BDC brings me as a host a significant amount of traffic and with higher room rates than all the other channels.
I personally stopped ABnB this year in 2022 because they couldn’t keep pace with my BDB calendar. I gave up Home away and VRBO years ago for same reason.
In my dealings with BDC for years now I prefer their straight forward platform. It affords me to be able to not only communicate well with my customer who may be having issues with a card or bank account not having enough funds at the time I’m desiring to charge their card. But if I’m suspecting people are potentially fraudulent I can generally Suss them out when their credit card repeatedly gets declined (but they swear they can’t imagine why…). Normal people know when they credit card will work or not.
I’ve ignored my gut feeling once before and had to kick some one out when they never had a card that worked after arriving so I will say TRUST YOUR GUT feeling. Don’t put yourself through that
people then try asking for my bank account info so they can do a bank transfer “ABSOLUTELY NOT” an option.
People know when they are earnest in wanting to keep their reservation and 100% of the time when someone asks for a lil time to allow enough funds to be present to clear the charge….it clears the charge on or after the dates they ask me to wait until without incident.
it’s the people who play dumb and only have one or two cards (in which none of them are working/able to be charged)….these people should be staying home and not traveling! At least not with me.
Also sometimes Bookings happen in the far future and it’s a fake reservation made only for obtaining a VISA so you have to do due diligence in making those reservations drop off as well. I constantly mark credit cards as invalid if they don’t stay in communication with me, so I can knock off the people with bad intentions. (99%) of time they slither off if they are trying to be fraudulent if the card they use are constantly marked invalid.
if people are up front about the “WHY” their funds aren’t available yet and are asking to wait for me to get paid I have NO problem with those people ever. It’s the people who play dumb before they even arrive at your property (if their card is being declined over and over) who you need to be suspect of and do your due diligence to not let them make it to your front door in the first place.
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.
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 :)
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.
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???
BDC brings me as a host a significant amount of traffic and with higher room rates than all the other channels.
I personally stopped ABnB this year in 2022 because they couldn’t keep pace with my BDB calendar. I gave up Home away and VRBO years ago for same reason.
In my dealings with BDC for years now I prefer their straight forward platform. It affords me to be able to not only communicate well with my customer who may be having issues with a card or bank account not having enough funds at the time I’m desiring to charge their card. But if I’m suspecting people are potentially fraudulent I can generally Suss them out when their credit card repeatedly gets declined (but they swear they can’t imagine why…). Normal people know when they credit card will work or not.
I’ve ignored my gut feeling once before and had to kick some one out when they never had a card that worked after arriving so I will say TRUST YOUR GUT feeling. Don’t put yourself through that
people then try asking for my bank account info so they can do a bank transfer “ABSOLUTELY NOT” an option.
People know when they are earnest in wanting to keep their reservation and 100% of the time when someone asks for a lil time to allow enough funds to be present to clear the charge….it clears the charge on or after the dates they ask me to wait until without incident.
it’s the people who play dumb and only have one or two cards (in which none of them are working/able to be charged)….these people should be staying home and not traveling! At least not with me.
Also sometimes Bookings happen in the far future and it’s a fake reservation made only for obtaining a VISA so you have to do due diligence in making those reservations drop off as well. I constantly mark credit cards as invalid if they don’t stay in communication with me, so I can knock off the people with bad intentions. (99%) of time they slither off if they are trying to be fraudulent if the card they use are constantly marked invalid.
if people are up front about the “WHY” their funds aren’t available yet and are asking to wait for me to get paid I have NO problem with those people ever. It’s the people who play dumb before they even arrive at your property (if their card is being declined over and over) who you need to be suspect of and do your due diligence to not let them make it to your front door in the first place.
hope this helps
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.
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???