Minor Vent: 1am arrival?

From the moment they step through the door your bookings become guests, and their experiences determine whether they ever come back.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

But Paolo, don't you think they should have told Deb before now that their arrival time may be very late? I know it isn't their fault, but nor is it Debs. I have arrived late before, but have informed the owners well before our arrival date that it was the case. It was a problem on one occasion, as the local tabac kept the keys, but we rearranged our travel, and arrived earlier.
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debk
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Post by debk »

I should think anyone who doesn't mind being up at 1am in a foreign city will be able to find their way.
Yes, that's what I finally decided. And if not, they'll be able to find a hotel or pensão.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

HelenB wrote:don't you think they should have told Deb before now that their arrival time may be very late?
Yes, as soon as they knew. Perhaps they did, I don't know, it isn't clear from what Deb said.
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Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

I understood that the t and C's stated arrival time of 4pm (ish) normally unless agreed otherwise.It seems too much to announce at the last minute that you'll be arriving at 1 am !
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debk
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Post by debk »

I found out this morning but have no idea when the flight was booked. Check-in is two weeks from today.

I think I was most surprised at her assumption that I'd still be waiting for her at the house at 1am (even though we'd agreed earlier to a 4pm check-in) PLUS her assumption that I'd then return the next morning to do a neighborhood tour. It came out of nowhere and set my head spinning.

I suppose she must have felt a tiny bit guilty since she signed off that email by mentioning her "indulgences..."

Happily, I feel good about the solution, thanks to the varied input here. She'll no doubt find her way just fine and I'll go over to show her and her travelling companions around the neighborhood later the next day.
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Post by Hells Bells »

If I don't already know the arrival details, I always send a reminder asking for their flight times, mobile no. etc, with the invoice for the balance.
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debk
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Post by debk »

I always send a reminder asking for their flight times, mobile no. etc, with the invoice for the balance.
Due to a bad experience -- with a fellow VR owner, of all people :evil: -- I go one step further: I now won't even send directions/maps until check-in time is confirmed.

Not that it helped in this case but, hey, stuff happens.
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

I like Paolo's suggestion about the photos.

The last six or so steps in our directions include photos, since some streets are very easy to miss.

This discussion has made me realize that the next time we are in our town, we need to bring the tripod and take night photos to include in the directions! Plenty of our clients arrive after dark, albeit not usually that late.

So if you have the means to do this, it might help her find your place, and then you could tell her that you won't be able to stay awake to greet her at 1 am (which, as others have pointed out, may end up being more like 2 or 3 or...), but that you've taken night pictures so that she can more easily find the place without your help, and your phone will be on in any case.

I myself wouldn't be upset about anyone arriving at 1 a.m. or even waiting until the last moment to tell me -- but as we aren't a hotel, I would be annoyed at the client expecting that we would be there to greet them.
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debk
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Post by debk »

Interesting. Our directions include photos, but not night photos. I'll have to think about that. Thanks much!
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi All :D

When we first went to Spain to view, we stayed at a friends house who had given us directions...
We arrived at night...and got completley lost...The directions werent very good hed say things like drive for 10km then later 5 mls and then 10 mins....
But the worst thing was at the end turn left at the Red house....
we did many times, every which way ...in the end we phoned him in England[early hours of morning] and he got us there...just

It turned out that there was a Red house which was a lot Redder??? further on but of course wed never got that far...

But it was a lesson learned and my instructions are very clear[its an easy route as well just one road] and weve only had one person in three years who got lost....

IT was this summer but after he rung us in the middle of the night ... he eventually retraced his steps and he had turned left instead of right..... :oops: ....
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Post by A-two »

I've had this situation a few times. I don't like it either, but agree with Paolo. If they are happy to arrive in the pitch black and let themselves in with a key, let them.

Our Norwegian family who just left had a 15 hour journey that wasn't going to end until after 11pm if they drove straight from the airport. They offered to stay in a hotel near JFK rather than disturb us so late, but we offered a key and they were happy to take it. They had 2 children under 10. It worked out fine. We popped over next day to have a cup of coffee with them and it was rather nice to do that instead of the usual Check In routine.

We can normally accomodate a late check in up to 7pm with 48 hours advance notice. In reality, unless I have a prior engagement, I'm happy to turn out up to 10pm. After that, they are on their own with a map, instructions where to find a key and my cellphone number. This has worked out fine.

In your shoes, I might not offer to reschedule the guided tour either. If it was important to them, they would have made sure they arrived on time the previous day. Some people prefer to do their own thing and will go to all the places you don't recommend for the same reason.

These are not bad guests, rather they are people who walk to a different beat, that's all.
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enid
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Post by enid »

rather they are people who walk to a different beat,
Great phrase - I'll try to remember it if we have difficult guests again :D
Vally
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Post by Vally »

Been away for a few days , so am a little late with my 2pen'th.
I think the guests should have the sense to come in the morning , but thats not always the nature of the beast!! and for me I would have to be there no matter what time, say they did get picked up by someone and they also went into your house, no, for my part they either have to be told to be reasonable and come in the morning of you have to be there
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Post by LaLuz »

I can't agree vally. I'm not on site so being there is not an option anyway.

My house will be available from 4pm but then it's absolutely up to the client when they arrive. They know when they arrange flights that arriving after dark will be more difficult but that's up to them and as later flights are often cheaper sometimes they're prepared to take the risk.

My first ever paying guests booked our house because they'd found very cheap flights that landed at around 3am and as they would have the keys they could have access to our house immediately and not have to wait until a more sociable hour.

I gave them instructions, suggested that they took a torch as we don't have streetlighting on our road and asked my property mannager to leave the outside lights on.

They said afterwards that they did drive around a little but as there wasn't much traffic on the road that wasn't a problem and it all worked well.

Each to their own I say!
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Post by Hells Bells »

I agree that the guest's arrival time is really up to them, but that they should give you decent notice if they are arriving at an unsociable hour, and not expect you to be waiting around for them, particularly if you don't live on site. I mentioned weather conditions delaying my guests above. They were quite happy that there was a key left for them and Mel called the following day to make sure they had found everything. I should imagine after an 11 hour journey through a snow storm, which should have taken 2 hours, all they would want to do was sleep.
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