You what...?

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
Drax
Posts: 185
Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 4:36 pm
Location: Yorkshire Dales

Post by Drax »

zebedee wrote:So an email enquiry comes through my website. It is from "two elderly people" from the Netherlands who want to visit North Yorkshire in September.

The enquiry is lengthy and includes a need to have two bedrooms, reliable wifi provision (needed for work, apparently) and an unusual question about our dining table, which I respond to with a photograph, as well as assurances about the other requirements.

A 13 night stay in my 4 star cottage is requested and the dates are available.
As the 13 nights fill a gap beautifully, I calculate the cost of the 6 nights by deducting from a weekly price the cost of a changeover, dividing the remainder by 7 and multiplying by 6, so in all I quote for a full week & 6 nights pro rata, which I thought was pretty fair of me??

The " prospective guests" have other plans. They have proposed that they stay for 13 nights at £40 per night....... :evil:

I replied with an email confirming the price I quoted first time round, but on reflection, I won't accept the booking now even if they come back to me.

Beware anyone with a property in Yorkshire, someone is looking for quality accommodation for the cost of bunk house prices. Initials are JM.
I have just read your post Zebedee and I believe we had these guests in September for a week. They had stayed in a nearby holiday cottage the previous week. They were an elderly couple from the Netherlands, his initials were JM, they did try to negotiate a lower price but were unsuccessful and did pay the full rate. They did ask for WiFi but at that time we did not have it. They did not mention a dining table but we do have a photograph of our dining table and chairs in the advert.
They appeared a humourless couple who looked a little unkempt. They did not leave a review in our visitors book, like most of our guests do but rather unusually they did leave behind 2 frying pans.
Incedentally our dining table did not look as if it had suffered any undue stress after their stay.
Keep your powder dry.
Goscar
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:27 am
Location: Pembrokeshire

Post by Goscar »

We have had a slightly different experience. Rather than seeking to negotiate a discount, we have a repeat guest who overpays. In fact, he seems to make things up as he goes along. The deposit we receive is always more than we ask for, while the year before last he overpaid the balance by over £300.

This year he and his family have plumped for a peak week and we wondered whether they realised quite how much more it would cost them. We needn't have worried. The payment of the deposit was a couple of days late but, true to form, a fair bit more than we'd requested. Three days later he wrote to let us know he had transferred another £500 to our bank account. In acknowledging receipt of the funds, we have informed him of the outstanding balance and reminded him that the payment is not due for another five months. It's great for our cash flow, but completely random.
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

Thanks Drax, it is interesting to hear the end of the tale.
We got another booking who paid full price.
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