A woman has a right to change her mind.
Just had to share this gem. Today was one for the books in my Vacation Rental journey. The guest booked a one nighter at my Gatlinburg cabin on Valentines day. Normally there's a 3 day minimum on the weekend, but this was an orphan day (long story). She asked about early check in. I send the normal response about "We'll see what we can do / can't make any promises / check back closer to check in day / we'll try to make it happen, etc."
I know I could probably just set my own reminder and be more proactive about the early check in, but I think I started putting the ball in the guests' court on this one a while back because so many people ask for this. I really need to just update my auto-messaging to address it better. Anyway, beside the point.
Rather than messaging me on check in day, or the day before, She sends a message a week before check-in saying "Can you let me know on the 13th if we can checkin early on the 14th?" lmao that's not really how it usually works, but I think it (unintentionally) made me laugh, so I'm like "Sure!" Why not? :)
Yesterday, 11:16am before I get the reminder, she's like Can I check in early tomorrow?" I check w/ the cleaners. They say that "it's possible if the weather tonight isn't too nasty."
I pass this on with "Hopefully it'll work out, we just can't always know about early check-in until the last minute, etc."
Fifteen minutes later, I get a cancellation request. Sure, this is about right. After how this has gone so far haha. The email is asking for me to make an exception to my policy. The guest says that she is currently in the hospital with a positive COVID test and doesn't want to get any one sick so they would like to cancel their plans? Again, 15 mins earlier she is asking about early check in?
I give the usual response of "it depends. If the property gets re-booked, I'll refund you." So she cancels immediately. There's only a day for someone to re-book last minute. It's Valentines, so someone does re-book last night.
Today she said "I DIDN'T MEANT TO CANCEL THIS TRIP. CAN I UN-CANCEL? I'M ALREADY ON MY WAY".
Adorable haha. Why do I get the feeling they are still gonna show up at my cabin? Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I do love this business. :)
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#3 Managing Your Property Contributor
She sounds special (and not in a good way).