If it is stereotyping or prejudice, then it wouldn't be the first example of it on LMH - Sad, because LMH states that prejudice is unwelcome...
I think it is important to remember that we dont know the circumstances of potential guests (foreign language etc) or the method they are using to contact us (text, email), let alone cultural customs specific to different nationalities.
Three mantras i try to keep in the fore of my mind when responding to enquiries:
Be Polite
Be Accommodating
Keep and Open Mind
Ciccio
When do you ignore enquiries you don't 'like'?
MG - Good for you, I'm pleased you had a positive result, which I'm sure would be replicated by others.
Ciccio - I think you are being priggish. My rationale was based on neither prejudice nor stereotyping.
FYI, I happen to work for a major international bank, which has extensive business in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) - therefore I have some detailed and professional knowledge of the area.
Now, if I choose to apply my professional knowledge and experience to my rental business, that is my concern and not yours on which to render an uninformed judgement.
Therefore, whilst you are de rigeur at liberty to express an opinion, I should be obliged if you would not make unwarranted assumptions.
Moliere
Ciccio - I think you are being priggish. My rationale was based on neither prejudice nor stereotyping.
FYI, I happen to work for a major international bank, which has extensive business in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) - therefore I have some detailed and professional knowledge of the area.
Now, if I choose to apply my professional knowledge and experience to my rental business, that is my concern and not yours on which to render an uninformed judgement.
Therefore, whilst you are de rigeur at liberty to express an opinion, I should be obliged if you would not make unwarranted assumptions.
Moliere
Jumping is just dressage with speed-bumps.
Moliere,
I may be wrong but I don't think this is the first time you have indicated that you don't want to rent to people from Eastern Europe. I think it's unfortunate that you state these views here, and applying my professional knowledge and experience I have only had very good dealings with renters from Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Less good with the British on the whole, not that I would want to make wild generalisations.
I may be wrong but I don't think this is the first time you have indicated that you don't want to rent to people from Eastern Europe. I think it's unfortunate that you state these views here, and applying my professional knowledge and experience I have only had very good dealings with renters from Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. Less good with the British on the whole, not that I would want to make wild generalisations.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
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Don Ciccio
- Posts: 481
- Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:39 pm
- Location: Trapani, Sicily
Moliere,
I think you'll find that if you make broad statements on a public board without explaining the context in which you gleaned your experience you can expect people to question you.
I am dissappointed at the few people on this forum that appear to make unsubstantiated prejudicial comments - and take offence when someone dares to question them. I didnt accuse you, i questioned you thats all. Get it in perspective.
That you call me priggish is a bit, well priggish as you do not know anything about me or my reasons for raising a genuine concern about possible prejudice on LMH. You have taken an equally belittling stance in that you consider your experience working for a bank in central europe to override EVERYONE else's experience of CEE nationalities. I made no 'uniformed judgement' about you or your experience. I questioned what i read. I said 'IF it was stereotyping it was wrong'. 'If' implies i was unsure. I made no bold statement that you were being prejudiced. You have now explained your experience and that you were not being prejudiced and I am now clear. Thank you.
That said, I am shocked at some of the things i have read in other threads. You do all realise that your website tagged signatures mean that when people search for and find your rental website urls, these LMH pages also appear alongside some of the search engine responses.... This means that curious/dedicated (potential) guests get to read your comments and explore your posts too.
Lets have some responsible debate, not name calling please.
Ciccio (apparently priggish?)
I think you'll find that if you make broad statements on a public board without explaining the context in which you gleaned your experience you can expect people to question you.
I am dissappointed at the few people on this forum that appear to make unsubstantiated prejudicial comments - and take offence when someone dares to question them. I didnt accuse you, i questioned you thats all. Get it in perspective.
That you call me priggish is a bit, well priggish as you do not know anything about me or my reasons for raising a genuine concern about possible prejudice on LMH. You have taken an equally belittling stance in that you consider your experience working for a bank in central europe to override EVERYONE else's experience of CEE nationalities. I made no 'uniformed judgement' about you or your experience. I questioned what i read. I said 'IF it was stereotyping it was wrong'. 'If' implies i was unsure. I made no bold statement that you were being prejudiced. You have now explained your experience and that you were not being prejudiced and I am now clear. Thank you.
That said, I am shocked at some of the things i have read in other threads. You do all realise that your website tagged signatures mean that when people search for and find your rental website urls, these LMH pages also appear alongside some of the search engine responses.... This means that curious/dedicated (potential) guests get to read your comments and explore your posts too.
Lets have some responsible debate, not name calling please.
Ciccio (apparently priggish?)
Are you kidding? I'd die for a booking from Transylvania.....how exoticMountain Goat wrote:Mols, um, what's wrong with Rumanians? We've had a couple of charming families. Not from Transylvania, I admit, but whazza problem?
On the "I won't rent to anyone from Rumania" concept, it's wrong to deny the entire population of the country as a whole based on limited experience with a few unrelated citizens. If you can't support that thinking, then it's the naughty step for you Mols.... 
Try substituting "Disabled" for "Rumanian" and see how it feels - not right, eh?
Waves from America
As I live 1 km from the Czech border and have been totally involved with Russia/Eastern Europe for the last 20 years in my day job, I can't say that any of that experience leads me not to want bookings from that region or even to hesitate when I get enquiries.
(Off this afternoon to join in celebrations of 20th anniversary of the fall of the iron curtain in this area - when 70,000 people came to make a human chain from our village church to the nearest one in the Czech Republic. If it is anything like the day the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area, it will be a very emotional occasion).
(Off this afternoon to join in celebrations of 20th anniversary of the fall of the iron curtain in this area - when 70,000 people came to make a human chain from our village church to the nearest one in the Czech Republic. If it is anything like the day the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area, it will be a very emotional occasion).
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LaVilleauTady
- Posts: 524
- Joined: Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:52 pm
- Location: Southern Brittany (& Lancashire)
- Contact:
Back to the post topic...
Kendalcottages, I think you may have hit on the precise reason for brevity.
When I am sat at my computer, like now, I can afford to be wordy and (try to) use correct grammar and punctuation.
When I am emailing via my iphone I speak in short ungrammatical bursts and have no care for capitalisation... especially if I'm in a hurry. Besides the obvious marketing angle, I wonder if that's why Apply have a 'sig' file that adds "Sent from my iphone" to my messages? It sets the context for a brief unpunctuated message.
Kendalcottages, I think you may have hit on the precise reason for brevity.
When I am sat at my computer, like now, I can afford to be wordy and (try to) use correct grammar and punctuation.
When I am emailing via my iphone I speak in short ungrammatical bursts and have no care for capitalisation... especially if I'm in a hurry. Besides the obvious marketing angle, I wonder if that's why Apply have a 'sig' file that adds "Sent from my iphone" to my messages? It sets the context for a brief unpunctuated message.
Last edited by LaVilleauTady on Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Back to MG's original post - I have to say that rudeness really does get my back up. It has nothing to do with what country someone is from, If they're in a hurry and want to send a quick email (which may be interpreted as curt), I think it's fairly resonable to assume that they may not get back as many, or the kind of responses they would like. So why not take the extra 1 minute it takes to say Hello and be courteous when approaching an owner direct.
My view, and it is only my view (and OH's), is if these people are to stay in our home, we would prefer to deal with people who are pleasant and courteous. This is something that extends to my own (other) business and is one of the benefits of running my own business in that I can (largely) choose who I work with.
This makes life more pleasant all round and when there are enough things to irritate, we just try to mitigate wherever we can.
Just my personal opinion and I know we all run our rental businesses differently and there are no 'right way' or 'wrong ways'.
However, common courtesy is always welcomed, and becoming in short supply the world over.
We wouldn't have responded.
My view, and it is only my view (and OH's), is if these people are to stay in our home, we would prefer to deal with people who are pleasant and courteous. This is something that extends to my own (other) business and is one of the benefits of running my own business in that I can (largely) choose who I work with.
This makes life more pleasant all round and when there are enough things to irritate, we just try to mitigate wherever we can.
Just my personal opinion and I know we all run our rental businesses differently and there are no 'right way' or 'wrong ways'.
However, common courtesy is always welcomed, and becoming in short supply the world over.
We wouldn't have responded.
OK it seems I have inadvertently put a lot of people's backs up - Sorry, just forget I said it, huh?
Maybe I pay too much attention to my colleagues "on the ground" in Eastern Europe, but they are my colleagues, and I respect their judgement and value their input. End of.
Moliere
Maybe I pay too much attention to my colleagues "on the ground" in Eastern Europe, but they are my colleagues, and I respect their judgement and value their input. End of.
Moliere
Jumping is just dressage with speed-bumps.
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Blue Shutters
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:45 am
- Location: Charente Maritime France and South West England
- Contact:
We've had plenty of very briefly phrased enquiries, invariably through the contact forrms on listing sites and especially for school holiday bookings, it seems speed is often of the essence and for those very peak weeks it often requires many many enquiries to find somewhere available. The brief enquiries have all without fail resulted in very easy communication, prompt decision making and deposit payment, no chasing for balance settlement and have been polite and careful guests. The wordier ones (almost without exception!) have been just the same, with lots of pleasant chatting on the way!
We had several booking last year where the whole process was completed in 3-4 "couple of sentence" emails and no phone conversations. Almost without fail where a man was the lead booking
We had several booking last year where the whole process was completed in 3-4 "couple of sentence" emails and no phone conversations. Almost without fail where a man was the lead booking
I tend to write long e-mails (and forum posts), but not everyone is like me. People just have very different ideas about communicating online. Many people prefer to forgo complete sentences when filling out a form; that has nothing to do with whether or not they'll be good guests. If someone is terse in their first inquiry, all it means to me is that I may not be able to give them as much personalized information to help them with their booking choice. But if they need information, they'll ask!
Brooke
Just received my first enquiry (couple with 1 child in a villa? They would be the first guests to do do. The enquirers are from Italy, I sense this is going nowhere, February is way too early to think about Easter, not to mention summer...) from IndependentOwners.com.
The one and only line is:
OK, the site is in English, but I clearly state no pets and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it will go nowhere...
The one and only line is:
(May we bring the cat?)è possibile portare il gatto?
OK, the site is in English, but I clearly state no pets and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it will go nowhere...