Guest Experience refers to more than just the time guests spend at your property. From the moment they see your listing, to when their review has been posted, your guest experience system can influence them and their trip in a positive way.
Your website, your communication both contribute to form an overall impression of your business. If you want to build your property management business into a name people recognise and revere, you need to make sure that every guest has a good experience at every stage.
The Guest Experience starts at the moment someone clicks your property.
We’ve put together a simple checklist of five things that you can do for every guest before their trip starts that will add to their trip, reduce stress and make the process from booking to check-in as quick and as seamless as possible.
Explain Your Booking Process
Guests want to book instantly online. 38% of Flipkey’s inventory is now available for instant booking. 14% of HomeAway is available, and all of Airbnb’s places can be booked via online payment. If you don’t offer this, just let your potential guests know how long it will take for you to respond. If they don’t know, they will continue looking elsewhere while they wait for you to respond.
Respond to enquiries within a well defined limit. Guests are much more likely to wait for your response if they know when to expect it.
Client Discovery
Find out about your guests. Build this information into a dossier than you can add to every time they book.
This should be:
- Why they travel
- Who they travel with
- Type of properties they book
- How they book
- Their preferred payment method
Once you have this information from their first booking, you then don’t have to ask them and get them to repeat dull details.
You can then ask them if they have specific travel needs or were looking to do something particular during their stay. Think about how the experience will vary if you know your guests are a couple in their sixties, travelling to visit the local galleries compared to a group of friends, travelling to ski.
Knowing more about your guests puts you in a stronger position to offer personalised, responsive service. It also lets you provide more accurate and tailored marketing in the future.
Experiences
Offer something that will enhance your guest’s trip. Use the information you used in client discovery to send services and experiences you think are most suitable for the guests you’re hosting. Narrow it down to two or three top activities to get the best response rate and give your guests the power to learn more at their own pace.
By providing a few select services that you think your guests will enjoy, you’re showing that you care about their trip and will have a higher chance of your guests booking one of the services you provide.
Preparation
When preparing your property, think about what you have learned about your guests. Are they bringing children, or pets? How you set up your property should always depend on the information you have learned from the booking details and your customer discovery. Providing a few personal recommendations, or highlighting a few things to entertain children shows that you are treating this booking individually, that you have listened to your guests and thought about how to improve their experience.
Reassurance
Consider if you had booked a property with a brand you’re not familiar with, in a city where you don’t speak the language, it’d be natural to worry a little that there might be an unexpected problem with the booking you’ve made.
24 hours before they arrive, an email informing them that everything is fine with their booking, letting them know the exact location, the process for checking-in and a number to reach you on lets your guests know that you are in control.
These five, simple tips ensure that your guests have a stress free booking and arrival, as well as being able to personalise their trip. The goal of your pre-arrival communication should be to remove stress and enhance the anticipation. You replace stress with the confidence that their trip will be well handled, allowing more time to focus on what they will do when they are staying at your property.
The next post in the series – we will give you five new ways to enhance the guest experience during your guest’s stay – subscribe to our newsletter to receive it directly to your inbox! If you want to find out how Vreasy can automate the perfect guest experience, every time, click here to start a free trial.