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Dealing with changing Hostels public and anticipating guest feedback; perversity of the rating systems

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karel_mondt started this discussion 9 years 8 months ago

Read the mail and my answer below. Funny!
10 years ago, I would never have received such a mail. Now I do, either in mail or in behavior.
I find these attitudes particularly arrogant. Normally I never accept these, but OTA's like Hostelworld insist us to accept this anyway.

Guest wrote:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I will be arriving in to your place in 6th Mar 2015. I am checking in as you requested a day or two in advance to confirm my arrival. Please ensure that room and bed are ready upon my arrival. I have read lots of positive feedback about you hostel. Therefore, I expect to find a clean and well maintained room. Looking forward to staying in your hostel very soon.
All the best,
Rakhshan Pashayev,
My answer:
Dear Sir Pashayev,
I received your mail.
As we are so honored with your stay, we do of course ALL we can do please our guests in a personalized way, exactly as you would be staying in a 5 star de luxe hotel.
Any desires you might have prior to your arrival will be executed according your wishes.
Your humble servant,
Karel Mondt.

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John Moriarty

9 years

Dear Sir/Madam,
I will be arriving in to your place in 6th Mar 2015. I am checking in as you requested a day or two in advance to confirm my arrival. Please ensure that room and bed are ready upon my arrival. I have read lots of positive feedback about you hostel. Therefore, I expect to find a clean and well maintained room. Looking forward to staying in your hostel very soon.
All the best,
Rakhshan Pashayev,

I actually don't find too much wrong with this . Firstly fair play to him for contacting the hostel before arrival as Hostelworld advises customers to do. I think I have had a customer do this once in the last 2 years.

He even comments on the positive reviews he has read about your hostel.

I guess the line that some people might be taken aback with is

I expect to find a clean and well maintained room

At first glance it seems a bit forward but I would err on the side of him not being a native english speaker and looking at the name it is very possible. It could be a bad google translate or just the way he worded it.

In my opinion I wouldn't have written the reply the way you did as this could now create a situation out of nothing.

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karel_mondt

9 years

Dear John,

I am again surprised about your respons.

I understand what you mean, but you react without thinking.
My respons, how ironic it might sound, answers to the expectations expressed by this guest. If my english would be so bad, I wouldn't add all these expectations.

This example is about showing how expectations/attitudes evolve, how guests from origins who were not our usual markets 10 years ago respect and treat hostels and hostelkeepers/personnel, maybe how the knowledge they can rate a place makes them misusing a power they think they have.

You should first understand my way of receiving before giving lessons: If I am right, this guest should never come to my place. If I am wrong, then I will talk with him as I do with every single guest arriving here, and explain how cultures can differ.

Is there something wrong with this?

Stop undergoing, ACT!

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karel_mondt

9 years

Hello again,

I come back on the exchange of e mail with this "special expectations" client.
Very interesting.
This guy is American, about forty years of Azerbaijani origin, living most of his life in the US, and hence very comfortable in the English language.

Via his wife he sends the mail above to all establishments where he spends his holidays.
I learned that he has been doing the same in London before coming here, except that in London they made a fool of him (excuse my language).
Not me. I have been honest with him, what enabled me to have a very good and open discussion.
Through my personal welcome, I was able to understand better the personality of this guest.
The gentleman explained to me that this is the first time in his life he traveled in hostels.
I explained that sending this kind of mails is particularly misplaced. My explanation allowed him to better understand cultural differences.
We became good friends.

I want to make a point here: in some cases we can and must not hesitate to help customers better understand these cultural differences. The customer is usually very grateful for this.

Best greetings to all.

Karel

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