Hi everyone,
We are a new hostel in Porto started 6 months ago and we look ourself often in this situation.
After a check in for 1 or a couple of days some guests come to ask us if they can stay another night, and sometimes after one week or two they still there asking exactly the same. We don't know what to do with this kind of approach. Should we charge him everyday as we say yes we have beds available for tonight? Or instead, charge him at every 2 or 3 days, or even at the check out?
Any help would be apreciated here
12 years
As a guest, I think there are quite a few reasons why I might choose to book for (say) 2 nights, then, after arrival, ask to book one or two more.
I would say: keep it simple to avoid confusion. Namely, charge them at the time when they actually reserve a bed, whether for 1 night or several. But also, be generous and be ready to refund if they book (say) 3 nights then cancel the 3rd one.
12 years
These are usually my favorite guests. Flexible schedules and a casual demeanor. If they like to share their food too, then they're definitely winners!
I agree with uktrail. Charge them for the extra nights when they ask to extend their stay. If they don't have the money on them at that moment, maybe you would let it go until the end of the day or even the next day. Beyond that you risk getting burned. I'm a very trusting person when it comes to my guests, but in my experience waiting until a guest checks out to charge them is too risky.
Our day shift finishes at 21:00 and we have a policy that the receptionist needs to have all of the money for that night collected from all guests before they can turn the hostel over to the night receptionist.
If you have several guest extending one or two days at a time, ask them why they are staying longer. Maybe they have found great things in the city that even you don't know about yet, or things that you didn't know would be interesting to your guests. Then tell your other guests about those things and see if you can get everyone else to extend too! :D
11 years
Our payment policy is rather generous and friendly.
But sometimes guests like you mentioned above become really irritating...We had several occasions when a guest came to the reception desk every day asking for another night to stay. It was ok until he decided not to inform us about his will to extend his staying the other day. He was very surprised that we asked him to check out as his bed was booked by another person long ago. We asked him many times to book beds in advance though.
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