Enhance Guest Experience With These 5 Vacation Rental Tips
Guest Experience at the Forefront
Crafting an ideal guest experience can be difficult, but it’s something that vacation rental owners should all strive for in order to earn more five-star reviews, and ultimately, more revenue. Whether you’re a newbie to the vacation rental world or you’re someone with a handful of successful properties under your belt, there’s always something new to learn when it comes to giving your guests the best vacation of their lives. However, it’s not easy to please everyone, even if you’re doing everything right already, so today we’ve gathered 5 tips that will help you to level up your guest experience.
#1: Provide A Glimpse Into Local Life
As a vacation rental owner, you should be an expert in the area that your rental is located in, even if you don’t currently live there. The reason for this is twofold; first, you want to ensure that you can provide personalized recommendations for your guests (which we’ll cover further later in this blog), but secondly, many guests want to get the local experience during their stay, and it’s up to you to pave the way for them.
Giving your guests a glimpse into local life is more than just giving them insight into the best restaurants in town. Instead, it means divulging a few locals-only secrets, like the best hiking spots in the area or where they can find the secret waterfall they might’ve heard about online. Allow your guests to immerse themselves, to imagine what it would be like to live in your locale, and they’ll create even stronger memories of their vacation to reminisce on for years to come.
#2: No Matter What Time of the Day or Night, Be There for Your Guests
It goes without saying that communication is of the utmost importance when it comes to providing a great guest experience, but if you want to be successful in the long term, going above and beyond is key. This means being available round the clock for your guests and being around to solve everything from the most minute and mundane of problems to the bigger, more pressing issues. However, it can be a big ask of any vacation rental owner to always be on call, which is why many owners decide to go with a management company that can handle problems any time of the day or night, like LocalVR.
If you want to do it all yourself, one great strategy is to give every guest message and communication the time and energy it deserves. Even if it’s 3 in the morning after a long and trying day, being there for your guests will mean a lot in the long run, especially when it comes time for them to write a review for you.
#3: It Comes Down to Fundamentals
When you’re looking for ways to improve your guest experience, one thing that shouldn’t be ignored is the basics. While many hosts may think that the cleaning company or maintenance workers they’ve hired are doing a good job, if issues keep popping up in guest reviews, it might be time to rethink how you take care of the basics.
If you skimp out on the fundamentals like cleaning, maintenance, repairs, communication, and the like, you can already ensure that your guests aren’t going to have the best time of their lives, and it’ll reflect in your reviews.
This is why it’s important to double-check your work. Take some time to visit your vacation rental and make sure that everything is getting done in a way that fits your own standards.
#4: Personalize Your Local Recommendations
Providing local recommendations to your guests is more than just a helpful aspect of hosting–it should be a part of your guest experience strategy. And the more personalized these recommendations are, the better.
Before a guest stays at your rental, try to get to know them a little bit and learn about what they are interested in doing while they’re visiting your locale. Then, once you know whether they’re an art buff or a restaurant connoisseur, it’ll be easy to pick a few places they’ll fall in love with, such as art galleries in the area or the best fine-dining restaurants in town.
While providing this level of service takes a lot of time and effort, it can pay off big in the end when it comes to getting those glowing guest reviews.
#5: Don’t Skimp on Amenities
When we say that amenities are one of the most overlooked aspects of guest satisfaction, we mean it. Sometimes, lacking in certain amenities can make or break a booking, which is why you should bring your A-game when it comes to your amenity offerings. And while it may be expensive to go out and install a hot tub in your vacation rental, investing into desirable amenities can make a big difference when it comes to having a leg up over the competition and earning more revenue.
Another aspect of this is not overselling your amenities. If you have a pool, for instance, don’t set expectations that guests will have access to an Olympic-sized pool for their morning workouts. It’s vital to be realistic with your guests from the get-go so that they won’t have outsized expectations of luxury while they’re staying at your rental.
Being a Vacation Rental Owner is Hard Work, But It Pays Off
It might be difficult to nail down a fantastic guest experience every single time your vacation rental is booked, but putting an extra bit of effort into it doesn’t hurt. We hope that if you take the time to implement these tips, you’ll see a big payoff when it comes time to look at your reviews and future bookings.
Not sure if you can handle every aspect of providing a great guest experience yourself? Look into a property management company you can trust, like LocalVR. To learn more about how we help homeowners thrive while maintaining their properties with the utmost care, visit our homepage.