As a vacation rental house owner, you recognize the importance of making your home stand out from the crowd.
You need to provide facilities that impress visitors if you want to increase your profitability. Therefore, certain features should be considered definite must-haves.
However, you can't reasonably provide all that your visitors would want! So, how can you decide which options are worth investing in?
Read more: Tips On How To Make Your Vacation Rental Stand Out
Basic Vacation Rental Home Requirements
Maintenance
Your guests expect everything in a vacation home to work properly. Let’s face it, no one would like to deal with a broken faucet or a burnt-out light bulb.
This means you need to handle maintenance issues before your guests report them to you.
Amenities
Your vacation rental should at least have all the essential amenities. For example, your kitchen should include pans, pots, and utensils.
Very importantly, your property needs to have decent WiFi. In this day and age, everybody expects to encounter WiFi in short stay apartments.
There are other things that you might consider "unnecessary", but your guests probably won't.
These include soaps, toilet paper, coffee for the coffee maker, and toothpaste. Hotels offer these; you should too.
Read more: Amenities Checklist For Vacation Rentals
Customer Service
When speaking with your guests on the phone, through email, or in person, always maintain a professional and friendly attitude.
It is no news that any guests expect to be able to contact you at any time of day or night. Vacation rental property managers are usually available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you handle your vacation rental yourself, you should provide a means for visitors to contact you or appoint someone you trust to function as your "on-call" representative.
Read more: How To Manage Vacation Rental Property
Extra Touches
Extra touches may turn a decent vacation rental stay into a spectacular one. For example, a personalized welcome card or a tiny gift may go a long way towards making your visitors feel at ease.
You can mention special events such as birthdays in your welcome card, and send a personalized gift. Your thoughtfulness will undoubtedly win them over.
You could just make a lifelong client and realize that the most underrated, yet often most important, aspects of an excellent vacation rental are the extra touches.
Read more: Vacation Rental Guestbook Template
How To Decorate A Vacation Rental Home
Decorating a vacation rental home can be a difficult task. Also, catering to the tastes of all the different types of people that will be staying there is honestly impossible.
However, here are some elements to consider:
Use lighting
Whether it's indoor or outdoor, bright or mellow, the lighting choices in your vacation rental may have a significant effect on how guests perceive the space and how they enjoy it.
Not only can you use lighting as a way to create an illusion of spaciousness, but you can also experiment with different fixtures such as table lamps, hanging bulbs, and spotlights to illuminate every part of your home.
Additionally, it is worth investing in energy-efficient lighting such as LED bulbs, as they are more eco-friendly and last longer.
This will also help avoid any issues, such as an essential bathroom bulb burning out in the middle of the night!
Cover up flaws with decor
It's crucial that your rental paintwork is almost flawless and that everything is properly working.
If your property has minor flaws like a small hole in a wall that is difficult to repair, you can easily conceal it by hanging a beautiful painting over the top.
Don't overwhelm yourself
While filling every surface with decor and souvenirs may be how you prefer to design your own home, it may quickly become overwhelming and chaotic for a guest.
Minimalism has been popular in recent years for a reason, and it makes a space seem tidy and may even help people relax.
Keep worktops as uncluttered as possible and space out decorations like mirrors, plants, and paintings, to allow your guests to actually appreciate your holiday home.
Niche Decorations
Your vacation rental style is determined by your personal preferences, the property's location, and your budget.
Although choosing a niche decoration is the aim, keep in mind that you want your house to appeal to various people.
Numerous vacation rental owners want their property's decorations to reflect aspects of their surroundings.
You may simply take a walk around your neighborhood to get ideas for your vacation home's design idea.
Furnishing A Vacation Rental Home
Even while it isn't as difficult as selecting a holiday home, the process of furnishing your vacation rental might be overwhelming at first.
Fortunately, having a plan for where to begin, go, and end the procedure helps to organize and streamline the process.
It's essential to get the appropriate furniture, but it's never fixed. So try your hardest to furnish wisely, but bear in mind that any complex seating arrangements or table selections may be readily changed when the time comes to renovate.
In general, furniture in a vacation rental home will wear faster than in a typical home because of the number of incoming guests. In addition, some items, such as mattresses, are cheaper and easier to protect than others.
However, for those large pieces which are more at risk of accidental damage (dining tables and sofas), investing in practical, durable furniture is a strategic move that will save you money in the long run.
It is advisable to set a damage deposit for vacation rentals because it helps guests feel a sense of responsibility for the property they're staying in.
Luxury Vacation Rental Amenities
Adding special components to your vacation rental not only screams luxury but also gives your home an exclusive reputation internationally and within the neighbourhood.
Below are some stylish elements that you can incorporate into your vacation home, amongst many others:
Automate your rental tasks
Technology is making things more accessible in the short-term rental industry, and you'll want to stay up with client expectations for a pleasant experience.
Automation maximizes productivity while offering an excellent experience for all travelers by simplifying your bookings.
The online booking process, guest evaluations, contracts, check-in procedures, keyless-entry systems, housekeeping communication, maintenance, temperature controls, payment processing, and occupancy tax remittance may be optimized with today's technology.
Relaxation Devices
When guests arrive in a vacation rental home after a long journey or just the discomfort of being jetlagged, they want to unwind.
Consider what you enjoy most about a spa: relaxing music, pleasant aromas, and maybe a massage.
How can you give your guests a spa-like experience in their rooms? You can provide them with scent diffusers, relaxing eye pillows, and noise machines for a more luxurious feel.
Other massage options include a foot massager or a neck massager.
Renovating Vacation Rental Home to Keep It Fresh
Your property should always meet the highest cleanliness, comfort, and convenience standards to avoid negative reviews from travellers.
In order to maintain a good reputation, there will come a time when you need to review the standard of your vacation rental and make some improvements.
Build Strong Relationship With The Guests
The most critical touchpoint in a vacation rental's guest experience is check-in. Therefore, all vacation rental operators must master the skill of properly receiving guests.
Hosts may leave an edible present for guests that ties around the local culture where the rental is located.
Unless the guests request to see you or give you the impression that they want interaction, don't interact with them.
You must be considerate of their privacy. Make sure you find a balance between complete privacy and accessibility.
You can send a message to your guests; it's less intrusive than making a phone call because the information you provide is written down.
Read more: How To Write a Vacation Rental Business Plan For Your Rental Property
Key Takeaways
For greater success, you need a service that helps you secure management efficiency, and gives you a better understanding of your vacation rental business.
Read more: How To Start a Vacation Rental Business: Complete Guide
Booking Ninjas is a cloud-based vacation rental management software that offers a standard booking engine, bookkeeping services, a channel manager, and an internet portal.
Want to find out more? Give us a discovery call today!
