Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-10-12 00:30:23 - Graham Ellis
It's 12:30 - that's half an hour after midnight - and I'm at Well House Manor to check in guests who phoned in to book less than an hour ago. I'm always wary about taking bookings this late of an evening as we can anticipate that people are just looking for a bed on which to lay there head, and don't want to have (nor to pay for!) facilities like the internet, the large screen TV, the unlimited soft drinks, tea, and coffee which are built into our standard rate. And indeed, this evening's late arrivals (whom I got out of bed to check in) suggested I charge an amount less than a half of our normal rate on the grounds that they would "only be in the room for six hours". I carefully explained that actually a single night booking costs us more as we have to do a complete room change, but Mr and Mrs X, looking for a room after a wedding when they had probably intended to go home were slightly grumpy about it - and that may mean that they don't treat the room with the usual respect overnight.
"Breakfast at about 9" they have requested, and Chris will be on well before that to cover the breakfasts for all the rooms that are taken ... I expect my concerns are groundless and I'll come back on line tomorrow and say "no worry" ... but at times the hotel business is a worry, and I think our general policy of closing for bookings at 9 p.m. each day is a sensible one; we loose a little business, but it's from customers for whom we're not ideally suited, and we gain peace of mind and a peaceful sleep.