A holiday let owner's phone is busiest between four and seven in the afternoon, which is when guests arrive, cannot find the key safe, cannot get the Wi-Fi to work and want to know whether the heating is on.
Here is that week, before and after.
Saturday before
Changeover day. The cleaner messages about a broken blind, the outgoing guests ask about a forgotten charger, and the incoming guests message four times between three and six: which door, what is the key safe code again, is there parking, what is the Wi-Fi password. The owner answers all of it from a supermarket car park.
Tuesday before
The guests message at nine in the evening asking how to work the heating. The owner talks them through it by message, twice, because the photographs do not match what they are looking at.
Thursday before
A question about bin day, a question about the nearest pub, and a complaint that the shower takes a while to run hot, which is normal and could have been mentioned anywhere.
What changes
The owner writes a guest guide covering arrival, parking, Wi-Fi, appliances, heating, bins, local recommendations and checkout, with photographs. An assistant answers from it at any hour and passes genuine problems straight through.
Guest: We have arrived but cannot get the key safe open. Assistant: The arrival page has step-by-step photographs of the key safe, including the order the buttons are pressed and how to reset it if it will not open. If it still will not work, I can pass this to the owner straight away as an urgent message.
Saturday after
Incoming guests find the arrival instructions themselves. The owner deals with the broken blind and nothing else.
Tuesday after
The heating question is answered by the guide, with photographs of the actual controls in that property, at nine in the evening without waking anyone.
Thursday after
Bin day, the pub recommendation and the hot water explanation are all in the guide. The owner hears nothing, which is the point.
Checkout day
The final morning produces its own small flurry: what time to leave, whether bedding should be stripped, where to leave keys, whether the bins go out and what happens to anything left behind. Putting all of it on one page means guests leave on time and cleaners arrive to what they expect.
What still needs the owner
A broken boiler, a lost key, a neighbour dispute or anything about safety needs a person immediately, and the assistant's job is to escalate those rather than attempt them.
Pre-arrival questions are different
Before booking, guests ask about beds, pets, parking and the area, as covered in guest questions before booking a holiday rental.
House rules without hostility
Rules about parties, smoking, pets and quiet hours need to be firm and friendly at once. Handling those conversations with care matters, as described in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot.
Small hospitality generally
Owners of guesthouses face an identical pattern, described in B&B guests asking about breakfast, parking and check-in, and the commercial case for handling it well is in direct bookings that save holiday let owners commission.
Getting started
Write a guest guide with photographs, publish it and let guests ask at any hour. SpideyChat for hotels and holiday lets answers from your own pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about answers on the features page.