Airbnb Host Communication Archives - Turno

Airbnb Messages to Send to Guests During Their Stay

Hospitable — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 01:37:07 +0000

How to Communicate With Guests During Their Stay

Guests appreciate attentive hosts, and attentive hosts make a point of finding a healthy balance between reaching out to guests during their stay and allowing them to enjoy their vacation in peace. It’s this balance that will set you apart as a host and have guests recommending you to their friends and visiting year after year.

There are multiple times you should be reaching out to guests after they check in and before they check out.

The following guidelines will show you exactly how to manage in-stay communication to create the best guest experience possible.

Check In With Guests on the First Morning After Arrival

Your guests just checked in, and you want to let them enjoy their vacation — after all, it has only just started. But checking in with guests the morning after they arrive to gauge their first impressions of your property is incredibly important.

Some guests may not think to reach out directly to you if they had a small problem with the property when they arrived. Maybe there was a dirty towel on the floor or a stain on the counter. Get this information from your guests instead of letting them complain about it in a bad review.

This allows you to apologize for whatever they complained about and offer solutions or fixes if necessary and helps to develop a positive rapport with your guest while showing you care.

Make Emergency Contacts Clear

Always be sure to let your guests know how they can reach you and in what instances they should get in touch with you in an emergency. It’s important to set those guidelines and boundaries, as what appears to be an emergency to a guest may seem more like a minor inconvenience to you.

Sharing emergency contacts with guests is especially important if you don’t live in the area. Be sure your guests know who to reach in case something happens and you aren’t able to respond to the situation yourself.

Check In With Guests Throughout Their Stay

If a guest is just staying with you for a weekend or so, it’s not necessary to check in with them various times throughout their stay (this would be the vacation rental equivalent of a waiter passing by your table to ask “How is everything?” ten times over the course of an hour-long meal).

However, if your guest is staying with you for more than a week, send messages at least once a week to make sure everything is going well and they’re still pleased with your property.

Just like the message you send on the morning after check-in, touching base with guests throughout long stays helps you to reduce the risk of negative reviews by addressing these issues as they occur.

This is also an opportunity to offer upsells, like additional cleaning services and replacement linens, to guests who are staying for an extended period of time.

Upsell Additional Services

Aside from the occasional message to touch base, there are some other compelling reasons to keep in touch with guests during their stay: upsells. If you advertise all your upsells in your listing or a pre-check-in message, there’s no way your guests are going to remember or take advantage of them.

You should personalize your upsells so they’re relevant to your guest (you should have gotten to know your guest during the pre-stay communication phase).

If your guests are a young couple with children, offer babysitting or other child-friendly services. Perhaps your guests flew in from out of town. Offer them the option to hire transportation services to take them to the airport when they leave.

You can also offer general upsells, like late check-out and extended stays. Offering guests the option to stay an extra day at a discounted price is a great way to fill in gaps in your booking calendar, which helps you bring in more revenue while giving guests the chance to enjoy their vacation for even longer.

The key here is to find a good balance between accommodating and overbearing. Make your guests aware of upsells that could be of interest to them without overwhelming or annoying them. A good way to do this is by sending all relevant upsells in one or two concise and informative messages instead of sharing them over the span of their stay.

Send a Thank You Message the Night Before Check-Out

Your final communication with a guest before they check out should be the night before they leave. Send your guests a message the night prior to check-out to thank them for their stay.

You can also use this as an opportunity to remind them of check-out times and inform them of anything they need to do before they leave (Do they need to take out the trash? Where should they leave the keys?).

Finally, be sure to ask how their stay went. This is your last opportunity to smooth out any issues they may have had instead of being surprised when you find them in a review.

Keep in Touch With Your Guests During Their Stay — They Will Thank You for It

In-stay communication doesn’t only keep Airbnb guests happy. It ups your chances of a glowing 5-star review and direct bookings in the future.

With the right balance between being attentive and allowing your guests to enjoy their stay, you’ll be able to market upsells and address problems before they end up in a negative review. All the more reason to make in-stay communication a priority for your short-term rental business.

The post Airbnb Messages to Send to Guests During Their Stay appeared first on Turno.

Airbnb Welcome Letters and Other Pre-Stay Communication

Hospitable — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 08:05:00 +0000

How to Communicate With Guests Before They Book

For many hosts, guest communication begins at the moment of check-in. However, pre-stay communication plays a key role in your relationship with guests, both potential and confirmed.

A poor approach to pre-stay communication can mean losing out on bookings because of incomplete listings or unanswered questions.

If you don’t speak with potential Airbnb guests before they book, you won’t be able to personalize their stay or identify potentially problematic guests you may not want to host. Plus, you need to be sharing important information with guests between booking and check-in that will set you apart as an attentive and thoughtful host.

4 Pre-Stay Communication Tips

The tips below will help you maintain helpful and consistent communication to turn inquiries into bookings.

1. Ensure That Your Listing Description Is Complete

Every guest communication starts with your listing. This is probably the first time that a potential guest ever sees you, so you should be thorough and design your listing with your ideal guest in mind.

Do you want families to stay with you? Point out why your property is so family-friendly.
Is your vacation rental geared towards couples? Highlight the romantic experiences in the area.

Your Airbnb listing should be fluid, meaning that it is a dynamic description you should update as you gain more insights into what guests think of your property. While you want to be as thorough as possible when first creating your listing, you should also go through your reviews on a regular basis, discover what guests praise most often, and highlight that in your listing.

But never oversell or exaggerate in your listing. Being honest and realistic about your property is key to securing good ratings: When you falsely advertise your offering, guests lose trust. Plus, overselling is a surefire way to get a bad review, as you’re setting unrealistic expectations from the start.

On the flip side, being up-front about what your property can and can’t offer is the best way to demonstrate your integrity to a potential guest.

2. Respond to Inquiries Immediately

The average Airbnb user spends less than 12 minutes on the site. However, they visit about six listings during their visit, meaning potential guests will only spend about two minutes on your listing.

Needless to say, it’s not enough to respond to inquiries within 24 hours — all inquiries should be answered within minutes before guests have the chance to find another listing and book with them instead of you.

If you don’t want to be glued to your phone at all hours of the day, use a tool like Hospitable for automated replies so you can respond instantly to each guest inquiry without having to do any of the legwork.

To cut down on guest inquiries, and so you know you’re not missing any potential bookings, keep stock of the questions you most often get asked and work the answers into your listing. Remember, your listing is always a work in progress and should constantly be updated and improved.

3. Give Potential Guests Access to FAQs

Even if you write a thorough listing that covers FAQs, many guests skim it, and they don’t hesitate to reach out directly to you when they want a question answered. Remember, you should be able to respond to these questions on the fly.

That’s why you should work to create a set of questions and canned answers that can be copied and pasted quickly. You can also automate FAQ answers with a software that can recognize commonly asked questions and then automate responses.

You can also use these responses as a chance to sell your property. If a potential guest asks about the WIFI and you offer an exceptionally speedy connection, be sure to highlight that.

For example, instead of responding “Yes, the Wi-Fi is good,” say something like “Our Wi-Fi connection is lightning fast. It will allow you to browse social media and stream your favorite shows while your kids are playing video games with no connection delays.” But again, be honest and avoid embellishing aspects of your property that fall short.

4. Learn More About Your Guests

Vetting potential guests before they book isn’t an option if you have Instant Book activated. But if your listings are Request to Book, the final pre-booking communication stage is to learn more about the potential guests staying at your short-term rental. Discover important details about the people who want to stay at your property by asking simple questions like “What brings you to town?”.

By doing this, you’ll discover if they are a good fit for your rental property. For example, perhaps you offer a family-oriented experience but the potential guest is planning a bachelor party.

You’ll also be able to provide guests with a personalized experience: If you know their motives for traveling, you can offer them relevant upsells and recommendations. So, if your guest tells you they’re a young family, promote your partnership with local childcare services or kid-friendly tour providers.

To continue, learning more about your guests helps you avoid bad stays. Does your guest live in town and is just renting your property for the night? Maybe they’re planning to throw a party, which is likely an issue for you.

Plus, this gives you the opportunity to discover if there could be future booking opportunities with a guest. Is their office headquarters in town and will other colleagues be frequently visiting? Take this chance to collect information about potential future stays.

How to Communicate With Guests Between Booking and Check-In

Now that you’ve scored a booking, it’s time to cultivate the guest relationship before they even check in. You can do that by setting expectations, collecting contact details, sharing a personalized guidebook, and sending a check-in message.

Set Expectations on When Your Guests Will Hear From You

As soon as you send a booking confirmation or “thank you for booking” message, you should let your guests know when they’ll hear from you next. A simple message like “I’ll be reaching out a week before your stay with check-in information” will suffice.

It’s counterproductive to send all of the information your guests will need in one long message on the same day they make their reservation. Tell your guests when you’ll be contacting them, and send information in smaller, more digestible segments.

Ask for Your Guests’ Contact Details

Be sure to collect your guests’ emails and even phone numbers when they first book to better be in contact during their stay. Not everyone checks Airbnb messages while they’re on vacation, so having the right contact information is key to making sure you can reach guests if needed.

This is also an opportunity to collect emails to send marketing messages later on to encourage direct bookings and share promotions. However, be sure that you’re transparent and get consent before using any personal contact information for marketing purposes.

Send a Guidebook a Few Days Before Check-In

If you want to take the guest experience to the next level, it’s all in the details. One great way to do this is by sharing a curated guidebook a few days before their stay begins.

Send your guests a PDF with all the helpful information they could need to begin preparing for their trip. This can include packing lists, house rules, things to do in the area, and restaurant recommendations. This not only enhances their stay but also helps position you as an attentive and thoughtful Airbnb host.

Send a Welcome Message on the Morning of Check-In

Your final pre-check-in communication should be a guest welcome letter on the morning of check-in. There are plenty of Airbnb welcome letter templates online that you can use for inspiration.

Depending on what time check-in is, send this message early enough for them to see it a few hours before heading to your property but late enough for it not to wake them up.

Your message should include a reminder of the check-in time, detailed check-in instructions, and anything else guests should know when they arrive at your property. This is also an opportunity to offer early check-in if there’s no turnover that day.

Get More Bookings and Build Trust With the Right Pre-Stay Communication

As you can see, guest communication begins long before a potential guest even sends you a message.

From your property listing all the way to the message sent on the morning of check-in, pre-stay guest communication sets the tone for the entire guest experience, which is why you need to prioritize it as much as you would in-stay or post-stay communication.

The post Airbnb Welcome Letters and Other Pre-Stay Communication appeared first on Turno.

Airbnb Checkout Messages and Other Post-Stay Communication

Hospitable — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 06:31:00 +0000

How to Communicate With Guests After Check-Out

Post-stay communication is your opportunity to build guest loyalty and increase the chances of your guest, their friends, and their family booking with you in the future.

With post-stay communication, timing is everything. Aside from thanking your guest for their stay right after they leave, you’ll want to ask for a review, guide them to your direct booking website, and also strategically time referral promotions.

With the following tips, manage your Airbnb checkout messages like a seasoned professional and watch the direct bookings roll in.

Ask for Reviews at the Right Time (And Don’t Be Afraid To Follow Up)

Reviews are one of the main reasons to refine your post-stay communication approach.

The words of an individual reviewer can influence a potential guest’s choice of whether to book with you far more than your listing or your website. Knowing how and when to ask for reviews is the best way to harness this incredibly important factor in a potential guest’s decision-making process.

Be quick to publish your review right after a guest checks out. As you know, the guest receives a notification to leave a review as soon as you publish yours. While they would ideally write theirs the moment they receive the message, we all know it doesn’t always happen that way.

That’s why you need to be comfortable following up with guests as many times as necessary to get a review. Many guests do not realize how important reviews are to the success of a vacation rental business, so don’t be afraid to tell them. Explain how much reviews help you get more bookings and improve your properties.

If you list on Airbnb, for example, guests only have 14 days to leave a review, so make them aware of that deadline. People are busy (especially when they just return home after vacation), so don’t take it personally if they keep forgetting, but do emphasize that leaving a review only takes a few minutes and would mean a lot to you and your business.

Perhaps you had a guest that wouldn’t stop complaining and was clearly displeased with their experience at your property. If you sense a guest is going to leave a bad review, publish your review at the last minute. This gives them less time to write their review and decreases the chances of them doing so.

You can use guest messaging software to automatically manage your reviews and send reminders to guests.

Get rid of the heavy lifting on what can sometimes be a tedious task. Many software options can even help you automatically delay reviews when you sense a negative review coming on.

Guide Guests to Your Direct Booking Website

Getting guests to book directly on your website is short-term rental industry gold. While a guest may have found you on a booking portal like Airbnb or Vrbo, let them know they should head to your website if they want to book with you in the future.

The key here is to ask your guest for their email address before their stay (which is one of our recommendations for pre-stay guest communication). That way, you can send them marketing messages and encourage them to book directly on your website the next time they come to town.

You can even offer discounts on future bookings to encourage guests to book again with you. Just be sure you have the proper consent to use a guest’s email address for marketing purposes before doing so.

Time Your Emails Well

With post-stay communication, nailing your timing is the best way to get more direct bookings. We’ve already seen how you can time guest communication to increase the chances of getting a good review, but what is the best timing strategy for getting direct bookings?

Don’t send a guest a booking reminder or discount a month after their stay when they probably don’t need to use it. Instead, reach out to them 60 days before the one-year anniversary of their stay, which is when the booking window for that period opens.

Here are some examples of post-stay emails that can be conveniently timed to increase the chances of a guest booking with you again:

If a couple booked with you to celebrate their anniversary, follow up with them about 10 months after their stay and offer a special package, which can include a booking discount and coupons for a local restaurant.
Send an email detailing discounts or perks to a guest who booked with you to attend a convention or annual business event a couple of months before it takes place.
For a guest that booked with you to attend a music festival or another local event, send them an email when the concert lineup or event details come out, and then again when the booking period opens (about two months before their stay).

People get a lot of emails, so while your direct booking discount email may get lost in a guest’s congested inbox, they’re sure to notice an Airbnb message notification on their phone. You can inform them in the Airbnb message that you sent them an email with a special promotion if they book with you the next time they visit your local area.

Consider automating these Airbnb messages so you can be sure your message gets to them months after their stay without having to set a reminder for yourself to reach out.

Offer Discounts for Referrals

OK, you got a former guest to book with you again, and on your direct booking website no less. That’s amazing! Take it a step further and get their family and friends to book with you as well.

Offering family and friend referral discounts is an excellent way to multiply your bookings (and profits). Send a referral discount in a post-stay promotional email, but don’t wait until months after check-out to do so.

During the first few days after a guest has left your property, their experience is fresh in their mind. So once their review is published, thank them for staying with you and leaving their review, and share your referral discount with them.

How you want to structure your referral discount is up to you, so decide whether you want to offer the Airbnb discount just to referred friends and family or the referring guest as well. What’s important here is that you’ll be upping your direct bookings and creating loyal customers.

Increase 5-Star Reviews, Direct Bookings, and Guest Referrals

With the right approach, post-stay communication can make a huge difference on your reviews, direct bookings, and referrals. Starting before a guest books until months after they check out, guest communication should be a key part of your operational procedures.

And remember, you can use automation tools to make post-stay communication a breeze. What’s important is that you make it a priority to keep reaching out to guests long after their fantastic stay.

The post Airbnb Checkout Messages and Other Post-Stay Communication appeared first on Turno.