Ginascott57

We too received an award - I think most properties do - and yes it was a few steps up from last years award.

I still can't fathom why Booking think it is okay for guests to rate everything as 10/10 and then give a lower 8 or 9 as overall rate - this does not make any sense to me. It has happened twice in the past week and without any explaination.

Also we are really happy having achieved the rating we got as we have a diversity of product on our property, therefore attracting a diversity of guest, with very different expextations, sometimes unrealistic, and requirements. Meeting guests expectations is the key to success of course,but it starts with the guest being able to choose the correct product to suit their needs, which does not always happen, resulting in lower ratings.Much harder to please all the people all the time than a one cottage or identical product rangein a hotel.

Thank you booking.com. for keeping the records to reflect what the customers think.

Guests don't read what is already available to them so why would they make a point of going further to read extra info. Just this week, two cases of not reading: (1) I didn't know check in was between 2-8pm outcome they cancelled at 9pm becasue they were not going to arrive till about midnight. (2) I didn't realise there was no kitchen...it is clearly stated in the listing.

So my conclusion: Guests do not read passed (a) the room will take the number in my group and (b) the cheapest price.

We have been eco certified for a number of years, but it is not a deciding factor for guests. Our listing in booking.com does not reflect our environmental factors.

1, solar electricity

2. solar hot water

3. rain water tanks

4. our own waste water recycling plant.

5. Reverse cycle air conditiners/heat pumps.

6. Rubbish recycling centre

7. Reuse and recycle policy.

8, Reduced use of small amentiy bottles

9. Insulated building materials.

If there is a way for booking .com to help us attract more environmentally aware guests we would appreciate that.

Cheers,

Gina

You will notice if you search some large hotel that they do similar offerings. I'm confident you would be able to work something out to suit your seasons....it just might take some management - time.

You Opt in to the online booking payment system.

You need a POS machine.

Guests pay booking.com

Booking.com give you a VCC

you process this on your machine.

Well that is the process I use.

I also have the luxury of another system through my chanel manager where I can also process the cards held for the bookings.

tracey, welcome to my world. Guests are becoming more demanding and of course different cultures bring different issues, you need to know how to deal with them all in the Hospitality industry,

Yes they don't read, they don't listen, and they don't see. but thankfully it's not all of them.We have seen a lot of different people in 25 years and have had to cope with all of them in different ways. My husband did a cousre in "dealing with difficult people" Ha ha....that's probably why he can live with me LOL.

We even had one set of "royalty" as you define...who requested daily service for the whole week, we indicated there would be a charge for this but she insisted on having the service, we completed the tasks as defined by her each day and charged the fee. Her review stated that she was surprised to find there would be a charge for daily service as it was not discussed. How rude is that?

M it appears you only have one studio and one set of guests to deal with at a time and can give them your persoanl, constant attention, this is very different if you are running a slightly bigger operation.

Best wishes to you all.

I think it is. Because there are so many variances to be taken into account with the scores.

EG. You might have one room and your guests get the same experience when they stay.

I on the other hand have five different accommodation types, I get a very mixed bag of guests and experiences, to the point of them choosing the cheepest and expecting the best.

@cassid...of course we could all play the big hotel game and increase the standard rate to be able to offer the discounts that b.com suggest.

I play the "opportunity game" sometimes but noticed one I did in July didn't get me one booking. I also notice that the opportunities are based on the "northern" summer and not always applicabale to other parts of the world.

Regards,

Gina

Tasmania, Australia

www.platypuspark.com.au