Does Anyone Else Feel Rotten....

[Coco]

....for something that isn't even your fault?

During my first season I used to receive emails from people asking if a room was free on a certain night; I would write back and say yes it was and then never hear any more from them, so I would chase them up asking if they wanted to book; still I heard nothing and that was how I learnt that if people aren't interested, or change their plans, they don't let you know.  However, just occasionally someone would come back two weeks later and ask for directions, presuming that their original email had been enough to secure the booking.

So, to clarify things, in my second season I would reply by saying, yes it is free, would you like to reserve it, if so I require blah blah deposit?  I still had the same response from people and at the beginning of the season still chased them up but soon learnt how time-consuming that was and so took it that if they didn't come back asking where or how to send a deposit they were clearly not interested.

This year I have carried on in the same way, except that I follow a very strict routine of after replying to the initial enquiry, when I get a response I send a second email with my terms and conditions which gives them an option of how to pay their deposit and also asks them which direction they are coming from.  That way they have to reply again confirming that they are coming, and then I send a third email giving them directions.  However, last night I got an email from a lady saying that she is just checking that everything is still OK for the room and dinner on Sunday and that she appears to have lost the directions so could I please resend them.  Well I NEVER delete an email related to bookings and I have trawled back through the lot, since her first enquiry, which was the standard, "Do you have a double room available for Sunday 28th May?  If we don't arrive til 8pm are we too late for dinner".  The only other email either to or from her is mine of the same date saying "yes we do, no you're not, shall I reserve it for you, if so we require blah blah blah"  From then (early January) til last night NOTHING.  I've since let the room to someone else, am fully booked for the weekend but still I feel REALLY MEAN.  It's absolutely NOT my fault and my husband thinks that she knows she has slipped up and by saying that she has "lost" the directions is her way of trying to wriggle out of the fact that she forgot to book.  But I still feel aweful! 

Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else?  And do you feel equally as bad as me, or am I just being much too sensitive for my own good?

[Quillan]

I think we are lucky. We do not follow this 5 email rule and we do not ask for any money up front or a deposit. We have had one person who did not turn up and that was this year although he did phone us to ask how long it would take to walk from Carcassonne to us (40 mins drive normally) as he had left his driving licence at home by mistake and could not collect his rental car. I was really annoyed but what can you say or do, mind you I could hear his wife in the background nagging him so there was no point really in me saying anything.

Our software package takes care of all things for us and send's the letter confirming the reservation, maps and driving instructions. We are fortunate on being very close to a main route to Spain so we have people queuing at times for rooms so a no show is not a real problem we just re-let the room. The only rule we have that goes out in emails, on the letter, map and driving instructions is that unless previously agreed if they don't get here by 18:00 or don't phone because they are lost/late or whatever we will re-let the room which we did on this occasion and even sold the new people the meal we had preped.

[Lori]

Coco, you should not feel the slightest bit upset. In this day and age, we adults have to take some responsibility for our actions - or lack thereof. You operate a business. If a future guest does not have a written confirmation of a reservation, said guest does not have one. If the guest hasn't paid a deposit or asked if one was required, the guest doesn't have a reservation. I'm not sure about everyone else, but I always confirm my reservation - either by email, snail mail or telephone. I also confirm again a couple of days before my arrival - even if I am staying in a huge hotel in Paris and I HAVE a written confirmation.

Don't feel bad. Life is too short.

Have a great season..

[Tresco]

I agree Lori, and yet I also think to work in any service industry you need a certain (high) level of sensitivity to others feelings, even to people who simply havn't bothered to book properly, in order to be good at your job.

It wasn't Coco's fault, but she still feels 'rotten', and somehow that tells me something good about Coco. Getting to the stage where the 'rotten' feeling is gone quickly isn't easy though, well it wasn't for me anyway.

[Coco]

It wasn't Coco's fault, but she still feels 'rotten', and somehow that tells me something good about Coco. Getting to the stage where the 'rotten' feeling is gone quickly isn't easy though, well it wasn't for me anyway.

Oh, I hadn't thought about it like that..... now I feel good about feeling bad!!

[winterbunny]

And Coco please don't feel too bad - that's just how you are meant to feel....Your late arrival instead of being honest and contacting you saying she'd made a mistake could you possibly still fit her in, tried to cover up her mistake and make it into yours, you can be sure she really knew she hadn't confirmed, she was probably busy and it slipped her mind, but............

When booking by email mine goes -yes we have a room, prices etc, if you want to book let me have dates and numbers, contact name address and phone number (gets rid of real timewasters/hoaxers etc), and that I will send a confirmation on return or on receipt of deposit.  I make a note to tell them that the room is not reserved until they have this confirmation.  It has worked a treat this year.

Buns

 

[Cerise]

Hi Coco

You are a woman after my own heart.  I have to say I spend far too much time worrying about things that are not my fault. I feel terrible for people if the weather isn't nice and my worst day was when a particularly arrogant couple refused to book an evening meal, refused to let me book a restaurant for them (even though it was in Feb and lots of places are closed unless bookings are made) and refused to listen to me when I told them that the restaurant they were contemplating some 15 kms away was actually closed for its annual holiday.  Guess who actually made them a snack when they came back at 9.30 pm whinging that they had had nothing to eat?  Believe it or not I still felt guilty that they hadn't had a proper meal.  My husband says I am mad, but I can't help feeling it is my fault if everything is not OK, so understand exactly how you feel.

Anyway, to cheer you up she probably sent the same e-mail to all the other places she had enquired about originally

Keep smiling

Maggi

 

 

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi Coco,

Yes I've often felt rotten about things that I've no responsibility for. The exhibition that you've recommended being closed unexpectedly, or the weather being lousy or a restaurant having an off day.

However, for bookings? No. We have remarkably little trouble. We categorise contacts in 5 levels.

1 Enquiries

2 Bookings

3 Confirmed

4 Arrived

5 paid (normally left).

We explain in words of one syllable to "enquiries" that we are NOT booking the room, nor blocking it off on our reservations form, nor do we. So if you, say, were to phone us up, or email asking if we have a room free on the 12th July I'd answer "yes we have, do you want us to book it?" This usually gets a yes/no decision on the spot for phone calls. If you were to haver, I'd say "fine, but I ought to warn you that I'm NOT booking the room, so you will need to decide fairly quickly to be sure of getting it, as with only 3 rooms we fill up quickly." And it's up to them then.

For emails, I usually get a firm booking by return. If not I'll follow up with a quickie saying "You asked about a room on the 12th, it's still free at the moment, but I've not booked it for you, do you want me to?" Without an answer almost immediately, I put the correspondence into a "finished" mailbox, available in the case of argument but not cluttering up my main business mailbox. If I get a "yes" at any stage then I write (letter or email) to say that the room is being "blocked off" for a short while pending receipt of their deposit. I expect to get a deposit within a week, and nearly always do.

With a deposit under the belt we send a receipt reminding them that they should contact us if running late, otherwise Gites de France rules allow us to relet after 6.30pm. And we do it without remorse. If people don't read what we send them and don't reply, then I'm afraid they've shot themselves in the foot and I am unrepentant. If they then come back much later, when I'm fully booked, I'll offer to find alternative (more expensive) accommodation elsewhere, but I won't be made to feel guilty by people who won't play the game.

You're a much nicer person than I am!!

[mascamps.com]

I feel bad too if that happens. Usually I end up adding a little bit more to our standard response e-mail (which is getting a bit out of hand as a result) when something like that happens.

What we do now is to send out an e-mail for each enquiry saying that we are holding the room for them until a specific day, saying that they need to click on my little paypal link in the mail to pay the confirmation deposit. Usually I give about three days but if it looks like it's from a work e-mail address and arrives on a Friday I'd give them 'til the following Wednesday. Before we added the time limit for the reply we had an endless series of enquiries with no positive booking at the end of them. Since adding the time limit we've only had a handful of them.

I suspect that it's a matter of time before someone decides that they will pay the deposit a few months after their enquiry which'll be the next forseeable problem.

Incidently, we've found that since we added a "book now" link on our website that the number of enquiries has dropped drastically and almost all "enquiries" arrive that way these days.

 

Arnold