Kravfish

Aloha and Mahalo,

Such a great question!

I learned years ago in one of my careers, that if you can keep people fed all day long they will ultimately be much happier souls.

So I not only provide all the breakfast items that you could possibly desire (to prepare for yourself). Eggs, bacon, fruit, yogurt, cereal, toast etc, w/ coffee, tea, milk, juices and soft drinks/waters.

Then for your grazing pleasure, I provide packages of ramen noodles, soups, assortment of rice, chili, crisps, chips, CLIFF Bars, sweets and other various treats. So my visitors can eat day and night and it costs them nothing to do so. Everything is included in the daily price. Costco helps me achieve this "feed the masses mentality" a lot.

But it is completely worth it. Supplying such food supplies ensures a happier experience for your guests, which only mean better reviews. Thereby better reviews mean higher daily rates you will be able to charge guests in the near future.

Try it for a complete month. Charge a bit more per day on your calendar while you are experimenting with this concept. Add $10 per day and make sure you say "FREE BREAKFAST". You will be able to get it. Then soon your daily rates just go up and up.

Try it for 30-90 day (average time span packs of food items last while distributing to your guests). Let me know what it does to your scores.

Best wishes :)

Mychelle

I have had the same experience. As long as you address it in replying to your bad review the people booking can read for themselves that it wasn't meant for you.

Then all of your great reviews will be immediately noticed and people are smart :)

Best wishes!

Maybe it’s time for Chameleonhotel to start charging a lil more to your guests. In a “Get What You Pay For” sense.

I’ve slowly raised daily rates over the last year and charging more means an even more appreciative guest (as long as I never disappoint and provide consistent quality control) is what I have discovered.

If you are the lowest rate you will get that target market.

I find if I can keep a good value vibe for my guests than I find people don’t mind paying a lil more sometimes.

I myself will purposely choose only properties to stay In that are rated in the “9”s and I look for the “cleanliness” rating every time.

I will happily pay more if it means I can lay my head where someone else values the level of clean that I do.

Don’t be afraid to charge a bit more than you Lowest competitive market base. Then watch the more appreciative guests start booking and treating you and your home with a bit more aloha.

MATRESS COVERS. Kids and adults pee the bed sometimes. Not to mention spilling drinks or food on the bed. Be prepared for the worst when it comes to your mattress or else be a mattress washer/buyer.

Ratings and reviews are subjective and so should also be our interpretation of the reviews we receive. Taking them personal doesn't help much, but then neither does saying rating items such as "Value" do not matter.

Ratings are there to hold us the people renting to the public accountable on some level. Embrace the ratings and look for ways to improve them whenever possible. That is they best way to a long range improvement plan for your daily room rates to keep going up and up. Higher ratings dictate higher daily rents.

Every paying guest is a good guest, some guests we are just sadder to see leave, than others ;)

Each new guest becomes a teacher for me in how I can always improve upon my customer service. Of course I agree with all the contributors so far about those happy go lucky guests who merely throw their luggage into their room and then run around the island until zero dark thirty when they return home to sleep. Awake...repeat, etc. And on check out day @0700 so I can clean in the morning cool air he he ;).

Seriously though, I try and go above and beyond for my guests. They pay good money to stay with me and I want them to be treated with the respect I would want.

My quirky idiosyncratic guests who take a bit more of my time in the day...well they end up teaching me something too. Even if its' that I learned that I will no longer rent to people on the same day. IE: if my room is empty today then nobody can select today to stay today. I have found that I don't usually enjoy guests who've not planned at least 24hrs in advance of where they will be laying their heads on any given night. Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part if you will.

Ultimately I have found that remaining open and being willing to help when you can with things that "aren't in the room rate" per se, can go a long way for getting a "10" out of "10" in your reviews.

Isn't that what we all find as our "Ideal" guests? The guests that rate us as 10's???

Aloha from Hawaii :)

Perhaps it works well for me because I am a smaller operation. But I do get a lot of turn over as I allow one night stays (which I get a lot). However I have always just included in my daily price; the cost of basic items like waters, coffee, tea, juice, fruits, oatmeal, eggs, hash browns, cheese, milk for coffee and show them where it all lives and then invite them to "help themselves".

I make sure I always have local fruits and coffee (and whatever I can pick up that day at the farmer's market) and even SPAM (local favorite).

I don't prepare breakfast for guests. Instead I just stay out of their way in the mornings so they can make whatever breakfast they wish to throw together form the selection. I find most guests aren't wanting to be on any more of a schedule than they already have to be on whilst being on holiday. So letting them make breakfast for themselves at their leisure, makes them quite happy.

Most guest don't even notice that I say I include breakfast and when they arrive they are delighted that it is all included when I point it all out to them. Some people even try offering money, to which I point out its already included. So when I present breakfast in this fashion, all my guests seem to perceive it a greater value.

On occasion I receive a vegan/gluten free/paleo request. Then I just ask them what they are used to for breakfast and go get that if I can. If not I let them know what I can provide and call it a day.

I assume it has to work on a larger scale also, as I simply adapted the model from all my traveling days and all the breakfast options I discovered at hotels on while on the road.