This is part of the CC Festival of hospitality, original topic created in the Italian speaking Community Center, by @Cinzia29 and translated below.
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When you have 2 apartments there is the possibility of overlapping check-in, even if it is hoped that this will not happen... EVER!
Instead, here I am on a hot Monday in mid-August facing what many of us (including myself) consider a nightmare. Double check-in 30 minutes away from each other: 3:40pm and 4pm.
Obviously, I do not miss bookings, so in the same day there are also 2 check-outs, there is no time to play with in advance.
It's a race against time but, provided that the element of surprise don't play bad tricks, I can do it!!! I can do it, I can do it, I repeat it as a mantra! Luckily, the couple in one of the apartments leaves early. At 9am. I'm already there with everything I need (and my husband helping out) to prepare. I clean, prepare almost everything and at 11am I go to say goodbye to the other couple who leave the apartment. I return like fury to the other apartment and finish preparing. At 11:30am I start the other apartment, at 2:30pm everything is miraculously ready: I do not believe my eyes!
Tired, sweaty, upset.
I go home, park "fantasy" and throw the bags of dirty clothes, I wash myself (it is not nice to welcome guests sweaty and distraught), eat an ice-cream (but remember that hard hosts do not eat!) and I go to welcome guests at 3:40pm: they arrive by train.
I invoke the patron saint of Trenitalia to make sure the train is on time.
But no, the ballet of delay on the station board begins:
15 minutes late (for crying out loud!)
10 minutes late (yay!)
20 minutes late (make a decision?)
15 minutes late (bad liars! It's now 4pm to get this damn train)
The light on the incoming train flashes simultaneously with the sound of my phone. They are the 4pm guest ... In 10 minutes we are there ... A little 'traffic?? A red light??
In the end sincerity is always the best choice, I explain to the 4pm guest that the (damn) train of the guests of the 3:40pm was late and has just arrived so I will arrive a few minutes late....
Then I think...who goes where? I'm always a bit 'afraid of making a mistake in the apartment to be assigned. I bring home the number 1 guests (in the right place): here is the fastest check-in in my history ...
I run to the number 2 guests, they are again a bit upset and sweaty... Meanwhile they have parked and are enjoying a little 'breeze in the shade.
I did it: at 5pm. I'm done!!!
Everybody inside, everybody happy, and incredibly I didn't forget anything... I can't believe it!!! Overwhelmed, sweaty and a little more than tired I go home. I deserve the couch!
Here's what I learned:
1. Detergents, brooms, mops and vacuum cleaners live in the houses you rent. This way they can also be useful for guests, as long as the sugar falls they should not bump to pull it up with a broom and a dustpan. Ditto for the shampoo and conditioner shower soap refills.
I have a bag of those blue Ikea I call my "makeup kit". Inside there are several little things "just in case": a complete set of screwdrivers, pliers, nails and a meter. There are those who wear lipstick, and I wander with screwdrivers!
Also tons of rolls of toilet paper, rags, rags and rags that I use to clean (the one for glass, the one for wood, the one for drying) and then I take them home to wash them ....
2. In cases like the one described, find yourself a helper: I couldn't do it on my own!!!
3. Communication with the guest is FUNDAMENTAL! Otherwise, you can do whatever you want, but failure is just around the corner.
4. Honesty always pays. No one is perfect and to admit to having a problem is not a mortal sin. On the contrary, it helps to establish a more real human relationship. Guests understand that their host is not "one and three" but simply a human being like them trying to do things better
5. The experience will help you. I have learned it over 30 years of working with the public: either drink or drown 🙂
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