By business type
Answering guest questions without giving away the door code
A holiday let is answered by one or two people who are usually doing something else, so the same twelve questions arrive by message at every hour. Most of them are perfectly safe to automate. One category is not, and it is not about safety in the usual sense: the precise location, the access instructions and the key code are things a property gives to a confirmed guest and to nobody else.
What people actually type
Not the questions on your FAQ page. These are the phrasings that arrive in a chat window, lowercase and unpunctuated, and the material has to answer them in those words rather than in yours.
- where exactly is the property
- what time can we check in
- is there parking at the property
- do you provide towels and bed linen
- is there a travel cot and a high chair
- do you allow dogs
- is there a security deposit
- what is your cancellation policy
- is there wifi and how good is it
- is the pool heated
- how far is the nearest shop
- do we need to strip the beds before we leave
What to feed it
In rough order of how much work each one takes off the front desk. Every one of these is a document you almost certainly already have.
| A complete inventory of what is provided | Bed linen, towels, beach towels, a travel cot, a high chair, a hair dryer, an iron, a washing machine, a dishwasher, cooking basics, coffee, salt and oil. Guests pack around this list, and the questions arrive in the last week before travel when nobody wants to be answering messages. |
|---|---|
| What guests need to bring or arrange | The other half of the same document and the more useful half. Whether towels are for the pool, whether cots come with bedding, whether there is a supermarket nearby or the nearest one is a drive, whether firewood is provided or bought locally. |
| Arrival and departure procedure in general terms | Check in from, check out by, whether a late arrival is possible, whether there is a key safe or a meeting arrangement, and what the departure routine is: bins, dishwasher, beds stripped or not, keys left where. Written generally, so it answers the question without disclosing the specifics. |
| Deposit, cleaning and damage terms | Whether a security deposit is taken or a pre authorisation held, the amount, when it is returned, what the cleaning fee covers, what an extra clean would be charged for, and the position on smoking and on pets in bedrooms. |
| Cancellation terms and what happens either way | The notice periods and refunds, what happens if the property becomes unavailable, and whether you require or recommend travel insurance. Guests ask this before booking far more than owners expect, and a clear answer converts. |
| Local rules, taxes and practicalities | Any tourist tax collected on arrival, any registration or guest details required where you let, quiet hours, waste and recycling rules, parking permits, and the maximum occupancy the property is permitted. These vary enormously by location and cannot be guessed at. |
What has to reach a person
The exact address, the access route and the key code
This is the defining constraint of this trade. A holiday let is an unoccupied property for much of the year, and the full address with the key safe code is the one piece of information that must only reach a confirmed guest through whatever channel you already use.
Keep it out of the indexed material entirely. If it is not in the documents, the assistant cannot leak it, which is a much stronger guarantee than instructing it not to.
Availability and pricing for particular dates
The assistant cannot see a calendar. It can describe seasons, minimum stays and changeover days from your published terms, and then send the enquirer to the booking page or take their dates as an enquiry.
Anything wrong at the property during a stay
No hot water, a broken appliance, a neighbour problem, a lost key. A guest in the property with a problem needs a person and a phone number in the first reply, not a paragraph from a welcome guide. Put the emergency contact into the refusal wording itself.
A deposit deduction or a damage dispute
Money that has been withheld is a negotiation with photographs on both sides. The assistant can state the published terms and should go no further, because a casual line about what usually happens will be quoted back during the dispute.
The wording when it cannot help
This is the message the assistant returns when nothing in the material covers the question. It is written by you rather than generated, which matters here more than anywhere: it is the sentence a stranger reads at the worst moment.
I cannot give out the address, the access details or the key code, and I cannot check dates. Those come from the owner once a booking is confirmed. If you are already staying and something is wrong, please call the number in your booking confirmation. I can help with what is provided, deposits, cancellation terms and the local rules.
It names what it cannot do, gives the route that can, and offers to take a message. A refusal that only apologises leaves the person exactly where they started.
Rules and duties that shape the answer
Short lets carry registration and tax rules in many places
Where you let, there may be a registration or licence number that has to appear in listings, a limit on the number of nights per year, a requirement to collect guest identity details, and a tourist tax to collect and remit. These rules differ by city as much as by country and they change.
Index your own compliance information rather than letting the assistant reason from what is common elsewhere, and keep the registration number in the material so it can be quoted when a guest asks.
Cancellation terms are the contract and need to be exact
Accommodation booked for specific dates is commonly carved out of the general right to change your mind about a distance purchase in many markets, which means the terms you publish really do govern the outcome. Where the booking came through a platform, that platform's policy may sit on top of yours.
Publish both positions and let the assistant say which one applies to a booking made where. Vagueness here converts a refund conversation into a review.
Describing the property accurately matters more than selling it
Steep steps to the door, a bathroom only upstairs, a single track lane, a pool that is not fenced, no mobile signal. A guest who discovers these on arrival cannot leave, which is why they become the worst reviews and the loudest refund requests.
Index the honest description including the awkward parts. An assistant repeating them before a booking loses you the wrong guest and keeps the right one.
Never, whatever the documents say
Out of bounds
- The full address, the access route or any key or entry code.
- Whether the property is free on particular dates.
- A price for a specific stay or a discount on one.
- Whether a deposit deduction was fair, or whether it will be refunded.
- How many guests can stay beyond the permitted occupancy.
Playbooks for this trade
One page per recurring question, written for a holiday rental rather than in general. Each carries the phrasings, the material that answers them, a reply worth copying, and the line where it has to stop.
- When does the damage deposit actually come backGuests want the amount, when it is taken and when it comes back. Answer all three from your terms and never predict a deduction.
- How many weeks before arrival, and who took the bookingHow far out the guest is decides the answer, and a booking taken by a platform may sit under that platform's policy instead of yours.
- Towels, travel cots and the drive to the nearest shopTowels, cots, parking and the nearest shop. Evening messages that decide whether a guest arrives relaxed or already annoyed.
- The reply that decides the reviewThe review is written from the reply, not the problem. State only the published terms, take the details, and get an owner on it today.
- Somebody is already inside and something is brokenNo hot water at ten at night is not a documents question. The first reply needs a phone number, not a page from the welcome guide.
- The nightly rate is the smallest part of the answerThe rate moves with the week of the year and the length of stay, then the changeover clean, the pet supplement and the short break premium go on top.
- The postcode is not the address and the lane is narrower than it looksOne allocated space, a lane a long car cannot manage, the shop four miles off, and a postcode that drops people in the wrong field.
- A grandparent is coming and the stairs are the problemSteep stairs, low beams and a step at the door. When the honest answer is that the property will not suit, saying so early is the useful reply.
- They have paid, they are not coming, and they want it backMoney already paid, a cancellation outside the window, and the difference between a refund and a credit against another week.
- The company wants an invoice and the balance is due in a fortnightA company paying for a cottage needs a proper receipt with the right name on it, and every guest needs to know when the balance falls due.
- Can we shift our week, and who is allowed to shift itChangeover days, minimum stays and a season change all constrain a date move, and a listing site booking is not the owner's to amend.
- The cleaner found a phone charger and a small teddyA charger on the bedside table, a child's toy in the wash, a chipped basin. What the assistant may say about posting things on and about deductions.
- Nobody is at the cottage and the owner is two counties awayThe owner has a day job and lives elsewhere. Arriving at eleven at night, a boiler on a Sunday, and an honest answer about when a reply comes.
- A waiver, a deposit and a policy are three different thingsA waiver is not a deposit and neither is insurance. What the owner's own cover does, and why the assistant never says a claim will be paid.
- Two nights of that stay are in high seasonTen nights over a bank holiday can touch two rate bands and a minimum stay rule, which is why a figure needs dates before it means anything.
- Can we come and see it firstPeople do ask to look round before they book a week. Usually the answer is no, and the reason it is no is worth explaining properly.
- The calendar is the only thing that knowsThe one question the assistant genuinely cannot answer. The calendar is the only truth, and a wrong yes puts two families on the same doorstep.
- Twelve of us, two cottages, one long weekendTwelve across two properties, the noise clause, and the hen and stag position. The occupancy limit is a permission, not a preference.
Questions
- How do we make sure it never gives out the address?
- Do not index it. The assistant answers only from the material you give it, so a fact that is not in any indexed document is a fact it does not have. Keep the welcome pack with the codes and the exact directions out of the crawl and out of the uploads, and describe the location in general terms instead.
- Is it worth it for one or two properties?
- The value is in the timing rather than the volume. The questions about towels, cots, parking and pets arrive in the evening the week before travel, and answering them at that moment is what keeps a booking from drifting to a property that replied faster.
- Can it handle guests who are already staying?
- For the routine questions in the welcome guide, yes: bin day, how the heating works, the wifi arrangement as you have described it. For anything broken it should hand over immediately with the contact number in the reply, because a guest with no hot water needs a person rather than a document.
Keep reading
- For a restaurantHours, last orders, deposits and dietary options are safe ground. Confirming a dish is free of an allergen never is.
- For a hotelRate inclusions, check in times, parking and room accessibility answer well. Live availability and a named reservation do not.
- For a gymContract length and cancellation terms cause most gym complaints. Timetables, inductions and joining fees are worth automating.
- Every business typeWhat an assistant has to know before it can answer for a trade.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.