Policy: Guest Meet & Greet

Company Position: 

Property Providers’ vision is to “Help People Live Better” by being Sydney’s most flexible residential rental company. This vision is driven by three core values: Passion, Performance and Partnership. This policy has been created in line with our guiding principle that all great long-term partnerships have a strong foundation of mutual respect, mutual reward, mutual investment and mutual risk.

Document Purpose: 

The purpose of this document is to communicate Property Providers’ policy about meeting and greeting guests at properties. This policy applies to both short-term owners and guests.

Background: 

Property Providers’ standard practice is for keys to be collected from our offices in Seaforth. This provides a better environment for the business to execute our processes (i.e. validating, ID, scanning keys out, confirming zero balance etc). Having fulfilled thousands of short-term bookings, we have found that guests do not want to feel obliged to meet a staff member when they first arrive; they want privacy to settle and “nest” into their new environment, without an agent hovering around. 

Over 50% of our guests our international, so often they have come off a long-haul flight and heading straight to their property rental. Inevitably in these scenarios, guests are simply exhausted and need time to adjust. In addition to this, many of our guests are in a transitional phase (i.e. divorce, insurance claim or corporate relocation) and are outside of their normal environment. As such, we find the best judgement is to provide some space for guests upon their arrival. 

Notwithstanding all the above, in some cases, it is certainly appropriate to meet the guests face-to-face at the property. In these cases, consideration must be given to the endless scenarios that occur, including but not limited to arrival anytime 24/7, flight delays, traffic and other unforeseen circumstances. In developing our Meet and Greet Policy, we feel that it is important to provide a reasonable framework that balances fairness and commercial realities, and manages expectations while considering the bigger picture.

Policy Objectives:

  1. To deliver a premium guest experience and be clear regarding under what circumstances a meet-and-greet will be available.
  2. To provide a clear meet-and-greet framework that balances the agency, owner, and guest expectations.
  3. To consider scarce resources, logistics, and commercial realities.
  4. To support the company’s guiding principle that all long-term relationships have a foundation of mutual respect, mutual reward, mutual investment and mutual risk.

Agency Policy:

  • The staff member who is meeting the guest is simply there to welcome, provide keys and provide a high-level tour of the home. If guests require property management, instruction should be provided directly to the office by emailing us or logging a maintenance request so that an appropriately qualified person may be engaged.
  • This policy is automatically applicable under the following circumstances:
    • A booking is worth over $30,000 in total tariff.
    • The rate is greater than $2000 per night.
    • An owner gives a direct request for this service to occur and the guest has agreed in writing that they would like to be met at a property.
  • If your booking does not fall into the above categories, then a meet-and-greet service is not available for your booking.
  • If the above applies then a member of Property Providers’ staff will meet and greet guests, provided that they are arriving within:
    • Regular (Feb-Nov): Weekdays 9:30 am – 4.30 pm
    • Peak (Dec/Jan): 7 days 8:30 am – 5:30 pm
    • Public Holidays: Not Available
  • If guests are arriving outside of working hours or on public holidays, a meet-and-greet is not possible, however, we will endeavour to try and find an alternative solution (i.e. moving arrival dates, keyless entry, meeting at the property the following day).
  • A guest may nominate a delegate to attend a meet-and-greet if the booked guest has provided written direction/approval with their permission. The delegate will also be required to provide sufficient ID before access is granted to the property or the exchanging of keys/codes etc.
  • If we are meeting and greeting guests, an estimated arrival time (within an hour window) is required in writing within two working days prior to arrival. The guest is also responsible for contacting Property Providers on the day with a more accurate arrival time (i.e. upon landing or clearing customs) to avoid our team being forced to wait for extended periods.  If the guest is unable to contact Property Providers then the meet-and-greet staff will show up for the hour window initially agreed upon. If guests do not arrive within this hour window, the staff member may elect to leave and guests will be expected to collect keys from the office (as per normal arrival instructions) unless alternative key collection arrangements are made (i.e. lockbox). Please note that extra fees may apply and be deducted from the guests’ security deposit if staff members are forced to wait an unreasonable amount of time at the property, or if the guest has not taken a direct route to the property (i.e. stopped to buy groceries etc.).
  • Property Providers will open the property, provide a quick tour (and explain anything requiring particular care), share the home guide and transfer ownership of keys. The meet-and-greet should not take anymore than 30 minutes. Guests are expected to settle into the property in their own time. If they have any queries or issues after their first evening at the property, they are to email the property management for this to be addressed. 
  • The “Meet and Greet” staff’s role is TO:
  1. Conduct the “Guest Experience Review,” our quality assurance process, prior to guest arrival
  2. Complete cleaning quality audit
  3. Welcome guests with a smile and general knowledge of the property, its immediate surroundings and local area knowledge.
  • The “Meet and Greet” staff’s role is NOT TO:
  1. Facilitate any property management or deployment of trades
  2. Move luggage
  3. Conduct pool maintenance
  4. Shuttle guests or move cars
  5. Clean
  6. Provide concierge services
  7. Connect guests to the WIFI      
  8. Troubleshoot technical issues TV, Wi-Fi/Internet, and home electronics
  • Property Providers will not tolerate abusive behaviour or language towards their staff. Our staff’s safety is paramount. If the meet-and-greet staff feel uncomfortable or unsafe at any time, they will exit the situation and escalate it to a senior member of staff. If a guest is demonstrating inappropriate or abusive behaviour, Property Providers has the right to terminate the stay immediately.

Rationale:

  • The circumstances of short-term rental arrivals are endless and not every individual circumstance can be accommodated. In this regard, Property Providers feel that the framework of the Meet & Greet Policy manages the majority of situations in a fair and balanced way.
  • The trend of consumer’s self-serving is increasing as technology provides convenience. Our position is that all properties that we manage should have a keyless entry which would allow guests to go straight to the property without any inconvenience, and we will conduct our pre-arrival processes over the phone and online.
  • A face-to-face interaction can be important and appropriate, particularly when dealing with a sophisticated property. 
  • The above policy provides for a healthy balance between premium service and staff rest and recovery. In this regard, we feel that the policy is respectful to owners, guests and staff alike.
  • We believe the above policy clearly sets the expectations for guests wanting to be met on-site and for owners requesting this service on their behalf.

Effective Date:  This policy is effective February 1, 2020.

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