Incredible Ways Of Utilizing Text Messaging For Vacation Rentals

What’s in it for me?

If you’re someone running a vacation rental business, this article will guide you through the perks of having everything organized in one place when it comes to carrying on seamless communication with your guests. With ready-to-use and simple copy-paste SMS templates at every stage, it will make it easy to reach out and connect with your guests for a smooth guest experience.

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Communication is important, period.

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Nowadays, it has become critical for the hospitality industry, from large groups of hotel chains, and medium-sized properties to vacation rentals to effectively utilize communication tools to stay afloat in the market. With contactless communication gaining traction, the utilization of text messaging for vacation rentals hasn’t been uncommon at all.  

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The significance of adopting text messaging or emails as a medium of connectivity with guests not only helps in ensuring a contactless communication service but is also based on the survey that 

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“Text messages have a 98% open rate.”

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Why Text Messaging

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There is only one rule for being a good talker – learn to listen.  

-  Christopher Morley

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Guests love SMS!

Don’t believe us?

78% of US consumers say receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them!

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And what does that mean?

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It means it is way easier and faster to reach out to people through text messages for conveying information, following up, and conducting sales.

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Communication is indeed a two-way mechanism requiring the participation of two parties i.e., the sender and receiver of the message. 

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The first step to developing effective communication skills is to listen and anticipate the expectations of the guests. The guest expectations are constantly changing and it becomes important to remain attuned to this ever-changing paradigm of expectations. This has also led to changes in the domain of guest communication.

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With higher open rates and faster replies, SMS rules the world of communication, thereby helping the properties and vacation rentals to utilize it almost as a juggernaut in the industry.

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What Is Guest Communication In Hospitality

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Guest communication can be regarded as any type of communication that primarily takes place between a hotel or vacation rental and its guests. The medium of communication might vary from phone calls, emails, and social media engagement to text messaging for vacation rentals. In order to make your guests feel comfortable, encourage loyalty, and get great positive reviews, establishing a great impression is critical. 

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While the body language and expression are not discernible over SMS and there are chances of sometimes putting off the guests by using the service in a wrong manner, vacation rentals can still make the most of this feature by utilizing it correctly at every touchpoint of their guests’ journey.

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Guest expectations may vary from one guest to another. But the process of the guest journey for all guests remains similar which usually starts from the time they browse through the website or seek more information about your property. An effective communication strategy can help you deal with different guest expectations and provide a quality guest experience at your sweet vacation rental.

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Benefits of Using Text Messaging For Vacation Rentals

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Vacation rentals, much like other hospitality institutions, require an effective and elaborate communication strategy to amplify the quality of assistance provided to the guests and, in turn, deliver a memorable guest experience. Here is a list of its usefulness:

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1. It helps fulfill the sense of urgency. How? Guests expect immediacy, whether it’s quick to search and book options, response to their pre-stay or in-stay inquiries, or dealing with cancellations. 
2. The modern workforce needs almost little to no training to smartly make use of text messaging. This ensures guests are served well and hotel operations are seamless and smooth.
3. Due to its higher open rates, it ensures a seamless exchange of information and breaks communication barriers.
4. It’s a more intimate and friendly way of knowing and communicating with your guests while keeping all the professionalism still intact.
5. It also helps in boosting the occupancy rate at your properties, securing bookings, getting repeat bookings, managing online check-in, and providing guest services digitally.
6. It helps collect guest data on the basis of which promotional offers could be sent out.
7. It helps solve guest issues in an instant.
8. It also promotes contactless services.

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‍Guest Management For Vacation Rentals Through Text Messaging

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Additionally, guest messaging can also help in streamlining vacation rental guest communication by targeting guests at the very first point of contact. It is important to stay connected to your guests throughout the entire guest journey process. 

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The various stages through which guests experience a stay are usually regarded as the ‘guest journey.’ Effective implementation of tools such as guest messaging can help address the concerns of the guests at different stages. The guest journey can broadly be divided into the following stages:

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• Booking
• Pre-arrival
• On-arrival & Check-in
• Mid-stay
• Check-out
• Post Check-out

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Effective Utilization Of Text Messaging For Vacation Rentals For Improved Guest Engagement

It has become increasingly important for the vacation rentals to keep the potential guests involved right at the very first point of interaction and remain connected throughout the different stages of the journey. It is important to have an appropriate strategy since this enables you to zero in on the expectations and desires of individual customers. 

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Rentals need to map the guest journey so that the most important touchpoints can be identified and improved upon by them. Guest messaging can help you deal with this situation by providing tailor-made solutions according to different situations. SMS templates for vacation rentals have been provided below to help you deliver a memorable guest experience:

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1. Booking

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In a world where distraction is rampant, people’s attention could be very well-trusted to be gripped by several other things while still making a travel purchase. What’s the end result? An abandoned booking or a booking still awaiting confirmation, hanging there by a loose thread.

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At this stage, a follow-up text from your vacation rental can be a real savior, enabling the visitors to complete their booking if they’re still interested. This can further prod them to ask queries related to their bookings, thereby giving them the assurance that someone is there on the other hand to answer them all. 

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“Hey Jennifer, we noticed that you tried booking through our vacation rental website but couldn’t get through somehow. Is there anything we can do to help? There have been inquiries about the same room from others and we don’t want you to lose out on it. Thanks and regards, Blue Dunes.”

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2. Pre-Arrival

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Once the booking is finalized by the traveler, it’s important to send a booking confirmation message. However, at this stage, it is equally crucial to ask them whether the message conversation would work for them or if is there any other mode of communication that they prefer for further correspondence. 

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Once the guest agrees to receive updates via text messages, send them reservation updates, booking forms, payment processing, weather details, brochure and booking confirmation messages:

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“Hi Maya, your booking at the Blue Dunes has been confirmed between 12th August- 15th August 2022 and the check-in time is at 3 pm. Your reservation id is #AWBD67892. If there’s any special request that you’d like us to accommodate, please let us know ahead of time. We look forward to welcoming you soon. Best regards, Jennifer, Blue Dunes Team.”

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You can also schedule reminder messages ahead of time to remind guests about their reservation at your property:

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“Hi Maya, hope you haven’t forgotten us! We’re looking forward to welcoming you today at 3 pm for a fruitful stay. If possible, give us an insight into your travel logistics by sharing your ETA to coordinate better. Safe travels! Regards, Team Blue Dunes.”

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3. Arrival & Check-in

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You can send welcome messages to your guests as soon as they check-in. Guest messaging for vacation rentals can also help you with welcoming your guests along with providing various other important pieces of information such as the Wi-Fi password, opening and closing time of the bar, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and special services like gym, pool, spa, and so on. 

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If your vacation rental has a digital marketplace or digital concierge/amenity page designed to be shared with the guests upon check-in informing them everything they need to know about their stay, you can redirect them to the same by sharing this over a text message.

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“Hi Anita, welcome to Blue Dunes. Here’s the link to our digital concierge or amenity page that will give you all the handy information regarding the WiFi password, gym and pool timings, spa offers, weather details, recommendations regarding what to do, house rules, and a lot more (*the URL*). We urge you to join us in the lobby for complimentary coffee and pastries at 4 pm. We hope you will settle down soon and we wish you a wonderful stay!

Regards, Team Blue Dunes.”

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4. Mid-Stay

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The role of messaging doesn’t end here. It continues even during the stay, even when the guests have settled into the comfort of your beautiful vacation rental. A friendly follow-up to know if you can do something during their stay works wonder without disrupting their mid-stay journey with additional information or questions:

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“Dear Steven, thanks for staying with us. You can avail of our spa services and continental breakfast for an extra $50. Please feel free to drop us a text if you require anything to make your existing stay better. Thanks, and enjoy!”

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5. Check-out

You can still remain connected to your guests during the check-out stage by using messaging for vacation rentals. Important instructions regarding the check-out timings, check-out procedure, security deposits, dropping the keys, etc. could be done at this stage through automated messaging:

“Dear Elizabeth, thank you for trusting us with your stay. We hope you had a great one! The check-out is at 11:30 am. We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a moment to share your experience with us by filling out the following survey (*the URL*). Again, if you have any suggestions or questions regarding your experience with us or the services, please feel free to reach out. We hope to see you soon!”

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6. Post Stay

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• Asking For Reviews

Guests get caught up in the loop of their everyday lives once they’re back home from their vacation and forget completely about leaving reviews. Using guest messaging to remind them about reviewing their stay online by sharing a link through texts could be a valuable initiative:

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“Dear Anita, hope you’re doing well. It’s been a while since you returned from your recent vacation at Blue Dune and we hope that your stay was par excellence. You can share your honest and valuable feedback by leaving us a review on *the URL*. We hope to have you here with us once more, take care. Regards, Jennifer, Customer Care Executive, Blue Dunes”

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It isn’t necessary to limit your communication with guests as soon as they check out of your hotel. You can continue to remain connected to your guests by updating them about the latest offers and discounts: 

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• Miss You Message: 

For lost clients, the text message will be an effective way to re-establish the connection: 

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“Dear John, we miss you already! We are offering a 20% discount on the second night of your stay starting in September.  You can call us on our official number to book with us and get further details”

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• Special Discount Message

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“Dear Kenny, hope you are doing well. Luckily, we have some ongoing offers and special deals for special guests like you. Revert to this message to download the special discount PDF on your phone.”

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Vacation Rental Automated Messaging: Enhancing Operational Efficiency

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Leveraging messaging technology and an integrated system to deliver a quality guest experience can be greatly beneficial for both guests and hotel staff. This is a win-win situation as guests get faster and more personalized service while hotels maximize operating efficiencies and workflows to reduce resources and costs. Guests nowadays expect 24x7 availability from the hotel, especially during the pre-booking stage. If they aren’t replied in an instant, they might leave as soon as they dropped by. 

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Issues such as these can be easily dealt with by simply utilizing text messaging for vacation rentals. Various text messaging software for vacation rentals are available in the market currently. Hence, let us have a look at the usefulness of the product and how it impacts the different areas of the hotel:

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• Front Desk Staff - By optimally utilizing automated guest messaging, the front desk staff can streamline the entire reservation process – right from accepting bookings (coming via walk-ins, OTAs, travel agents) to assigning rooms, confirming the reservations, and sending out a confirmation mail to the guest. 

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It can also be employed for dealing with issues such as booking cancellation/modification and room upgrades, etc. with relative ease. A smooth check-in experience is perhaps one of the most important features of any property nowadays.

• Housekeeping Staff: A quality housekeeping service is absolutely critical for any vacation rental to create a strong and positive impression about themselves to their guests. Once the hitherto occupants of a room have checked out, automated messaging solutions can be used by the staff to update each other about the status of the room and send an alert to the front-desk staff by housekeeping staff who might be engaged in cleaning and maintenance of the room. 

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Apart from the above-mentioned benefit, the automated messaging for vacation rentals can also help in scheduling housekeeping tasks, assigning staff, and tracking the same for the timely completion of tasks.

• General Manager: General Managers take care of the overall administration of a rental business. They are also responsible for strategic planning to ensure the success of this business. To achieve this, they need to leverage the power of automated guest messaging services, and vacation rental software with SMS integration can come in really handy.

• POS Outlet Staff: During their stay at a property, guests also tend to use the various amenities and services on offers such as the swimming pool, restaurants, bars, gift shops, and spas (if available). Instead of paying money at different points, with the help of automation, guests can be made to pay the total amount during their check-out. This helps in avoiding multiple billing errors and saves time. 

How Text Messages Should Be Sent To The Guests

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Guest Messaging for vacation rentals can be a great medium to explore and implement in your service to provide a quality and memorable guest experience. However, despite knowing the significance of guest messaging, various hospitality properties fail to create a long-lasting impression on their guests and effectively lose out on potential guests. Therefore, in order to provide a quality experience to your guests, you might want to implement the following suggestions:

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1. A voice for your organization: Texting is usually regarded as a friendly and more intimate medium of communication. Hence, it can be more casual compared to a full vacation rental email. However, it needs to be professional and useful. 

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2. Keep the text concise, useful, and friendly: Being over-reliant on text messaging has also the potential to adversely impact your image and the overall quality of the guest experience. Sending too many text messages can come across as annoying to the guests and it might surely dilute the impact of the tool. 

Therefore, it is important to strike a perfect balance by knowing how much information to provide and when to provide it. 

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3. Scheduling your texts: Scheduling your texts can help you deal with any guest-related issues before they arise. Automated guest messaging for vacation rentals can be regarded as one such medium of communication that allows you to set up a queue of templates in order, that are already filled in and scheduled for release at the right time. 

However, if this particular tool isn’t set up with sufficient time, it might lead to unwanted errors such as sending a check-out text during the check-in process. 

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How Many Texts Should Be Sent And What Should Be The Frequency Of Such Texts

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There might not be a perfect number that can be assigned in this particular context. However, you might want to remain in contact with the guests throughout the entire guest journey process. It is important to remember that a text message should be sent with the idea of ensuring that the guests have the required information, yet not end up becoming overwhelming. A balance between both aspects must be maintained at all costs. 

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Final Takeaway

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The ever-evolving guest expectations along with the requirement for a contactless service can be met with tools such as guest messaging. This becomes even more important for vacation rentals that might not be able to spend a fortune on publicizing them. 

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This will not only help you address the various customer-related issues but also improve the overall structure and running of your vacation rental business. Therefore, text messaging has the potential to amplify your business, minimize manual efforts, and generate revenue continuously. 

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With GuestTouch, Streamline Your Vacation Rental Communication With The All New Guest Messaging

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• Communicate with guests during the booking process with AI WebChat.
• Personalized guest engagement from pre-arrival, check-in, and check-out to post-stay
• Connect with your guests and provide a contactless experience during the stay
• Staff messaging to stay on top of your game

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