Phones

[Whatever]

Our units are in an area with limited and sporadic mobile phone reception; we also have problems with the WiFi! Do you think we should install a pay phone so people don't feel totally cut off? The only one I can find is over £100. Does anyone know whether you can have a normal landline phones which only allow outgoing calls if paid for by credit/debit card? Thanks.

[kg1]

Our mobile reception is not great, better upstairs than down so for safety's sake in case of an emergency we have a standard landline tied in with the wifi. On our adverts we say it is for incoming and Emergency outgoing calls only. In practice we tell guests we are happy for them to make short local calls - taxis, restaurants etc. anything else will be deducted from their security deposit. We monitor the usage on line before they leave. Very rarely do we get anyone abusing it, the worst were a German family who seems to call home every night and therefore had the cost of calls deducted. IMHO I think a pay phone gives the wrong impression - that you're trying to get every penny out of the rental.

[Moliere]

I couldn't agree more, Kyreniagirl, a payphone is just wrong, wrong, wrong.
We did exactly what you do and over many years it wasn't abused - our heaviest user was a lady whose aged Mum was in hospital in the UK and she was ever so grateful that the facility was there and was just very happy to pay.
We do have to trust people (and monitoring online does make it pretty painless if there are costs involved) - you can even be munificent and say, "your calls were only about 12 euros, so I'm not bothering to charge you", and get to feel a warm glow all day!

Moliere

[Whatever]

That's really helpful. Thanks.