Incorporating upsells into your business strategy effectively adds value to your short-term rental, enhances the overall guest experience, and generates additional revenue. Many savvy vacation rental owners use upselling tactics to create more guest-focused stays and stand out from the competition. But how?
The latest episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast explores what exactly short-term rental upsells are and how you can use them to your advantage. We invited Annie Sloan, the CEO and co-founder of the Host Co, a retail solution that helps hosts sell their products and services in short-term rental spaces. Annie shared her insights on successfully upselling guests by providing valuable and relevant add-ons without being pushy or intrusive.
Are you looking for ways to increase your bottom line without making substantial additional investments? Press play now to discover how to maximize the potential of your vacation rental business through upselling and delighting your guests.
If you prefer to read the highlights, we’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below.
What Is Short-Term Rental Upselling, and Why Is It Important?
Annie starts with the basics and explains that upsells in hospitality provide a better experience for your guests and improve their stay. “Upsells are things like wellness experiences, late checkout, bike rentals,” she clarifies and reveals the secret of successful upselling at hotels. “They are positioning upsells as something that benefits you rather than selling something to you, even though they are actually selling them.”
Annie also points out tangible benefits of short-term rental upselling for hosts and property managers: increased revenue, better guest experience, and improved marketing content. “When you have amenities attached to your rentals, you can talk about them. If you use direct marketing, you have a direct marketing email stream,” she explains.
Another benefit of upselling that people don’t think of very often is that it streamlines a lot of guest communication. “People ask you the same questions every day… and the name of the game is automating those answers. So you do not have to answer them,” emphasizes Annie.
“There is a lot of operational efficiency in contacting your guests right after they book, showing them what they can get from an upsell, and showing them that a price is attached. So if it’s late checkout, they know they can get it. Either they’re willing to pay for it, and they ask, or they don’t,” she further explains.
Hospitable can help streamline many aspects of your vacation rental business, including communication with guests, task management, and updating calendars and prices on multiple channels. It can even automate upselling late check-out and extra nights so that you can make additional income with almost no effort.
Streamline your vacation rental business!
How to Identify Opportunities for Upsell
Upselling to guests can increase your revenue, but remember that its goal is to enhance the guest experience by providing valuable and relevant add-ons. So, you need to identify things that would be in demand from the guests.
Get to know your guests—communicate and gather data about their preferences and interests. “Start listening for what they want. Widespread purchases include mid-stay cleaning, fresh flowers, bike rentals, and boat rentals,” Annie recommends.
Upsell Via Technology
Today, travelers expect a smooth, contactless experience throughout their journey, so the best practice is automating your upsell process using tech solutions. For example, The Host Co allows hosts to create digital stores where guests can get anything they need or want during their stay, exactly when they need it.
“Automation is everything, right?… So what we did is we looked at this from a situation of how can the host not touch this at all, the whole experience,” says Annie. “You just set up a store. It imports the pre-vetted vendors in your area via your zip code. Those are vendors that generally hotels use as well.”
When your guests book, you include information about your digital store in your automated messages and provide them with the link so they can see what amenities and services are available and request what they like. Annie also recommends including info about add-ons in your messaging one week before the guest’s arrival. “That’s a great one, too, because it excites people about the stay,” she explains.
Our chat with Annie covers a wide range of topics, from prices and promotions of additional amenities to pitfalls and challenges hosts face and metrics you should consider to measure success.
Listen to the full episode of the latest Hospitable Hosts podcast to get more insights from Annie on how to increase your profits from upselling without investing extensive time and resources and enhance your guests’ stays.
