Your thoughts on letting friends use your VR??

[Luke Carl]

After nearly a year we had our first friend request to use one of our cabins. He mentioned a few times he'd tell everyone he knew to help us get business. I replied each time with "thanks, but we don't need help. In fact we'd prefer you didn't even tell anyone it was our cabin." At the time I was flattered that someone finally thought one of my homes was cool enough to check out. The inevitable happened. Another friend from the same circle has now asked to stay. Only, he wants to stay 4 nights. For free. Do you have a system in place for friend requests? Free no questions/50% off/Full price no exceptions? Love to hear your thoughts!!!

[Jon Crosby]

@Luke Carl I love this question and topic!  It's one of those things that nobody ever thinks about before buying a VR.  Here is how I handle it take from it what you will, every situation is different I'm guessing however.  

I like to supplement my advertising via Facebook ads during the slow season.  As you can imagine, I already have quite a few friends that 'Like' the page and so what I will do is specifically target an Ad to my friends in between the prime weeks and say something like '20% off to my close friends and family from now until June 1st' or something like that.  What it does is sets a precedence right off the bat which says the following:

> I'm thinking about my friends and family and trying to allow them the means to enjoy our cabin

> This is NOT a free place to stay and this 20% off is your best bet at getting any type of discount to stay here.

> I'm running a business, advertising it like a business and will treat it as such.  If I owned a bar would you expect me to just hand you a bottle of Vodka for free just because you are a 'friend' and asked for it? 

Now that is what I do for most people.  For close family or VERY close friends then my general rule is as follows:

> Never during peak season or prime holidays (because I would be paying them to stay at my place since it's guaranteed high rate bookings)

> If I let you stay for free you have to pay for the House Keeping fee and make sure they post a review somewhere, even if it's just my Facebook site. 

Good luck to you on your decisions! 

Cheers!

~Jon