Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-07-24 23:45:37 - Graham Ellis
I want happy customers ... which is why I turned down a golden booking opportunity a few minutes ago.
"Have you got a single room for tonight". Err - all of our rooms are double / twin, but we routinely let them as singles ... and we have rooms tonight, but we're full tomorrow night so it would be a good fit. But we're notjust a bed for the night; I explain this, and that our pricing reflects the services we offer. "Oh - I was playing Golf in the area, and I've decided to have a drink with me mates and stop over - thank you for your help anyway" says my caller "I'm just looking for somewhere to sleep", and the phone conversation ends cheerfully on both sides.
I'm very happy to take fairly late bookings - phone calls that start with "we were looking to stay in Melksham - have found your number and we are in our car NOW looking at a grain silo, can you guide us" [last weekend] to people simply walking in during the afternoon - "have you got a room" [Wednesday] - both cheerfully and happily accommodated. But once it gets well into the evening, enquirers tend not to be well suited to Well House Manor. They are typically looking for a room, a single bed, and not much more. But we offer much more. And if we take the business, they end resentful of what they have paid for something that was far more than they wanted, and we're more likely to end up with a room that has not been respected in its use by that resentment.
I hope our gentleman found himself a bed; I can't imagine he would have a problem on a Friday night. I hope he enjoyed his drink - heck, if he ended up at the King's Arms or the Pear Tree he could simply roll upstairs. And if he goes for another round of golf tomorrow, he'll not be thinking how he was stung in Melksham. And I'll have a good night's sleep, secure in the knowledge that - whilst we are not full - we have a comfortable group of happy customers in.
Now - I need to print out a bus timetable, as some of our guests are going to Bath tomorrow; they asked about Park and Ride, but they're better advised to leave their car at Well House Manor and catch the 272 or 273, right outside our gate, into the City. Heck - we are "Melksham park and ride for Bath" as far as our guests are concerned, and withe the bonus of evening services back that you don't get at the conventional park and ride too!