5 ways to attract more holiday home bookings
Posted on 16. Jan, 2009 in Advice
Tips to achieve better results when renting out your holiday home
Look after your guests – So they come back or if they don’t their friends do. This means you or someone you trust is available to help them during their stay if they have any questions. It can even mean you phone the property (probably not more than once though) just to check if everything is OK and if they your guests need any info. A guest book is useful as guests tend to leave useful info for future guests – and it can often be things you never would have thought of !
Great beds – you will see this at many hotel chains these days. Hotels are competing on the quality of their beds or pillows. Many hotels have a pillow menu offering a choice of pillows. Many people are cautious about holiday home rentals because they fear the beds could be the cheapest possible. If you have great beds make sure your customers know about it. If you don’t, consider upgrading your bedding. It may prove a worthwhile investment.
Free Wi-fi - if you do have an Internet connection, get a wireless router and advertise free wireless Internet. A lot of people travel with laptops or smart phones and will be happy to think they can check their emails or even do some work while they are at your holiday home. This could be the reason that your property gets the vote over another one.
Gym – OK so it’s unlikely that your holiday villa or apartment has it’s own gym but use your local knowledge to see if it’s possible to use a nearby gym and buy a day pass – do the research for your customers, and provide distance to gym and costs and the renters may choose you.
Tickets to attractions – if there is something in the local area that has a very wide appeal then get some tickets and advertise them as free e.g. with every rental over 7 days, or for all booking before XXX Jan. It may be you have local knowledge of how to source the tickets cheapest or can negotiate a bulk purchase
I hope you found these tips useful, you might also want to look at my tips for renting out your holiday villa or apartment. If you have any tips please do leave a comment. Thanks for reading.
blackduff
Jan 21st, 2009
I had a guest book for the first two years and it was fine. But, during the third year of renting, there wasn’t many comments on the guest book.
I stopped leaving the book there, since the things I cannot happen still look I’m not worrying about the guest. The guest which said we needs airconditioning. Physically it will not work in my building. Yet, I still look like a poor landlord. I did put two good fans for the apartment and everyone seems happy with them. Another poster in the guest book said that the small fridge was too small for four people. I put another small fridge which doubles the capacity. Some things were good posts
For me it was good during the beginning of renting but the guest book has come and gone.
Rob Barham
Jan 21st, 2009
Hi Blackduff,
Thanks for taking the time to comment and share your experience with the guest book.