Gift certificates

[Samster]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

I don't feel cheated, I am happy to upgrade people if something is available and it seems that it would make them happy. I just upgraded a guest who was here with someone else to our double room suite. (They were going to share a bed.) They thought it was nice at that moment. No other real thank you.
What I do resent is that most of the time, they don't comment at check-out about how nice it was that they received a significant upgrade! grrrrrrr...

And not once has someone written in a review about how we upgraded their room.

 

[gillumhouse]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

I don't feel cheated, I am happy to upgrade people if something is available and it seems that it would make them happy. I just upgraded a guest who was here with someone else to our double room suite. (They were going to share a bed.) They thought it was nice at that moment. No other real thank you.
What I do resent is that most of the time, they don't comment at check-out about how nice it was that they received a significant upgrade! grrrrrrr...

And not once has someone written in a review about how we upgraded their room.
.

If I upgraded a room, and I have a few times, I hope they DO NOT wrote about the free up-grade, just about how wonderful everything was. I do not want anyone to getthe idea they can book a lesser priced room and look forward to an up-grade - and be ticked if they do not get it! But that is just me.

 

[Samster]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

I don't feel cheated, I am happy to upgrade people if something is available and it seems that it would make them happy. I just upgraded a guest who was here with someone else to our double room suite. (They were going to share a bed.) They thought it was nice at that moment. No other real thank you.
What I do resent is that most of the time, they don't comment at check-out about how nice it was that they received a significant upgrade! grrrrrrr...

And not once has someone written in a review about how we upgraded their room.
.

If I upgraded a room, and I have a few times, I hope they DO NOT wrote about the free up-grade, just about how wonderful everything was. I do not want anyone to getthe idea they can book a lesser priced room and look forward to an up-grade - and be ticked if they do not get it! But that is just me.
.

Yes, I suppose that's possible. But it's not like people don't know that sometimes guests get upgraded.

 

[Tim_Toad_HLB]

We've had the best luck and experiences with BNBfinder GCs.
Because the other big directory is affiliated with Schmotels.com and Expectorant.com, you get cheap motel types who are clueless on B&B etiquette and treat everything like its their usual Motel 6 experience.
Have had many a guest from the above mentioned try to cobble a multiple night stay together with mutliple gift cards, GCs, a little cash, etc. and get schitty about frustration I exhibit spending an hour just getting their bill settled.
We always ask for the GC or Gift Card numbers before we'll even secure the reservation. I then go verify them online immediately to make sure they are valid and the balance left will cover the stay. If not, the guest gets a call and we get a CC number before we'll send the confirmation.
Remember, good guests appreciate us doing things by the book and professionally so there are no loose ends when they arrive. Its only the ones trying to get away with something that appreciate any laxity on our part.

 

[scrambled_eggs]

Thanks Tim. I liked hearing your point of view on this. I am on bnbfinder.com but no one has ever used a gift certificate yet!

 

[egoodell]

Keep in mind that we've only been in business since August of 2008....we've sold quite a few gift certificates, but so far only one has been redeemed. We put a one-year expiration on them to protect us from whatever unforeseen reason that might crop up in the future such as rate increases, etc.
I'm curious to know if any of you put such restrictions on you gift certificates..

I'm curious to know if any of you put such restrictions on you gift certificates.

The state of Virginia does not allow expirations, so ours have none. They are numbered so I can track them, and the value of the certificate is protected against rate increases for one year.This way, if we sell in ten years and have any out, we can qualify the value of the certiificates, and if any old ones are used, the guest will have to pay the difference.
Riki

 

[Don Draper]

I don't offer gift certificates because I don't want the headache of keeping track of them. I have accepted the bedandbreakfast.com gift cards but I am curious if anyone has accepted bnbfinder.com or iloveinns.com gift certificates. I know the last two take a smaller commission than bedandbreakfast.com so they sounded better. What does everyone else think about accepting these?.

We have had good luck with both bnbfinder.com and iloveinns.com gc's. They take only a 10% commission, and in general the "type" of guests have been good for us. In general though, like Joe Bloggs says, most gc recipients are only looking to use the gc, not spend any extra.
Only down side to these two registeries is they send you a physical check for reimbursement, so slower than bedandbreakfast.com
.

Hi -- this is Mary from BnBFinder.com with a quick clarification. We pay innkeepers daily by check or direct deposit (you choose which form of payment you want when you redeem the certificate).
.

Hi Mary,
Thanks for the clarification...my mistake, I forgot that you all offer direct deposit...very convenient and I thank you!

 

[JBloggs]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

I don't feel cheated, I am happy to upgrade people if something is available and it seems that it would make them happy. I just upgraded a guest who was here with someone else to our double room suite. (They were going to share a bed.) They thought it was nice at that moment. No other real thank you.
What I do resent is that most of the time, they don't comment at check-out about how nice it was that they received a significant upgrade! grrrrrrr...

And not once has someone written in a review about how we upgraded their room.
.

I don't feel cheated, I am happy to upgrade people if something is available and it seems that it would make them happy. I just upgraded a guest who was here with someone else to our double room suite. (They were going to share a bed.) They thought it was nice at that moment. No other real thank you.
What I do resent is that most of the time, they don't comment at check-out about how nice it was that they received a significant upgrade! grrrrrrr...

And not once has someone written in a review about how we upgraded their room.

That is a point I think we can all agree upon. When we do the free upgrades we do not receive anything more even via way of a thank you for it. If there were ever a tip-worthy moment it would be as a "Gee thanks for giving us the $175 room for the $110 room rate" we appreciate it. The thing with most rooms at most B&B's they are all so different, so to upgrade is sometimes not even worth it, as they wanted room A for the bath tub vs the larger room B with the shower stall.

 

[Don Draper]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

We have differently sized rooms and they are priced accordingly. We never upgrade unless there is some issue with access (clawfoot tubs, etc.)...we often have people book the smallest room which is also the most economical...if they see a larger room open and ask about it I tell them if it is available and what the rate is...otherwise we'd be constantly giving away our larger rooms for the lower rate...the smallest room is priced as such because it is optimum for one person.

 

[Morticia]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

We have differently sized rooms and they are priced accordingly. We never upgrade unless there is some issue with access (clawfoot tubs, etc.)...we often have people book the smallest room which is also the most economical...if they see a larger room open and ask about it I tell them if it is available and what the rate is...otherwise we'd be constantly giving away our larger rooms for the lower rate...the smallest room is priced as such because it is optimum for one person.
.

We get that 'book the cheap room ask for the more expensive one on arrival' scenario. Altho, Sanctuary had a good idea in blocking off her cheapest room until the more expensive one is booked. That said, if a person ASKS to be upgraded, at my expense, no can do. Otherwise, I think it can be a good marketing tool. I have had guests who were upgraded (because they're good guests and it was a thank you or because we just didn't feel like having to clean upstairs the next day, whatever) who have subsequently taken the more expensive room every time.

 

[Samster]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

We have differently sized rooms and they are priced accordingly. We never upgrade unless there is some issue with access (clawfoot tubs, etc.)...we often have people book the smallest room which is also the most economical...if they see a larger room open and ask about it I tell them if it is available and what the rate is...otherwise we'd be constantly giving away our larger rooms for the lower rate...the smallest room is priced as such because it is optimum for one person.
.

We get that 'book the cheap room ask for the more expensive one on arrival' scenario. Altho, Sanctuary had a good idea in blocking off her cheapest room until the more expensive one is booked. That said, if a person ASKS to be upgraded, at my expense, no can do. Otherwise, I think it can be a good marketing tool. I have had guests who were upgraded (because they're good guests and it was a thank you or because we just didn't feel like having to clean upstairs the next day, whatever) who have subsequently taken the more expensive room every time.
.

I think we can all agree on that one too...If they've booked the least expensive room and then go fishing when they arrive for an upgrade to something more expensive, that is irksome. An unexpected upgrade is a gift and guests should view it that way and be appreciative. I know that I would!

 

[EmptyNest]

Question for you all - do you feel cheated if a guest is upgraded at no extra cost to them? See for me, unless the house is full and someone could have paid for that higher priced room, who cares? The guests are happy and that makes me happy. We often move guests to other rooms for various reasons, we get the same revenue from the deal and no one is put out by it..

We have differently sized rooms and they are priced accordingly. We never upgrade unless there is some issue with access (clawfoot tubs, etc.)...we often have people book the smallest room which is also the most economical...if they see a larger room open and ask about it I tell them if it is available and what the rate is...otherwise we'd be constantly giving away our larger rooms for the lower rate...the smallest room is priced as such because it is optimum for one person.
.

We get that 'book the cheap room ask for the more expensive one on arrival' scenario. Altho, Sanctuary had a good idea in blocking off her cheapest room until the more expensive one is booked. That said, if a person ASKS to be upgraded, at my expense, no can do. Otherwise, I think it can be a good marketing tool. I have had guests who were upgraded (because they're good guests and it was a thank you or because we just didn't feel like having to clean upstairs the next day, whatever) who have subsequently taken the more expensive room every time.
.

I did upgrades as MY CHOICE...never at the guest request. Who do they think they are??? Sorry bub..you get what you paid for why should I upgrade you???

 

[swirt]

And the folks who just arrived? No GC. They don't know what they did with it. And they can't climb stairs, so they have to have another room. But they wanted the king bed. Hubs is handling it. More than likely they already used the bathroom in the room they booked and they are now switching rooms. Hubs is hauling their things to another room. They are like 80 years old..

Do you not require them to send you the gift certificate to hold the room?
I'd hate to book a room for some dufus, they not show up, I've lost a potential booking because the room was reserved for them and they still have the gift certifcate.
I suppose at that point you just cancel the gift certificate, but now you have to keep up with the dang thing.
.

Do you not require them to send you the gift certificate to hold the room?
I'd hate to book a room for some dufus, they not show up, I've lost a potential booking because the room was reserved for them and they still have the gift certifcate.
We stopped selling gift certificates a few years ago and now our are either all redeemed or expired, but when we accepted them, we used them to hold the reservation and specifically noted in the confirmation that the gift certificate was used as the deposit and as such the same cancelation policy applied. If they cancelled early enough, they got to use the certificate at another time, if they cancelled and weren't able to re-book the room, the deposit became ours and the system removed the gc from service. The paper version was just a formality and we had the email communication and the records of when it was used.
At the time we were using SuperInn and it handled that with ease, now we are using RezovationGT and it handles it with even greater ease. If you are doing it without a guest managment system, then it becomes a bit of a bookeeping pain.

 

[JBloggs]

I agree with everyone else, we don't like guests to use gc's but in the lean winter months we love them more than air itself.

 

[swirt]

I agree with everyone else, we don't like guests to use gc's but in the lean winter months we love them more than air itself..

Legal disclaimer: Breathing gift certificates leads to nasal paper cuts and should be avoided.

 

[hawley]

We can put an expiration on a GC, but come the date it expires, I would have to turn the money over to the state treasurer. So, I only put an expiration date on donated GC. Otherwise, I have not sold any and don't plan to. But I would issue one if someone had to cancel and I couldn't do a refund according to the policy.

 

[Morticia]

OK, dragging this one up again because this must be GC season...2 more coming in this weekend, one of them totally free. I signed up to do a program thru the cruise ships where I offered one night free for a stay of 2 nights. The other one was a comedy in and of itself...
Guest calls to book and she is telling us what's on the GC. It sounds nothing at all like what our GC's even look like. We don't 'computer-generate' GC's. All of the pertinent info is written right on them, this one had nothing other than what room it was for (which I haven't done in years). We found the original and it appears the couple in question ARE the recipients so we're guessing the giver didn't want them to know how much they spent so the giver went online, looked over the rooms and picked out a name and told them that's what their GC was for and then printed up their own GC.
Would they do that with a WalMart GC? Would WalMart accept a 'computer generated' scrap of paper in place of the original gift card? Yeah, I didn't think so.

 

[gillumhouse]

OK, dragging this one up again because this must be GC season...2 more coming in this weekend, one of them totally free. I signed up to do a program thru the cruise ships where I offered one night free for a stay of 2 nights. The other one was a comedy in and of itself...
Guest calls to book and she is telling us what's on the GC. It sounds nothing at all like what our GC's even look like. We don't 'computer-generate' GC's. All of the pertinent info is written right on them, this one had nothing other than what room it was for (which I haven't done in years). We found the original and it appears the couple in question ARE the recipients so we're guessing the giver didn't want them to know how much they spent so the giver went online, looked over the rooms and picked out a name and told them that's what their GC was for and then printed up their own GC.
Would they do that with a WalMart GC? Would WalMart accept a 'computer generated' scrap of paper in place of the original gift card? Yeah, I didn't think so..

I have a one night freebie I gave to the Gov Conf coming next week. I think I will try a 50% off GC this year. They pay pennies on the dollar anyway in a silent auction. I must say though that a lot of the ones given at this function do not get used - they are in tourism too and getting away for them is as hard as it is for me.