Playbook, holiday rental
Can we come and see it first
It sounds a reasonable request and owners get it regularly, most often from people who live within an hour and are choosing between two cottages. It is nearly always impossible, and not because anybody is being difficult. The property is either occupied, being cleaned or empty and locked with nobody within twenty miles, and a viewing means a person driving out to open a door for somebody who may book a Tuesday in November.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for appointment booking holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- There is no diary to open here at all, since there is nothing to book except a week of the property itself, so a viewing request is not a booking question but a request for somebody's time on a specific afternoon.
- The only day the property is both empty and open is changeover day, which is precisely the day nobody has a spare half hour, because a clean has to be finished before the next arrival.
- An occupied property cannot be shown at all, and guests currently staying would have a fair complaint about a stranger being walked through the sitting room while their things are in it.
- What the visitor actually wants is reassurance about something specific, the size of the second bedroom, the state of the garden, how close the neighbours are, and that can usually be answered outright without anybody driving anywhere.
How it arrives
- can we come and see the cottage before we book
- we are local can we have a quick look round
- can we look on a changeover day
- is there a video walkthrough
- can we see the second bedroom properly
- can we drive past and have a look outside
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your position on viewings, stated plainly | Whether you show the property at all, and if you do, the conditions: not in season, not on a changeover day, by arrangement only. If the answer is no, write the reason down. A no with a reason is accepted and a bare no reads as unfriendly. |
|---|---|
| What exists instead of a viewing | A floor plan, room dimensions, a video walkthrough, a full photograph set including the awkward corners, and honest description of the things people come to check. This is the answer to nearly every viewing request and most owners already have half of it. |
| The specific things people come to look at | Bedroom sizes and bed sizes, whether the second bedroom really takes two adults, the garden and whether it is enclosed, how overlooked the property is, the state of the parking, the noise from the road. Answer these in the material and the viewing request stops arriving. |
| Where an enquiry goes and how quickly it is answered | The address the request reaches and the realistic turnaround. Somebody asking to view is close to booking, and a reply the same evening decides it more often than the viewing would have done. |
The reply
Honestly, viewings are not something the cottage can usually offer. It is occupied most weeks, and the one day it is empty is the changeover, when the clean has to be finished before the next guests arrive [1]. What might help more is that there is a full set of photographs including the small second bedroom, a floor plan with room sizes on it, and a walkthrough video on the property page [2]. If there is something specific you want to be sure about, the size of a bed, whether the garden is enclosed, how close the neighbours are, tell me and I will either answer it from the description or send it to the owner to answer properly.
The no comes first with the reason attached, because a reason turns a refusal into an explanation and this particular reason is easy to accept. It then offers the material that exists, which is what the visitor wanted anyway. The last sentence invites the real question, since a viewing request is almost always a proxy for one specific doubt that can be settled in a sentence.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor still wants to arrange a visit after the position is explained, or is a neighbour, a prospective buyer or an agent rather than a guest.
Whether a look round is possible is the owner's call and not something I can arrange. Leave me your name, an email and when you were thinking of visiting, and I will pass it on so they can answer you directly.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never arrange, agree or suggest a time for a viewing, since it commits somebody to a drive and an afternoon.
- Never say the property is empty this week, which tells a stranger an unoccupied house is standing available.
- Never give the address or the location so that somebody can drive past and have a look from the road.
- Never say the current guests would not mind somebody being shown round, which is not the assistant's judgement and is rarely true.
Questions
- Should we ever allow viewings?
- Some owners do out of season and for local enquiries, and it converts well. If you do, write the conditions down so the assistant repeats your rule rather than turning people away from something you actually offer.
- Can it book a viewing if we say yes to them?
- No. It has no diary and cannot write into one. It can explain when viewings are possible and collect the request with the dates on it, which is the useful half anyway.
- What actually reduces these requests?
- Room dimensions and a floor plan, more than anything else. Most people asking to view want to know whether a bedroom is a real bedroom, and a number on a plan settles it faster than a visit would.
Keep reading
- Everything for a holiday rentalWhat is provided, deposits and cancellation terms answer well. The exact address and the door code stay back until a booking exists.
- Handling appointment booking in generalIt cannot write into a calendar. The job is removing every reason not to book, then handing over with the details already gathered.
- 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.
- 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.
Try it on your own material
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