Re: innkeeping: Handling After-hour Reservations

[The Ashwood <ashwood@proaxis.com>]

At 07:38 PM 4/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>how to handle after-hour reservations.......
>Is anyone else dealing with a similar situation....

Certainly we are dealing with a similar situation, as are many others. 
Every
b&b has its own methods of handling calls and of course, every call is 
unique.

'Phone communication is of prime importance and we are striving to reach 
an
equitable balance between answering and "letting it ring". Because humans
have been conditioned to answer the 'phone when it rings, some of us may
experience difficulty in letting a machine do it.

By telephone:
It may help to disregard the "after-hours" concept as far as reservations
go. Any
time that you are able take calls and/or make reservations is "business 
time".
You must, on behalf of both your guests and yourself, have your calendars 
and
other apparatus at your fingertips when communicating with an inquirer. 
We have
developed a booking sheet that is filled out by hand when talking directly
to the
guest. Blank booking sheets and print-outs of our reservations calendars 
are
kept
at each of our telephones.

Recorded inquiries:
We use our voice messaging service as a screening mechanism. As you must 
know
by now, inquiries range from wrong numbers-to solicitations-to fee 
shoppers-to
the serious. We have done some experimenting ie: from answering every 
ring,
day & night, to not answering but returning the voice messages. We have 
learned
that: if the call is important (to either the caller or us), the caller 
will
leave a message; the caller has a particular reason for contacting us, 
whether
or not we answer the 'phone; sincere, considerate, callers don't mind 
leaving a
message and the best callers (which have so far turned out to be the best
guests) explain fully the nature of their calls when leaving a message.

Incidentally (but this may help), we believe that guests need the 
reassurance of
speaking to a "person". Even after our email reservation forms are 
implemented,
we will still arrange to complete our guests' bookings by 'phone.

:) Bob & Bunny Weinman
The Ashwood
http://www.moriah.com/ashwood
---
 The Ashwood
 ashwood@proaxis.com