haven't checked out yet, but re-booking for next year!

[Sunshine]

YAY! Guests from all the rooms re-booked for next year, before they even checked out!
All rooms full now. If we had 50 rooms for Memorial day weekend, we could fill every one of them. I feel badly for those folks who start calling around in January looking for rooms for this weekend. Those who come to town on Memorial day weekend KNOW to book early!
I have to admit tho.... its kinda nice to be able to say, I'm sorry, we have been booked for a year! Would you like to make a reservation for 2016?

 

[gillumhouse]

Just be sure to set yourself an auto message or something to contact and verify these year in advance reservations. I had one for horses - something tripped my brain and I called to verify. Sure enough, she had forgotten she had the rez and had not cancelled it.

 

[Sunshine]

Thanks! We do have an auto email that gets sent out.

 

[Madeleine]

I love when this happens!
Send them a reminder a month or so out. Just had a bad go around with someone who forgot her rez.

 

[Arks]

I love when this happens!
Send them a reminder a month or so out. Just had a bad go around with someone who forgot her rez..

Send them a reminder a month or so out. Just had a bad go around with someone who forgot her rez.

If you use ResKey, it's easy to create the reminder now, while it's fresh on your mind, and set the date you want it go out, say a month before the reservation. Then you can forget about it.
That way, if they end up cancelling you have time to rent to someone else.

 

[Madeleine]

I love when this happens!
Send them a reminder a month or so out. Just had a bad go around with someone who forgot her rez..

Send them a reminder a month or so out. Just had a bad go around with someone who forgot her rez.

If you use ResKey, it's easy to create the reminder now, while it's fresh on your mind, and set the date you want it go out, say a month before the reservation. Then you can forget about it.
That way, if they end up cancelling you have time to rent to someone else.
.

I forgot to remind myself to set the reminder email up!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Awesome! I had a guest tell me yesterday, he can't believe he found this place after visiting the town for years. He said, from now on, he will only stay here!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

 

[JBloggs]

Awesome! I had a guest tell me yesterday, he can't believe he found this place after visiting the town for years. He said, from now on, he will only stay here!.

Awesome! I had a guest tell me yesterday, he can't believe he found this place after visiting the town for years. He said, from now on, he will only stay here!

I reserved a room for a couple for Friday. I recognized their names and looked in my system and saw the notes I made 4 years ago that said the same thing you just wrote. Well, okay so they stay here every 4 years, if everyone did that we would be okay. But one night 4 years ago peak season and one night this Friday, not quite cutting the mustard.
Not that I am not thankful, but I do remember the difficulty we had with them 4 years ago thanks to my notes. No major issues, just needy, requirement much of our time and attention, when I say OUR I mean, me.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.

Go right now to your reservation system and change to at least a 2 night minimum for Labor Day! You could probably do what we do, which is to put in a 3 night minimum, then if you haven't rented all your rooms a couple weeks before the holiday, change it to a 2 night minimum. Believe me, you will fill up and be so much happier when it's over!
BTW, I don't care which 3 nights they book. This holiday we had 1 room Thurs, Fri, Sat, and 1 Sat, Sun, Monday. Just fill in where you need to.

 

[Madeleine]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.
.

Also do Columbus day weekend!

 

[JBloggs]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.

Well it's a good thing this isn't your business, it's hubby's.

Yes that was sarcasm, you are iNN this too! Obviously.
Where you are there is no such thing as one night unless it is orphaned, in fact you may require a 3 night stay! Location location, don't settle, you will be able to beat them off with sticks where you are! I saw this today:
Getting stuck in a damaging cycle
We choose, either deliberately or otherwise, who we work with and what we charge. It seems most service providers start off working for “whoever will pay them” and never quite break free from the cycle this creates.
It looks like this:
Money is tight, so I need to accept whatever work I can get.
Because I accept whatever work I can get, money is always tight.
Set EVERY WEEKEND TO TWO NIGHTS, YEAR ROUND TBC. And every holiday period to two night min.

 

[Breakfast Diva]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

I think we weren't ready. Summer happend to us quickly. We are talking about putting in the two night restriction on weekends.
And we did have two complete turnover days, Sunday and Monday.

Well it's a good thing this isn't your business, it's hubby's.

Yes that was sarcasm, you are iNN this too! Obviously.
Where you are there is no such thing as one night unless it is orphaned, in fact you may require a 3 night stay! Location location, don't settle, you will be able to beat them off with sticks where you are! I saw this today:
Getting stuck in a damaging cycle
We choose, either deliberately or otherwise, who we work with and what we charge. It seems most service providers start off working for “whoever will pay them” and never quite break free from the cycle this creates.
It looks like this:
Money is tight, so I need to accept whatever work I can get.
Because I accept whatever work I can get, money is always tight.
Set EVERY WEEKEND TO TWO NIGHTS, YEAR ROUND TBC. And every holiday period to two night min.
.

I totally agree with JB. This IS your business too. Yes, you're working full time, but what happens there affects you both. The decisions both of you make in the beginning of your ownership can really be important, so err on the side of what you want your place to be in the future. If you want to have minimum night stays, then do it now. If you want to be known as a romantic getaway for adults, then create your policies now to reflect that (and that means not having 5 people in a room), etc.
Create the business and it's policies to reflect your ultimate goal. It's much easier to do it now than a few years down the road. Think of it as training DH, your guests and the community to see you as what your vision of your place is.

 

[Joey Camb]

Awesome! I had a guest tell me yesterday, he can't believe he found this place after visiting the town for years. He said, from now on, he will only stay here!.

we had Bank holiday weekend - ie 3 day weekend
Full house 3 days - some decided to go home early on the Sunday morning - said I am sorry but if I don't resell we will not be refunding you - it meant because I am soft instead of having a day off we had to stay in all day in case we sold those 2 rooms to walk in's - am exhausted with 24, 24 then 21 for breakfast each day for 3 days!

 

[Kay Nein]

Good for you! What an amazing feeling.
We got an email reservation on Sunday for 5/22. I called the guy, "I think you made a mistake on your reservation. What day did you really want?" Oops, I didn't see the 2015 on there. Holy Cow! Our first reservation for next year. Guy said he saw us while he was walking around downtown (we had a huge arts festival this weekend). I don't even have those pages in my reservation book yet. Pretty cool!

 

[Joey Camb]

Good for you! What an amazing feeling.
We got an email reservation on Sunday for 5/22. I called the guy, "I think you made a mistake on your reservation. What day did you really want?" Oops, I didn't see the 2015 on there. Holy Cow! Our first reservation for next year. Guy said he saw us while he was walking around downtown (we had a huge arts festival this weekend). I don't even have those pages in my reservation book yet. Pretty cool!.

its why im always on banging the drum about getting lots of ahead availability on your online booking - you never know who is looking and the early birds tend to be the better bookings. Ive just had a large group looking to book for 2 nights 2016

 

[TheBeachHouse]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

We are just starting out. This past Memorial Day weekend, we had two full house checkouts. Lots of work, yes. But also, twice as many people enjoyed our inn and several said they would come back. Including two rooms that stayed on a whim having never visited the town before. We get more word of mouth with twice as many guests. For this first year, we are having a blast! Why piss people off when we don't have to?

 

[Madeleine]

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all..

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.
.

AND we got our first day-of cancellation Sunday. (yes, Sunday of Memorial Day when we are the only place in town that allows one night reservations.)
Hubby told the woman he had turned several people away and had to charge her for the room. No argument at all.

Why in the world would you not have at least a 2 night minimum on a major holiday in your location?? You would still fill up in a heart beat! Sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, but you're making way more work and stress for yourself.

We are just starting out. This past Memorial Day weekend, we had two full house checkouts. Lots of work, yes. But also, twice as many people enjoyed our inn and several said they would come back. Including two rooms that stayed on a whim having never visited the town before. We get more word of mouth with twice as many guests. For this first year, we are having a blast! Why piss people off when we don't have to?
.

There's sometimes a problem with being overly generous your first year out.
You did one nighters this year but will you want to do them next year and the year after? Every holiday?
Those really nice people who loved your place this weekend might want 3 nights next year. If you've allowed 1 nighters to select random rooms you may find you don't have a run of 3 nights in the same room to offer.
That might not be a problem but some guests want to settle in and unpack. Now they can't.
Just things to think about. Different perspective.
There's a place here that has 5-7 night minimums, beach front, great location. They have a waiting list for certain weeks every summer. Someone has to die to get in on those weeks.
You will be that place someday soon!