The Professionals Guide to Looking After Professionals

Whether you’re new to Airbnb property management, trying to boost your customer reviews, or looking for fresh ideas, here’s some practical tips to help you improve guest experience.

Be professional and caring

Looking after your guests doesn’t start at check-in or when they book. It's at first contact, handling customer questions, pre-booking enquiries or booking requests. How and when you respond is crucial and often determines whether guests will book or not. Respond to questions promptly in a friendly manner with helpful and comprehensive answers and continue to build trust by maintaining effective customer dialogue throughout, both pre and post booking.

Make your guests feel special

Rather than install an electronic lock in the property, it's much friendlier and impactful to meet guests in person at the property offering them a cup of tea and a biscuit and talking things over with them. You can show them around the property, answer their questions and point them in the direction of local amenities and places of interest in the immediate vicinity.

Always provide a Welcome Pack

Every Airbnb property should have a welcome pack. It could contain a few simple instructions, house rules and details of the WIFI code, but why stop there? Including a personalised message, useful information on the property and area and a welcome gift goes a long way to making your guests feel special. For tips on creating the perfect welcome pack; see our blog ‘Creating the perfect Airbnb welcome pack’ for ideas.

Be available at all times

While you hope that everything goes smoothly, sometimes things do go wrong. Most people will be understanding of this, but it all depends on how you handle the situation. Respond quickly, no matter what time of the day or night, and guests will appreciate your efforts and be able to get on with their holiday with minimum disruption. Not answering the phone when they lose the keys and lock themselves out at 3 am and that’s another story.

Try to be available 24/7 and make some contingency plans ahead of your guests arriving. You should always have spare keys and the telephone numbers of trustworthy tradesmen to hand, should you need them.

Looking after your property

Guests are booking a place to stay and expect similar standards to a top hotel. It’s only natural when you have guests coming and going that your property will suffer a certain amount of wear and tear; things break and start to look worn over time. No one wants to stay somewhere run down and tired though, so ensure that maintain your property. Visit the property after every departure and take note of any work you need to do, whether that is fixing the bathroom door that doesn’t lock properly, replacing the wobbly table or refreshing the paint in the lounge. Schedule in time to get them done and don’t let that ‘to-do’ list grow too long.

For more property maintenance tips, read our Tips for Airbnb Maintenance blog.