I’m struggling to get my European gite guests to respond to me when I send them info (eg directions to get here)
When I just had guests from the UK they tended to be late 50s/60s/70s and emailing them never seemed to be an issue. I’d email, they’d reply.
These last two summers I’ve had only Dutch / French / German visitors and they tend to be in their 40s. Quite often when I email them - eg our latest family have left a towel behind and I’m checking if they want it back - there is absolute silence.
Is that because emails are old technology and they are just not reading them? I must say I loathe the thought of going over to text, but maybe needs must.
I’d welcome advice thanks.
If you’ve got their email address… why shouldn’t you use it.
Personally, I’d prefer an email any time… but am wondering if your emails are sometimes falling into their “spam” by mistake… which is why you get no response.
Frankly, you are The Boss so go with whatever is convenient to you…
2 Likes
Why not both?
A quick DDG search “text by internet” suggests…
I’m sure there are others for you to explore.
personally… I’m involved in some stuff which requires me to be contactable almost 24/7.
Folk can zap me brief messages to my phone, but I’ve made it quite clear that anything requiring an indepth answer/action they should send by email.
sometimes I get a call/message/sms to my phone to advise me that a document/whatever information… is being emailed over… and that works well, too.
Sue “loathes the thought of going over to text” and I can’t see any reason why she should have to.
I can’t honestly believe it’s this. I haven’t a clue what it is but it seems very odd it would be that. As @Stella says perhaps the curse of the spam folder is a factor, I personally wouldn’t want to be texted in this sort of situation. Any texts I get that aren’t from friends or family enrage me to an unhealthy degree (no matter how helpful they actually are, and clearly in the case of a left item it would be a purely helpful reasoning) if I’ve not specifically asked for them, which when emails that I’ve not instigated make me react no more than a shoulder shrug is an interesting contrast. I guess one way to go forward might be a ‘preferred method of contact’ field on bookings so that then people can choose meaning you may find them more responsive via whatever method they’ve said, and also you’ll have express permission to use whatever they’ve chosen.
ha ha… I wouldn’t offer them the choice if I wasn’t prepared to accept it… 
1 Like
The “younger” generation are now well versed and entrenched in their use of technology for communication and texts or Apps like WhatsApp and Telegram are de rigour - and those extend to a growing number of us oldies too!
It is probably worth mentioning that emails are often ignored in France where social media often gets results.
But as @kirsteastevenson suggests if you go along her route, you can limit the choices on the form…
1 Like
This is along the lines of how I would handle it. If email is preferable, then I’d use that in the first instance. If I didn’t receive a reply to my email within say a week then I’d follow up with a brief text message advising an email had been sent that requires their attention. If I still didn’t receive a response then I’d feel comfortable that I’d done my bit.
I recently bought some cards (from Dippyfish Cards, if anyone is interested) and we communicated via DMs on Twitter, of all places. Unlike email or text messages, we could both see whether each others’ messages had been delivered and/or read. Not sure it would work for everyone and in every situation, but it did for us 
Ooh, that’s a good point… I do a lot about GDPR in my line of work, but hadn’t considered this.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I’ve been wondering for sometime and what made me think this is an issue was something in today’s Guardian about Boomers talking to Zoomers (or something!) This is what made me think:
Is email really dead?
John Lee, 61, Dundee
Scott-Turner: I have 10,000 unopened emails.
Ayo Ogunleye: If I emailed my friend saying: “Do you want to meet up?” they’d probably laugh. Phones are here for a reason.
Baggaley: The only people who email me are Uber Eats and Sainsbury’s.
Good point Kirstea. I’m all for asking my guests what they want.
Because I’m in the hospitality business and as I want repeat business I go out of my way to give them what they want.
I think you maybe right Gareth. Follow up with a quick text after a few days saying did they get it. But I’ll start with Kirstea’s suggestion first and check how they want me to contact them.
Not sure, since in all cases they HAVE communicated with me by email and I them when they are booking - at that point they are making an effort to keep in touch. Afterwards, not so sure. 
Thanks @graham - I’ll explore further, especially if they say they do prefer text contact.
1 Like
Entirely your choice re contact … I suspect repeat business will come because of the excellent holiday folk have spent at your place… 
I suspect SPAM killed email rather than anything else.
I have email, SMS and Twitter on the phone - email is not really any less “instant” than the other two.
I like WhatsApp for contacting guests - you know when they have read it and you can send them Google Map links - but WhatsApp may not work for all generations.
If your guests are teenagers perhaps try TikTok and putting you instructions to music and perform a little dance!
2 Likes
and any voice calls are free so no roaming charges - WhatsNotToLike about WhatsApp 
See this thread…
1 Like
Sue, are you using a Yahoo or Google email address?
They seem to occasionally get treated as spam by the recipient’s email client.
but the alternatives like Telegram are allegedly more secure than WhatsApp - it’s just that the take-up may not be so high. The way forward is of course to have multiple opportunities to meet your client’s expectations - little point in sending a Telegram message if the Client doesn’t have it.
I was only really providing an example of the opportunities available, not necessarily recommending a particular solution from the long list of those available.
We use whatever the guest uses to contact us. Often whatsApp. But people just don’t reply…whatever you use
I guess that could be if there is no “call to action” in the message. If they read it only as informational, they may not feel there is a need to respond positively, or otherwise. Others of course may not understand that such messages in either direction are foc crossing Country or network boundaries.