
We love people so much we insist of communicating with them.
[caption id="attachment_34425" align="alignright" width="269"] This is not one of our rooms. Its our day bed in the garden :-)[/caption]
Why do I write this?
Because this morning I have had so many situations that have confirmed me in our decision of dealing directly with our guests – like talking with them face2face, talking with them over the phone, chatting with another real person and/or answering and receiving mails from someone you feel is made from flesh and blood and not 1 & 0 digits like most of the AI services that you know is at the other end of Tripadvisor, Booking.com or any of the other online booking services.
I started my morning by making a list of friends I want to invite for the Creons opening on Sunday. My plan was to go and hand out the invitation personally – but since it wasn’t ready I decided to take advantage of the situation and call people instead and catch up.
I had written 2 names when I heard a car parking just outside the window. A well-known yellow T-Shirt, green army shorts & trekking boots left the car: Nuno… the second name on my list… and behind him the name topping the short list Catharina.
Catharina is our Tasca goddess who closed her small food cathedral 5 months ago. Nuno is an artist I have wanted to show the lounge for months – I’d love to see his works on our walls. Both of them are not on any social networks – so the only way to reach them is via the phone.
Or as it turned out – Karmicly 🙂
Hi!!! I stayed with you in Kathmandu in 2015–me and another girl from the United States. I arrive in Lisbon on Tuesday!! Let me know what you have available–I am on a one way ticket so flexible on timing. Can also go to the seaside if you have nothing open.
I was desperately googling the www for a nice place to stay with my family next year in May. … And then I found TINGS.
Your story is inspiring and I love the concept.
Thank you so much for your reply. We went for another solution…unfortunately. We actually would have preferred to stay at Your nice place. But we couldn’t get a refund from the other place we booked(just a few hours before we learned about Your place). Some other time! – soon hopefully.
… I fell in love with Graca and decided to go there and look for a hotel. But there were NOTHING – then I opened Google map and suddenly photos from your beautiful place popped up.Shanti checked out after breakfast to return to her family who was surfing at one of the beaches north from Lisbon. 20 minutes ago our phone rang. I never pick up the land line but I was alone and answered the phone. It was Shanti who was bored watching people surf and decided to return to Lisbon – so now she’s back. We ended up having an interesting talk about travel communication. She is also in the business…