How to answer guest questions after hours
Guests do not write during your opening hours. They write in the evening, at weekends and from other time zones. Here is a plain way to handle it, whether you do it by hand or with help.
Why it matters
A guest who has a question is usually deciding between you and someone else. If your answer comes the next morning, they may already have booked elsewhere. You do not need to answer every message in seconds. You do need the routine ones answered the same day, and answered correctly.
Step 1: write down the questions you really get
Go through the last month of messages. You will find the same dozen questions again and again: where do we meet, what is included, what should I bring, can children come, what is the cancellation policy, what happens if the weather turns. Put them in a list. That list is the most useful thing you will make.
Step 2: write each answer once, in full
Write the answer the way you would say it to a guest, with the real details: times, places, prices, ages. Check every figure. A wrong price repeated to a hundred guests is worse than a slow answer.
Step 3: decide what must go to a person
Some questions should never be answered by a template or by software. Safety is the main one: whether it is safe to go, whether a road is open, whether a trip is running in bad weather. Refunds, complaints and anything unusual belong here too. Write those down as your rules, and make sure someone sees them quickly.
Step 4: answer in the guest's language
Many guests write in their own language. You do not need to be fluent in all of them, but an answer in the guest's language builds trust faster than a perfect answer in yours. Keep your answers short and plain, because plain text translates well.
Step 5: look at the questions you could not answer
Every message you could not answer from your list is a gap. Answer the guest, then add the missing line to your list. After a few weeks the list covers almost everything routine.
Where Vaki fits
Vaki does steps 2 to 4 for you once you have given it your information. It answers guests on your website, and on email, WhatsApp and Telegram on the Medium plan, in 13 languages, from what you gave it. When the answer is not there it asks for an email address and tells you, so you can fill the gap. It does not take bookings and it never judges safety.
If you want to see how that works for your kind of business, start with the page for tour operators, or try the first 14 days free: a card is needed to start, nothing is charged until day 15, and there is no setup fee and no contract.
Also: Vaki for tour operators · How a tour operator can answer guests at 23:40 · Answering guests in their own language