With global audiences looking to travel once again, but hoping to stay in more private spaces, the vacation rental market is booming. Estimated at just over $20 billion in value this year in the United States, experts expect it to grow to nearly $25 billion over the next five years.
While that growth is good news for both private vacation landlords and larger companies, competition can be fierce. Vacation rental companies that can effectively and quickly answer lead questions, manage potential customer inquiries, and generate high-level reviews can make themselves stand out and consistently attract guests. In fact, beyond basic amenities, reviews tend to be the top variable influencing whether a potential renter chooses to vacation at your spot.
Some basic factors naturally influence your reviews. Actually offering your promised amenities and keeping the property clean for new guests should be a given and baseline for any property, regardless of location. And of course, the location and its surrounding area will also make a difference.
Beyond these basics, though, a number of variables make a massive impact on how your renters will rate their space and experience. These tips can help you maximize the positive impact of those variables as you look to enhance your guest experience and get five-star reviews every time.
1. Enhance Your Vacation Rental Booking Process
Beyond your initial listing, the booking process is among the most important initial touchpoints with potential renters. The more straightforward it is, the more positive their first impression will be—which ultimately makes a five-star review more likely.
A few steps can help you simplify the process for your audience:
- Offer immediate opportunities to answer questions, like a chatbot option during the process.
- Make the process mobile-friendly, enabling easy booking regardless of device.
- Accept multiple types of payment, including both credit cards and systems like PayPal. Bonus points for allowing renters to split up the payment for multiple partners.
It also pays to get feedback from your renters. Survey them to ask specifically about the booking process, and what they liked and didn’t like. That feedback can become a valuable tool as you look to improve the renter’s journey over time.
2. Provide Seamless Reservation Management
Of course, the initial booking is only the beginning. Especially in popular vacation areas, and as you gather more five-star reviews, renters will need to book months in advance. That leaves a significant period open for them to have additional questions, adjust details of their booking, or even change their mind entirely despite an initial deposit.
And again, the more seamless that process becomes for them, the more satisfied they will ultimately be with their experience. Start with automated confirmations that outline exactly what they booked. From there, dynamic reminders can help renters remember exactly when their payments are due, what they need to pack, and more.
You can even take it deeper from there. An AI-enabled digital assistant, especially when trained on the right questions, can easily answer questions about the individual booking the reservation or help with simple processes. It can even personalize the communication, ensuring that every renter feels they’re taken care of between the time they book and the time of vacation.
3. Offer 24/7 Guest Support
As your guests arrive at your rental, their time for questions is only beginning. The best vacation properties offer around-the-clock assistance to their guests, ensuring they’re always available when potential issues—from plumbing to billing—might arise, however unexpected they might be.
Especially for small companies and landlords, achieving true around-the-clock support can be difficult to achieve manually. Digital tools can help once again, especially in the form of chatbots and resource databases. The more easily accessible they are and the more directly they’re connected to the guests’ individual experience and property, the better.
At the same time, there will always need to be an ‘off ramp’ for renters who just need to get someone on the phone. A chatbot likely won’t be able to solve a broken water pipe. Prioritizing your guest experience means ensuring that your guests have multiple ways to resolve their issues as soon as possible, minimizing friction in the process.
4. Offer Opportunities Beyond Your Vacation Rental
As part of your communication, keep your guests’ entire vacation rental experience in mind. Yes, they’ll want to spend significant time at your rental, and where they lay their heads at night likely matters above all. But chances are they’ve come to your location because of what’s around it. The more helpful you can be in making their stay successful, the more likely they are to enjoy it—and leave a great review.
At its most basic, that means providing recommendations on the best local restaurants and other attractions. Depending on the location, you may also want to share attraction-specific nuances; the best times for the ski lift or tips for hitting the ocean waves at just the right time could be immensely helpful.
Put yourself in your renter’s mind, and focus on the information they’d be most likely to appreciate. Then, find multiple ways to share that information—from communication after the booking but before the stay to a helpful handbook in the rental property itself to reference whenever your renters may need it.
5. Keep Your Communications Consistent
Building an enhanced vacation rental guest experience also means making the experience as seamless as possible. All of your communication should follow two guidelines:
- Be proactive where you can be, sharing relevant and valuable information ahead of time rather than waiting until your audience asks for it. That includes both functional information about the booking and helpful information like the above-mentioned opportunities.
- Remain consistent, regardless of your communication channels. Ideally, all of your communications should be pulled from a single source of truth to avoid saying different things in different ways. From emails to web copy to physical printouts and beyond, consistency is key as you look to make the information easy to digest and appreciate.
This consistency becomes especially important for digital and automated communication. When using an AI-enabled digital assistant, for example, the database on which it draws is crucial to ensuring a positive experience before, during, and after the stay.
6. Follow Up After the Stay
Most guests will leave their reviews after the stay is over. That means your communication cannot end when they leave the property. Instead, that time is ideal to follow up and ensure their experience was exactly as they expected or even better, while also enabling them to leave any feedback that might be beneficial for future guests—which might even be them again.
Don’t use your follow-up as a hard sales pitch. Instead, thank them for their stay, and authentically ask for feedback in the form of a survey or direct message to you.
This is also a great time to explicitly encourage reviews from your guests. Research shows that people are naturally more inclined to leave online reviews on their own when they have a negative experience, while those with positive reviews might need to be prompted. A gentle pointer to where satisfied guests can leave their reviews can go a long way toward reversing that trend for your property.
7. Remove Barriers Throughout the Experience
Finally, and most comprehensively, consider your guests’ entire journey of renting your vacation rental property—from the moment they hear about you to their feedback after their stay. What barriers might they encounter that could diminish their experience? What might be challenges that, if left unanswered, become later fodder for their negative reviews?
These challenges can become barriers not only to booking the stay but having a positive experience that ultimately leads to a positive review. The more you know about them, the more easily you’ll be able to address them. Mapping out your customer journey is a helpful exercise that allows you to look at the entire experience from your audience’s point of view and understand which areas might need some improvement or fixes.
Leverage the Power of Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Your Guest Experience
You cannot force renters to leave five-star reviews for your vacation property. You can, however, make their stay and guest experience so undeniably positive that they’ll want to leave that review with little, if any, prompting.
Getting there requires an intentional focus on all aspects of your guest experience. But don’t underestimate the helpfulness of systems like artificial intelligence to help elevate that experience. Property managers and rental companies alike can leverage AI tools like digital assistants to make their communications with prospective, current, and future renters more relevant, immediate, and helpful.
Now is the time to implement a plan for improving your guest experience and online reputation management. With a partner like AtlasRTX by your side, you can elevate your guest experience and stand out among competitors in the vacation rental industry.
