How to reduce repeated guest questions
If you run a guesthouse, a rental or a tour, you probably answer the same ten questions every week. Most of them are not really questions. They are gaps in the information the guest already has.
Start by counting
Open your inbox and your messaging apps and read the last thirty guest messages. Put a mark next to each question every time it comes up. Parking, Wi-Fi, check-in time, the door code, where the meeting point is, what to bring. You will see that a handful of questions make up most of the messages.
Those are the ones worth fixing first. A question that comes up once a month can stay a personal reply.
Fix the information, not the reply
When five guests ask where to park, the problem is usually not the guest. The parking note is missing, hidden in a long email, or only written in English. Before you write a faster reply, ask where the guest should have found the answer.
Picture a guesthouse that keeps getting "how do I get in after 22:00?" messages. The late arrival steps are in the booking email, but at the very bottom, under the house rules. Moving them to the top, and sending the door code again on the day of arrival, answers the question before anyone has to ask it.
Put the answers where guests look
Guests look in three places: the booking confirmation, the message they get the day before, and your website. Put the top questions in all three, in the same words. Keep each answer to a line or two with the real detail: the time, the address, the code, the price.
If many of your guests write in other languages, add the most common one or two. Short, plain sentences translate well and are easy to check.
Decide which questions should get an automatic answer
Some questions will keep coming however good your information is, because guests write before they read. Those are good candidates for a saved reply or an automatic answer, as long as the answer never changes: Wi-Fi, check-out time, what is included.
Keep a person on anything that depends on the day or on judgement: a late check-out request, a complaint, a refund, or whether it is safe to drive or go out in bad weather. Write those down as your own rules so the whole team handles them the same way.
Check again in a few weeks
Count again after a few weeks. The questions that are left show you what is still missing. Add the answer to your information, and the list keeps getting shorter.
Where Vaki fits
Vaki answers guests on your website from the information you give it, in 13 languages, and on email, WhatsApp and Telegram on the Medium plan. When the answer is not in your information it asks the guest for an email address and tells you, so you can reply and add the missing line.
You can try it for 14 days free: a card is needed to start, nothing is charged until day 15, and there is no contract.
Also: Vaki for guesthouses and B&Bs · How to answer guest questions after hours · Vaki for holiday lets and glamping