Feeling more secure with personal details

[Mountain Goat]

Sorry - this one's come through fine - I've zapped the details, but:

Why am I unhappy in handing over keys to someone making a last-minute direct bank transfer (no sign of it yet), who is not returning our booking form (i.e. basic details of names, addresses, contact details) and the only bit of 'hard' info is her yahoo address? *

I hate to admit doing it, but results from Googling profession/name/home tel.no. just don't tie up in the slightest.

Goat

* which leads to another question - just how much personal detail are we entitled to know about a potential guest to satisfy ourselves it's OK? Why can't someone just turn up with a furniture van and clear the place out?

[Fraise]

No, you're not paranoid- well, if you are then most of us are too !! I am always wary about last minute.comers. If I actually get the money in my bank account I'm still not happy unless I have an address I can verify. Yes, I Google 'em as well, so it's not just a Goat thing, us 2 hoofers do it too !! If I didn't have an address and decent e-mail address ( don't like the Yahoo ones altho some are legit !!) I still wouldn't rent the house out !!


www.thepetitmanoir.com

[CostaBlanca]

Hi Goat,
As Fraise says most of us are probably paronoid.

Even if the money is paid, I would not confirm the booking until you have details that you require - late booking or not.

I have had 2 recent last minute special offers on my friends property which I look after. The 1st group were booking for only 3 nights which was rather unusual and I asked the question and I got an answer that was adequate but probably not the full truth. Anyway they arrived and turned out to be very nice clients.
The current group which I wrote about in another thread are probably the strangest group that I have had as clients. Even though they gave full address and home tel., they conveniently forgot(refused) to pay the damage deposit when paying the rental. As I didn´t get to meet them until today due to their very late arrival, I had to squeeze a personal cheque out of them to cover the deposit. I fear that I am going to have problems and sometimes I don´t think it is worth the risk/hassle with late bookings.

Saludos,
Maria

[Mountain Goat]

Thanks, everyone, this one's come through 150% OK, and I've edited out personal details above.

I'm now hard at work redoing our booking form, which is going to be the first item anyone's sent. We're learning fast that simple emails are just not enough if things start to go wrong.

Goat

[A-two]

Goat,
In response to the first inquiry and after all the basic information, I say at the bottom, "If you would like to go ahead, we would appreciate knowing a little more about you, including the full name, address, approximate age and occupation of the person who will be responsible for the house, also the ages of the children, if any." In addition to the above, I do ask them if they own their own home for various reasons, including insurance, but that is usually done in a phone conversation.

If I have any concerns, I phone before accepting the booking, taking a light hearted, very friendly tone in a conversation which is about making sure our house offers all the amenities that they need. That allows me to read between the lines and to pre-qualify them, but not in an invasive way. If their answers are evasive, I have a problem.

I am not a hotel with security staff on the premises 24/7, I am handing over keys to an extremely valuable piece of real estate and genuine people understand that I need reassurance to know who I am dealing with. Some tell me their whole life story and if they have a business website, they will send me to look at that also. I would not give out my bank details to anyone who had not gone through the above checking procedure and given me some personal ID of some sort.

Occasionally, I have good people contact me using whacky sounding yahoo addresses, usually retirees with limited computer skills, so I don't jump to conclusions on that basis alone. However, I agree that the email address is the first thing I look at when judging the quality of an inquiry, and I had one today from someone who has told me nothing, but I already know it's a good one, because he has a Barclays.co.uk email address.

It's also quite common for people to use fake phone numbers on inquiry forms, so if it doesn't work, that's not a red flag for me, I email them and ask for the correct one, then use it.

All of the above weeds out the kids using yahoo email addresses and trying to pretend to be their parents to book a party house, which is one of my concerns here.

[Mountain Goat]

Fraise, Maria, that's reassured me a lot, thank you - all points taken up. Why should the last minuters be a hassle? They almost always are in our experience.

Joanna, what you say makes a lot of sense, in your market, and with your clients, but it may be a bit different for us. The queries about age and owning their own home sound more upfront than we could be with our customers, or what is normally acceptable 'over here'.

We are dealing with a different product, in the sense that we are either renting out an individual apartment, or the whole property. Somehow the individual apartments (illogically) don't seem as much a responsiblity as the whole place. And on the occasions when we rent our whole chalet, both 'sides' do get to talk, whereas the apartments seem more informal.

It's odd how email addresses can give a partial picture of who you're dealing with, but it's true, and probably just confirms any inbuilt prejudices that I have.

Maybe there's also the point that in our first year, punters are a bit thinner on the ground than with your well-established business?

I don't know what the answer is, but I think a well-designed booking form could be useful initially, and I regret not having it before. Perhaps one side the booking form, other side the small print. If answers on this appear a bit dodgy, then it can lead to further investigation.

Goat

That said, my 150% punters above are now unhappy about our modest £150 security deposit, sent in the form of a cheque, being cashed 'unless a problem with breakages arose'. Will it never end?

[Hells Bells]

Goat,but there's always the risk the cheque will be stopped after they leave. That's where I have found Paypal to be very useful to be honest. They have to pay me the damage deposit with the balance, and I can refund a partial amount within 60 days of receipt without any charges. I simply leave the amount concerned in the Paypal account. I know Paypal has it's problems, but I had more trouble with cheque payments last year, which would arrive while I was away, get lost in the post, or even arrive in a different currency. The booking system deals with all the personal information stuff too. I do have a booking form as well for any offline bookings I take.

[Hells Bells]

Sorry, forgot to say, for a place as nice as yours, I'd seriously think about increasing that modest security deposit though.

[A-two]

[...] my 150% punters above are now unhappy about our modest £150 security deposit, sent in the form of a cheque, being cashed 'unless a problem with breakages arose'.

In my experience people of quality do not quibble over £150 security deposit. That's bottom feeder territory.

I sense that you are tempted to lower the bar all round to get a booking. Don't do it. Cut the rate if you must, but keep aiming high on your other terms and conditions. Give it a little time and they will come, but.....I'm going to beat the website drum again....Trust is very difficult to build online and a personal website is not a choice, it's a critical necessity on the path to establishing a good reputation. Without that, you may find it difficult to call the shots that are going to make it work.

(OK, I'll duck now)

[la vache!]

Goat, on the security deposit front, I've had some people quibbling about it and the fact that the cheque is cashed (I never used to, but following advice from a lot of people here,do now).
I think that if your guests have previously stayed somewhere where there was no security deposit to pay, or they paid a seperate cheque which wasn't cashed unless there were damages, it can be a bit of a shock for them.
Looking at the behaviour of my guests this week, I'm very glad that I cashed the deposit cheque and will probably have to keep some of it as they are showing a complete lack of respect for everything in and around the property and I envisage a lot of extra work as well as breakages at the end of the week.
I had an e mail from a lovely American lady who stayed with us last year who was telling me about the house she stayed in Massechusetts (apologies for spelling Joanna and Debk) and she said she was initially a little shocked that they were asked to pay a $1000 security deposit for the house, but after the owner told her about the extent of damage caused by some previous guests, whe completely understood.

[Fraise]

Goat- if you are charging £3600 rental surely £150 security deposit is much too little? I charge £200 a week and £150 for subsequent weeks but am about to change that to £250 for the first week and £100 for further weeks as I believe my £200 is not enough but I don't want to overburden anyone so have reduced the 2nd week, when people stay longer I don't actually charge any more than the 2 weeks deposit. I don't do rentals of over 3 weeks .

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Highams Park Harry]

interesting

I ask for full names and ages of children, that;s about it, although I rarely speak to people, I usually have a decent email dialogue and I think much can be gleaned from that

Although the people that just stayed barely registered other than paying

For the life of me I can't work out how anyone is justified asking if someone is a home owner

Is anyone seriously going to turn down a payment because the guest rents, or they think they're lying about being a home owner

or based on their profession?

I do look forward to being able to pick and chose who I rent to, at the moment it's anyone that can pay that isn't Hitler

perhaps even him

[Nightowl]

I do look forward to being able to pick and chose who I rent to, at the moment it's anyone that can pay that isn't Hitler

perhaps even him

Harry, that one really made me chuckle!!! You do get to the stage early on in the season when you panic that no one is going to book this year... I could really see where you were coming from on that one!!!!

[Hells Bells]

Me too!!!

[Mountain Goat]

Everyone, thanks, this is all very much appreciated.
I can't reply coherently, as current guests have plied (sp?) us with a very superior plonk, and I can hardly make out the keyboard, let alone figure out what's a reasonable deposit etc.
Apologies.
Goat