How to Provide The Best Guest Experience at Your Holiday Let
Thursday 21st May, 2020 by Host & Stay
Providing the best experience possible for your guests is key for a number of reasons. To begin with, you want a glowing review. Whether this is positive comments to friends or great feedback published online, reviews play an important role. Brilliant reviews help instil confidence and reassurance when potential guests are looking for their next holiday rental. 5* reviews also mean you can get certain privileges such as Superhost status on Airbnb.
Secondly, you want repeat customers. If a guest has had a truly wonderful stay, they’re likely to return again and this means you’re securing future booking revenue. Lastly, by creating a desirable and sought after place to stay with a long lead time for bookings, you’re able to increase the price to reflect this.
Want to know how you can provide the best experience for your guests? Just keep reading for our top tips.
Quick, Friendly and Efficient Guest Communications
Communication is important when providing positive guest experience. Guests often have questions and they expect fast response times. It’s all about providing exceptional service.
You’ll be asked questions about the property, the features, the outdoor space, local restaurants, parking, check in details and so on. It’s imperative that all communications are quick, efficient and friendly. If you list your property on different online travel agencies, you will need to stay on top of where the messages are coming from and make sure you don’t miss any.
At Host Northumberland, our team members use one unified inbox to reply to all inbound guest messages. This inbox contains messages from the 60+ online travel agencies we list with making it organised, time efficient and concise. All communications are streamlined allowing our team to provide lightning fast response times.
The Availability of your Short-Term Holiday Let
There are a number of reasons why a guest will choose your property. Appearance, facilities and location play important roles but one significant factor which is often overlooked is availability.
If your calendar is very restrictive, this can be off putting for guests. At Host Northumberland, we don’t follow the traditional minimum night framework that a lot of holiday management companies work towards. We have a modern and dynamic approach to holiday letting which includes pricing on a per night – per stay basis combined with a flexible approach to stay lengths.
Another stumbling block when managing your availability is calendars. If you’re listing on multiple online travel agencies, it is key that your calendars are up to date and accurate. Turning down potential guests who have contacted you for dates where your property isn’t actually available due to a booking on another OTA can be a bad experience. Worse still – double bookings need to be avoided at all costs!
At Host Northumberland, we use one unified calendar where bookings filter through from all of the online travel agencies we market with. By using one calendar, we are able to avoid double bookings, ensure all calendars are up to date and we can stay organised with check ins and messaging. Our system ensures our owners have peace of mind that their property is in good hands.
High Quality Holiday Rental = The Best Guest Experience
By providing a high quality short-term holiday rental, you’re well on your way to providing the best guest experience.
Ensure that your holiday let is light, attractive and most importantly clean. You will receive negative reviews if the cleanliness of your property is not up to scratch. Whether you clean your property yourself or you have a cleaner, it is worth making a list of everything which needs completing during a changeover to ensure nothing is forgotten.
At Host Northumberland, we have our own in-house cleaning and laundry team to uphold the highest quality standards and to ensure we deliver exceptional guest satisfaction scores.
First Impressions Count
Your guest has viewed photos of your property online so they have an idea what to expect when they arrive but it’s all about exceeding these expectations and making a great first impression.
Whether you want to leave a handwritten note, a welcome hamper or practical gifts such as milk, coffee and tea – all of these will be a bonus for your guest. Even the simplest of gestures can have a huge positive impact.
So there you have it – our top tips to providing the best guest experience. If your guest can see your dedication and effort, you will be rewarded with positive feedback.
At Host Northumberland, we provide a fully managed service which has been proven to increase revenue, improve guest satisfaction and increase the profitability of your holiday let property. Want to know more?
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