Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Enhance Guest Experience: Communication Tips for Successful Airbnb Hosting

Transcript

Enhance Guest Experience: Communication Tips for Successful Airbnb Hosting · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Houseplanet Bite Size, the podcast brought
• 0:03
  to you by Houseplanet and Housefully.
• 0:05
  My name's James Farley, the founder of Houseplanet, 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 Joseph Cox from
• 0:15
  Housefully and he's got 5 tips to share about guest
• 0:18
  communication. OK, real talk now for all you
• 0:21
  hosts out there, you know that moment when your guest messages
• 0:24
  you again with, hey, what's the Wi-Fi code?
• 0:27
  Or you're staring at 5 different calendars wondering if you've
• 0:31
  accidentally double booked the cottage.
• 0:33
  Yes, we've all been there. That's why here at Houseplanner
• 0:37
  we recommend Housefully. It's basically your rentals
• 0:40
  control centre. It handles bookings across all
• 0:43
  the big platforms, syncs your calendars to ensure there are no
• 0:46
  double bookings, automates guest messages and even creates these
• 0:50
  really slick digital guidebooks that stop all the repeat
• 0:54
  questions. Honestly, it just makes your
• 0:57
  life easier and keeps your guests happier, helping you
• 1:00
  achieve those all important five star reviews.
• 1:03
  And here is a little bonus. If you're a house planet
• 1:06
  listener, you can get $500 off on boarding for house Phillies
• 1:10
  property management software and 30% off digital guidebooks for
• 1:15
  life. Just hit the link in the show
• 1:17
  notes and use the codes Planet 500 for the PMS and House planet
• 1:22
  GB for the guidebooks. And if you like a proper
• 1:26
  walkthrough, there's also a link to book a demo with Frank Bosey
• 1:29
  from Housefully. He will show you how it all
• 1:32
  works. Less stress, more bookings
• 1:35
  sorted with Housefully. Joseph, thank you for joining us
• 1:45
  on House Planet Bite Size. You've got 5 tips to share on
• 1:49
  guest communication, so take it away with tip #1.
• 1:53
  Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
• 1:54
  So the first one I would definitely recommend is, is
• 1:56
  using a guidebook, a digital guidebook.
• 1:58
  You know, there's a lot still out there with the the tangible
• 2:02
  sort of guidebooks and they're good in a way.
• 2:05
  But you know, sometimes guests are on full holy mode.
• 2:08
  They're not really thinking and they might just miss it.
• 2:10
  So digital guidebook is great. You can you can send it out to
• 2:12
  the guest unique link, they click on it.
• 2:15
  It's got everything about their stay on their phone, on the
• 2:17
  desktop, on the, on the, the tablets, wherever it is.
• 2:21
  And they can go in and just understand everything about
• 2:23
  their stay, whether it's how to check in, where's the Wi-Fi,
• 2:27
  where to park, can you bring pets.
• 2:31
  There's all you can do, anything you want really.
• 2:32
  You could add in images, videos, text files, upsells, anything
• 2:38
  you want. So you get very customizable and
• 2:40
  just keep the branding net so, you know, in there.
• 2:42
  You can also just drive more direct bookings in a way.
• 2:45
  So you can, Yeah, it's a, it's an upselling plus, giving them a
• 2:49
  good understanding of what to do during their stay.
• 2:52
  And also it showcases a really professional operation as well.
• 2:55
  I think if you've got a link and all the details are there and
• 2:58
  it's kind of like your own mini micro site, it looks a little
• 3:02
  bit more professional than maybe the old traditional ring binder
• 3:05
  with pieces of paper that might be about 5 years old and
• 3:08
  probably with a lot of stuff that's out of date.
• 3:10
  Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
• 3:11
  Yeah, it's definitely sort of next initial thing where you can
• 3:15
  go in and just keep it personalized.
• 3:17
  And even with the host of guidebooks, you can link them to
• 3:20
  the platform where you can personalize them.
• 3:22
  So whenever a guest goes into the guidebook, it'll show their
• 3:25
  name, details about the booking PIN code to access the property.
• 3:28
  So you can keep it quite specific to the guest.
• 3:31
  It's not just that generic information which is quite
• 3:33
  fancy. Yeah, and you can make sure that
• 3:35
  the the Wi-Fi code is very, very easy to find because that
• 3:39
  usually is the the first question with from many guests
• 3:45
  and also with the with the host fully digital guidebooks.
• 3:47
  We do have a special offer. Check it out when the show notes
• 3:50
  it's 30% off digital guidebooks for life.
• 3:53
  So yeah, really amazing offer there.
• 3:55
  So check that out. OK then Joseph, so tip #1 is use
• 3:58
  a digital guidebook. What's tip #2?
• 4:01
  Yeah, that's definitely, definitely do some marketing.
• 4:03
  So yeah, to be able to market and promote your the listing and
• 4:08
  booking directs and general upsells on services that you
• 4:12
  want to offer, whether it's mid state, clean, a late check out
• 4:16
  parking spot, you name it. So you could definitely do that
• 4:19
  and you know, to get the information about the guests,
• 4:22
  whether it's a QR code maybe in the property or it's from a pre
• 4:27
  arrival form that you've sent out to the guest.
• 4:31
  You can drive more bookings to book direct through gathering
• 4:35
  their emails. So yeah, you could use something
• 4:36
  like MailChimp or just automated messages in that sense, which
• 4:40
  you could do through. You could automate messages via
• 4:43
  WhatsApp, text, e-mail channel message and then just, you know,
• 4:47
  get more direct booking. So kind of a lot of information
• 4:49
  in that one. But but yeah, definitely, you
• 4:51
  know, like using AQR code in the property, you know, everyone can
• 4:54
  just turn on the camera and scan it and then it's got the
• 4:57
  information about the property, where to where to go and do
• 5:01
  things. Get the guide book in there
• 5:03
  perhaps. And also to say yeah.
• 5:06
  Yeah. I mean, basically they're the, I
• 5:07
  guess the tip is to get the contact details of your guests,
• 5:11
  get the e-mail address because if the booking has come through
• 5:14
  Airbnb or another OTA, you won't necessarily have their contact
• 5:18
  details. So if you've got a way of
• 5:20
  gathering them, then it makes it easier to market to these people
• 5:23
  as as potential repeat guests in in future.
• 5:26
  Definitely, Yeah, yeah, the QR code and and things and you get
• 5:30
  software now one popular and we see is Day 5, they just go and
• 5:33
  log in and they've got to put in their details and then it saves
• 5:35
  them all for for the for the host.
• 5:38
  So it's just little strategies to get around the chat and the
• 5:40
  OTAs which do block the the guest's information.
• 5:44
  Yeah. So state by the QR code is, you
• 5:47
  know, you can easily make a Google, Google form, I think
• 5:51
  it's called yeah, you can just add that in there.
• 5:52
  So they just scan it and just add their information that's all
• 5:55
  saved for you in the cloud. And then, you know, just even at
• 5:58
  the end of the stay, you know, they could be asking for a
• 6:02
  review about the the stay as well, which is so important
• 6:05
  these days reviews is so, so big to be able to rank your listing
• 6:09
  higher in in an OCA so. Yeah, excellent.
• 6:12
  Yeah, the, the, yeah, the gated Wi-Fi with Stay Fi.
• 6:16
  And one of the advantages of that is that you won't just get
• 6:20
  the lead bookings details, you'll get probably everybody
• 6:23
  who's there. So if, if your rental can
• 6:26
  accommodate quite a few people, four or five people, you might
• 6:28
  get 5 people's details rather than just one people, one
• 6:32
  person. And then you can, you can
• 6:33
  remarket to them. OK, then so we've got the
• 6:36
  digital guidebooks, we've got all the marketing.
• 6:38
  What's tip #3? Yeah, I definitely recommend
• 6:41
  just automation. Yeah, as I was saying, the, you
• 6:44
  know, the day in life for property manager is never easy.
• 6:47
  You know, be able to be able to streamline workflow by by doing,
• 6:51
  you know, automated messages, which you can do through Apms
• 6:54
  like host flew. You can go in and you can just
• 6:56
  decide if you want to automate, say you know, WhatsApp message,
• 6:59
  Whatsapp's huge in Europe. So, you know, send out checking
• 7:02
  instructions 2 hours before the guests stay via WhatsApp and
• 7:06
  that sort of thing, or send a text message to the cleaner
• 7:09
  notifying them of a new booking on July the 8th or something
• 7:13
  like that. You know, just being able to
• 7:15
  automate these messages and workflow will one, save the host
• 7:18
  time, It'll enhance, you know, it'll probably give you better
• 7:21
  reviews just because everything's on.
• 7:23
  It's on top of everything. And yeah, less, less risk of the
• 7:28
  guests not getting a message at all because it's all done for
• 7:30
  them. So yeah, definitely automation.
• 7:33
  Yeah, the automations are great and I recently set up a bunch of
• 7:37
  new ones and there's they get an e-mail when when they book, at
• 7:42
  the point of booking, they get another one sharing all the
• 7:45
  check in details with the link to the digital guide book.
• 7:48
  And then I added an extra 1 actually, which is the day after
• 7:52
  they've checked in. Just saying.
• 7:54
  Hi, is everything OK? Hope everything's fine.
• 7:57
  If there's anything you need let me know.
• 8:00
  And then the final one goes out after they've checked out,
• 8:03
  reminding them to, to leave a review.
• 8:04
  And I think it's, it's that one a day after they check in, just
• 8:08
  making sure that everything's OK.
• 8:10
  I think that's the one that gets the most appreciation because
• 8:13
  they know that the host is there for them if if there is anything
• 8:16
  and, and, and they're kind of like they've got an opportunity
• 8:18
  to raise something. Definitely, yeah, yeah, If they
• 8:22
  travelled far and wide and they've got to the property and
• 8:24
  they're like in an unknown territory and they're like, you
• 8:27
  kind of need someone just to be there by by their side.
• 8:31
  And you know that that first message and last message, just
• 8:34
  checking in, see if they're all right, everything's good.
• 8:36
  It's, it's quite refreshing for them just to know that someone's
• 8:39
  there and they're not just, they're not just disappeared and
• 8:42
  they're not just like a, a robot online sort of thing.
• 8:44
  So. Exactly.
• 8:47
  OK. Then So we've got digital
• 8:48
  guidebooks and all the marketing potentially using the QR codes
• 8:52
  automation. What's tip number for Joseph?
• 8:55
  Yeah, I mean, there's the, I mean leaving good review kind of
• 8:59
  touched on balls. So just, you know, OTA messages
• 9:01
  you can automate as well. You can do that, you know,
• 9:04
  through OCD with MB and bbook.com, VRBO, sort of top
• 9:08
  three channels out there to drive 90 or so percent bookings.
• 9:13
  Yeah, that that's really important.
• 9:14
  And, you know, build another way of doing that is, you know,
• 9:17
  trying to gather guest information through the OTAs and
• 9:19
  the messages as well. So that's always important.
• 9:22
  So a wide variety of messages would ensure that the guest
• 9:25
  actually receives the message. Some people really aren't big on
• 9:28
  emails, so definitely recommend a WhatsApp or a text, especially
• 9:31
  WhatsApp in Europe, text more so in the US And yeah, just making
• 9:36
  sure that message gets received, which can be quite tricky
• 9:39
  sometimes if someone's in full holiday mode, so.
• 9:42
  Yeah, well, we all have those guests who just don't really
• 9:45
  look at any messages they get as well.
• 9:47
  So they're the ones asking for the codes and the Wi-Fi and all
• 9:53
  that kind of thing. All right then, Joseph.
• 9:56
  So 5th and final guest communication tip.
• 9:59
  Yeah, just just be, yeah, completely being on it, really
• 10:04
  making sure that making sure that you're just on top of
• 10:06
  things and and not not driving that list of jobs to do
• 10:10
  basically. So messaging wise being being
• 10:14
  proactive, making sure that it's it's, it's received via phone,
• 10:18
  via laptop or whatever. And yeah, I kind of touched upon
• 10:23
  that one before, but but but yeah, kind of go and.
• 10:27
  Where do you stand in terms of utilizing AI in guest messaging?
• 10:32
  Yes, yeah, very important, especially with, you know,
• 10:35
  saving time without having to Google information about you
• 10:38
  could, you could even, you know, use AI to gather information
• 10:40
  about the property, the location, the details about the
• 10:44
  booking, you name it. So, you know, saving time, just
• 10:46
  click a button. You can, you know, if you're
• 10:48
  using host V, you can use inbox AI.
• 10:50
  Just click a button, it creates a response, it reads information
• 10:53
  from the property settings, the information, you know, what's in
• 10:57
  the Google and all sorts. So yeah, definitely, definitely
• 11:01
  worthwhile. You can even get, you know, you
• 11:03
  know, things like host footy AI, besty AI that you can integrate
• 11:07
  with those. So it automates, you know,
• 11:08
  responses to the guest 24/7, which hosts some love, some
• 11:13
  don't a bit wary, you know, just in case something is said that's
• 11:16
  incorrect. So you know, but you know, they
• 11:19
  seem to be more and more clever and intelligent as it's as it
• 11:22
  keeps growing with the the wide variety of information.
• 11:25
  So you can always use one of those.
• 11:27
  Superb. Yeah.
• 11:28
  OK. So use the digital guide book,
• 11:30
  consider all your marketing, gather those e-mail addresses
• 11:34
  for all your guests, think about automation, get the review
• 11:38
  reminder sent and be on it and and consider utilizing AI.
• 11:45
  Hostfully, of course is a platform that can help with all
• 11:48
  of this, Joseph. So just tell us a little bit
• 11:50
  more about Hostfully. Yeah, Hostfully.
• 11:52
  Yeah. So hostfully is a channel
• 11:54
  manager, PMS, whatever you'd like to call it.
• 11:56
  And it's it's designed to provide a host with an all in
• 11:59
  one space to do everything. So some of those features we
• 12:02
  touched on with text, WhatsApp, e-mail, airbnbbook.com, VRBO
• 12:06
  messages, you can just do it all in one space.
• 12:08
  It's a unified inbox. You can also automate all those
• 12:11
  messages as well at certain times of the guest journey, by
• 12:14
  hour and by day. And then, yeah, do everything
• 12:17
  else, you know, channel manage list on and promote the listings
• 12:20
  on, you know, Airbnb booking, VRBO, Google, more loads of
• 12:24
  channel options. You can do reporting, analytics,
• 12:27
  expense management, cleaning and turnover everything.
• 12:30
  Yeah, and we partnered with loads of other companies.
• 12:32
  So if you wanted to just enhance it more and more, there's all
• 12:35
  sorts of options as well. Check them out.
• 12:38
  And we've got a special offer at the moment as well, $500 off
• 12:42
  onboarding if you're interested in trying out House Phillies
• 12:45
  PMS. All the details are in the show
• 12:47
  notes. Joseph, it's been a pleasure.
• 12:49
  As ever. Thank you for joining us on host
• 12:51
  Planet Bite Size. Thank you, James.
• 12:53
  It's been great. Appreciate it.
• 12:55
  Great to chat to Joseph Cox there about guest communication.
• 12:57
  Remember, make sure you start with a digital guidebook.
• 13:01
  All right, that's it for today's episode.
• 13:03
  Remember, this podcast is brought to you in collaboration
• 13:05
  with House Philly, which is trusted by short term rental
• 13:08
  professionals across the globe. As a House Planet listener, you
• 13:11
  get 2 exclusive offers, $500 off on boarding for House Philly's
• 13:16
  property management software. Just use the code planet. 530%
• 13:21
  off digital guidebooks for life. Use the code House Planet GB to
• 13:26
  grab these deals, Click the link in the show notes or head to
• 13:29
  housefully.com. For more free education tips and
• 13:32
  trends from the STR industry, visit Houseplanet dot Club where
• 13:36
  you can sign up for our newsletter, listen to our
• 13:38
  podcasts and download a suite of ebooks for hosts and property
• 13:42
  managers. That's it for today's episode.
• 13:44
  Until next time, happy hosting.