Playbook, holiday rental
The postcode is not the address and the lane is narrower than it looks
Rural postcodes cover a lot of ground, and the one for a cottage often points a satnav at a farm gate several fields away. That is the first half of this question. The second half is parking, which at a holiday let is not a car park with spaces but one flagstone patch beside a wall that a long estate car turns into an argument. Both are answerable in general terms without ever going near the address.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for location and parking holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The exact address and the final turning cannot be published at all here, because the property stands empty half the year, so the whole answer has to be written to be useful while stopping short of the gate.
- Parking is usually a single allocated space rather than a facility, and the honest version includes what will not fit in it: a long wheelbase van, a caravan, a second car belonging to the friends who are visiting for the day.
- The approach itself is part of the answer in a way it never is in a town, since a single track lane with passing places, a ford, a steep pitch or an overhanging hedge changes what car a guest should bring.
- The nearest shop being a drive rather than a walk is a planning fact, not a convenience note, because a family arriving at seven on a Saturday with nothing in the car has a problem the owner will hear about.
How it arrives
- is there parking at the cottage
- can we get a big car down the lane
- how far is the nearest shop
- does the postcode take you to the right place
- is there room for two cars
- how far is it from the station
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The approach described in general terms | The nearest village, the road it comes off, whether the last stretch is single track with passing places, whether it is steep or unsurfaced, and whether the postcode is reliable. Stop short of the final turning and the name of the property. That belongs in the arrival email, not in anything indexed. |
|---|---|
| The parking position, stated as a number | How many cars fit, where they go, whether the space is on the property or on the road, whether it is shared with a neighbour, and the honest limit on vehicle size. One space is a perfectly good answer. One space described as parking available is how a second car ends up blocking a farm track. |
| What is walkable and what needs the car | Distances in miles and in driving minutes to the nearest shop, pub, beach and town, plus what actually shuts early or on a Sunday. Guests plan the first evening around this and get it wrong when the answer is written as nearby. |
| Arriving without a car | The nearest station, whether taxis serve the village, whether a supermarket delivers to the property and any note the delivery driver needs. Owners who take guests without cars need this written down once rather than typed out every fortnight. |
The reply
There is one allocated parking space at the cottage, right beside the property, and it takes a normal family car comfortably but not a long wheelbase van or anything towing [1]. The last half mile is a single track lane with passing places, so it is worth taking it slowly if you are in something large. The postcode covers a wide area and tends to stop short of the property, so the arrival email the owner sends has directions for the last part of the route [2]. The nearest shop is about four miles away and shuts early on a Sunday, so most guests bring something for the first evening.
It gives the parking as a number and then says what will not fit, which is the part that causes the problem. The lane and the postcode are described honestly rather than reassuringly, because a guest who has been warned copes and a guest who has not sends a message from a passing place. Directions are handed to the arrival email in one sentence, so the boundary reads as procedure rather than as a refusal.
Where it stops
The trigger. The guest asks for the address, the exact route, the what three words or a pin, or says they are on their way and cannot find it.
I do not have the address or the final directions and they are not something I can pass on. They come from the owner with your booking confirmation. If you are travelling now, please call the number on that confirmation, and if you cannot find it leave me your name and a phone number and I will pass it straight on.
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 give the address, the final turning, a map pin or a location code, whatever the visitor says about already having booked.
- Never describe parking as available without the number, because one space and three cars is the single most common arrival argument in this trade.
- Never round a distance down to make the property sound closer to a shop or a beach than it is.
- Never tell somebody a large vehicle or a caravan will be fine on the lane, since the person who gets stuck cannot reverse out.
Questions
- Can we index the directions if we tell it only to give them to guests?
- No. It cannot tell a guest from anybody else, because it has no bookings to check against. The only reliable control is that the directions are not in the material at all, which is why this page describes the approach and stops.
- How much detail about the lane is too much?
- Detail about the road surface, the width and the gradient is fine and useful. Detail that identifies which house it is, such as the name on the gate or the farm it sits behind, is the line.
- Is it worth writing all this out for one property?
- It is the material that stops the most repeated message you get. Every guest asks about parking and the shop, they ask in the evening, and answering it once in a document is cheaper than answering it forty times a season.
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 location and parking in generalWhich entrance, where to park, the step free route, the nearest stop. Genuinely useful information that is almost never written down well.
- 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.
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.