Repeat bookings are great for business. These guests have already been to your property so they don’t necessarily need to be sold on how great it is — they’ve experienced it, they know! This leads us to one of our top ways to get repeat business, and that is providing an excellent experience the first time around. We’ll discuss this further in a few of the tips below along with providing more ideas on how to increase repeat bookings.
1. Make Them Feel Welcomed
From the moment your guest arrives, you want them to feel welcomed. You can do this by having someone available to greet them and/or you can provide a welcome basket. You can fill them with local goodies or self-care items or even make a movie night basket.
Providing guests with a welcome note is another great way to let them know you care. And you can include a list of recommendations for local places they can go to eat or for entertainment.
2. Connect With Them During Their Stay
Don’t just go silent while your guests are on the property. You don’t want to bombard them with outreach, but take time to at least check-in with them and ask how their stay is going as well as if they need anything. It shows you truly care about them having a good time. It also allows you to correct an issue if there is one.
3. Provide Great Amenities
Go a step up when choosing amenities for your rental. Make sure to choose comfortable furniture your guests will enjoy sitting in. Provide high-quality sheets and towels. Offer streaming options and a smart TV. Throw in a few higher-end travel toiletries. There are plenty of ways to stand out from your competition.
4. Offer Extras
Think about ways you can provide a few extras for your guests. For example, put a dozen eggs in the fridge, provide guests with some local produce, and offer a basket of extra items they may have forgotten (body wash, face wash, loofah, shampoo, conditioner, etc.).
5. Be Available
Make sure it’s easy to reach someone if your guest needs assistance. Nothing is more frustrating for a guest than not being able to reach out to the host if there’s an issue. Make sure guests know how to get a hold of someone when needed and don’t let this outreach get ignored. Be quick to respond and handle any problem.
6. Clean the Property Until It’s Spotless
There are certainly different ways to clean a property, but this isn’t just a home it’s one that guests will be staying in, this means cleaners need to go the extra mile. It needs to look fresh when guests arrive, not regularly lived in. Cleaners need to take care of everything from top to bottom so that guests feel comfortable and safe when staying there.
7. Offer Flexibility
A lot can be said about being flexible. This is one thing that can certainly set you apart from competitors and make you more appealing to repeat bookings. One of the ways to offer flexibility is with your cancelation policy. Instead of choosing not to offer refunds, consider offering a full refund by a certain date. You can also opt to offer a partial refund by a certain date. Offering a cancelation policy will increase the likelihood that guests will feel comfortable booking again.
Another way to offer flexibility is through your check-out time. Check-out times are important to ensure that there’s plenty of time to prepare a property in between guests, but there may be times you can be flexible with this. For example, if you know that you’ll have a day or two between guests, consider sending out a message to your guests ahead of time and giving them a little more time that morning. Guests will be thankful for your willingness to let them spend a few extra hours in your place. Even if they want to get on the road sooner and they choose to leave by check-out, they’ll still appreciate the offer.
8. Keep In Touch
First of all, make sure to send a thank you to guests after they leave. You can even encourage them to leave a review for your property. We all know that these reviews can be a great way to attract new guests. However, that’s not the only purpose for them. These reviews also help you determine which guests you may want to be more intentional about reaching out to for repeating bookings. The guests that leave a great review are the ones that are ideal to target.
You can send out messages to previous guests periodically, but we don’t recommend doing this more than two or three times a year, otherwise, guests may ignore or block you. Carefully consider how you’ll use each piece of outreach. You can send out holiday messages for example. You can also send out an email to let them know about updates you’ve made to the property or local events/happenings. Another great email to send is just to invite them to book with you again. To help increase the likelihood they’ll rebook, you can offer them a discount on their stay. You may also want to offer them another type of incentive, for example, maybe you can partner up with businesses to provide discounts on local attractions.
Repeat bookings are a great way to increase your investment income. If you’d like more ways to help keep guests happy and coming back, please reach out to us at PMI: {{account:url}}. Guest satisfaction and your investment’s success are top priorities for us.
