The booking thread: where everything is written down

The booking thread is the written exchange between you and the house in which a booking is asked for, answered and confirmed. It replaces the telephone call that many guests over fifty remember from earlier years, and it holds everything the booking depends on: the address, the date and hour, the length, who is coming, the figure and, where one is due, the deposit and how to pay it.

Why writing rather than talking

Because it keeps. A room number spoken aloud can be misheard; a start time agreed on the phone can be remembered differently by the two people who agreed it. In a thread both sides can read the same words at any time, the next morning or a week later. Guests who begin by preferring a call usually prefer the thread after one booking.

What goes in

From you: where you are staying, when, how long, a name from the roster or a line about the evening, and whether there are two of you. Later, if needed, the room number and directions to the entrance. From the house: who is free, the figure, the deposit and the way to pay it, and confirmation once you say yes.

What stays out

Anything the booking does not need. No date of birth, no reasons for your trip, no account or password. The amount and payment route for a deposit appear here and nowhere else, so any request for payment arriving by another route can be disregarded.

Changes and cancellations

Every change goes through the thread: a later start, a different length, a move to another date, a cancellation. The time your message lands is the time used to read the notice scale in the booking terms, so write as soon as you know.

Formal matters

A complaint, a question about what is kept about you, or an objection to a note goes by e-mail to [email protected] and is answered in writing. The booking page sets out the order in which the messages in a thread usually run.