The low season is ending for some, and the busy summer is fast approaching. It’s time to prepare for the influx of travelers in your vacation rentals. How to prepare for the most popular time of the year efficiently? Discover 10 practical tips to make the most of the high season and make your vacation rental shine on a daily basis.
10 tips to prepare for the high season in vacation rentals
Find 10 tips to prepare your vacation rental for the high season
Prepare your property
If your vacation rental will be busy during the summer season, then you need to prepare well in advance. A thorough check-up is necessary before you receive a wave of travelers who will come to enjoy your rental all summer long. You will have to go through your property to check its condition and repair things as needed:
- Check the condition of the paint, electricity (light bulbs, sockets), pipes (is there a leak?) and bathroom
- Look at your equipment and appliances: is everything still working properly?
- Check your bedding and linens
- Inspect the decorative elements: do they need a little refreshening?
By performing this check-up, you will ensure that your future tenants will find a functional and safe home to rent. You also ensure fewer problems and a smooth, satisfying travel experience for your guests.
Undertake a spring cleaning
It’s time to polish, sweep, scrub, vacuum, wash, rinse, buff, wash, and dust… Even if you clean your rental between each traveler, it is always necessary to initiate a thorough and deep cleaning, called spring cleaning, at least once a year.
During this spring cleaning, you (or a company) can use on the following points to ensure everything is spic and span:
- Dust the heaters and air conditioning units
- Wash the walls
- Clean the windows and the woodwork
- Wash the sofa cover
- Cleaning the cracks in the tiles and shower head
- Clean the bathroom and toilets
- Clean and disinfect mattresses, and check for bed bugs
- Disinfect garbage cans
- Defrost the refrigerator
- Clean the terrace and/or balcony
- Maintain and clean the pool
- Replace towels and linens as needed
These few things should ensure your vacation rental is in tip-top shape. And it will let it shine for the upcoming season and years to come!
Update your ads on the booking portals
Let the sunshine and warm summer evenings show in your listings and on your own website. Add new photos to match the season. Update your description to reflect spring and summer.
Open your booking calendar
To make the most of the high season, remember to open your booking calendar early and with as much availability as possible. Remove blocked periods if you don’t need them. This will let you maximize bookings and rental income.
Another tip to maximize your occupancy and get more booking requests is to accept last minute bookings.
Rethink your rates
If summer is the most profitable time for your vacation rental, then make sure you offer fair and market-driven rates. You should not be above the market price for similar properties, nor should you be too far below which will create suspicion on the part of the traveler. The high season is also an opportunity to review the minimum length of stay: do you want to avoid short stays?
To constantly offer the most adapted prices to the market, think about dynamic pricing tools that allow you to set the best price per night thanks to their algorithms. Once the right prices are offered, your revenues should increase as well as your bookings.
Go international
With Covid-19 in the back of many people’s minds, international travel is making a comeback! Many foreign tourists will travel for the first time in a couple years and frequent your vacation rental. To facilitate their stay and handle their reservation, make sure your short-term rental listings are in several languages to open yourself to international travelers.
You can also offer a digital guest guide in several languages to allow all your tenants to have access to essential information (rules and regulations, important contacts, etc.) as well as personalized practical information: local recommendations, must-sees, etc.
Update your Traveler’s Guide (Guest Guide)
Remember to check the information shared in your Guest Guide regularly. It would be a shame to share incorrect or obsolete information.
- Are the contacts still accurate and up to date?
- Are your favorite addresses still open and the hours the same?
- Does the wi-fi password still work?
- Are your house rules the same? Make changes if necessary.
Be responsive
Before booking make sure to respond quickly to your potential travelers. This will help with traveler’s trust of you and increase your chances of securing a reservation. (Travelers often send several requests for information at the same time).
Once the accommodation is booked and during the stay always be reactive and give all the necessary information so that your guests stay is smooth and uneventful.
Learn from customer feedback
Your traveler comments and ratings are important on several levels. First, the higher your rating, the higher your listings rank in the search results. Positive ratings and reviews (and even negative reviews) are a great way to improve certain aspects of your short-term rental.
For example, a traveler may say that a piece of equipment is broken, the toilet is leaking, there are moisture stains etc. All comments can help you optimize your rental for future travelers and thus increase the overall satisfaction rate of your visitors. Don’t overlook them.
Go for online check-in
To facilitate the arrival of tenants and make your life easier, you can opt for online check-in. With a rental management software, you can do this easily, without guest contact and all online.
Smoobu for example with its native online check-in form, allows you to collect all the information you need to comply with local laws or simply for your own security and/or organization: name, nationality, passport number, etc. are fully customizable and can be activated or deactivated according to your needs.
It is also possible to insert custom fields, require an electronic signature and even as for a picture of an ID for example.
Prepare for the high season with a channel manager
To respond to the large number of reservations and to ensure a real time and automatic synchronization of all your calendars on your different platforms, nothing is more efficient than rental management solutions otherwise known as channel managers.
Indeed, a Channel Manager will allow you to keep your calendars up to date and avoid double bookings, a constant worry for rental owners. A Channel Manager can accomplish much more and strengthen your rental business.
Check out “7 Reasons to Use a Channel Manager“.
Find the right mix to prepare for peak season efficiently and boost your bookings
Prepare your short-term rental efficiently with these 10 tips and get ready for the peak season! Try Smoobu, our Channel Manager, for free for 14 days and take advantage of its many features to simplify your life and be on top of your game for the summer.
