I see you over there spending a ton of time crafting custom messages to all your vacation rental guests. Answering the same questions over and over again. You need to stop it, right now! I’ve got a time-saving solution for you: Save and automate your Airbnb guest messages.
Spoiler Alert: At the end of this post I have created a free guide with the copy you need. Just copy and paste and tweak to fit your brand.
We all know the appeal of staying in a short term rental is getting a “home away from home” experience. In order to provide that to your guests, having good attention to detail and adding personal touches goes a long way. One of the best ways to do this is through clear, personalized (or at least what seems personalized) communication.
Airbnb and VRBO (among other platforms) allow you to save messages that you can use to auto-populate to guests at different points of their stay, from booking, to after check out. Constructing some basic messages for the important points of contact can save you a lot of time, while allowing you to tweak them as needed for a more personal touch. Airbnb recently made it possible to schedule automated messages which is totally awesome and ensures your guests get a personalized message at all of the critical points in their stay.
There are a few key times when your guests should receive a message from you:
As soon as they book - This message will be your first personal intro to your guests. Make it welcoming and ask them to review your policies and let you know if they have any questions.
Just before arrival - 24–48 hours before your guests are due to check-in, they should receive a message reviewing your check-in procedure. This should include directions to the house, directions to the front door and your lockbox or smart lock info.
After check-in - 24 hours after check-in, be sure to send your guests a message following up to see if everything is going well, and ask if there’s anything else they might need or have questions about. This message can help you get valuable feedback about your listing.
Just before check out - The night before your guests are due to leave, send them another message to touch base, make sure everything has gone well with their stay, and to go over check-out procedures. This might include items like stripping the beds, emptying the garbage and turning out the lights.
Post check out follow up - A few days after your guest has checked out, make sure everything is in order with your rental, and follow up with a nice message. Let them know they were great guests and you’d enjoy having them again (if this is true of course). It’s also a great time to ask for a 5-star review if they haven’t left you one yet.
These 5 messages are the basics, but make a note of things that guests are asking you over and over and add more saved messages that you can quickly personalize and send off. Here are a few examples:
Can I have an early check-in?
Can I have a late checkout?
Can I have a discount?
What is there to do in the area with kids?
What are some good restaurants in the area?
Where is the nearest grocery store?
Tell them about your social media presence and to tag you if they take any fun photos.
After they write you a 5-start review tell them about your website, Instagram, email list or any other marketing channels that will keep them coming back to your property.
What do you say if you found damage after a guest stays?
While having your messages saved in your respective platform is a great way to save time, if you’re managing more than one rental on several platforms, it can still be challenging to send these messages in a timely fashion. Luckily, there are a lot of great programs out there that offer automation services for messaging your guests. Here are a few that you can explore. Software yeah!
SmartBnb - This site offers a lot of great messaging automation options for all of your short term rental needs. You can set up a wide variety of automated messages, responses to questions, photo inquires, and even messages translation into 29 different languages. Pricing starts at only $18 per month for automation on two listings.
Hostfully - This site offers a TON of incredible services for short term rental hosts, including automated messaging. The features on this site are very full service, with integration from many different platforms to help you manage all of your short term rental needs. Because of all of the incredible options this site provides, it is pricier, starting at $59 per month for a property management platform that includes up to 5 rentals.
Superhost Tools - This is the best value if you’re looking for just an automated messaging service. You can get automated messages through this service for a very reasonable price per listing.
Because I think you’re awesome and I want you to succeed and not spend a ton of time writing all of these messages, I’ve created all the copy for the mentioned messages in this article for you for free. Well, it’s going to cost you your email address but still, it’s free.
