Back in July, after many weeks of heavy lifting we FINALLY converted our Guest Management Software from the old program to a new, faster, mo’ better new one.
This new program promised to make our lives simpler, our skin softer and tracking of our guests easier.
Our lives were not transformed, in a good way. And while the new skin on our knees and hands MAY be softer after the many falls, it still hurts. And keeping track of guests is no better.
In FACT our shinny new software helped us make one of the only DOUBLE BOOKINGS we have suffered in 28 years. I say “suffered” because, dear reader, we really DO suffer when we screw up and disappoint our guests. And it was costly. And not in just $$$ and cents.
A learning curve comes with any new system. And “pilot error” is a fact of life. There are also idiosyncrasies of sophisticated software that aren’t obvious until you have stumbled upon them.
And some of them go “boom.”
This happened when we were moving reservations from the old to the new program.
A reservation was entered, it was then changed by the guests from one night to two and the innkeeper duly did that and sent the confirmation. Unfortunately we didn’t hit “save” before leaving the entry. So the guests got their confirmation (for 2 nights) but the program reverted back to the ONE night stay.
Later we sold that “new second night” to SOMEONE ELSE.
And, it gets worse, we didn’t discover this until late on the night before the new guests were about to arrive: a Friday night, in HIGH season. Bad, very bad. And they were scheduled for two nights.
The guest was understandably pissed. We were frustrated. He was from New York. It was going to be a “big weekend”. We had ruined it.
We ended up finding him a room in a hotel three blocks away and, taking responsibility, paid for his room. It was clear he was still mad when he checked in on Saturday. He could barely look at me and didn’t shake hands.
Any hope of him forgiving and forgetting was dashed the morning he checked out when the only other guests who were leaving early took THEIR “Brown Bag Breakfast” AS WELL AS THEIR OWN. We discovered this later when “the other” guests sheepishly called from the airport reporting their mistake.
By now our credibility was zilch. “Mr. Happy” went away thinking we had purposely sabotaged his weekend and we wondered if that job posting for “landmine removal” in Darfur might still be open.
And, oh yes, the guest posted two negative reviews on line.
They say bad things come in threes.
