Draft guest enquiry replies without inventing a price you cannot honour

1. 01Done

   The facts sheet you write once

   the step that pays off

   You need a facts sheet and access to the inbox. No integration, no automation, no plugin.

   The facts sheet is the actual job. Prompt one is a form. Fill it in once, keep it somewhere you can copy in a single keystroke, and paste it above every enquiry.

   Two rules while filling it in.

   Write the numbers you will honour, not the numbers on the website. If the site still says $340 and you moved to $385 (In the margin: today's price.) in April, the model quotes $340 forever, and you either eat the difference or open the relationship by correcting yourself.

   Write down what you refuse. Most enquiries that go badly are people asking for something you do not do. If "no dogs" and "no one-night stays in July" are in the sheet, the reply says so warmly in the first line instead of after three rounds of email.

   The facts sheet you write once

   Copy

   Fill this in once and keep it. Every reply prompt starts by pasting it.
   Write the answers you will honour today, not the ones on the website.
   FACTS SHEET
   - Business name, and what it is in one sentence:
   - Who replies to email (first name, role, how we sign off):
   - Season: open from / closed from:
   - What we sell (room, cabin, seat, package) and the current price of each.
     Say whether the price includes tax:
   - What a night or a seat includes:
   - What it does not include, and what those things cost extra:
   - Minimum stay or minimum party size, and when it applies:
   - Deposit: how much, when it is due, refundable or not:
   - Cancellation terms, worded exactly as we will honour them:
   - Getting here: nearest airport or town, drive time, whether we do transfers:
   - Accessibility, mobility and dietary things we can genuinely commit to:
   - What we do not offer (pets, one-night stays in peak, kids under a certain age):
   - The three questions we are asked most, and our real answers:
   - Tone: (e.g. warm, plain, slightly dry, never salesy)
   - Words we do not use:

   Pro tip

   Whatever else you leave blank, put in the cancellation terms. It is the thing guests ask about most and the thing almost nobody has written down.

   Checkpoint

   A filled-in sheet carrying the numbers you will honour today.

   Copy step as prompt

   ---

2. 02Done

   Draft the reply

   Paste the sheet, paste the enquiry, read the draft, send it. Two minutes.

   The rule doing the most work is the one that forbids inventing facts. Without it, the model is helpful in the worst possible way. It fills the gap with a plausible price, a plausible drive time, a plausible answer about whether the sauna is included, and every one of those becomes a promise the second you hit send. With the rule, the gap comes back as [ASK: ...] in the draft and you either know the answer or you go and find it.

   The other rule that earns its place is the single question at the end. An enquiry that gets a complete answer and no question tends to just stop. An enquiry that ends with "are you fixed on early July, or would the last week of June work?" turns into a conversation, and conversations turn into deposits.

   Draft the reply

   Copy

   You are drafting a private email reply to a guest enquiry on behalf of the
   business in the facts sheet below. I will read it and send it myself.
   Hard rules:
   - Every fact in the reply must come from the facts sheet. Prices, dates,
     inclusions, drive times, cancellation terms: if it is not in the sheet,
     you do not know it.
   - Where the reply needs a fact the sheet does not have, write
     [ASK: the question I need to answer] inline instead of guessing. Never
     estimate a price, a distance, or an availability.
   - If they are asking for something the sheet lists under "what we do not
     offer", say so in the first two sentences, plainly and without
     apologising twice, then offer the nearest thing we do have.
   - Repeat their dates and party size back in one sentence, so a mistake
     surfaces now instead of at check-in.
   - Answer their questions in the order they asked them.
   - Under 150 words. This is read on a phone.
   - One line of greeting at most. No "thank you for reaching out", no "we
     would be delighted", no exclamation marks.
   - End with exactly one question that moves this toward a booking.
   - Sign with the name in the facts sheet.
   FACTS SHEET:
   """
   {{FACTS_SHEET_FROM_STEP_1}}
   """
   ENQUIRY (received {{DATE}}, from {{NAME}}):
   """
   {{ENQUIRY_TEXT}}
   """

   Pro tip

   Length is stricter here than it looks. Nobody reads a screen of text on a phone while deciding whether to take a holiday.

   Checkpoint

   A draft under 150 words, with an [ASK: ...] wherever the sheet came up short.

   Copy step as prompt

   ---

3. 03Done

   What still has to be you

   • Read every draft before sending. This is a quote to a stranger about money. There is no version of this you automate end to end.
   • Fill the ASK gaps or cut the sentence. A bracket that ships is worse than a slow reply.
   • Add the one line only you can write. (In the margin: this books the trip.) "The ice usually goes out around the 20th, so early July is the right call" is the sentence that books the trip, and it will never be in the facts sheet.

   Checkpoint

   A reply you have read, with no brackets left in it.

   Copy step as prompt

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