What’s Your Inn Guest FICO Score?

The other day I had a guest experience that I wish I would have handled differently. Hey, sometimes it happens. But you never know UNTIL it happens. And we all know that sometimes all it takes is one person to screw things up for everyone else. Here’s what happened?

Around 5:30 one evening last week a gentleman called wanting to book a room for his wife who was on the road headed my way, expected to arrive within the hour. He asked me questions about the rooms and obviously was looking for the cheapest room with the best amenities. After answering ALL his questions, I started to get annoyed.

“Do you want the room or not?” I said in my head.

Finally, after some hemming and hawing, he decided to book the room and gave me the registration and credit card information. After asking if we had any military discounts, I learned that his wife is currently on active duty, but on a leave of absence to attend to a family emergency.

“Great,” I said. “Just have her show me her military id when she gets here, and I’ll adjust the price at check-in.” I’ve learned NOT to apply the discount until I verify the person is in fact on active duty. I don’t give the discount to retired vets. It’s simply a business decision we made when we took over ownership. I respect all our vets, but I have a special admiration for those folks out there actively defending our country in these difficult days.

Anyway, when I asked him if his wife had any food allergies that I needed to be aware of so that I could be prepared in the kitchen for breakfast, he inquired what time breakfast was served then told me that his wife was an early riser and would probably want to get on the road before breakfast was served.

So, when the woman arrived – a lovely young lady – she provided her military id card, I applied the discount, adjusted the bill, and charged the credit card her husband provided earlier. She confirmed that she did want to get on the road and would probably be gone by around 6:30 in the morning.

I showed her to her room, and she followed me up the stairs with one small backpack, a pillow, and a fuzzy blanket. She said everything in her room was fine, she was tired from traveling and was going directly to bed.

In the morning, her car was gone, and she hadn’t used anything in the room. No towel. No washcloth. No glass. She didn’t even get under the covers. She had removed the pillows from the bed and slept on top of the comforter with her own pillow and blanket. You would never have known that someone slept on that bed. The room was in perfect order. All I had to do was clean the toilet and vacuum.

Photo by P. Rickrode

Now, here’s an instance where I wish I wouldn’t have charged her the same amount I charge everyone else, even with the active military discount. She literally was NO work for me at all and did not eat breakfast. I’m not even sure she used the toilet, but I’m figuring she must have done that at least once. Had I known she was going to be so little work, I’d have charged her far less than I did.

But, you just never know. Could have gone the other way. She could have been a royal pain in the butt. I’ve dealt with those guests as well and I wish I could have charged them MORE money for having to put up with them. I think innkeepers should develop some kind of sliding pay scale based on prior performance as an inn guests. There should be a review site so you can read about their past overnight stays and adjust your room rate accordingly. Sort of like a FICO score for folks who travel a lot. Hosts should be able to see what kind of guest they’re getting before arrival. If you’re difficult, you get the higher price. If you’re low maintenance, you get a better rate.

Airbnb sort of does this. You always have an option to review the guest(s) before they book. If there have been problems in the past, you can choose to decline their request for a room. When guests check out, innkeepers and guests, are required to “rate” the other by answering a series of questions and then posting a personalized message so that other guests and hosts can see their past performance before booking. Now, that system is a bit flawed because, I’m sure I’m not the only host, who almost always provides a good review. You sort of have to. Unless something has gone horribly wrong. I don’t want to get the reputation of being a host who always leaves a bad review because that’ll discourage folks from booking because they don’t want to risk getting a low review score. So, the system, while somewhat enlightening, may not always be completely reliable.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Should travelers we given a FICO score for their behavior and travel habits? Would you stay at an inn if the innkeeper was notorious for leaving bad guest reviews? If you were in my shoes, would you leave a truly honest review, or would you skew it a little bit to avoid being the “bad-review host?” I’ll admit, I have left 2 less than satisfactory reviews. Both were warranted in my opinion.

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Word of the Day: Zabaglione

Fun fact about me: I think sometimes brutal honesty is my biggest flaw.

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, February 2022. Images by P. Rickrode, Google, and giphy.com