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Davespiceuk
New to hosting but loving it. Have 3 beautiful rescue doggies, and a great interest in interior design, especially Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the revered Scottish designer. Currently we have only three beautiful bedrooms in our house we let, but soon to expand.
I thought I would share my post stay 'follow up' message to guests as it really works for me - my property has a 10 out of 10 rating after 10 reviews. I have it set up as a Booking.com template so very easy to send it a couple of days after departure. Feel free to copy it, or make it your own.
Dear [FIRST_NAME]
Thank you for choosing to stay at Queens Park Lodge. We know that you had many options and are honoured that you choose ours.
I hope that you had a wonderful, relaxing stay here, and feel able to leave a short review as these are super important to small independent establishments such as ours.
If you feel we have earned a 10 Star Review and we went the extra mile for you we'd be thrilled for your support, and if there is any reason that would make you leave a review of less than 10 stars or anything needs improving, we'd really appreciate your private feedback, so we can improve what we offer going forward.
I hope to welcome you back to Queens Park Lodge when your ready for another stress free break.
So just an update - I did write to BDC and ask for it to be included in the 'fine print' as a house Policy that we are LBGT and straight friendly, and I share their reply here. I rather think they and others are missing my point and motivation (in that what we are wanting to minimise is guests who are 'homophobic' to be uncomfortable), but life is too short to stuff a mushroom, and I will work out something on BDC to pass the subtle message. On another platform, its very easy to mention that we are gay hosts and it seems to have worked in our and out guests favour.
Dear partner, Thank you for contacting us. We are glad to hear your are openly welcoming guests of all types! However, this type of information is not generally something we list in the "fine print" section according to our content policies. If anything, this area is used to inform which guests may not be permitted to stay, or any rules relating to who can stay, when the restriction is supported by local/national law. If there are no specific limitations, the expectation is that everyone is welcome. :-) If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you for working with Booking.com.
Thanks for your contribution Joey. The discussion is about us as Hosts rather than Guests meeting discrimination. As mentioned earlier, its not about advertising to the LGBT community, draping rainbow flags over the property or screaming from the roof ;-) , but gently trying to avoid people who would be uncomfortable in our guesthouse, on arriving realising we are gay. We live in the UK so a progressive country, however that does not mean it is not an issue - it shouldn't be of course, but sadly - it can be. When it has been, I believe we handle it with dignity and gentleness rather than confrontation. Indeed it is usually an under the rader feeling, but picked up all the same. For clarity, I am not looking to discriminate against or for LBGT people, or make it a feature of the listing, just a note somewhere that we are LBGT and straight friendly as a 'policy' would be appreciated. You do have the ability to state your property is non smoking of course.
We have not found a way to mention this in our Booking.com listing, which is a bit disappointing. I have spoken with BDC staff about the listing as it is automatically generated and thus reads quite poor. It would appear our main feature is that we can store luggage (go figure). We have not found a way to outline our 'LBGT friendly' policy. I'd be glad of any thoughts.
...and thank you for your comment. Indeed I contacted booking.com as my first port of call , and was told the only way to include the information was to send it in a message to guests. Some guests either don't get, or don't look, at their messages. So I have had a number of guests finally find us, who I have sent messages to via booking,com, but they have never seen them. For example this week, two businessmen found us but had not seen any messages as their secretary had booked and messages had gone to her...... Perhaps if (when) a guest cant find us and calls booking.com in a panic, they may look at this?
I have the same issue re directions - it can only produce them from the airport - 22 miles away. No one has yet to book who's flying in! Whereas everyone has to find us, we are in a very hidden away, off the beaten track spot (which is the appeal for many), but I am unable to get the final directions out to people other than a message after they have booked. I wonder if it is allowed to put the info on an image and upload it to your image bank?
Thanks for your comment and sharing your experience Fluff - funnily enough, it wasn't that we wanted to attract LBGT exactly, its precisely that part of the market (those who are prejudiced - even homophobic) that we would would prefer to deter booking with us. That would be our main aim in stating we are LGBT and straight friendly. I would not want guests to arrive who are uncomfortable with two men running the establishment. I guess I am coming from our experience with being on another platform whereby it can be stated clearly, and it seemed to have done both - brought business and no issues.
I thought I would share my post stay 'follow up' message to guests as it really works for me - my property has a 10 out of 10 rating after 10 reviews. I have it set up as a Booking.com template so very easy to send it a couple of days after departure. Feel free to copy it, or make it your own.
Dear [FIRST_NAME]
Thank you for choosing to stay at Queens Park Lodge. We know that you had many options and are honoured that you choose ours.
I hope that you had a wonderful, relaxing stay here, and feel able to leave a short review as these are super important to small independent establishments such as ours.
If you feel we have earned a 10 Star Review and we went the extra mile for you we'd be thrilled for your support, and if there is any reason that would make you leave a review of less than 10 stars or anything needs improving, we'd really appreciate your private feedback, so we can improve what we offer going forward.
I hope to welcome you back to Queens Park Lodge when your ready for another stress free break.
Very best wishes for your onwards travels.
Dave
Proprietor
Queens Park Lodge
So just an update - I did write to BDC and ask for it to be included in the 'fine print' as a house Policy that we are LBGT and straight friendly, and I share their reply here.
I rather think they and others are missing my point and motivation (in that what we are wanting to minimise is guests who are 'homophobic' to be uncomfortable), but life is too short to stuff a mushroom, and I will work out something on BDC to pass the subtle message. On another platform, its very easy to mention that we are gay hosts and it seems to have worked in our and out guests favour.
Dear partner,
Thank you for contacting us.
We are glad to hear your are openly welcoming guests of all types!
However, this type of information is not generally something we list in the "fine print" section according to our content policies. If anything, this area is used to inform which guests may not be permitted to stay, or any rules relating to who can stay, when the restriction is supported by local/national law.
If there are no specific limitations, the expectation is that everyone is welcome. :-)
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Thank you for working with Booking.com.
Thanks for your contribution Joey. The discussion is about us as Hosts rather than Guests meeting discrimination. As mentioned earlier, its not about advertising to the LGBT community, draping rainbow flags over the property or screaming from the roof ;-) , but gently trying to avoid people who would be uncomfortable in our guesthouse, on arriving realising we are gay. We live in the UK so a progressive country, however that does not mean it is not an issue - it shouldn't be of course, but sadly - it can be. When it has been, I believe we handle it with dignity and gentleness rather than confrontation. Indeed it is usually an under the rader feeling, but picked up all the same. For clarity, I am not looking to discriminate against or for LBGT people, or make it a feature of the listing, just a note somewhere that we are LBGT and straight friendly as a 'policy' would be appreciated. You do have the ability to state your property is non smoking of course.
Hi Laura
Thanks for your interest in this topic.
We have not found a way to mention this in our Booking.com listing, which is a bit disappointing. I have spoken with BDC staff about the listing as it is automatically generated and thus reads quite poor. It would appear our main feature is that we can store luggage (go figure). We have not found a way to outline our 'LBGT friendly' policy. I'd be glad of any thoughts.
My listing is here http://www.booking.com/Share-Ote1WX if you want to take a look.
I guess if I got banned I wouldn’t be able to log on here to let you know lol! ?
Hi Lahiru
...and thank you for your comment. Indeed I contacted booking.com as my first port of call , and was told the only way to include the information was to send it in a message to guests. Some guests either don't get, or don't look, at their messages. So I have had a number of guests finally find us, who I have sent messages to via booking,com, but they have never seen them. For example this week, two businessmen found us but had not seen any messages as their secretary had booked and messages had gone to her...... Perhaps if (when) a guest cant find us and calls booking.com in a panic, they may look at this?
I have the same issue re directions - it can only produce them from the airport - 22 miles away. No one has yet to book who's flying in! Whereas everyone has to find us, we are in a very hidden away, off the beaten track spot (which is the appeal for many), but I am unable to get the final directions out to people other than a message after they have booked. I wonder if it is allowed to put the info on an image and upload it to your image bank?
Thanks for your comment and sharing your experience Fluff - funnily enough, it wasn't that we wanted to attract LBGT exactly, its precisely that part of the market (those who are prejudiced - even homophobic) that we would would prefer to deter booking with us. That would be our main aim in stating we are LGBT and straight friendly. I would not want guests to arrive who are uncomfortable with two men running the establishment. I guess I am coming from our experience with being on another platform whereby it can be stated clearly, and it seemed to have done both - brought business and no issues.