guests and requests
a smidgeon of competence
I handle the management of a couple of holiday properties for some older locals. Until my heart problems started, I was actually doing the 'hands on' domestic tasks of cleaning between guests and setting up for the new ones as well, but since that started I just do the admin for them now.
What I do is all the booking calendar management, and handle messaging and being a contact point for both upcoming or current guests. I'm generally available at any time to answer questions they may have about the property or the locality, or handle any issues while they're staying.
I actually speak to or meet any of them in person very rarely, which is exactly how I like it. Messaging is generally handled on the booking platform in text, and I can manage that just fine. I can order my thoughts and even appear fairly intelligent that way sometimes.
How the hell I manage organising calendars, arrivals and departures, and the schedules for the cleaners for a number of places, plus all the laundry, maintenance and consumables stocking now I don't know, but it seems there is still a small section of my brain that works fairly efficiently in management mode.
And best of all is I can do it all while sat on my arse at home.
I am, apparently, a super host.
But it has its moments. It is people after all.
guests approach
I spat out my tea as I read a message from a guest – who has stayed with us before – coming next week.
"Can you recommend an easier road in to the village? We thought it was a bit narrow last time we came, and we have a bigger car now."
Can I make the lanes to the village wider for their bigger car? Err...
Did I mention one of the hardest things about doing this messaging to the guests is to do my very best not to slip into any kind of sarcastic or passive-aggressive attitudes in my replies?
Sadly, all ways in are going to be tiny and narrow, that's just the nature of the lanes where we are!
I am at my diplomatic best at all times, even when faced with big stupid, or undue maximum entitlement.
guests arrive
The last message at number one in the 'clueless guest' chart was from a then current guest, just arrived at the small cabin type property with effectively one large kitchen/diner/living area, and a separate bedroom with bathroom off that, who sent me:
"I have found the remote but I cannot find the television."
OK, to be fair to him it is wall mounted, and I used to pull one of the floor length curtains to the sliding doors across it, to soften the look of the room a bit, but it's not exactly a big place to explore. If you just look around you there are going to be very few places a 40" screen TV could be... I mean, come on, why would you bother messaging that, meaning I'm now tutting and formulating a (diplomatic remember) reply, when in just a few minutes...
"Hah, don't worry, I've found it"
Yes, thought you might.
Close second, a message from a guest at 11.30 at night. We're in Cornwall. A small rural village by the sea. If you sleep with the window open you can hear the sea crashing onto the beach a few hundred metres away. Also you can apparently hear... things.
"Sorry to message so late. I can't sleep as there are scurrying and scratching noises coming from outside. We're worried, can you do anything to make it go away?"
Honestly?
It'll be an animal of some sort. Turn on the lights, stick your head out the window and shout 'go away'. That'll do it. Goodnight.
OK, it was a bit late to do fully diplomatic.
guests depart
Also fun are the reviews comments they can leave for me privately after leaving. One of the properties has been on five star public reviews for six years now, but there is the odd negative point that guests can make in their private comments.
"At the beginning, there were three large moths in the flat, which we found rather unpleasant."
Yes, sorry about that.
I'll be asking all the moths not to be attracted to the light and warmth of the cabin in future.
post link for sharing: https://skryblans.com/guests-and-requests
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