Food for thought - fighting the issue

[Samster]

Wait,wait, wait! Can we go back to the theme of this thread? It's about how we as owners can change! What irritants do we complain about all the time. If a problem happens over and over, it's us, not them. Why don't we do something to fix the problem in the first place?
I'm not perfect and our place is not perfect but after 16 years, we rarely get the complainers as guests. I think it's because we forced ourselves to take time during the off season each and every year to analyze what the problems of the previous year were. Once we pinpointed the problem, we found a solution to fix it. Believe me, it's not easy emotionally and DH and I almost always disagree on the solution.
Here's an example. DH wants to do self check-in after 6:00. We used to do it but because of our location and type of property we are, we really ran into some big problems doing self check-ins. As much as I don't want to always be on call and waiting around for guests, for our particular property, it's necessary. It's best for our business and when business is flowing well, generally life is good. For most other properties, self check-in is great.
My take on it is that change is scary, acknowledging that it's really some type of problem we created is difficult. Sometimes a leap of faith is necessary to try it a new way. But if something is not working, it's up to us to try to figure out how to make it work..

"But if something is not working, it's up to us to try to figure out how to make it work."
Totally agree.

 

[Lee2014]

We just decided to start charging for early check-in, etc to keep people at bay. We got tired of people showing up at 12pm, etc. We'll see what happens…...

We have been doing this for years and make an extra 4-5 thousand a year off of it. It's really not a lot of extra work. We just clean according the arrival times. So if an early arrival says they will be here at 1. We clean that one first. We also found if people are paying extra 90% of the time they arrival when they say they will. Our early arrival time is between 1-4. Normal check in time is 4-6. We can approve or reject the time. When there are days when we only have 1 check in its nice to get them checked in a finished. Then we have the rest of the day to do extra work or family time.
.

What drains us? Early check ins. Want a fee high enough to keep those who just want to come in early at bay and yet low enough that those who need an early check in will still come and pay.
P.S. Thanks for your ideas!

 

[Morticia]

We just decided to start charging for early check-in, etc to keep people at bay. We got tired of people showing up at 12pm, etc. We'll see what happens…...

We have been doing this for years and make an extra 4-5 thousand a year off of it. It's really not a lot of extra work. We just clean according the arrival times. So if an early arrival says they will be here at 1. We clean that one first. We also found if people are paying extra 90% of the time they arrival when they say they will. Our early arrival time is between 1-4. Normal check in time is 4-6. We can approve or reject the time. When there are days when we only have 1 check in its nice to get them checked in a finished. Then we have the rest of the day to do extra work or family time.
.

What drains us? Early check ins. Want a fee high enough to keep those who just want to come in early at bay and yet low enough that those who need an early check in will still come and pay.
P.S. Thanks for your ideas!
.

What drains us? Early check ins. Want a fee high enough to keep those who just want to come in early at bay and yet low enough that those who need an early check in will still come and pay.
P.S. Thanks for your ideas!

Don't sort the two camps out into need and want. It's all want. Just because someone has to be at a wedding or whatever does not mean they shouldn't pay for the privilege of taking up your time, using your resources, etc.
I'm not sure why so many guests think 'i have to be somewhere at 2 pm' means 'you have to let me in at noon for free'. But they do.

 

[Lee2014]

We just decided to start charging for early check-in, etc to keep people at bay. We got tired of people showing up at 12pm, etc. We'll see what happens…...

We have been doing this for years and make an extra 4-5 thousand a year off of it. It's really not a lot of extra work. We just clean according the arrival times. So if an early arrival says they will be here at 1. We clean that one first. We also found if people are paying extra 90% of the time they arrival when they say they will. Our early arrival time is between 1-4. Normal check in time is 4-6. We can approve or reject the time. When there are days when we only have 1 check in its nice to get them checked in a finished. Then we have the rest of the day to do extra work or family time.
.

What drains us? Early check ins. Want a fee high enough to keep those who just want to come in early at bay and yet low enough that those who need an early check in will still come and pay.
P.S. Thanks for your ideas!
.

What drains us? Early check ins. Want a fee high enough to keep those who just want to come in early at bay and yet low enough that those who need an early check in will still come and pay.
P.S. Thanks for your ideas!

Don't sort the two camps out into need and want. It's all want. Just because someone has to be at a wedding or whatever does not mean they shouldn't pay for the privilege of taking up your time, using your resources, etc.
I'm not sure why so many guests think 'i have to be somewhere at 2 pm' means 'you have to let me in at noon for free'. But they do.
.

….because they don't think. Oh no, their wants supply our needs!

Or more like it their wants supply our needs to pay our taxes…. I love construction zones! I see what our hard earn money is accomplishing!

 

[Morticia]

Honestly the hardest thing to fight is my attitude. I have noticed my stress level has decreased considerably in the past year. It's still on high alert but it's not pegged in the danger zone all the time. I'm more forgiving. I laugh off more guest foibles than I ever could before.
Why? I've spent a lot of time talking with my dad who is waaay more forgiving than I ever knew and waaaay more forgiving than my mom ever was. Strange. I always thought HE was the hard nut. Nope. Got that wrong for 60 years.
So, my parents are still teaching me. Let go. The stress is not worth it. Hanging on to my perceived best practices in the face of repeated proofs to the contrary is not worth it.
It's so much easier to let go. Laugh it off. Move on. Live in the moment.
I'm not 100% there, but I'm so much closer.
Obviously this does not mean the monkeys are running the zoo. But it does mean I can look at problems with a less frantic attitude. Including the room that still stinks. Just glad I'm not in the market for a used car that THEY used to own!

 

[Anon Inn]

Honestly the hardest thing to fight is my attitude. I have noticed my stress level has decreased considerably in the past year. It's still on high alert but it's not pegged in the danger zone all the time. I'm more forgiving. I laugh off more guest foibles than I ever could before.
Why? I've spent a lot of time talking with my dad who is waaay more forgiving than I ever knew and waaaay more forgiving than my mom ever was. Strange. I always thought HE was the hard nut. Nope. Got that wrong for 60 years.
So, my parents are still teaching me. Let go. The stress is not worth it. Hanging on to my perceived best practices in the face of repeated proofs to the contrary is not worth it.
It's so much easier to let go. Laugh it off. Move on. Live in the moment.
I'm not 100% there, but I'm so much closer.
Obviously this does not mean the monkeys are running the zoo. But it does mean I can look at problems with a less frantic attitude. Including the room that still stinks. Just glad I'm not in the market for a used car that THEY used to own!.

Still enjoying your stories (when not commiserating) but have noticed the less stressed level of relating them.

 

[Jcam]

Wait,wait, wait! Can we go back to the theme of this thread? It's about how we as owners can change! What irritants do we complain about all the time. If a problem happens over and over, it's us, not them. Why don't we do something to fix the problem in the first place?
I'm not perfect and our place is not perfect but after 16 years, we rarely get the complainers as guests. I think it's because we forced ourselves to take time during the off season each and every year to analyze what the problems of the previous year were. Once we pinpointed the problem, we found a solution to fix it. Believe me, it's not easy emotionally and DH and I almost always disagree on the solution.
Here's an example. DH wants to do self check-in after 6:00. We used to do it but because of our location and type of property we are, we really ran into some big problems doing self check-ins. As much as I don't want to always be on call and waiting around for guests, for our particular property, it's necessary. It's best for our business and when business is flowing well, generally life is good. For most other properties, self check-in is great.
My take on it is that change is scary, acknowledging that it's really some type of problem we created is difficult. Sometimes a leap of faith is necessary to try it a new way. But if something is not working, it's up to us to try to figure out how to make it work..

Its a tricky one - I tend to do self check in for regulars ie we had virtually a day off today but left the key out for my regulars in case they came early (2 of them been staying for years always like clockwork 5.30pm) meant they were covered as before now for example another regular simply felt unwell and wanted to come back and lie down - we had left the key in the box in case and could check himself in right away and lie down and not have to wait for us to come back.
The block of serviced apartments just down from us has a bank of lock boxes one for each so they have no access to anything but theirs. ie a lot safer than key in an envelope. Or the individual door locks depending on volume of numbers.

 

[Morticia]

Honestly the hardest thing to fight is my attitude. I have noticed my stress level has decreased considerably in the past year. It's still on high alert but it's not pegged in the danger zone all the time. I'm more forgiving. I laugh off more guest foibles than I ever could before.
Why? I've spent a lot of time talking with my dad who is waaay more forgiving than I ever knew and waaaay more forgiving than my mom ever was. Strange. I always thought HE was the hard nut. Nope. Got that wrong for 60 years.
So, my parents are still teaching me. Let go. The stress is not worth it. Hanging on to my perceived best practices in the face of repeated proofs to the contrary is not worth it.
It's so much easier to let go. Laugh it off. Move on. Live in the moment.
I'm not 100% there, but I'm so much closer.
Obviously this does not mean the monkeys are running the zoo. But it does mean I can look at problems with a less frantic attitude. Including the room that still stinks. Just glad I'm not in the market for a used car that THEY used to own!.

Still enjoying your stories (when not commiserating) but have noticed the less stressed level of relating them.

.

Still enjoying your stories (when not commiserating) but have noticed the less stressed level of relating them.

Thanks.

 

[JBloggs]

Another from Thinkdaily, a good one, a reminder, why we forget this I have no idea, but here tis again:
Changing Other People
If we go around frustrated that other people won't change, it's a sure sign that we need to change ourselves. We will never get other people to think and act the way we want them to. People are different, and so are we.
We can only change ourselves, and by doing so we find the world will change for us - or at least look very different through our eyes.
JB - a person wrote a horrible review about the same cabin that I love and wrote a great review. A place that I kick and scream never wanting to leave. She wrote that it was the worst place to stay, no tv, no dishwasher, nothing to do, they all said they would never ever stay there again, yada yada yada. Blew me away, how in the world? These are newer cabins with river rock fireplaces, full kitchens, air conditioning, porches with views, two bedrooms ($119 a night peak and $88 a night off season) wait let me find a photo:
View from bedroom (foothills in distance, river below, field of wildflowers outside with deer and other animals)

 

[gillumhouse]

Another from Thinkdaily, a good one, a reminder, why we forget this I have no idea, but here tis again:
Changing Other People
If we go around frustrated that other people won't change, it's a sure sign that we need to change ourselves. We will never get other people to think and act the way we want them to. People are different, and so are we.
We can only change ourselves, and by doing so we find the world will change for us - or at least look very different through our eyes.
JB - a person wrote a horrible review about the same cabin that I love and wrote a great review. A place that I kick and scream never wanting to leave. She wrote that it was the worst place to stay, no tv, no dishwasher, nothing to do, they all said they would never ever stay there again, yada yada yada. Blew me away, how in the world? These are newer cabins with river rock fireplaces, full kitchens, air conditioning, porches with views, two bedrooms ($119 a night peak and $88 a night off season) wait let me find a photo:
View from bedroom (foothills in distance, river below, field of wildflowers outside with deer and other animals)

.

a person wrote a horrible review about the same cabin that I love and wrote a great review. A place that I kick and scream never wanting to leave. She wrote that it was the worst place to stay, no tv, no dishwasher, nothing to do, they all said they would never ever stay there again, yada yada yada.
Must be "city people". When I was a kid on the farm, we would go visit my aunt in Chicago for a week every summer. WE would sit on the steps to her apartment and lament "there's nothing to do". Yes, we went to the zoo, museums, etc. but before/after, there was nothing to do. There were streets and sidewalks and we had noting to do. Funny thing is that each of my cousins has told me how they LOVED to come visit us on the farm. We were able to roam. They could ride bikes, visit the cows, all sorts of things.

 

[EmptyNest]

Another from Thinkdaily, a good one, a reminder, why we forget this I have no idea, but here tis again:
Changing Other People
If we go around frustrated that other people won't change, it's a sure sign that we need to change ourselves. We will never get other people to think and act the way we want them to. People are different, and so are we.
We can only change ourselves, and by doing so we find the world will change for us - or at least look very different through our eyes.
JB - a person wrote a horrible review about the same cabin that I love and wrote a great review. A place that I kick and scream never wanting to leave. She wrote that it was the worst place to stay, no tv, no dishwasher, nothing to do, they all said they would never ever stay there again, yada yada yada. Blew me away, how in the world? These are newer cabins with river rock fireplaces, full kitchens, air conditioning, porches with views, two bedrooms ($119 a night peak and $88 a night off season) wait let me find a photo:
View from bedroom (foothills in distance, river below, field of wildflowers outside with deer and other animals)

.

Obviously she didn't have a clue what she was getting when she reserved. IDIOTS! If they want city...then go to the city.

 

[GoodScout]

We charge $50 for an early check-in and $50 for late check-out privileges. In both cases, it's on an as-available basis. It acts as a deterrent much of the time, but on the occasions when a guest is willing to pay it, it's extra cash which helps defray the extra labor required.

 

[Morticia]

Another from Thinkdaily, a good one, a reminder, why we forget this I have no idea, but here tis again:
Changing Other People
If we go around frustrated that other people won't change, it's a sure sign that we need to change ourselves. We will never get other people to think and act the way we want them to. People are different, and so are we.
We can only change ourselves, and by doing so we find the world will change for us - or at least look very different through our eyes.
JB - a person wrote a horrible review about the same cabin that I love and wrote a great review. A place that I kick and scream never wanting to leave. She wrote that it was the worst place to stay, no tv, no dishwasher, nothing to do, they all said they would never ever stay there again, yada yada yada. Blew me away, how in the world? These are newer cabins with river rock fireplaces, full kitchens, air conditioning, porches with views, two bedrooms ($119 a night peak and $88 a night off season) wait let me find a photo:
View from bedroom (foothills in distance, river below, field of wildflowers outside with deer and other animals)

.

I've seen reviews about my area (on the reviews from other places to stay) that say there is nothing to do here, nowhere to eat except McD's, there's no 'nightlife' and you have to drive to everything.
We can't help people who insist on going somewhere that doesn't fit their personality. If you want a city, then stay in a city. If you want to walk everywhere, don't stay at a place that is 2 miles out of town. If you don't want to eat at McD's, then walk 2 minutes farther to 10 different, local restaurants. And mostly, ASK when you make your reservation if there are nightclubs in the area, if there are hiking trails, if there are historic sites, etc.
We know the answers, ask the questions.
I think anyone who loves the outdoors will read that person''s review with a chuckle and shake their heads thinking 'they don't know what they're missing.'

 

[Breakfast Diva]

Honestly the hardest thing to fight is my attitude. I have noticed my stress level has decreased considerably in the past year. It's still on high alert but it's not pegged in the danger zone all the time. I'm more forgiving. I laugh off more guest foibles than I ever could before.
Why? I've spent a lot of time talking with my dad who is waaay more forgiving than I ever knew and waaaay more forgiving than my mom ever was. Strange. I always thought HE was the hard nut. Nope. Got that wrong for 60 years.
So, my parents are still teaching me. Let go. The stress is not worth it. Hanging on to my perceived best practices in the face of repeated proofs to the contrary is not worth it.
It's so much easier to let go. Laugh it off. Move on. Live in the moment.
I'm not 100% there, but I'm so much closer.
Obviously this does not mean the monkeys are running the zoo. But it does mean I can look at problems with a less frantic attitude. Including the room that still stinks. Just glad I'm not in the market for a used car that THEY used to own!.

So, my parents are still teaching me. Let go. The stress is not worth it. Hanging on to my perceived best practices in the face of repeated proofs to the contrary is not worth it.
It's so much easier to let go. Laugh it off. Move on. Live in the moment.
I'm not 100% there, but I'm so much closer.

I love this!