Many thanks for all your replies, which make very interesting reading. I'm amazed (why?), that, as the poll stands today, approx. 25% of those who replied are still using snail-mail for all, or at least part, of their correspondence. I suppose I thought I would be in a smaller minority. Apologies for the longish post that follows, but thought I would have a go at summing up some of the points made (just to prove I've been reading all your contributions attentively
EDIT - But caught out by Martha's stamp,
)
Opinions definitely appear to be divided on this issue. Those who prefer snail-mail seem to feel it adds a personal touch, and may reassure punters that we do actually exist. I like the idea of adding brochures and local information: I started out doing this in my first year, but quickly had to give it up (too time consuming, too expensive) as we went from one property to three. (And black looks from the tourist office staff whenever I sneaked in to swipe another dozen brochures…). Full marks to LVT though, for their bumper pack of information in beautiful presentation folder. I can see how that adds to the thrill of a forthcoming holiday, and very nice if you can do this for punters. I also like Mousie's idea of a homemade DVD. Great ideas and food for thought.
Various posters have mentioned that your chosen option might depend to some extent on where you live, and I think this is true. If you are based in the UK, dealing with (mainly) UK clients, snail-mail is possibly more of a viable option. For those who are based abroad, but dealing with (mainly) UK clients, email begins to look increasingly attractive. And if you are dealing with several accommodation units, it begins to look frankly essential.
In favour of email, we have speed, efficiency, consideration for the environment and, in most cases, convenience for the punter (not necessarily in that order). Surprisingly, perhaps, not many of you seem to be too concerned about signatures on email documents. I think I'll rig up a .jpg sig file and stick that into my documents. I'm not overly worried about signatures myself, but that is more because I remain sceptical about the validity of my rental documents in a court of law. I think their value lies more in that they "concentrate minds" and serve as a framework for the parties involved.
There also appear to be mixed views on sending Word docs v. PDF docs. In favour of PDF docs:
- everyone can read them (incl. Mac users)
- appeal to security-conscious users who are rightly worried about nasties in Word docs
- punter can't change anything
Apologies if I am teaching anyone to suck eggs, but I only found out about CutePDF recently. You can download it
here It's a neat little program that allows you to convert your Word doc to PDF. And the nice thing is, it's ultra simple! In a nutshell, when you've created your word doc, simply go to Print in your toolbar, select the Printer dropdown menu and click on CutePDF Writer. Then all you need to do is name your doc and save it. All done!
PDFs are tricky, of course, if you have to get punters to fill anything in. Re PDF form filling options: I might have got this all wrong, but as far as I can see, CutePDF Form Filler, costing USD 29.95 for one licence, allows you to create and send PDF forms. BUT your PDF document must have socalled "interactive form fields", otherwise you, or anyone else, won't be able to fill out the form. As Derwent and Brooke confirm, you would have to purchase either Adobe Acrobat Professional (megabucks) or CutePDF Professional (costs just USD 49.95 AND INCLUDES CutePDF Form Filler, so very good value?) to create a PDF doc with interactive form fields.
The other fast, small, free PDF reader is Foxit (get it
here). Thanks to LV for pointing this out to me. Looking at the Foxit blurb, and I'm still struggling with this, it appears that Foxit features interactive form fields, so you might be able to use it with the CutePDF Form Filler software? Otherwise pay USD 20 more for peace of mind and go for the CutePDF Professional licence, perhaps?
And finally, the RR award for sheer boundless optimism goes to Martha, for her lovely snail-mail stamp and faith in human nature:
I cling to the faint hope that it (the stamp) makes them (the punters) less likely to trash the place.