| To Meet or not to Greet? |
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Meet and greets are costly and time consuming. We have all been there. It's 4pm on a Sunday afternoon. You have popped out to do a meet and greet for your self catering property. Your family are waiting on you and your guests phone saying they are half an hour away. They say sorry they are late. The sat nav has been playing up. Anyhow they are just finishing afternoon tea at Loch Lomond and will be in Edinburgh in half an hour! Even at a push that's a good hour and a half drive.
Well I have been speaking recently to a number of landlords who claim that meet and greets are not necessary. They manage fine by leaving the apartment's keys in a little key safe with a combination lock. They claim guests prefer not to have the pressure of being on time for a meet and greet and also would rather just get into the apartment, kick off their shoes and relax. As opposed to spending the first 10-15 minutes if their visit to Edinburgh enjoying a guided tour of your apartment. All of the landlords I spoke to who use these key safes have comprehensive apartment manuals within their properties that explain everything from how the toaster works to the contact info for the local emergency dentist. They tell me very few guests have had to call them as something was not clear. And when they do it is something they can easily explain over the phone. The key safes themselves are relatively inexpensive ranging from about £20 to £45 and are pretty straight forward to install. Some have them installed on the door frame of the common stair opposite where the entry phone normally is. I imagine it would be prudent to get permission from fellow householders in your common stair. Some have got over the problem of common stairs by posting the small yale key, that gains you access into the common stair, to the guest before their stay. Then leave the flat keys in the key safe by their apartment door. One landlord I spoke with went one step further. They had installed a device that allowed them to switch the central heating on or off using their mobile phone. They only went in to their property to clean it. In fact they had not met a paying guest for over a year now and their apartment was immaculate! I am in two minds. Though I would dearly love to give up on meet and greets, I am wary about doing so. I may give them up a little at a time. So shortly I will be installing the key safes because I know, like you, that unless you are in a helicopter you won't make Loch Lomond to Edinburgh in 30 minutes!
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What can you do? Turn them away, inform them they have to pick the key up from your house, how would they get directions, etc.