Even with perfect preparation, problems with guests can arise. Here is how to professionally handle the most common situations and turn them into positive experiences.
The Most Common Problems with Guests
When renting out apartments, we often encounter obstacles that we try to turn into instructive lessons.
At Irundo, we always strive to be available to our guests around the clock, and our goal is for every guest to leave our apartment happy and take away as many positive experiences as possible. Of course, as in any business, some things do not go as planned.
We have rarely had destructive guests, and our "worse" experiences are more comical than tragic. In an effort to help other apartment hosts, we have compiled a list of the most common problems that Irundo has encountered with guests throughout our years of apartment rental experience.
1. Guest Arrival in Dubrovnik or Rovinj
All of our apartments are located in top locations, right in the city center and close to all important local landmarks.
Irundo always strives to have apartments in the very heart of the city, to bring guests as close as possible to the authentic atmosphere of the city and place them at the center of adventure. Along with all the advantages of staying in the center of beautiful historic cities such as Rovinj and Dubrovnik, unfortunately parking is not an option. Although this is logical to most guests, we often receive inquiries about whether there is a parking spot near the apartment, and we have to explain that the apartments are in a pedestrian zone, in the old town core.
2. Turning on the TV
After sightseeing around the city, guests most often want a comfortable apartment where they can relax and watch television before bed. It often happens that a guest cannot turn on the TV, and in most situations the reason is selecting the wrong source. For all such problems, guests receive answers and a solution in a short time via phone with an agent in our customer support.
3. Guests Want to Enter the Apartment at a Late Hour
Guests aim to enjoy their vacation, have a great time, and visit the best restaurants, bars, and clubs, and we as a city destination are one of the places they visit. To be of maximum service to our guests without being intrusive, we handle this with self/contactless check-in and send them detailed instructions accompanied by visual guides on how to enter the apartment. Sometimes we see guests wandering through the old town cores (especially in Rovinj and Dubrovnik), listening to Google Maps directions, making their arrival at the apartment look like an escape room challenge.
4. Guests Forget Their Apartment Code Late at Night
We are sure that it has happened to everyone at least once — losing an important code at a very inconvenient time. Our guests have even sometimes forgotten which apartment is theirs, but the information is always available in their email or WhatsApp, so they quickly figure it out.
5. Guests Accidentally Turn Off the Water Heater
It is hard to get used to a new place, and guests go through an adjustment phase with the apartment. It often happens that guests accidentally turn off the water heater and then think they have no hot water. It is precisely because of situations like these that Irundo is always available and ready to help guests so they can fully enjoy the apartment.
6. Self Check-in Guests Do Not Provide Their Personal Data for E-Visitor Registration
With contactless check-in, it is very challenging (especially during the pandemic) to collect guest data and register them with the tourist board. We have encountered all sorts of situations, from arranging to meet at the apartment only for guests to forget and head off on a scheduled tour at that exact moment, to "chasing" them around the city, waiting for them at the apartment... Thanks to experience, today we collect registration data from guests before their arrival through our software.
7. Guests Oversleep Checkout
We believe that almost all apartment hosts have found themselves in a situation where guests have overslept checkout, and our advice for such problems is — be patient and considerate, because you do not want the last experience of their stay in your apartments to be a negative one.
8. Guests Throw Hygiene Products into the Toilet
In such situations, we can give the same advice as for the previous problem — be patient and remind your guests that only toilet paper should be flushed down the toilet. Feel free to place a notice on the cistern so they do not forget.
9. Guests at the Seaside Stain Linens and Towels with Self-Tanning Creams
Although most guests can hardly wait to catch some sun at the beach, some still use self-tanning creams and stain towels, linens... We have no problem with that — our professional apartment maintenance team already has pre-prepared solutions for stubborn stains.
10. Guests Scuff Walls with Suitcases and Bags
It is very important for apartment owners to know that wall touch-ups are needed every year to keep their apartment pleasant and clean. We recommend painting walls up to a height of 150 cm with latex paint, which is very easy to wash.
Through our own and others' experiences, we have learned what challenges hosts increasingly face, as well as how to deal with them. Working with people who come from different parts of the world and cultures is not simple, so it is worth keeping a few useful tips in mind. The first of them is — always be ready to help your guests, because "a happy guest will surely recommend you to their friends and acquaintances, and may even come back again!"