Taking Reservations for your B & B

No Reservations - No Guests. 

Taking reservations is essential to your business and the way you do it can make it a painless or painful experience for both you and your new guest. As the reservation stage is often the first contact the guest will have with you it needs to be completed smoothly and efficiently.

There are clearly questions you need to ask everybody including, if you take them, card details. Then there are optional questions that you can add to make the occasion less formal.

We recommend you prepare an enquiry / reservation form as it's easier to remember with everything written down.

Essential questions include Name of Caller, when accommodation is required, how long for, which room, what it will cost and contact telephone number.

If they will be sending a cheque then make sure you tell them what other detail is needed and how long you will hold the room for pending cheque deposit.

Better still, take credit cards and take a deposit on the phone. Your card processor will tell you the information that is needed.

Other things to ask include an email address - for sending a confirmation, reason for visit and how they found you. This helps later with your business marketing.

Make sure you mark in diary against the room they will be occupying and it might be helpful to show balance owed to make it easier at checkout.

Remember, this will likely be first contact, it needs to be a smooth operation, first impressions count.