The Inquiry That Goes Cold Because Nobody Followed Up
A customer calls Thursday afternoon asking about availability for Presidents' Week — twelve days, two families, wheelchair access needed for one member of the party. You take notes. You check the property calendar. You tell them you will send rates by email. The email goes out Friday morning. By Monday, if you have not heard back, you need to follow up.
The customer expected book date field is the follow-up trigger that a general contact log does not provide. When you log an inquiry, you record not just what the customer wants but when they said they would make a decision. Working the pipeline on Monday means filtering by expected book date — everyone who said they would commit this week — and making contact before the window closes.
Vacation rental conversion is a timing game. The family that is genuinely ready to book will book with the first property that follows up at the right moment. The property that waits for them to call back loses.
Accommodation Requirements as Booking Filters
The accommodations multichoice — None, Pets, Smoking, Wheelchair accessible, Family friendly environment, No smoking facility, Other — is the field that qualifies an inquiry against a property before a showing or rate quote is issued. A wheelchair-accessible requirement eliminates properties without ground-floor access or lift. A pet accommodation requirement eliminates properties under HOA pet bans. Sending a rate quote for a property that fails a guest's accessibility requirement wastes the guest's time and your own.
Florida luxury rental properties vary widely on pet policy. Some properties are explicitly pet-friendly and priced to cover the additional cleaning deposit. Some communities prohibit pets entirely regardless of property owner preference. Logging the pet accommodation requirement at the inquiry stage means the property match — or disqualification — happens before any further conversation.
Wheelchair accessible as a category in what is labeled a luxury rental context indicates the operator knows their clientele includes multigenerational parties where accessibility is a material factor, not an edge case. A family of eight booking a seven-night stay at a Gulf-front property often includes grandparents whose access needs determine which properties are even viable.
Airport Logistics as Hospitality Operations
The airport pick-up needed boolean and airport text field are the fields that separate a transactional rental operation from a hospitality operation. A guest arriving at MCO, TPA, or FLL who knows that transportation from the airport to the property has been arranged does not need to navigate car rental lines or rideshare apps on arrival day. Logging the arrival airport at booking time means the transportation arrangement can be made when the reservation is confirmed, not scrambled together the day before arrival.
Budget in USD is the qualification field that prevents misaligned expectations. A family with a $3,500 weekly budget should not be shown a property that runs $5,800 per week in peak season. Logging the budget at the inquiry stage means the properties shown are already within range — which makes the conversion faster and the customer less likely to feel pushed.
The date and time field timestamps the initial contact event. Check-in and check-out dates define the stay window. Number of guests (including children) and number of children separately drive occupancy calculations and child-proofing requirements. Notes captures anything specific that the accommodation multichoice does not — "first-floor bedroom required for guest with limited mobility" or "arriving late, need keypad access code" — the operational details that determine whether the arrival experience goes smoothly.