Where enquiries come in and where they get lost
Start with a short check. Write down every place a guest can contact you: phone, messages, website form, website chat. Then, for each place, answer two questions: who sees it, and when.
Enquiries usually get lost in three places:
- a missed call in the evening or at a busy hour, after which nobody calls back;
- a message that stays unread because only one person receives it;
- a form or mailbox that nobody opens regularly.
Guests rarely wait. If they get no reply, they ask somewhere else. The goal is not to be available all the time, but to make sure no enquiry is left without a trace and without a reply.
Step 1: an automatic reply with an expected time
When you cannot reply straight away, the guest should at least know when to expect an answer. Set up a short automatic reply wherever your phone or mailbox allows it. For example:
- thank them for the enquiry;
- say by when you will reply, for example "by 10:00 the next day";
- give a phone number for urgent cases, if you have one.
Do not promise a time you will not keep. It is better to write a later time and reply earlier.
Step 2: a website form with a required phone number
If your website has an enquiry form, ask for a phone number as a required field and make the email optional. The phone is the fastest way to reach the guest in the morning. A name, a phone number, the preferred period and a short message are enough; more fields put people off.
With ISKA Website, the enquiry form records every enquiry and notifies you with a notice in the portal and by email, at the address you set in the website settings. The phone number is required, the email is not. An enquiry is not a reservation: it does not check availability and does not hold a room.
Step 3: a note for every enquiry and a morning routine
Every enquiry gets a line in one place: when it came in, from whom, what they want, who is replying and whether it has been answered. A notebook works too, but one shared place that the whole team can see is better.
Then set a time for replies. For example, every morning at the same time, the person on shift goes through all the new enquiries, replies and marks the finished ones. This way an enquiry does not depend on one person's memory. Towards the end of the day, check what is still unanswered.
Step 4: short ready-made replies
Most enquiries repeat: price, available dates, check-in time, parking, pets. Prepare short ready-made replies and keep them somewhere visible. In the morning you will reply in minutes, and the replies will be consistent and accurate. Ready-made templates for the most common questions are in the guide to reducing repeated questions at the reception.
Step 5: a website chat for repeated questions
A chat can handle the first contact when nobody is available. ISKA Assistant answers guests' questions from the information you have approved for the property. When it has no data for a question, it does not make anything up but directs the guest to the property's phone number.
The assistant also accepts a room reservation request: your team receives it as new, and a person from your team confirms it (by phone by default). The difference between a request, an availability check and a confirmation is explained in a separate article.
Two important caveats. There is no live chat with a person: if the guest wants to speak to someone, they are given the phone number. And the assistant does not replace the reception; it covers the hours when the reception cannot reply.
How to get started
- Write down your channels and who monitors them.
- Set up an automatic reply with a reply time.
- Make the phone number required in the form.
- Introduce a note for every enquiry and a set morning time for replies.
- Prepare ready-made replies for the most common questions.
- Decide whether a website chat will take the repeated questions.