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VRS315 – How to Deliver Short-Term Rental Secret Service Surprises

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We can learn a lot from the information we get from guests in inquiries and message threads and phone calls. Good use of questioning can elicit all sorts of detail on what they like to do on vacation, who is in their group, what special occasions they may be celebrating and what their dream holiday looks like. Armed with all that data you can create a surprise that wows your guests that often costs very little or nothing at all.

In episode 256, Tyann Marcink talked about how we can get on our guests’ wavelength by understanding the theory of love languages (Gary Chapman). In that discussion, we learned that just giving a gift of a bottle of wine or snacks might not excite everyone, and in order to be sure of satisfying all guests, you need to touch on every one of the love languages at some point in the vacation journey.

While we can’t get guests to tell us their love language we can often determine what is their strongest preference from their communications with us.

From there it’s a simple step to creating a surprise that will cause them to remember you, share your excellence with their friends and write a stellar review.

The suggestions in this episode are all tried and trusted; either they’ve been experienced by myself or others who have shared them with me, or they are things we’ve actually done in our own business to wow our guests.

And they work!

Not every one of these ideas will work in your situation but you’ll be able to adapt and create your own super-special secret service surprises from them.

I’ve divided them into five categories – food, pets, children, special occasions and ‘what shall we do today?’.

Once your creative juices start to flow you will probably come up with more.

You’ll hear about:

  • How Amy Hinote was wowed with bacon on her recent trip to the Cotswolds in the UK
  • What you can do with information on your guests’ diet issues
  • Two things that will have your old-dog owners loving you forever
  • Why a pile of old towels can make you a lot of friends (and save your furniture)
  • How to create a permanent outdoor treasure hunt for kids
  • The icy proposal suggestion that stunned the bride-to-be

And many more creative ideas.

Here’s the PDF of everything covered in the episode

VRS256 – Getting on Your Vacation Rental Guests Wavelength

Outdoor Treasure Hunt Ideas

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