Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / 5 Automation Tips Every STR Host Should Use

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5 Automation Tips Every STR Host Should Use · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to House Planet Bite Size, the podcast
• 0:02
  brought to you by Hostplanet and Housefully.
• 0:05
  My name is James Farley, the founder of House Planet and our
• 0:08
  goal is to share everything you need to know about buying and
• 0:11
  managing short term rentals. Today's guest is Thomas Tawalde
• 0:14
  from Charge Automation and he'll be sharing 5 tips to ensure a
• 0:18
  smooth check in experience. OK, real talk now for all you
• 0:22
  hosts out there, you know that moment when your guest messages
• 0:26
  you again with hey, what's the Wi-Fi code?
• 0:29
  Or you're staring at 5 different calendars wondering if you've
• 0:32
  accidentally double booked the cottage.
• 0:35
  Yes, we've all been there. That's why here at Houseplanner
• 0:39
  we recommend Housefully. It's basically your rentals
• 0:42
  control centre. It handles bookings across all
• 0:45
  the big platforms, syncs your calendars to ensure there are no
• 0:48
  double bookings, automates guest messages, and even creates these
• 0:52
  really slick digital guidebooks that stop all the repeat
• 0:56
  questions. Honestly, it just makes your
• 0:58
  life easier and keeps your guests happier, helping you
• 1:02
  achieve those all important five star reviews.
• 1:05
  And here is a little bonus. If you're a House Planet
• 1:08
  listener, you can get $500 off on boarding for House Fullies
• 1:12
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• 1:19
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• 1:28
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  from House Philly. He will show you how it all
• 1:34
  works. Less stress, more bookings
• 1:37
  sorted with House Philly. Thomas, thank you for joining us
• 1:47
  on host planet Bite Size. You've got 5 tips to share on
• 1:51
  how to deliver a seamless check in, so take it away with tip #1.
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  Tip #1 Automate everything before arrival.
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  Automate everything before arrival.
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  So what are the things that hosts need to make sure they're
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  automating? So deliver a very clear
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  instruction early to give it an instant access when the all the
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  steps are complete as well. All right, fantastic tip #2.
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  Keep the check in flow super short.
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  Don't send you know a long message.
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  People are on vacation, they don't want to read a long
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  information. So keep it short and concise.
• 2:30
  Keep it short because, yeah, I think that's that's really
• 2:33
  useful because so often I think there's a lot of hosts that try
• 2:36
  to send absolutely everything in one message.
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  And you find often that the guests don't really read it
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  because they always ask you the same questions over and over
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  again. So in that short message, is it
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  just like simple checking instructions?
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  And here's the Wi-Fi code. Maybe keep it as simple as that.
• 2:53
  Pretty much, yeah. Whether it's is it the Wi-Fi,
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  the access code or what to expect, no more than in a few, a
• 3:00
  few lines, leave everything else.
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  You know if they want to explore more in the guide book or
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  something, but in the messaging just keep it concise.
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  Keep it concise. OK, so we've got ultimate as
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  much as possible. Keep it concise.
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  Tip #3 Thomas. Personalize the journey for each
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  guest. So each guest is different,
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  whether the language and where they coming from.
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  Are they coming from an Airbnb or booking.com, Expedia, VRBO?
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  Are they already pre verified? Are they verified?
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  Have they paid, not paid? So there's so many, you know,
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  types of journeys that I guess has to go.
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  And again, if they already pre verified, don't ask them to send
• 3:42
  an ID again or if they speak in a language and send them in
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  their language because you should already know that
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  information from the reservation.
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  So keep each journey concise, smooth and to that to that guest
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  and remove other irrelevant information.
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  In relation to personalization, how important do you think it is
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  to ask questions of your guests about why they're visiting in
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  order to find out the reasons why they're coming so that you
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  can personalize as much as possible?
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  Yes. So there is already information
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  that you receive when they book that you go you already know.
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  And then you could obviously then ask if you don't have that
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  word of information, you can ask you know what they're coming,
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  you know, purpose of their stay, all these things.
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  But as much as possible, if you already know that in advance,
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  you shouldn't ask them again. Yeah, very true.
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  And then with the different languages, of course, what are
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  some good examples that you've seen of hosts who provide things
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  in different languages and and you know, what other things can
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  they do to make things simple? I'm thinking here maybe like
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  have video clips of you know how to check in for people who who
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  might not speak English for example.
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  So typically if you use a tool to to let the guest check in,
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  you can use that browser detection to know what language
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  their browser is in. That will give you a context.
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  You can also look at the phone number they're coming from,
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  that'll give you a context. So you can use this kind of cues
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  and automate the messaging appropriately or give the
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  information you know to if you know your guest profile,
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  typically you know if you guys are mostly coming from France,
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  for example. You can also provide your your
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  instruction in English and France if that's not possible in
• 5:28
  your current tool. Like using to to know what what
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  language did they speak in? OK, then.
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  So we've got automate, keep the messages short, personalized,
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  what's tip #4? It's to give instant access when
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  the steps are done. So don't make them go longer and
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  longer like they know just as soon as they you have all that
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  right information in advance, then give them AK.
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  Your information will be available at this time or here's
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  the information to check in. But you know, don't, don't add
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  more steps needed and let them know what to expect as soon as
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  they're done. So like, you know, give them a
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  carrot once they finish all the steps.
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  Yeah, I guess that's a little bit like with the instant
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  booking, isn't it? People want to just do things
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  straight away. They don't want to have to fill
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  in another 4 forms or whatever it might be.
• 6:22
  Exactly. Yeah.
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  And I know this sometimes with hosts, they do worry about, you
• 6:27
  know, giving the access code too early.
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  But you can even say here's the access code but it's not going
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  to be valid until this time or the access code will be
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  available one day before check in.
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  So the guest knows that OK I've done all the steps and I'm going
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  to get expect this information. Don't just say thanks for some
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  of the information and then just leave them high and dry without
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  what to expect next. Yeah, I think that's a great
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  tip. And with the, if you have the
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  the keypad automated door locks as well, like you said, you can
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  make it so that they're relevant for a specific time.
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  So you can share that really pretty early because it's only
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  going to work when that person is booked in at your property.
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  So, you know, you don't have to wait until the day before or
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  something like that. You can give the guest
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  information a bit earlier. OK then, Thomas, so 5th and
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  final tip. 5th and final tip is I'll proper.
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  I mean I have I have a few of them, but I would say reduce the
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  guest effort. So don't let the guests to ask
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  the question for them. You know, if it's a, it's a very
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  common question or something, try to answer it in advance so
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  that you didn't have to ask you what it is.
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  You know, I mean, the common ones is like Wi-Fi, you know,
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  make that, you know, very transparent and easy.
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  Or if it's confusing process, you know, just try to
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  preemptively give the right information so that they don't
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  have to interact or pull out of you the information they need.
• 7:52
  Yeah, I spoke to a guest the other day actually, and he said,
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  do you know what if you, if you set up an automation, if you
• 7:58
  know exactly when a guest has entered your property, and you
• 8:02
  might do, if you've got the, you know, the automated door locks,
• 8:05
  the moment they come in, send them a WhatsApp, send them a
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  text message. Here's the Wi-Fi code.
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  So they've got it the second that they they walk through the
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  door, something like that. And I guess that's a great way
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  of like taking and the guest experience to to the next level.
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  All right then Thomas, 5 great tips there.
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  We've got automate as much as possible, keep your messages
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  short, personalized where you can give instant access to the
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  guests and reduce the guest effort.
• 8:31
  Tell us a bit more about charge automation and where can people
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  find more information? Yeah.
• 8:37
  So charge automation helps the guests go through the right
• 8:43
  journey. So depending where the bookings
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  coming from, it customize the guest journey and give the right
• 8:48
  information at the right time. So you don't have to make every
• 8:52
  every guest go through different processes.
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  And you can learn more about charge automation on Charge
• 8:57
  automation.com. And one final thing I want to
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  say is also if you need to collect secure deposit, verify
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  the guest ID or the guest has to pay your balance before they
• 9:07
  check in. This is the kind of things you
• 9:08
  can automate as part of the guest journey process.
• 9:11
  Again, For more information charge automation.com.
• 9:15
  All right, superb surcharge automation can actually help you
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  automate as much of the guest journey as possible.
• 9:21
  And we'll put all those details along with Thomas's details in
• 9:24
  the show notes. Thomas, it's been a real
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  pleasure. Thank you for joining us on
• 9:27
  House Planet Bite Size. It's been a pleasure.
• 9:29
  Thank you. All right, that's it for today's
• 9:31
  episode. My thanks to Thomas for joining
• 9:33
  us and sharing those essential tips.
• 9:36
  Remember, this podcast is brought to you in collaboration
• 9:38
  with House Fully, which is trusted by short term rental
• 9:41
  professionals across the globe. As a House Planet listener, you
• 9:44
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• 9:49
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• 9:58
  grab the these deals, click the link in the show notes or head
• 10:01
  to housefully.com. For more free education tips and
• 10:04
  trends from the STR industry, visit Houseplanet dot club,
• 10:08
  where you can sign up for our newsletter, listen to our
• 10:11
  podcasts and download a suite of ebooks for hosts and property
• 10:14
  managers. That's it for today's episode.
• 10:16
  Until next time, happy hosting.