after 9, and I will ask, then I do go ahead and tell them about self check in. Then if they need/want to stop, they are on feeling pressed to get here at any given time.
When I am ready, for bed I can place the key, and room info on the front desk, they will have the front door code, and I can go to bed and dream sweet dreams. I will no longer loose sleep worrying if they are coming or if they arrived. They are aware that if they have problems entering the house, they can ring the bell or call us on their cell..
copperhead said:
After having stayed up for several - some arrived, some no-shows, we are done with that!
At first we did the self-check-in without thinking, altho it was odd to us being newbies. Then I started reading up on the PAII forum how guests WANT the innkeeper interaction and if you're NOT immediately visible guests get up to mischief. So we stopped doing self-check-in and went back to waiting up until all hours because guests would NOT pin down an arrival time. (As it is, we are still waiting for rooms who ALL said they'd be here at 3 PM. I am probably going to stop asking what time they expect to arrive and tell them we are here from 3-7, show up somewhere in there or call.)
We were not a happy camper waiting up until midnight and later for Friday-night-can't-get-out-of-work-until-late guests. We went back to self-check-in. And more sleep. And no more issues with late arrivers than with folks we had personally delivered right to their room, carrying their luggage for them.
So, basically, what we figured was, we need to do what works for us. I like to ask advice here because I can't think of everything on my own. But, when it comes down to whose name is on the mortgage, then I have to decide what works here. (And, as a sidetrack, since we started asking, 'Are there any food ALLERGIES?' (instead of 'restrictions') we haven't had any weird dietary requests.)
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