I got a request for a booking through an inquiry from a sweet-sounding older lady that is beyond my open calendar. If I were just like any hotel reservation desk, I would make the reservation for the guest and take their credit card information, or send them an some sort of invoice so they could pay.
Instead, I sent her instructions to send me instructions giving me a short evening window (e.g., Thursday, 8-9 p.m.) during which I would open the dates and she would IB, so there would be a low chance that someone else would IB for “her” dates.
This appears to have overwhelmed her as I have not heard back (although that could be for any number of reasons).
Is there any other way to do this? Blocking the dates for her doesn’t work – then neither she nor anyone else could book! I only have a 3 month open calendar cuz hey, sometimes I take a notion to travel somewhere myself, and I don’t Air when I’m not there.
Can you send a special offer? Open your calendar and then manually block all the dates but hers?
That sounds like a complicated way of doing things for her.
You could have just turned off instant book, extended your calendar and ask her to book the dates she wanted within a 24 hour slot, then you could have accepted the booking. And then turned IB back again.
Simple.
Thought of that, but an IB in the hand is worth two inquiries in the bush, even for just 24 hours. I’m just going to open those dates, let her know, she can take her chances.
I was just able to do this by sending a Special Offer for the dates she wanted. Didn’t need to open my calendar. When she accepted it went right through.
That’s really interesting - I didn’t realise you could do that when you didn’t have the dates open in your calendar. Thanks I have a guest in that situation, so will try it.
Likewise, thanks much for the tip!