Home Away From Home
What exactly is it that makes a vacation rental truly great? A place that the guests rave about to their friends and return to year after year. The fact is that you can have an amazing location, every conceivable amenity, and the best rates in town, but if you ignore a few basic rules of property management you can spoil the whole deal.
Rule One – Be the perfect host. The people paying to stay in your property are your guests and should be treated like royalty. If you can’t handle a few complaints with dignity and grace, maybe you shouldn’t be in this business. I can’t tell you how many owners and managers I’ve talked to that seem to fall apart just because their guests are a little high-maintenance.
I’ve received calls in the middle of the night from very agitated guests needing to know how to turn on the television. Not a big deal, right? Well, you need to remember that when you’re in a strange place it can get very frustrating if something doesn’t seem to be working correctly. It may be a very simple and obvious thing to you, but to your guests it’s the end of the world. Take a deep breath and try to put yourself in their shoes. A little kindness and understanding will go a long way.
Rule Two – Inspect your property yourself. Never leave inspections to the housekeepers. They have enough to think about without having to remember if something was broken or missing from the last occupancy. You shouldn’t attempt to recover money for damage of loss unless you know yourself what condition your property was in before the guest arrived. If you leave it up to your housekeepers’ word against the guests’, you are setting yourself up for a charge back that you will not win.
You or your property manager should have a separate inspection checklist for every property and it must be completed in-between each and every guest stay. Give yourself time to make any necessary repairs. Don’t think that a guest will never notice if something isn’t just right. Assume that they will notice and announce to their 2,000 friends on Facebook that your rental property stinks. It happens!
Rule Three – Leave a “How Can We Do Better?” form. Encourage your guests to fill out your form and take their suggestions seriously. It’s not enough to have a guest book. Tell your guests that you want their experience in your property to be the best it can possibly be and in return you want them to tell the world about your property. You can learn everything you’ll ever need to know about vacation rental management just by taking the time to ask if they were completely satisfied. If they know that you care, chances are they will be willing to give you a positive review, even if something went wrong during their stay.
Remember, people like doing business with people they like. If you are sincere your guests will forgive most minor annoyances that would have turned into nightmares if you had not addressed them promptly and correctly.
To sum it up – A great property is only as great as the people who own and operate it. You’ll have some difficult guests and some dream guests and they must all be treated with the same care and respect. That is the secret to success in this game we call vacation rental management.