Attracting new guests is the primary goal of every Airbnb host and property manager. This can be achieved by increasing the visibility of the vacation rental in different channels. One of the most useful channels is word of mouth. Loyal guests can become your advocates and even bring back new guests. What’s more? It is one of the cheaper options to work towards guest loyalty and the return of your existing Airbnb guests. The efforts will surely result in increased rental revenue. There are some cities that promise $2,000+ in rental revenue, and with your extra efforts, you can increase this number exponentially.
Your guests are more likely to return if they had a great experience and you managed to achieve guest satisfaction. A good experience hinges more on good memories as compared to physical possessions. You can leverage this by creating the perfect setting for your guests to help them have a memorable trip at your rental and increase their chances of coming back.
6 Ways to Have Your Guests Keep Coming Back to Your Vacation Rental
To help you boost your Airbnb occupancy rate and revenue, we’ve put together 6 proven ways to make your guests want to come back to your property.
1. Comprehend What Your Airbnb Guests Need
Understanding your guests’ expectations from the trip is the first and the most important step in creating a great guest experience. About two-thirds of customers expect their service providers to comprehend their needs. You can keep up with this industry trend and personalize your vacation rental to fulfill your guest’s expectations, ensuring that they keep coming back.
Get in touch with them before their arrival to understand what their expectations from the trip are and how you can help them in achieving their travel goals.
2. Go the Extra Mile to Welcome Them
Offering a welcome basket is a great way to make a good first impression on your Airbnb guests.
First impressions matter! Keep your best foot forward from the moment your guests enter your vacation rental. Make them feel like a VIP by putting together a welcome basket filled with goodies that they can use on their trip.
You can add some fresh flowers, homemade treats, a bottle of wine or champagne, and a cookie jar. You can also put the flyers to nearby places and restaurants along with various instructions around the house in this basket itself. Making an effort to make your guests feel special will most likely result in your guests coming back to you or referring your rental to their friends and family.
3. Provide Guests With a List of Local Resources
You are a local while your guests are new to the area. They will most likely need some guidance in case of emergencies or just simply to get around the city. Your consistent availability and responsiveness will help them feel secure as they’d know that they can rely on you for anything they need.
You can give your contact information to them and compile a list of all emergency contacts including emergency medical services, fire stations, natural disaster assistance, and so forth.
Besides this, you should also provide them with a list of all local attractions, activities, events, and adventure sports in your city. You can collaborate with various activities and adventure sports providers to get a discount for your guests in return for your referral to those providers. Everybody loves discounts and especially the person who can provide them with those. Your guests will certainly appreciate getting special treatment outside of the rental just because they chose you as their host.
4. Provide a Great Customer Experience
Airbnb guests are more appreciative of quality customer service now than they were in the past. With so many options available to the guests, it usually takes one bad experience for them to switch to your competitors. This will also reflect badly in your Airbnb reviews.
We understand that you can’t control everything during a guest’s stay and some things are simply not in your hands. However, how you respond to these mishaps and extend your support is in your control, and it can be a game-changer too. You need to be extra mindful of these things if you are your own property manager.
The best way to avoid unfortunate circumstances or quickly resolve them is to stay in touch with your guests. Make sure that your guests have easy access to everything they need and that you are quickly resolving any query they have.
5. Offer Incentives to Keep Airbnb Guests Coming Back
Each one of us is guilty of being attracted to incentives. Loyalty cards, reward points, and discounts – we have all stayed hooked to products or services to gain the most out of these incentives.
You can use these to keep your guests coming back to your rental by offering them incentives for a repeat visit. You can offer them a free night, discount, or paid activities of their choice for a return visit. All this will help you increase your Airbnb business efficacy.
You can also start a referral program. Word of mouth is one of the most reliable sales techniques and will bring you a lot of revenue at no added marketing cost. You can leverage this by offering discounts or a free night to the referee and the referred when they stay at your vacation rental.
6. Keep in Touch After They Leave
Ensuring a smooth check-out is as important as a successful check-in. If you can manage to personally meet your guests at the time of check-out and wish them farewell, then that gesture will be appreciated by your guests. However, in case that is not possible, then brief them about the check-out process in advance to avoid any hassle.
Send them a message after they leave to wish them a safe and pleasant journey back home. Along with that message, request them to give you a review to let you know how you can improve their experience the next time they come to visit you. If they do leave a review, then make sure to respond to it and leave your review as well. You can make sure that your guests leave with a pleasant memory by leaving them a few souvenirs from your vicinity like notepads or keychains, reminding them to come visit you again.
Conclusion
To grow your vacation rental business, you need to divide your focus into increasing the effectiveness of your vacation rental marketing and keeping your existing guests coming back.
Putting in a little extra effort to make your guests feel like VIPs will definitely come back to you in the form of repeat customers and added revenue. If you are not a host yet, then you should definitely consider buying a house for investment in 2022.
This guest post has been contributed by our friends at PriceLabs.