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Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

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  1. Arks

    Property Management Software question

    Reservation Key only supports the following online payment methods: Authorize.net First Payment Gateway Offline Credit Card (they send you the card info and you charge it through your own terminal) PaygistiX PayPal Square Stripe (I use Stripe. Excellent and a lot cheaper and simpler than...
  2. Arks

    Is anyone using texting to communicate with guests?

    I text with guests all the time. My business phone number is a free Google Voice number. When they call that number, the recording tells them they can either leave a message or they can send a text to the same number. So a lot of them hang up and text to the Google Voice number. I like it...
  3. Arks

    Additional Guest Fee

    I charge $18 per person per night for guests 3 and 4. For that they get an air mattress on the floor. But I don't serve breakfast so this is just for air mattress and use of the bathroom.
  4. Arks

    Crank calls

    GoodScout, did the juvenile delinquents finally get tired of you and move on to someone or something more fun?
  5. Arks

    Crank calls

    Yes, that should work. Shut the main business number off at night, or put it on voice mail, and give the Google number only to registered guests, as an "emergency" number. And it's free!
  6. Arks

    Crank calls

    I've always used a Google Voice number for my inn. It takes text messages and voice mails and forwards all to me as emails. I can read the voice transcripts, and go online to hear the actual recording, if I want. But I don't see how it would help GoodScout with his vandals. If someone calls my...
  7. Arks

    Where to get innkeeping experience?

    I started by reading the book "Running a Bed and Breakfast For Dummies" by Mary White. Then I took a three-day aspiring innkeepers class at a B and B a few hours away in a popular tourist destination. Then I found this forum, studied its resources, asked questions, and finally figured it all...
  8. Arks

    Think Reservations or Little Hotelier?

    ResKey has two places I can enter additional charges, like for damages or if they want a coffee mug. One is "Fees," where I've pre-defined a few things, like use of an air mattress, but there's also an "Other" catch all where I can manually type in what the additional fee is for, add the price...
  9. Arks

    Think Reservations or Little Hotelier?

    Love Reservation Key. Does everything I need and more, great price, and very responsive staff and forum. The bottom line is that the reservations come in smoothly, charge card info is captured and handled and I don't have to take a yearly refresher course on how to secure the card info because...
  10. Arks

    Trip Advisor Troubleshooting?

    They don't care, which is part of why TA is nowhere as big as they could have been if they had done a better job of caring about innkeepers. All they care about are the travelers. Like the CC companies. They care mostly about the people who use their cards, and they care little about the...
  11. Arks

    Hot Water Question

    Around here, the routine is to leave vulnerable water taps open a little, so there's a trickle of water running slowly but constantly to keep the lines from freezing, because the city water lines never freeze, buried too deep. In a small town near here last week so many people left water...
  12. Arks

    Season's Greetings

    Thanks! We got the white Christmas we always ask for, then regret getting as soon as the cancellations start coming in! Power went off Thursday night when it was -2F outside, but luckily came back on after 40 minutes. Disaster averted!
  13. Arks

    Trip Advisor Troubleshooting?

    Same here. At least way back in the day, anybody could create a listing and leave a review of a new inn. TA will list you even if you don't WANT to be listed!
  14. Arks

    Hot Water Question

    Lucky you! When I woke up here in north Arkansas this morning we had snow on the ground and it was -2F/-19C outside! This is the price of living south of central Canada! It's fun to sip coffee, eat homemade Christmas cookies, nap, etc. I don't really mind the cold, within reason. Two below is...
  15. Arks

    Good Coffee For A Little Less...

    Just wanted to share something I ran across, because the Nespresso coffee system makes great coffee, but their pods cost $1.20 to $1.40 each. I've found a "French-style coffee" system, L'OR, that I find just as good as Nespresso, and the coffee pods are "only" 80 to 90 cents each. Saving 50...
  16. Arks

    Hot Water Question

    I got mine installed today. Pump with timer at the water heater and thermostatic valve under the sink at the far end of the line. Works great. Water comes warm out of the hot tap in less than 2 seconds of opening the tap, and gets warmer quickly, up to hot. Only problem I see is that, since the...
  17. Arks

    Look What I bought!

    Good luck. I, with no musical training or talent, played handbells in the church choir for years. It was all I could do to play just G, A flat, and A. Can't imagine playing the whole scale!
  18. Arks

    I only feel slightly guilty...

    I love the time travel. My friends and I are planning a fall 2023 visit to Colonial Williamsburg. It's so great to stay in a house a block off of Duke of Gloucester Street and eat all our meals in taverns from the 1700's. So what if Rockefeller rebuilt it all in the 1930's. It's fantasy better...
  19. Arks

    I only feel slightly guilty...

    ...when someone contacts me the day before Thanksgiving and wants a room for the next three nights, and I gloat. This holiday weekend has been booked up for weeks. These people who don't plan ahead deserve the run-down motel they earned!
  20. Arks

    Hot Water Question

    Brilliant. I've ordered one!
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