Had a half hour booking in. He wanted to extend.

I said I couldn’t because another client had been waiting in the car park.

 Am doing my first come first today when the guys don’t ask for specific times. One arrived and said he was in the car park as I was directing first one in. He said he was happy to wait. But also pointed out he would be unable to wait longer. Fine.

So my guy leaves and I tell my next guy as per usual to call at a landmark near my room. When he called to say he couldn’t find it it was obvious he was at wrong hotel with similar name despite me having had put in block capitals not to go to that one.

He told me he would perhaps see me another time as he now has to leave. I told him no and that he was either a deliberate time waster or completely thick.

Now I wish I had let the first guy extend.

But knowing my luck there could have been a decent gent waiting in the car park.

What the fuck do you all do if a guy wants to extend?? X

I think in that case...to be brutal, it depends how much money you make from 'extending guy' compared to how much you make from the 'waiting guy'. Comes down to cash. I'd pick the most profitable rather than the ethical. (That's just me). Sometimes extensions are charged at a lesser rate compared to a fresh booking. The spanner in the works is that the 'waiting man' was an idiot or waster which confuses the whole pot of soup.

I think you need to be careful about leaving a guy outside and taking another booking. He may be the type of guy that would have no problem coming to the hotel etc and causing a fuss

I have turned down extentions because it wouldn't leave enough break (I prefer 45 minutes to 1 hour inbetween), then been let down the instance I'm thinking of was someone who'd faffed for a while, then made the excuse he'd driven past my town to go for dinner with his mates. Had been a bit of a 'texter' which I gave the benefit of the doubt.

I do however work to set appointments, and prefer peace of mind to risking naffing someone off.

This can even happen with pre booked clients. Some turn up early and your current guy wants longer.
I forgot one while on tour. He arrived too early i had somehow got too busy. He called to say he was waiting in lobby I rushed him up and didn't dare say I'd forgotten his booking as the other guy was probably passing him in the corridor!! 

Presumably it's only a problem if you don't leave any gap between clients.

Well not really.. it depends on how big a gap people leave.. When touring I leave an absolute bare minimum of 30min gap between clients, usually 45mins though as that’s more than enough time to not rush my client out of the door, get a shower, have a few mins to myself and get ready for my next. If the client wants to extend by 30min when I’ve left a 45min gap then it’s not feasible to do so.


OP you did the best thing you could and unfortunately it didn’t work out as you’d hoped. It could have been disastrous if you left the client outside to extend your current booking. You may have made some extra cash in the short term, but at the expense of a bad review which could have a negative effect on your earnings in the long term.