Playbook, holiday rental
Two nights of that stay are in high season
Most of the time a rate table answers a price question on its own. The exception is a stay that does not sit neatly inside one row of it: a fortnight that begins in mid season and ends in high, a long weekend that happens to contain a bank holiday Monday, a stay that runs over the new year. Those need a figure the owner works out, and the honest reply names exactly what is needed before anybody can produce one.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for quotes and estimates holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- A rate table is priced by week, so a stay that crosses a season boundary has to be broken into parts and re priced, which is the one calculation in this trade nobody should attempt in a chat window.
- Bank holidays and the days around Christmas and new year are usually carved out as their own band with their own minimum stay, so a stay touching them is not simply a high season stay.
- Whether the stay is even permitted comes before what it costs, since minimum stays and fixed changeover days can rule out a set of dates entirely before price becomes relevant.
- The guest asking is almost always comparing two or three properties on the same dates, so the fastest useful reply is not a number but a clear statement of what the owner needs in order to send one.
How it arrives
- can you price 10 nights over the may bank holiday
- our dates run from june into july what do we pay
- how much for the week between christmas and new year
- can you give a rough total for half term
- is easter charged as high season
- what would 5 nights in october come to
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Where each season starts and ends, as dates | The exact changeover date each band runs from and to, for the current year and the next. Season names without dates are the reason an assistant guesses which band a week falls in, and a guess here becomes a quote in the guest's mind. |
|---|---|
| The special periods and their own rules | Bank holidays, Christmas, new year, half terms and any local event week, with the minimum stay and the fixed arrival day that applies to each. These are the dates people ask about most and the ones a general seasonal table describes worst. |
| How a stay across a boundary is priced | Whether nights in each band are charged separately, whether the whole stay takes the higher band, or whether the owner prices it individually. State which of the three it is. Guests are not trying to game it, they are trying to work out whether to ask. |
| What the owner needs before quoting | Arrival and departure dates, the number of adults and children, whether a dog is coming, and whether a hot tub or anything else optional is wanted. Listing this is the whole point of the reply, since it turns a vague enquiry into one the owner can answer in a single message. |
The reply
That stay straddles two rate bands, because the season changes partway through it, and bank holiday periods are priced separately again with their own minimum stay [1]. That means the figure is not a row on the tariff page and the owner works it out for the dates rather than reading it off. I cannot produce a price myself. If you send me your exact arrival and departure dates, how many adults and children, and whether a dog is coming, I will pass it over and the owner will come back with a total [2].
It explains why there is no published figure before it declines to give one, so the refusal reads as a fact about the rate table rather than as an evasion. It asks for the four things the owner genuinely needs, which means the reply that eventually arrives is a real quote rather than another question. The word total is used only about the owner's answer, never about anything produced here.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks for any figure covering specific dates, or asks for a rough idea, an approximate total or a ballpark for a stay that crosses a boundary.
I would rather not guess at a figure for those dates, because the stay crosses more than one rate band. Give me the exact dates, the number of adults and children and whether a dog is coming, along with your name and an email, and the owner will send you a proper total.
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 produce a rough idea or a ballpark, because a guest comparing properties will treat it as the price and hold the owner to it.
- Never split a stay across bands and price the parts, since that is arithmetic across rules and it is the owner's job.
- Never assume a bank holiday or the week after Christmas falls in the ordinary high season band, when those periods are usually priced on their own.
- Never say a set of dates can be booked before anybody has checked the minimum stay and the changeover day for that period.
Questions
- Why can it quote a week but not this?
- A week that matches a row on your tariff page is a quotation from a document. A stay across two bands is a calculation, and once it calculates it has invented a price nobody authorised.
- Does asking for all those details put people off?
- The opposite, generally. A guest enquiring about a bank holiday week has usually messaged three owners, and the one who comes back with a real total first, rather than a question, tends to get the booking.
- Can it at least say which band the dates fall in?
- Only if your material gives the bands as dates. If the seasons are named without dates attached, it should not decide which one August the twenty ninth belongs to, and that ambiguity is worth fixing in the tariff page itself.
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 quotes and estimates in generalWhat has to be known before a number is possible, how the scoping step works, and how to answer without stonewalling or inventing a figure.
- 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.
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.