The same five questions, forty times a month
A Booking.com message: 'Hi, is there parking at the property?' An email: 'What time can we check in, and is there somewhere to leave bags if we're early?' A text: 'Is it OK to bring our spaniel?' An Airbnb message: 'Any recommendations for dinner nearby?' Another Booking.com message, from a different guest: 'Is there parking?'
The answers are the same every time. There are three spaces at the front and on-street parking after six. Check-in from four, bags any time after ten. One dog in the garden room, with a charge. The pub in the village does food until nine, book at weekends. You type them from scratch each time, in whichever app the guest used, while doing something else.
Why the questions keep coming
The answers usually exist, somewhere. On your website, perhaps, or in the Booking.com listing. Guests do not read them, or cannot find them, or want to hear it from you. And because questions arrive through several channels, you cannot answer them in one place.
- Booking.com, Airbnb, email, text and the phone all bring questions.
- Your listing on each OTA says slightly different things, depending on when you last edited it.
- Guests ask before booking, after booking and on the day.
- Local recommendations change with the seasons and opening hours.
- Some questions look routine but are not, such as a dog that is not the size you usually take.
What repeating yourself costs
Minutes, many times a day, which add up to hours a week in the busy season. Replies typed on a phone in a hurry are sometimes shorter than you would like, and occasionally wrong, such as quoting last year's dog charge or the old check-in time. Different answers on different channels confuse guests.
Unanswered questions before booking also lose bookings. A guest who wants to know about parking and does not hear back may just book somewhere else that states it clearly.
And there is the interruption. Each question pings your phone while you are changing beds or cooking, and you either stop to answer it or carry it in your head until you can. Carrying a dozen small unanswered questions around all day is tiring in a way that is hard to explain to anyone who has not run a guest house.
How we build answers from your own facts
- We write down your facts once, with you: parking, check-in and check-out, luggage, dogs and charges, breakfast times, Wi-Fi, local food, walks, access, and anything guests often ask.
- A simple guest page with those answers is linked from your confirmation emails and messages, and from the QR code in each room.
- Your OTA listings are checked against the same facts so they say the same thing.
- Incoming questions by email and, where the platform allows, OTA messages, are read and a reply is drafted from your facts, in your own tone.
- Anything not covered by your facts is flagged for you to answer yourself, and your answer can be added to the facts if it will come up again.
- You approve replies on your phone. Simple ones, such as 'what time is check-in', can be set to go automatically if you want.
| Question | Answer comes from | Needs you? |
|---|---|---|
| Is there parking? | Your parking facts | No |
| Can we bring a spaniel? | Your dog policy | No, unless more than one dog |
| Can we check in at noon? | Check-in facts and your calendar | Yes, if the room is free early |
| Is the path to the beach suitable for a wheelchair? | Not in your facts | Yes, flagged |
A week with fewer repeated replies
Guests who read the page before they arrive stop asking the basics. The ones who still ask get a reply within minutes that you only had to approve. Your listings on Booking.com and Airbnb say the same thing about dogs and parking. You type from scratch only when something genuinely new comes up, which is also when your answer matters most.
When the pub changes its food hours, you change one line and every reply and the guest page use the new hours.
Are you answering the same questions again and again?
- You answer parking, check-in and dog questions most days.
- Questions arrive by email, OTA messages and text.
- Your listings on different sites say different things.
- Replies are typed on your phone in a hurry.
- Guests ask questions that your website already answers.