One of the biggest trends in the world of hospitality has been vacation rentals. Yes, people have had vacation rental homes for a long time but it really hasn’t become so popular until Airbnb made it a “thing.” Because of the popular site, more and more people are putting their homes up as vacation rentals.
The whole idea of renting out your home as a vacation rental property is a good idea and a great way to make extra income but it’s a bit of an invasion of privacy. Most people who rent out their house and still live in it while guests are there, make it to where there is still privacy between the homeowner and guests but there’s still the aspect of privacy and also safety.
It’s the safety concerns that make people just buy a rental property, that way they can have their rental property to rent out to guests and still live in the comfort of their own home. But to accommodate the guests staying in your vacation rental, you may want to install a home security system. Think about it… just as you want to feel safe in your own home, they want to feel safe in the vacation home and neighborhood that they’re unfamiliar with. Your guests will really appreciate that and leave good reviews because of it.
If this is something you’re considering, the better financial option would be to consider a rental loan… unless you have a few 50 grands lying around your house to invest in your rental property. All jokes aside, the rental loan is going to be your better and smarter financial option because it’s not cheap to run a vacation rental property and it’s not easy either. So you want to make sure you have all the tools and resources you need upfront to ensure the success of your property.
Being Accommodating When You’re More Than Accommodating
One of the hardest things about the vacation rental business is knowing that you’re not going to be able to please everybody, regardless of how hard you try. You will definitely have guests that absolutely love your property and appreciate all the things you’ve done with it to make it so inviting… You wish you could have visitors like them all the time but because more and more people are stepping away from hotels and opting for vacation rentals, you’re going to have to step your hospitality game up to hotel standards to be more pleasing to your guests.
If you’re new to this business, it’s important to know the anger buttons to not push when trying to be accommodating to the guests staying in your vacation rental. There are certain things that guests expect to come standard in vacation rentals, and to be fair, some of their expectations are very justifiable and are very worthy of complaints if a rental doesn’t meet those expectations. Things like cleanliness and safety are things that should come standard but don’t always pan out that way. Before listing your property as a vacation rental property, take a look at some of the biggest complaints among vacation rental guests to ensure you don’t make these mistakes your first go-round.
Cleanliness
When people stay in hotels, they expect to walk into a clean hotel room… they have the same expectations when it comes to vacation rentals. Your property should be clean from top to bottom upon the arrival of your guests. Because it’s a house, the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and all living spaces should be spotless. This includes cleaning air vents as well. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, small amounts of dust and debris are harmless but if those air ducts and vents aren’t cleaned as often as they should, it could do great damage to your overall health, especially if mold is detected.
Lots of rental owners will try to go in and clean up themselves to save money, and hey, there’s nothing wrong with putting in a little elbow grease to make sure your property is clean but if you have an appealing property, you’re not going to have enough time to be coming in and cleaning up an entire house on your own… you’re going to want to hire a professional house cleaning service to get your property cleaned quickly and more efficiently.
Cleanliness one of the top complaints among guests and it’s something that should be common sense. People to don’t want to walk into a dirty vacation rental and when they do, they should have every right to complain about it. The sad part about cleanliness is that it’s an unnecessary complaint. Whether you hire a house cleaning company or do it yourself, always do a final walkthrough to make sure everything will meet their expectations.
No WiFi
A vacation rental with no wifi access? You might as well take your rental off any listings because no one will want to stay there. You have to understand, we live in a digital world and with no wifi, it’s like people’s worlds shut down. Now you’re thinking, what about data? No one wants to use their data when they don’t have to and run the risk of data overage charges.
If you haven’t noticed, people live and operate off of their phones and laptops and when they don’t have access to wifi their world will no longer work… literally. If you choose to not have wifi, you definitely need to make that very clear when listing your property’s amenities but reconsider and bite the bullet and get wifi… it will definitely pay off and you’ll see a big financial return from it in the number of people wanting to stay in your property alone.
Your Property Not Being as What Was Described
This has happened to so many people and ruined so many vacations. In this business, the worst thing you can do for your reputation as a vacation rental property is false advertisement. You can’t have pictures of your property looking a certain way and being described in a certain way only for people to come and see something totally different… that’s like rental suicide.
Rental owners don’t seem to realize just how powerful word of mouth can be and in the digital world, word of mouth comes in the form of reviews. When you deceive guests, it’s a pretty safe bet that they are going to leave some pretty nasty reviews about your property and not recommend other travelers to stay there… that can ruin your business.