Do You Keep Emails

[Highlands John]

I have kept every email I've ever had a from a guest since we started in 2004. Why? Don't know really, never thought about it until now.
Now days I do most of my correspondence on my ipad, but I still use the PC as a repository, downloading all emails to Thunderbird once in a while and saving all guest emails in files dated one per year.
Am I wasting my time, what do others do?

 

[JimBoone]

I keep my emails as well, guests, inquiries from prospective guests, other business email and some personal. Okay, I'm a pack rat, but there are times when having old correspondence has been useful.

 

[Morticia]

I think I have all the confirmations back that far spread out over 3 email readers. I think I've needed one email once, a year later when the guest insisted we had her rez wrong.
Sometimes I need an email 2 or more years old for a service provider.
I've saved the thank yous.

 

[Generic]

We use gmail and have every single email. Love to be able to search from time to time if we have to check anything.

 

[JBloggs]

Nope.
Nunca.

 

[gillumhouse]

I have a lot of files Reservations, Confirmations - coffee selection e-mails & nice replies go under confirmations), organization info, newsletters, etc. I am also a pack rat. I do delete notifications from FB, here, and BedPosts once i have read them. More than a few times I have searched e-mails on a name to find something.

 

[GoodScout]

We've kept every email on everything since we bought our B&B 3 years ago. Once a year, I go through and delete out unnecessary things like automated replies for non-business items, personal mail, etc. But I've had to go back to find an email from 5 months before I closed on our inn, and I was glad it was still there on the server.
Electrons cost almost nothing to store, so why delete them?

 

[MtnKeeper]

We've been open 10 years and I have a a folder marked the name of the B&B and general stuff goes in there that I want to save. Then I have a subfolders:
- Cancellations and/or issues
- Receipts (I keep all email confirmation receipts here until I do the next year's taxes and then I print them out and put in the tax binder and then delete).
- Employee Issues
- Gift Certificates (I save copies of the electronic ones in there or anything related to GCs)
- Marketing and/or OTAs
I only save the stuff I want. Typically after I send a reply to someone I will move it from sent into the folder. Or I will cc us on the email and then move in when it comes into the Inbox. Anything else gets moved to trash and disappears in a week or two.

 

[Glaciers In Saskatoon]

I did for the first 4 years and then went thru and culled all the "non-returns". WHAT A MISTAKE!!!
Almost right away I had a long-lost guest email me and his information was gone. ARGGGGHHHH!
Now I keep all the information. My regulars are also kept in a large recipe card file, which I find easy to access and pin to their registration form. Gives me their data plus breakfast from the past. I find, for me, this works easier for returning guests. I guess this is another joy of being a small operation.

 

[JBloggs]

I did for the first 4 years and then went thru and culled all the "non-returns". WHAT A MISTAKE!!!
Almost right away I had a long-lost guest email me and his information was gone. ARGGGGHHHH!
Now I keep all the information. My regulars are also kept in a large recipe card file, which I find easy to access and pin to their registration form. Gives me their data plus breakfast from the past. I find, for me, this works easier for returning guests. I guess this is another joy of being a small operation..

I did for the first 4 years and then went thru and culled all the "non-returns". WHAT A MISTAKE!!!
Almost right away I had a long-lost guest email me and his information was gone. ARGGGGHHHH!

That is what a reservation program is for.

 

[Hillbilly]

Yes we keep them. It has come in handy for people needing info for many different reasons. Most of them we will never ever need. But on occasion something comes up and we have it to fix or prove what we need. Kinda like a modern day junk pile. You keep all this crap around for that "someday" you might need it.

 

[Lee2014]

Yes, we have kept every guest email even air, we have it all back up on a hard drive as well. We also write it down in our book and on their card…. don't trust our computer.