Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / How to Build Guest Trust & Boost Direct Bookings

Transcript

How to Build Guest Trust & Boost Direct Bookings · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Host Planet Bite Size, the podcast brought
• 0:03
  to you by Host Planet and Host Philly.
• 0:05
  My name is James Farley, the founder of Host 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 Carlos Castillo
• 0:14
  from Direct Book Me, and he'll be sharing some essential
• 0:17
  hosting tips. OK, real talk now for all you
• 0:21
  hosts out there. You know that.
• 0:22
  Moment. When your guest.
• 0:23
  Messages 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
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• 0:54
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  Makes your life easier and keeps your guests happier, helping you
• 1:00
  achieve those all important five star reviews.
• 1:03
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• 1:26
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  demo with Frank Bosey from Hostfully.
• 1:30
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• 1:33
  Less stress, more bookings sorted with Hostfully.
• 1:43
  Carlos, thank you for joining us on host planet Bite Size.
• 1:46
  You've got 5 hosting tips to share, so take it away with tip
• 1:50
  #1 Well, thanks for having me, James.
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  Our first tip is build trust like it's your business.
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  You know, guests don't just book a property, they book trust and
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  they want to make sure that they are safe.
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  They know where they're going, they know who they're going to
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  be seeing, they know where they're going to be staying.
• 2:07
  And then get to know your guest, find your niche, you know,
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  understand your ideal guest and who your market and who you're
• 2:13
  directly going after. If it's honeymooners, if it's an
• 2:17
  event, maybe a football match or any festival or any concert.
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  If you get to know your niche, you can definitely go after that
• 2:24
  specific traveler that you're seeking.
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  And then communication is your superpower.
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  A quick thoughtful message can turn into a four-star state.
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  Just be thoughtful and remember that someone's there standing in
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  your property and you're have to look up for them and then
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  systemize what you can, personalize what you can't.
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  Automate your routine so that things can be easier like
• 2:45
  hospitality and paying attention to the host so you can be there
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  and make those personal touches. And then at the end of the day,
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  remember it's it's hospitality. Act like it.
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  So you want people to feel like it's a vacation.
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  You want them to feel that warm fuzzy feeling as they say that
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  they're coming over to your place, whether it's for a long
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  term stay because they're jobs in them there or that money that
• 3:07
  they saved to spend that great family vacation.
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  But it's hospitality. Don't rely just on AI and all
• 3:13
  these technology. Be there for your guest.
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  Makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so trust, know your guest
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  communication is your superpower.
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  Systemize and automate where you can and remember it's
• 3:27
  hospitality. I just want to go back to that
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  first one specifically, trust specifically when it comes to
• 3:34
  building direct booking websites.
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  How do you build in that trust? How do you ensure that when a
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  guest sees your property or sees your website, they're going to
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  trust you and trust that they they want to make this booking?
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  I say that consistency is the biggest key.
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  You know, make sure your website is always functioning.
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  Make sure that your listing is always looking good, that your
• 3:56
  pictures, if you're going to change something, that's fine.
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  You know, you can change up a few things, but be consistent in
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  the overall approach. Consistency is key and when it
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  comes to knowing your guest, then tip #2 a lot of people
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  think about this and maybe kind of don't kind of dig down far
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  enough to really think about who their guest is.
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  They might think, well, I, I just take bookings from whoever,
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  but just how important is it to like clearly understand who
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  you're targeting with your rental?
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  Well, everyone's always saying I need bookings, I need bookings,
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  I need my calendar full. Sure, that's great, but
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  sometimes that's not possible. So if you can just make that
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  tweak and go after, let's say I'm going to use I live in
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  Florida, right? So who comes here?
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  You know, there's, there's young, young, younger people
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  that like to party, there's beachgoers, a lot of people that
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  go on cruises, certain things that are happening within your
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  community, events. Use that to your advantage
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  because not always someone's going to want to come to where
• 5:00
  you're in your area. So if you stay up to date with
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  things that are happening, then that gives you another tool,
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  another way to get more bookings and keep your calendar, you
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  know, within that certain percentage of, of of keep
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  keeping bookings, you know. And what are your top tips in
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  relation to guest communication and also automation?
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  Where can hosts really nail these two aspects of hosting?
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  Well, as far as automation, I, I like to use automation for, for
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  those small messages, you know, those, those details that people
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  always like to know, the Wi-Fi, if you have a code to get into
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  your door, you know, how to turn on the air condition, how to
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  turn on the heat. Those little small details that
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  you don't have constantly have that, you know, people
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  constantly ask, you know, just automate those because those
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  don't change, you know, those are always the same effect.
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  How does the light come on? How do I use the, the
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  dishwasher? How do I get to the backyard?
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  You know, those, those, those, how do I get to your place?
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  So those little things you can automate.
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  And then what was the second part of your question?
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  I'm sorry, in terms of the guest communication, what are your top
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  tips for communicating with guests?
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  Well, AI is going, it's becoming the, the, the big thing that
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  people are, are, are, are, are trying out.
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  I've yet to come across a platform that I really rely on,
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  but emails and text messaging and a phone call and just your
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  best ability is availability. Just be available, you know, for
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  your guests because at the end of the day, that's what we were
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  there for. And talk to us about hospitality
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  as well. I mean, how important is it,
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  especially with AI and you know, so many automations in place and
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  self checking and all that kind of thing.
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  How important is it to remember the hospitality aspects and, and
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  occasionally have that face to face interaction with your
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  guests? Of course, and I understand with
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  hospitality, you, you might not even be in the same area as
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  your, as the, as your place that you're, you're having listed.
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  So that's when the messaging comes into play.
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  But I just always be available and, and and be hospitable, know
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  that someone's there. And and then it's also a two way
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  St. The guest has to know that's,
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  you know, a 10 to 15 minute window of responding sometimes
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  can happen. You know, you don't the host
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  does have, you know, have a life as well, right?
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  So it's a two way treating understanding.
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  But hospitality with especially with all the AI that's going on,
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  it's kind of taking away a little bit.
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  I say we rely on it. We don't want to rely too much.
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  It should have its place in it. But hospitality is is definitely
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  important. We have to be able to be there
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  for, I guess, and just be available for, for their needs
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  for when they need something. So tell us a bit more about
• 7:45
  direct book me. What is this, this platform and
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  why did you set it up? So direct book me in a nutshell,
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  it's a marketing platform for short term rentals.
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  We, we loved short term rentals and, and what the, that unique
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  feeling that they bring. And but then we started wanting
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  to book direct and try to find these hosts and kind of save on
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  these fees and all these algorithms and all these things
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  that were happening with the bigger platforms.
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  So that's when the light bulb went off.
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  And I was like, wait a minute, There isn't a central hub or a
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  place where direct bookings do live.
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  It was all over the place. Yeah, you could search on, on
• 8:24
  Google search on social media, Couldn't get in touch with the
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  host. So we said, wait a minute, let's
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  beat that bridge. You know, let's connect guest
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  and host so they have somewhere where they can meet in the
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  middle. And that's when the light bulb
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  went off. And just tell us more about the
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  platform. Is this it's a kind of a listing
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  platform. And if people want to find out
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  more, where do they go? So direct book me, it's
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  considered a marketing platform. We are we are lead generators.
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  The host can list their property on our website for a
• 8:56
  subscription based fee. Right now we're in trial phase
• 9:00
  and you can go on www.directbookme.co to find our
• 9:04
  website. And like I said, we just
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  generate that lead at the end of the day, it's a book per request
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  so that the host will get that e-mail, that notification that
• 9:14
  that their guest wants to stay on your property.
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  And then you you make the final decision on on whether they stay
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  or not. So with these, it's like an
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  annual subscription. It's just like a one off fee and
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  it doesn't matter like how many bookings you get and all that
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  kind of thing. So right now it's a
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  subscription, monthly subscription.
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  There's two tiers. It's $10 a month per property
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  that you have listed on the site, plus $15 per booking
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  request that goes to the host whether you finish that booking
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  request or not. Or if you want, you can go to
• 9:48
  the 3999 a month plan. If you're seeing that you gain a
• 9:51
  little more traction and then you no longer that $15 per
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  booking request, it's no longer. But right now we're in trial
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  phase, we're gathering, you know, more inventory for hosts.
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  We want to be able to to provide inventory and so that when we do
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  market to guests and guests can come on over and see that there
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  is places. I mean, right now we just hit
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  100 listings on our site. We've been around for about a
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  year putting this thing together.
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  So little by little we're we're building sounds great.
• 10:21
  We will put the links to it in the show notes.
• 10:24
  Carlos, thanks very much for sharing those tips and for
• 10:27
  joining us on host planet bite size.
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  All right, thank you very much, James.
• 10:31
  Happy to be on host Planet and thanks again.
• 10:35
  All right, that's it for today's episode.
• 10:36
  My thanks to Carlos for joining us on today's show and sharing
• 10:39
  those essential tips. Remember, this podcast is
• 10:42
  brought to you in collaboration with Housefully, which is
• 10:45
  trusted by short term rental professionals across the globe.
• 10:49
  As a House Planet listener, you get 2 exclusive offers, $500 off
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  use the code House Planet GB. To grab these deals, click the
• 11:06
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• 11:09
  For more free education tips and trends from the STR industry,
• 11:13
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• 11:16
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• 11:19
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• 11:22
  That's it for today's episode. Until next time, happy hosting.