Hi guys,
I had a booking today at 6:30pm and the guest didn’t arrive until 7pm and let me know that the model had cancelled and he needs to reschedule for next week. Although i feel bad, i did have another person interested this day who i denied since i had committed to this guest.
How would you handle this situation?
One problem with Peerspace’s review format is that there is no chance for hosts to respond to bad reviews. And that is bad. Like all of you, I hate being held hostage to the threat of a bad review. But I have asked many guests whether they would not book a place due to a bad review and the response was unanimous: One or two bad reviews amidst a bunch of good ones is to be ignored. They know that some people love to complain.
As far as it goes for being stripped of the Power Host–I really think that that badge is absolutely useless anyhow. Nobody ever books due to the power host badge. They book because they like to look of the space and the price is right. They are probably so busy looking at the photographs they don’t even notice it. After all, I once lost the badge due to insufficient bookings. So . . . it wasn’t helping me get bookings in the first place. Next season, I had enough bookings to get it back. So, once again, not being a power host did not stop people from booking.
I don’t appreciate the review system at all, even though I have a slew of great reviews. There will always be someone that will say something negative, just to say something. I had one person who had an amazing shoot, and wrote she wouldn’t book the space again. I asked her why, and she simply said she didn’t mean it in a negative way, she just never shoots in the same place, twice. She was kind enough to remove it. But I have had other reviews that were frustrating, and were simply bad reviews because the guests resented things like being asked not to smoke, when our policy is quite clear. The problem usually stems from somebody, other than the person booking, not being aware of what we have asked and agreed to. I don’t think rebuttals are very elegant either, so having a way to dispute a review verbally probably just ends up with a lot of nonsense. Peerspace has actually gotten a lot more responsive when it comes to removing unreasonable reviews. I have to say I really appreciate that. Reading positive reviews is always a pleasure, but I don’t strive for good reviews, I strive to be extremely professional.
Hi Lydia, are many of these guests booking your minimum time period? One option is to raise the minimum booking time. That should help some with people going over. Everything takes longer than people think, and that increases when the people are less experienced/professional.
One of the biggest lessons for me when I started booking my space was to stress that the booking period included the entire time they had access to the space. That I would unlock the door at their start time, and should be able to lock the door at their end time. And we reiterate in several times in our communications.
Perhaps text at 45 min, then show up at 30 min to stress that they have to be out at the scheduled time with you watching over. Thinking out loud, I wonder if you could write something brief for them to sign at the beginning of their booking that says:
I understand that our booking ends at ______ pm, and that overtime:
__ is NOT available
__ is available until ____pm, and is billed at 1.5 times the original rate
x _________________________________________
*signature*
_________________________________________
*print name*
_________________________________________
*date*
While it is already covered in the Peerspace agreement, this could be one more tool to help prevent them from challenging the overtime fees.
Problem clients can also be a function of the rate: the less expensive the space, with a lower minimum, the more likely there will be problems. Any knucklehead can come up with $200 to come in and disrespect a space, so you can play with your pricing to see if you can avoid some of the headaches.
Re: Brad_B, I agree with ALL of these things and haven’t had any issues thus far. I’m also very strict and discerning with my vetting process and do not accept instant bookings - Peerspace’s infrastructure doesn’t automate all the host-set pre-requisites like hourly minimums and extra services.