第４回

時差は厄介なしろもの

　真夜中にまくら元の電話のベルで起こされました。受信機をとると「ピー」とFAXの送信音。「これは電話です。FAXは○○番」と受話機に怒鳴りますが通じる訳もありません。何回も繰り返されるので留守番電話に切り替えました。これは時差が原因のようです。

　夜中に、予約の電話がかかってくることもあります。これに応対すると、そのあと目が冴えて眠れません。いまでは「日本は夜中の三時です。四時間あとにかけ直してください」と言ってますが、朝になるとかかってきません。今度は、かけた人の国が夜中なのかも知れません。

　この点、Eメールは、音なしで送られてくるので楽です。とろろが、今年のゴールデンウイークには「I LOVE YOU 」がやって来ました。このメールを開いた次の日、テレビでこれがコンピユーターウエルスで、感染被害が世界中にひろがっていると報道しています。さっそく息子がメールを削除しました。

　私が我が家のホームページを開こうとしましたら画面がでてきません。さては、ウイルスで消去されたのか動悸が走ります。「やど日本」を呼び出して、そこからリンクされている私どものホームページにアクセスすると現われてほっとしました。私どもではマッキントッシユを使っているので実害がなかったようです。　

　それから。、時差で困るのは、朝着いた人が、部屋を使いたいといいだすことです。
「昨日は、満員で部屋がないし、チエックインタイムは午後三時です。」と言っても「時差で疲れている」の一点ばりです。今では、先にその人の部屋を掃除して、終われば三時前でも、部屋に案内しています。

　時差は、目に見えませんがお客様にも、私どもにとっても厄介なしろものです。

日観連月報　平成１２年６月より

Episode 4

A time difference, a troublemaker 　

In the middle of the night, the telephone in my bedroom rings. I sit up in surprise and pick up the receiver to hear a fax transmission noise.
I shout at the receiver “You have a wrong number. This is not a fax but a telephone. Please send your fax to another number,XXX-XXXX.” But nobody answer it. After having this kind of calls so many times, we learned a lesson. Now we use an answering machine during night. Probably a time difference causes such a problem.

Some guests call us for reservation in the middle of the night. Such calls completely disturb our sleep and make us sleepless. All we can do is to tell them it is 3 in the morning here and ask them to call four hours later. However, they usually don’t call at that time. This time, it’s their turn to sleep.

Compared with telephone and fax, one of the greatest advantages of e-mail seems to be its noiselessness. During this year’s Golden Week holidays in April and May, the infamous “I LOVE YOU” virus sneaked into our computer. Not knowing of the virus, we inadvertently opened an infected file. We didn’t realize our carelessness until the following day when we learned about the virus through some TV news programs reporting its terrible outbreak around the world. We were shocked and immediately ask my son to delete the file.
We tried to access our website but we found we couldn’t. The idea the virus destroyed it flitted through our mind. Our site is linked to a website called “Yado Nippon (Accommodations in Japan)”. Changing the strategy, we first accessed to the site and then went to ours from there. We were so much relieved when our familiar website appeared on the computer screen. Unlike other Windows machines, our MacOS computer seemed to be less vulnerable to the virus.

A time difference causes another problem. Our check-in time is 3 p.m. and some guests arrive in the morning. They are so tired that they want to rest in their rooms as soon as they arrive. When we have no vacancy the previous day, we ask them to wait until the check-in time because we have to do the cleaning. Some wait but some don’t. In this case, we clean up their rooms first and show them in even before the check-in time.

Time difference is invisible but it does have a negative influence on both our guests and us.

(The Japan Tourism Association Monthly Journal June, 2000)