It’s summer, we are full, it’s 40 degrees or so during the day and I seem to have spent the last week sorting out problems. Most of these are the result of errors in agency bookings. It is, of course, easy these days to book your holiday from home and since computers are pretty reliable, people think once they have made the booking and got a confirmation, everything will be fine. What often happens is that they are booking through an internet site, who pass it on to the travel agent, who pass it to their representative out here, who send it on to us….several steps where mistakes can be made.
We already had the guests last month whose booking got through to me for one day later than their actual arrival. When we tried to contact the company they had actually booked through, we found it had already gone out of business!
We have had another couple of rooms arriving the night before we were expecting them but that has been their own mistake in booking; some people don’t realize that if they are arriving at, say 2am on 10th, it counts as the night of the 9th. This would be easily sorted if the websites just explained it on the page where people choose the dates for their accommodation. This isn't just a problem at Poppy but is happening all over the place and can result in guests having to wait 12 hours for their room.
Another problem we had this week was a very nice family who arrived on Friday – as expected – but had actually booked two rooms, though we only got a reservation for one. We didn’t have a room free at Poppy until Thursday so the agency offered them a couple of options (moving to Hisarönü, moving to a hotel). In the end, they decided to stay here in the one apartment and they were lucky as a second one unexpectedly became free yesterday.
Transfers have also been rather stressful. Last week, when the bus was 40 minutes late to collect some guests for their return journey, I called the emergency number to check it was on its way and got shouted at by a very unhelpful guy. Other guests had had their flight changed and the transfer company hadn’t been informed; luckily we realized this in advance or they could have missed their flight. And another minibus arrived with four seats free when there were five people waiting to leave! The driver shrugged his shoulders and asked a lady to sit on her husband’s lap, which she did, but I was not impressed.
Altogether, I have started waking up in the night wondering what problems will be awaiting me in the morning. On the bright side, we have a lot of our regular guests in over the next few weeks so I KNOW there will not be any problems with their bookings!
Had a good Turkish night on Sunday with live music and belly dancer. Here are a couple of pix….
