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The way we organize and summarize information to render it useful to us is very personal – a system or a visual layout that one person finds useful may actually create confusion for someone else trying the same approach. My wife and I have developed an “at a glance” system for recording key details of upcoming reservations that we find quite useful – it combines a lot of the details found on the right-hand column of the online INBOX with flight info, check-in arrangements, group membership and other details buried in the e-mail back-and forth.
Like I said – systems like this are personal, but if there is one-in-ten or one-in-twenty members of the forum who thinks they would find this way of organizing guest-visit info useful, I would be happy to share (by e-mail?) a WORD version to use as a template.
I’m not really looking for a discussion of merits – it works for us, and we expect most people already have a different system in place that works better for them. All I want to do here is offer this up to those who are still looking for a way to create an “at-a-glance” dashboard to tape the refrigerator or the office wall.
HOW TO:
this is a WORD table:
Dynamic, rotating lineup: When reservation is finished, it is removed from the top of the table
When I add a new reservation I go one row above and click “ADD ROW BELOW” – and then cut and paste existing contents into the new row to use as a template for the new reservation, manually changing all the the details and images
I right click on photo and flag to get "change picture " command and swap in new flag and new pic
I use yellow hilight and bold red as a visual key to unambiguously distinguish at-a-glance between our two listings
this would not be practical (too much work) in an airbnb with lots of one/two/three day stays. It’s manageable for us because we get 15 - 25 changeovers a year-- usually having at least one guest who stays for two or three months and at least a couple more that stay for a month.
Please note that I have protected the privacy of the guests featured in this sample by masking faces and by jumbling phone #'s, e-mail, names, and reservation numbers.
Once again – this is not for everyone, but for those very few who would like to try it, I am happy to share the system by sending the word version.
i’m very neat, and enjoy the tactile and artiness of my way. I was brought up on pen and paper and that’s the way it shall be with me forever.
I do also usually re-read the message thread the day before a guest arrives, to make sure i havent’ missed something, although i usually put a code on the calendar to let me know if there’s an “extra” thing to consider.
Marvelous. I agree that it might be too much for us with our many one night stays in two different rooms, but I would love to see if it I might pare it down for my use. My husband asks me the same question about expected guests over and over. He does the turnovers so it would be great to find a system that he can follow better than the current one. My email: cfssmain@charter.net. Thanks.
I scribble on a paper datebook. Works for me. Just a long arrow from check in date to check out date, full name and phone number, and and AB (Airbnb) or OP (off-platform) designation. For the latter I add the amount, as my good buddy rate varies. I chuck the whole thing in my tax file after filing.
When I had to pay my own sales and lodging taxes for Airbnb bookings, I had a nicely organized spreadsheet.
I haven’t found it necessary to make notes about an upcoming stay, but this seems a great idea for those who do.
However, what I do have is a little book (as I’m an old-fashioned pen and paper gal, too) where I immediately make note after confirmation of each guest’s phone number and email address if they have given it to me (most do, as that is how I send them my map). Then I will go back after their stay and make some notes about them, so if they ever repeat book I can remember who they were, where they were from (which might not correspond to their location on their profile), things they told me about themselves, etc. or in case I ever want to get in touch with them again.
I also have a file on my computer where I save any email correspondence of import I have had with a guest.
I don’t have a use for something like this with my business model but it looks great. Thanks for sharing. There are a lot of folks who just lurk and learn even if they don’t say anything.
