Thirty-one cottages, guests messaging at all hours about hot tubs and keysafes, and a Saturday changeover that meant the owner on the phone from seven in the morning lining up cleaners against checkouts. Reviews decided next summer's bookings and were asked for when someone remembered. She wanted guests answered instantly, cleaners in the right cottage at the right time, and reviews asked for every time.
Three things kept going wrong, and each cost the business time, money or a customer.
Three agents built on the channel manager and the property notes for each cottage, with anything involving a refund, a complaint or damage passed to the owner.
Each cottage already had a guest folder; those became the reception agent's notes, tidied into one page each. The channel manager gave the agents live bookings. The owner read every guest reply for the first weekend, then let the agent answer alone but forward anything it was unsure of. The rota agent proposed its first two Saturdays for her approval and ran the third itself, with her watching a shared view of who was where.
Guests get the keysafe code at 3pm on arrival day and an answer to the hot tub question at 11pm, without the owner being involved. Saturday changeovers are planned by Friday evening and every cleaner knows their run; late checkouts are handled by a reshuffle rather than a phone call. Reviews are asked for every time and the two guests a month who had a problem reach the owner before they reach the booking site.
'Saturdays used to start at seven with a phone in each hand. Now I look at the plan on Friday night and go for a walk.'
Owner
Guests messaged through the booking sites, WhatsApp and the website at all hours: parking, late checkout, allergies, a taxi at six. The owner answered from bed or the guest waited until breakfast. Cancelled rooms went unsold and the review request never got sent. They wanted every guest answered, every room sold and the owner asleep.
A cancellation on Tuesday night meant a cleaner with nothing to do on Wednesday morning and an owner on the phone at 10pm trying to fill it. Cleaners forgot shifts they had not been reminded of, and quotes for new regulars waited until the weekend. The company wanted the schedule full, the rota confirmed and the owner's evenings back.
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