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Are you confident your short-term rental is prepared for an exceptional stay this season? Even though summer reservations are often made long in advance it's imperative to prepare for quick turnovers, the fluctuation of staff availability, ever evolving guest expectations, and other variables you can't always predict. In conjunction with other industry experts, Breezeway has tallied 5 key components of property readiness to ensure you have confidence in your vacation rental properties this season.
1. Preparing & Motivating Staff
It's important to not only keep your guests happy but to also keep your staff motivated and excited to work every day. A great start to ensure your employees are enjoying the work they do is to treat your employees like family as this can go a long way to ensure you are maintaining quality staff. Incentivizing staff with sign-on bonuses, referral bonuses, competitive wages, and flexible schedules can set the bar higher for your staff and showcase your commitment to their happiness in this competitive market.
2. Routine & Preventative Maintenance
One of the more dreadful calls from a guest is a complaint about something not working properly at your property. To help avoid these calls, schedule routine & preventative maintenance to diagnose any major issues before they arise at the expense of a guest's stay. Kris Ramsay with Pretty Picky Properties has thought outside the box when it comes to preventative maintenance measures by keeping his top crews on retainer ahead of the busy season.
3. Create Property Checklists
As recent years have proven, quality and clean supplies are very important aspects of a vacation rental business. Did you know kitchen supplies and linens wear out the fastest in a short-term rental and should be quality checked frequently? To catch components like this it is a great idea to create a monthly quality checklist to inspect all frequently used items in your property to see what needs to be replaced. Every home can be unique in many different ways so it's good to keep in mind making new checklists for each property.
3. Optimize Your Tech Stack to the Fullest
Set your business up for success by implementing and or optimizing your current tech stack. We’ve seen technology take a bigger role in the industry for several reasons with the major one that the industry is evolving. With an influx in travelers and guests choosing vacation rentals as their preferred accommodation type, it makes sense that hosts and managers are turning to technology to cut down on repetitive tasks or use tools to help boost productivity. A leading way to boost productivity is with effective communication through an operations messaging platform. Use this for custom stay messaging to create an exceptional guest experience, or draft bulk messages with details like pre arrival information, early check in options, extended stays, or mid stay check ins.
5. Personalized Guest Experience
The best way to make your guests feel like they are at home and that they have arrived at a well-prepared property is with a personalized experience. It's important to know why your guests are in town to add unique touches to their arrival and overall stay. Get creative and leave guests a special gift pertaining to the reason for their stay. Whether the guest's stay is intended for a family reunion, wedding, bachelor/ bachelorette party, the opportunities are endless to put the extra effort into personalized touches for that 5-star hotel like experience.
Industry professional, Max Farley, from sojo shares the latest insights on how to make every guest feel like a VIP.
Looking to improve your tech stack? Book a demo to learn more!