Walk In... OMG ... Walk Out

[TheBeachHouse]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

Perhaps, but the extra time it took me to make a coffee cake instead of muffins and shoving a candle in it is the kind of thing that keeps guests coming back. This is the guests who asked on the 3rd visit here - Where do you have us going thins time? They have told us repeatedly that this is their "home away from home".
Yes, Time is money - and if you spend a little of it now, more will come back with repeat guests who will come back again and again to a place where many see nothing to do, but these guests know that is not true because I have shown that to be so by spending a little bit of time (money).
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.
.

Time spent is money earned.
There isn't time for everything, but if you are a stickler for 'rules' and schedules, you may find that innkeeping is not the best vocation.
I'm a compliance officer by day. And I like rules and schedules and procedures. But sometimes, doing what makes a guest comfortable is the right thing to do. Even if it's not in the procedures.

 

[gillumhouse]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

Perhaps, but the extra time it took me to make a coffee cake instead of muffins and shoving a candle in it is the kind of thing that keeps guests coming back. This is the guests who asked on the 3rd visit here - Where do you have us going thins time? They have told us repeatedly that this is their "home away from home".
Yes, Time is money - and if you spend a little of it now, more will come back with repeat guests who will come back again and again to a place where many see nothing to do, but these guests know that is not true because I have shown that to be so by spending a little bit of time (money).
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.
.

They usually do not show up with their fangs showing - and for those that do, by morning they often have turned into pussy cats who are purring with how wonderful everything is.
I will spend whatever time it takes because what may seem like "throwing money (time) down a rat hole" comes back as finding gold with interest. I have more than a few examples of that so I know it to be true. Not always of course, but often enough I am not going to change (even if I could).

 

[Morticia]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

Perhaps, but the extra time it took me to make a coffee cake instead of muffins and shoving a candle in it is the kind of thing that keeps guests coming back. This is the guests who asked on the 3rd visit here - Where do you have us going thins time? They have told us repeatedly that this is their "home away from home".
Yes, Time is money - and if you spend a little of it now, more will come back with repeat guests who will come back again and again to a place where many see nothing to do, but these guests know that is not true because I have shown that to be so by spending a little bit of time (money).
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.

This is why we hire out lawn care, payroll, tax stuff and sometimes housekeeping. No one does the job as well as we do it but our time is best spent in direct contact with where the money comes from - the guest.
Just being on this forum, helpful as it is, is a time suck.
Right now I'm not: blogging, coming up with new packages, cleaning, schmoozing in town with other business owners, taking photos of new things for guests to do, updating my website.

 

[undersea]

Guest from hell last week insisted that we rotate the mattress for her. Well, it would have been nice for her to remove all her crap from atop the bed before she left for the day. Geeze!.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."
.

sheesh - do they want you to rotate their tires for them, too?
"Ma'am, modern mattresses are not flippable, but we rotate them on a regular basis."

We had a hold over from the PO's who expected us to wash his car. I laughed because I thought it was a joke. Thankfully, they never came back.
.

"Well sir/ma'am, if you stay until the next rainstorm at full rate, we will throw on a couple squirts of Dawn for no cost..."
Seriously, a major takeaway I have from all the conversations is, that we offer a base set of services: Clean room, nice breakfast, basic recommendations, etc. And we will have some add-on services.
You need 90 minutes of concierge service, wedding planner, trip planning that is $75 (whatever) an hour if available. Prepaid. You want 600 pounds of luggage carried up and then down from your third floor room for a 1 night stay, that is $15 a bag. Prepaid. Shall I book this service for you?
People who ask things like this either get a phone book or a serious markup that covers finding an outside service plus my profit.
Time is Money. Once you start doing the bizarre, your profit for that guest goes out the window.
.

Perhaps, but the extra time it took me to make a coffee cake instead of muffins and shoving a candle in it is the kind of thing that keeps guests coming back. This is the guests who asked on the 3rd visit here - Where do you have us going thins time? They have told us repeatedly that this is their "home away from home".
Yes, Time is money - and if you spend a little of it now, more will come back with repeat guests who will come back again and again to a place where many see nothing to do, but these guests know that is not true because I have shown that to be so by spending a little bit of time (money).
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.
.

Time is money. And wise spending of that time is definitely what you are saying here. The issue is the time and energy vampires.

This is why we hire out lawn care, payroll, tax stuff and sometimes housekeeping. No one does the job as well as we do it but our time is best spent in direct contact with where the money comes from - the guest.
Just being on this forum, helpful as it is, is a time suck.
Right now I'm not: blogging, coming up with new packages, cleaning, schmoozing in town with other business owners, taking photos of new things for guests to do, updating my website.
.

"
"Being on the forum is a time suck."
I would say a judicious use of the forum is a good business investment; you can learn a lot. And part of the purpose of ownership is joy; talking to other owners. But overdoing it can become addiction.

 

[Joey Camb]

So I always have the dilemma of when to tidy the room when the guests are hanging around. I don't want to disturb them, nor do I want to be cleaning their rooms at 1 p.m. How do you let your guests know what time you clean the rooms? Do you leave a note on their dresser? If so, does the note state that the rooms will only be cleaned during certain hours, (say 10-12) so if they hang around and don't leave until later their rooms won't be cleaned?.

What works for us. In our book of information we state rooms will be cleaned between 10 or 1100 am and 3 pm. If they hang around I don't clean. But I will ask if I can come in and take out garbage and what ever they need. If it needs cleaning I ask if they would please on to their decks and let me in to do a quick clean. They are very good about that . They usually go for a walk or take a drink with them to their own decks.
.

depends a lot on your market also - mine is mainly business people here for something in particular so they have to be up and out , rare that I don't have 6 rooms vacant by 9.30. Weve been lucky as had a lady on a 6 week course Sunday leaving Friday morning who had to be out by 8am every day so it guaranteed us a room vacant and ready for the chamber maid to get into from first thing every day.