Welcome Screen: Bringing Hotel-Level Professionalism to Short-Term Rental Hosts

In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, we welcome Dylan Williams, Founder and CEO of WelcomeScreen, a digital guest experience and advertising platform for vacation rental hosts and hoteliers. WelcomeScreen offers an innovative way to enhance guest satisfaction by helping hosts create a truly unique and tailored greeting directly on their smart TV.

Dylan discusses how their solution enables hosts to provide guests with a hotel-like experience through personalized information screens on their TVs, making every guest feel special and valued, thereby boosting brand recognition and offering upsells. He also shares some real-life examples of how their customers are using WelcomeScreen to make their properties stand out.

Press Play now to find out how WelcomeScreen helps hospitality providers turn their TV into a branded guest experience to delight their guests and boost revenue.

If you prefer to read the highlights, we’ve got a summary of key takeaways below.

Why WelcomeScreen?

Dylan explains that WelcomeScreen is a digital guest experience and advertising platform that allows hosts to create gorgeous welcome screens and also make money from advertising local businesses at their properties.

He says such solutions have been available in luxury hotels for decades, and there's a reason they're used. “First impressions are super important, and then just having that constant branded experience is also important. The problem with it is that it’s not exactly accessible to the average person. It’s costly to implement these legacy systems oftentimes, like close to tens of thousands of dollars,” he points out.

Dylan also thinks that the legacy screens don't look their best, so they decided to create a solution that is both accessible and visually appealing. He posted the first iteration that they made on Facebook, and they received “a ton of positive support,” so they decided to continue building and improving it.

Ways to Use the WelcomeScreen Solution

Dylan shares how customers are utilizing the WelcomeScreen solution to establish their brand, enhance the guest experience, and boost revenue. From welcoming messages to WiFi details and local tips to advertising deals, there are different ways you can customize WelcomeScreen to impress guests and increase your income.

Dylan says their solution allows you to greet your guests at your property by their first name automatically because WelcomeScreen integrates with your PMS. “There's actually been scientific research studies showing that people's favorite word is their own first name. When they come in, they see it. It's an instant dopamine rush. It just starts their stay off on a great foot. It’s going to really help you with positive guest experiences, maybe making them a little more forgiving of whatever shortcomings your property has, or if you maybe forgot to clean a spot or whatever.”

You can promote your brand by having your logo and your URL on the screen. Dylan emphasizes that this approach allows your guests to know that you are a company, not just a random Airbnb.

Dylan also explains how they help users monetize their screens. “We have partnered with Viator, and you can promote any of their 300,000 activities and tours on our screen. If any of them are booked through your screen or guidebook, you can earn 8% of the revenue. So it actually can be quite a significant amount of money.”

You can personalize your screen with custom greetings, welcome messages, and background videos, and choose from multiple layouts and design styles. “One of my favorite parts about it is it’s kind of up to our customers' creativity and bringing their own personal style and twist to whatever they're designing and showing to their guests,” Dylan says.

Integration with Hospitable

Now, WelcomeScreen integrates with Hospitable, so Dylan also shares what this integration allows Hospitable users to do to digitize their guest experience. “You guys make it extremely easy to integrate external apps like us. And so for our shared users, it just makes the experience extremely seamless,” Dylan notes.

“Essentially, what we’re doing is we’re bringing in that reservation data for the names and the dates. This allows you to fully automate the experience by changing the name, ensuring the checkout date is correct, and performing other similar tasks. And so that you don’t have to constantly manually adjust things on your screen. And once it’s set up, you’re just good to go, and you don’t have to worry.”

Using QR Codes

Dylan says that the vast majority of their customers use QR codes, which the platform generates for them, to promote direct bookings and have more control over their business. “Obviously, they’ll have their logo and URL there too. It’s been a movement within the last few years to increase direct bookings. And there’s a reason for that. It’s important to have autonomy over your own business and not be beholden to Airbnb or Vrbo completely.”

About Staying Competitive

Talking about short-term rental market trends, Dylan underlines that the market is becoming increasingly competitive, so it’s crucial to stand out if you want to succeed. You can achieve this in various ways – through your amenities, guest experience, or reviews.

“I think WelcomeScreen fits into that future nicely because it’s helping you set you apart from the competition, where not many people are doing this kind of thing yet. And if they walk in, they get that luxury hotel experience right away. And it will definitely help you set you apart from that competition and provide that next level stay, which will make you more memorable and make them want to come back again next time.”

Tune in to the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast to discover how WelcomeScreen helps hosts provide exceptional experiences to impress guests and increase income.