Renting out your holiday property is a good way to enjoy additional income, however, there is more to preparing your property than just cleaning up and leaving keys in the letterbox. Here are the Top 10 Tips for preparing your holiday home for rental on Search and Stay.
Here are ways to make your property stand out and meet your guests' expectations, ensuring an enjoyable experience for your guest and creating stays that lead to great reviews and more guests.
1. Provide easy instructions to find and access your holiday rental.
2. Keep keys to your holiday rental accessible but secure
3. Make your guests feel instantly at home
4. Stock the pantry with basic supplies
5. Have enough kitchen and dining essentials for all your guests
6. Provide Quality Linen and Towels
7. Make it feel like home
8. Help your guests feel like a local
9. Create a relaxing spot to unwind
10. Follow up with your guests after their holiday
1. Make Your Holiday Property Easy to Find and Access.
You must provide detailed email instructions to guests before they arrive via the check-in email instructions attached to your property listing on SearchandStay.com.
While you might think it's easy to find your property with basic directions, it can be harder than just negotiating an address on Google maps.
Consider an eye-catching street front or feature to help identify your property for example a bright yellow door, a colourful welcome mat or other garden or entrance features that you can point out in the check-in email to ensure your guest know they’re in the right place. Choose a bold colour or size for your house number or place something memorable (and visible from the street) on your front porch. Keep in mind that your guest is in new surroundings, this may be a new town, city, state or even a country they have never visited. You may not want obvious holiday accommodation signage, so instead make the entry obvious with an eye-catching
characteristic. If your front door is not easily visible from the street or driveway add lights, markers or garden features guests will easily recognise. Also install exterior lighting on a sensor at your front door that lights up your entrance and street number, to assist guests arriving at night.
2. Keep Keys To Your Holiday Rental Accessible but Secure
Make it easy to find the keys and get in the front door, so that it's effortless for your guests to settle into their holiday property. Keep instructions simple.
A lockbox gives you the flexibility to allow your guests to enter the house when you're not there to let them in. Keys are the number one thing that hosts will be called about, and there is nothing worse than being away from the property and having to negotiate key handover. A secure property – and a protocol for how to enter the property and leave again – will be of comfort to guests. It's also advisable to encourage guests to leave the key in the lockbox when they go out, so they can be confident that they won't misplace the keys. A lockbox also allows you to change codes to ensure that guests don't return without permission.
3. Make Your Guests Feel Instantly at Home In Your Holiday Rental
it's important to engage and relax your guest in the first moments after they arrive at a new destination and holiday property to avoid any apprehension. A lovely welcome card, gift or hamper is a great start. A nice bottle of wine doesn’t have to break the bank but it will go a long way to adding to the experience of staying in your holiday home. It’s also good to think about what will be most convenient, so your guests don't immediately have to head to the local supermarket to get settled. Fresh milk in the fridge, some fruit, biscuits, bread or pastries can make a real difference to the first moments in your home.
4. Stock The Pantry in Your Holiday Home with Basic Supplies
In the same way that a few convenient items available on arrival can add to the holiday experience, providing basic essentials including oil, salt and pepper, tea and coffee can make all the difference. Your guests don’t need the hassle of bringing or buying basic supplies. Especially items that are essentials but you tend to use a small amount of when preparing or enjoying meals are definitely useful. It’s also important to remember to replenish and refresh these guest essentials before every stay. Some of the basics to offer are:
toilet paper and tissues
dishwashing liquid
dishwasher tablets or powder
basic spray cleaner
paper towels
tea, coffee and sugar
salt and pepper
cooking oil
basic herbs
5. Have Enough Kitchen and Dining Essentials For All Your Guests
If you advertise that your holiday property can accommodate eight guests, then you must provide enough kitchen and dining essentials for eight people. Obviously, this includes glasses, crockery and cutlery. It can be helpful to supply more than enough to accommodate the maximum bed number, to save your guests washing up after every meal. Also offering a variety of wine glasses, champagne flutes, and tall and short tumblers can be very helpful. Glasses should be accessible and fit in your dishwasher if you have one. It's also essential to have clean, unchipped, matching kitchen and dining essentials but also keep in mind it's easy for things to get broken so make sure items of your matching set are replaceable.
6. Provide Quality Linen in The Bedrooms and Towels In The Bathrooms of Your Holiday Rental
Guests are looking for a pleasant and restful holiday and therefore it's important to focus on the bedroom and bathroom requirements and to find a happy medium between practical and beautiful. Busy or overstuffed pillows and very formal bedlinen are expensive and hard to maintain after every guest’s stay. It’s best items to pick linen and towels of good quality as they will require a lot of washing and also something fairly neutral and pleasant so as not to be overbearing. You should provide quality quilt inner and pillows. And stained quilts or pillows even if not visible are absolutely not acceptable. Don't forget quality soft, fluffy towels, they are a simple way to provide a more luxurious feel to your holiday property. Look for specials and pick up a new fresh-smelling bedroom and bathroom essentials. Bedside lamps beside each of the beds are also very helpful.
7. Make Your Holiday House Feel Like Home
People book a holiday rental property on Search and Stay because they want the feeling of staying in a home rather than a hotel. Make it easy to work the coffee machine, the dishwasher, the entertainment system and to make a holiday rental fee homely add some holiday entertainment items like books, games, movies and if you can include wifi as these are simple pleasures to be enjoyed on holiday. Make sure your holiday home feels welcoming, so include a décor that you would enjoy in your own home - décor, art and accessories that represent you.
8. Help Your Guests Feel Like A Local In Your Holiday Accommodation
Offering local advice and recommendations for the destination and not just instructions for your holiday accommodation is a great way to welcome your guest and make sure they have the best holiday experience. Leave local information, great holiday activities for kids, family-friendly places to eat, free activities in the area like bush walks, markets and day trips. For the foodies, local wineries and distilleries, high-end restaurant recommendations or even just your favourite place to get fish and chips. Local tips and non-touristy experiences always help to leave guests feeling like they got the special insider track on exploring the destination.
9. Create A Relaxing Place to Enjoy Your Holiday Rental
Holiday guests tend to be in a relaxed mood, looking for places to stop and enjoy the holiday home they have rented on Search and Stay. While it’s great to have activities and digital entertainment areas, set aside a quiet corner of the living room or sitting area with a bunch of books and magazines or even a spot to just sit take in your best relaxing view.
10. Follow Up With Your Guests After Their Holiday
There is such a great opportunity to finish the holiday on a positive note. A short email to thank them for their stay. Don’t forget to review your guests and how well they took care of your home is a great sign to new guests that this is a home that promises a memorable holiday and also ask them to review your property via Search and Stay.