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TempessGroup The experience of place

People remember the delightful and the unexpected. They remember stories. And above all, they remember experiences. TempessGroup gives you a way to offer delightful experiences that your Airbnb-, VRBO- or Inn- guests will remember for years to come.

Imagine the first late-afternoon for guests at your Airbnb or VRBO unit, they’re settled in, they’ve tentative plans for the morning and they’re about to sit down to a glass of Pinot Grigio that’s been waiting in their fridge. But ...

  • Maybe they’ve forgotten the WiFi password,
  • or they’d like to know the frequency of the local PBS station,
  • perhaps they’d love to have more information about local farmers’ markets, and coffeeshops,
  • and oh yes, it’d be nice to know how to operate the two remotes for the satellite receiver and the DVD player.

Without picking up a phone to call you, or looking for your room’s printed Guide for Guests, and without trying to Google the information about an area they know little about, they do something magically simple.

They talk to the room. More accurately, your guests simply talk to the smart-speaker system that TempessGroup has specifically programmed for your accommodations.

And what we can program into your Amazon Alexa smart-speaker systems is limited only by your imagination. In addition to some of the questions above, here are some of the things your visitors will almost certainly ask:

When's checkout time?

How do I contact the owner?

When's breakfast?

Where are the local farmers’ markets?

What are special events this week?

Where is there good shopping? (clothing-, food-, souvenirs- etc)

Where are local hiking trails and how do I drive there?

What are late-night restaurants? (What are local Chinese-, Thai-, Vietnamese-, American-, Steak-, Italian-, French-, Pub-, Microbrewery- restaurants … etc.?

What are local LGBT-friendly places?

What's the current exhibit at the SFMOMA?

What would locals tell us to be sure NOT to miss?

What you’re offering guests is easy; you're offering 24/7 access to local knowledge and suggestions. For you, it’s an added service. For them, it’s a memorable experience.

How we do it

  • We Listen: After a complimentary phone call where you and a TempessGroup consultant get a sense of whether the service is a match for your needs, we talk about how smart-speakers can be used to improve your guests' experiences.
  • We learn about what makes your accommodations - and area - special: lf we move on to a contract, our job is to ask you what local knowledge you want your guest to be familiar with and how often you want us to update that general knowledge.
  • We set up and customize all the necessary account information and perform the actual Amazon Alexa device programming: This can all be done remotely with techniques and tools designed to save you time and money.
  • And when all is ready, we send you the electronic equivalent of a Concierge In a Box: In almost all cases, this final step requires us having remote access to your network, your already-installed Amazon Alexa devices, and the smart-phone that will be associated with that smart-speaker system.
  • And we don't do is pretty important, too! Our job is to help you offer guests a more memorable experience. And while TempessGroup is made up of people who know how to make Alexa devices do that particular magic, we don't claim to compete with the excellent (and - free) tech support already offered by Amazon. We believe customers should never be offered for-hire services when better - complimentary - alternatives exist!

and what we charge

  • Our standard service rate is $105 per hour, charged in fifteen minute increments.
  • This rate applies to all our activities, from early needs assessment phone calls, follow-up programming adjustment calls, emails, or texts, and ongoing maintenance of your system.
  • We also offer prix fixes specials:
  • For a VRBO, Airbnb or VRBO with up to 5 accommodations (rooms, suites, cottages) at the same address (and using the same WiFi network), and including up to 15 programmed Question-and-Answers, the package fee is $840. (This includes the time needed for research, the "Question-and-Answer" program development work, and the remote installation and testing.)
  • For larger or more distributed system, a la carte service rates apply. (for more information, please call or text us: 510 708 3893)

About us

Tom Portante is the steely-haired (OK, there's a fuschia streak as well...) founder and senior technologist at Tempess Group. His passion for helping people create better work- and living spaces comes from a unique combination of University studies of how people interact with their built environments and years of consumer retail and home-renovation experience.

from upper left, steely-hairedTom, Emeryville, Bay Bridge, San Francisco

Lest this seem an overly direct route to founding TempessGroup, Tom's also been a medical procedures writer at a Psychiatric hospital, an Instructor - first in Social Anthropology at Concordia University in Montreal, and currently, at UCBerkeley's Continuing Education Program (strategic planning), a carpenter, an academic tutor, Senior Manager at two global management consultancies, and a ghost-writer for blogs and social media. Oh - and a wannabe fiddle-player (Celtic, Appalachian Roots)

Contact Us

text and voice: 510 708 3893

tempessgroup@gmail.com

Credits:

Created with images by Brandon Morgan - "vase on table with chairs" • Karina Carvalho - "Women admiring ferris wheel" • Andres Urena - "Alexa Visual Essay." • Fancycrave - "Tourist Backpackers Looking at a Map" • cocoparisienne - "periscope ship shipping sea atlantic holiday holidays" • pixaoppa - "emeryville bay area bay bridge night buildings" • Anurag Jain - "Bay Bridge at Night" • Josh Wilburne - "untitled image"

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