Vacation Rental Rapid Customer Service (Airbnb)

[Richard Scott Dinnan]

In todays Society, a review can make or break your business. In the vacation STR realm, on a platform such as Airbnb it is no different and often even an inaccurate review can have this effect.

In my experience dealing with countless issues, whether big or small, “quickly” understanding the current guest, their needs, and their perception of your property is paramount. 

With vacation rentals I have come to understand that you are advertising a perception that must meet each individual guests reality in order to maintain a 5 star experience for each individual. Each guest has their own idea of what a five star experience should entail. So how do you deal with the outliers? 

Building an effective system to deal with specific common issues quickly without putting in my time and effort has been extremely beneficial to me. Understand things you are willing to compensate for and decide a fair amount for those things. Above all, keep track of each instance. This can help you with trending and give you a more accurate estimate of where and when and who your problems could be moving forward.

Last year just two of the properties (Smokey Mountain, TN/ St Augustine,FL) had over 120 guests who brought an average of 6 people with them. Thats over 700 individual people, each with their own thoughts and ideas on what your property SHOULD be. 

Bottom line… if you aren’t great with dealing with people this type of property might not be for you. 

Maximizing on rapid customer service and effective honest advertising will keep you on track for these cash flow cows. 

Looking to hear what others think on this topic.. all perspectives. Just wanted to start a conversation that could help some individuals on the fence about this or in the midst of it.

If you have a specific concern or comment feel free to message me directly! 

[Dave Stokley]

Congrats on your success Scott. I'm gonna preface this by saying that my company goes above and beyond to provide amazing experiences to our guests. Our goal is to be the best and we think we are (AirDNA recently validated that), and we know what we're signing up for with that goal. We have over 3,800 reviews and maintain SuperHost status. I offer this not-so-humble brag so that what I'm about to say isn't interpreted as us not caring.

So all that being said, I really believe that you have to have to understand your limits and set boundaries, manage expectations, and just get comfortable with a few realities of the business we're in...

#1 You can't please everyone. The sooner you accept THIS the easier your life as an STR owner will be. Doesn't mean you should blow off unhappy customers, but decide what your level of service is going to be, don't overpromise, and deliver what you do promise. To that end...

#2 You are not operating a hotel. Don't try. You don't have staff at the desk 24/7, you don't have 20 other rooms next-door to clean if a guest decides they want to stay longer, and you are not (despite many peoples' perception) a large multinational billion-dollar corporation. 

#3 Allow yourself some grace. Everyone makes a mistake once in a while. I know your guests do it all the time and you probably let it go the vast majority of the time. We have high expectations, hold ourselves and our employees to them, and only keep people who live up to them, but when someone makes an honest mistake... hey, it happens! As Phil Knight said in Shoe Dog "It's never just business. If it ever does become just business, that will mean that business is very bad." 

Cheers everyone!