“Guest communication represents the face of the business.“
“Important” is an understatement to describe how valuable Guest Communication is to the entire experience of your previous guests, current guests, and prospect guests. This isn’t a secret whether you are a seasoned host, or a hungry learner to the short-term-rental industry. Together, we will list and emphasize the important details that a host should incorporate into the communication we are preparing to send. In this article, we unveil and dissect the art of guest communication, its timing and maneuver.
WHO ▪️ WHERE ▪️HOW
Who?
“Who are your Ideal Guests?“
Kids love playgrounds, business travelers would appreciate their own workspaces, couples would look for places where they can have privacy, and large dining tables would attract a large group of guests. Firstly, identifying WHO your Ideal guests are, would definitely narrow down your reach. This enables you to be more focused and tailor fit your message according to your guest avatar.
By doing so, we can provide more details, photos, and highlights on what these guests would like to hear and know about your listing.
Where?
“Where are you planning to communicate with them?“
Once you have identified who your ideal guests are, we then proceed to choose the channel/s where we would like to reach-out to them. This stage is the most crucial part of the entire guest communication process as this determines the success of the engagement of your guest communication.
- For previous guests, we continue to communicate with them even after their stay by looping them into current events within the area of your place or promotional alerts and promos through their email, through text message, social media advertisements and tags, etc.
- For current guests, we may have to communicate with them within the duration of their stay through the communication channel where you have initially dealt with them prior to booking.
- For potential guests, they may have found your listing via OTA, Instagram, your Direct Booking Website, or through referrals. Ideally, that’s the channel where we should reach out to them too.
How?
“How are we going to communicate with them?“
Sky’s the limit for your creativity. Following a few episodes of Direct Booking Simplified Podcast, some of our guest-stars who are also property owners, shared their best practices on how they reach out to their guests.
- Pre-recorded videos about greetings and invites, being sent out to the guests
- “Survey form” on their entire guest experience
- Asking them to share memorable moments, photos, funny conversations, unforgettable experience/s they had during their stay
- Looping them and sending them posters of concerts and upcoming events that are within the area of your place
- New features, upgrades, and renovations
If you’re interested in more tips on how to drive more bookings by targeting past guests and other tactics, download our free ebook.
Start crafting personalized sequences and impactful broadcasts today to enhance guest experiences and boost your vacation home rental property’s success. Send customers directly to your own direct booking site rather than the OTA when crafting these emails.