Christine Karpinski writes a blog for HomeAway and has related, very eloquently, why every property manager needs a centralized calendar, reservation system, and a website that can take a booking. A booking!!! Not an inquiry.
The most interesting part to me is that Christine seems to be blaming the customer for the poor communication and lack of information. (I am not saying anyone is at fault, except for the system in place) As an industry, we cannot think or operate this way. The customer rules!!! And we have to create an experience that meets their expectations.
Here is the post by Christine:
Christine deals with a situation where a renter sent an inquiry about a certain weekend and expected her to hold it for her without sending payment.
Hi everyone! It was great meeting hundreds of owners at all of the seminars last week. I hope you all learned a lot –I certainly learned some new things.
Thankfully, there are always new issues that arise in my rental life which gives me plenty to write about. Though I would love to have just one week without some sort of drama!
What happened was that while I was on the road I got an email inquiry from a renter asking me if my cabin was open (it was.) So most often if I have dates open, I call the renter, because I know that’s my best chance to rent the property. I called her (on both her numbers—home and cell) and left a message telling her my cabin was indeed open, and I also followed up with an email confirming my availability and rates.
Then she emailed back w/more questions, asking me if I knew of tennis courts nearby. I responded to her that I didn’t know of any tennis courts (so my assumption: this could be a deal breaker for her.)
The next day she emailed me back to say she wanted to book it. I called her and left a message and emailed her back asking her to call to solidify the reservations.
As soon as I responded to the lady’s email, I called my husband telling him that I have someone who would like to book it.
Remember, I’m responding to the inquiries from the road and my husband is at home.
Now this is where it gets a bit sticky. My husband informed me that he had just gotten off the phone with a different renter. Apparently, in the meantime, another renter (who had emailed us back a few weeks prior) called my husband and booked (paid in full via credit card) for those same exact dates.
Anyhow, I immediately called this lady who I had had the email exchange with to let her know that my husband had booked it just minutes prior.
This lady was mad as all get-up! She expected that from the moment she sent the first inquiry that we should have held that time until she contacted me to tell me that either she did or did not want to book it. While in a perfect world this would be awesome—I would love to hear back from every renter who I respond to, but the reality is I just don’t. I only end up booking one out of every 7-9 inquires I get.
Renters are sending multiple inquiries to multiple owners.
Anyhow, I explained to her that until she actually confirms I have no idea whether or not she’s interested in booking so I never hold anything until I get a credit card. In her mind when on her original inquiry she said, “I am interested in renting this cabin,” I was supposed to interpret it as “I want to book it!” She was so upset and I can’t say that I can blame her. But what was I to do?
I offered to email a bunch of other owners on her behalf to see if anyone else had it open (which I did). But in the end she was still steaming mad at me. I really hate it when I cannot appease people.
Right before she hung up the phone, she told me that she was going to report me to the website that she found my home on. I told her she has that right (but I didn’t have the heart to tell her I work for the website.)Happy Renting by Owner!
Christine Karpinski
Tags: Online Booking, online reservations, online vacation rentals, property management, vacation rentals