How Much Hospitality Is Needed To Run A Short Term Rental? Tips for hosts of vacation rental properties.
Owning and running The Morrow House in Waco, Texas is a fantastic job. I love the role of being hostess to guests from all over the world. Managing a short term rental is ninety percent joy and about ten percent hassle for me, but that is in large part because I love hospitality. I know that some folks don’t love it, because of the time and commitment needed to do it well, but for this season of my life it is perfect! Doing the small things, picking up fresh flowers, making sure we have an assortment of coffees and teas and writing a fun message to greet our guests on our letter board are just a few of the many things I love to do for each guest that stays at our beautiful historical home.
How much hospitality is needed to adequately run a short term rental? I think that depends on your market. Who is your target guest? Are you renting a room, apartment or entire home? Does your community attract business travelers, families or a singles crowd close to the night life? For example, our home is located in Waco,Texas and we typically attract guests that fall into three categories; The girls trip guests, who are traveling to Waco to see everything Magnolia and the rest of the city’s shopping dining etc., our Baylor guests (these are alumni, prospective students or current students or families who come to town to visit their Baylor students); and finally we get a variety of birthday and wedding travelers. We obviously get other types of guests too, but those are our three primary targets. So, our guests are typically on vacation, visiting campus or celebrating a big event. All three of these guests are looking to enjoy the home and the city while they are here, and typically plan on using the house a great deal of the time that they are in town.
We rent out the entire home to our guests, which typically means there is more than one person staying and I take very seriously that people have paid a significant amount of money to stay with us, and this means guests rightfully have an expectation to be well provided for when they are in town. If your short term rental is a smaller space, where people won’t be cooking or gathering, you probably don’t need to provide as much to your guest. As a short term rental, reviews are very important, so I have taken the approach that I want to make our guests know that we are honored to host them, grateful they have chosen to stay with us and I do my best to make our guests feel welcome and appreciated.
What do we do to make people feel welcome?
When guests make their bookings on Airbnb or HomeAway we try to figure out what is bringing them to Waco. This helps me do a few simple things to make people feel special. For example, if they are a Baylor family I order Baylor themed baked goods so that when they arrive they have a fun green and gold snack waiting for them, I hang our Baylor flag out front, and make sure I have a fun Baylor phrase on the letter board for them. If a guest is celebrating a birthday, I order a little birthday cake and hang our birthday banner so they feel celebrated. I do this as best I can for each guest, hoping they feel appreciated when they arrive.
Another element of hospitality that we provide is that before guests arrive I do a few things virtually to help them prepare for their trip. As an example, I send each guest a list of great spots to visit all around town. This includes restaurants, museums, stores and more. I also make guests aware that if they would like to preorder their groceries and have them delivered from our local grocer for their stay that I will gladly meet the delivery person and stock the fridge for them on the day of their arrival.
Make sure the basics are taken care of for your guests when they arrive. When folks arrive we have bottled waters in the fridge, coffee pods and tea bags, soaps & shampoos in each bathroom, plenty of tissue, toilet paper & paper towels for their stay and some basics in the pantry for cooking. You can help your guests have a wonderful experience by taking care of these and other small things to make their stay easier.
It is important to know that not all of these steps are probably needed for all types of guests. If your short term rental market is primarily business travelers I would suggest different approaches to make your traveler comfortable. Guests staying for one night, and are only in the market for a good place to sleep, most assuredly have different expectations than the guests on vacation with family and friends.
These are just a few of the small touches we take the time to put in place to show our guests how appreciative we are that they are visiting Waco and have chosen The Morrow House for their stay.
