A Vrbo welcome guide is essential to creating a great guest experience and presenting you as a caring and thoughtful host. It can give your guests the information they need for their stay and show them that you want them to feel comfortable in your space.
A welcome guide is a perfect place to answer common questions, help guests navigate your home or apartment, and treat it the right way. In this post, you’ll find tips on adding your guide to your listing and what details to include to impress your guests.
Vrbo Welcome Guide: How It Works
Vrbo allows hosts to create a unique welcome guide for their guests for each property. Although you are not required to add a welcome guide to your listing, we recommend doing so. This way, you’ll make it easier for your guests to find important information quickly in one place.
The ideal Vrbo welcome guide helps orient your guests, highlights important house rules, and makes them feel at home when they enter the door. Then travelers are more likely to have smooth check-in experiences and leave you positive reviews.
Your Vrbo welcome guide includes the following information:
- Owner or property manager contact information
- Directions to the rental property
- Parking instructions
- Instructions on how to access your home or apartment
- Check-in and check-out instructions
- Instructions on how to use amenities, such as how to do laundry or use WiFi
- Additional vacation rental information.
As you see, Vrbo allows you to provide essential information for your guests. But you should be ready that travelers may have many questions and expect quick answers. So what can you do to make them happy?
Although it’s impossible to be available to your guests 24/7, you can ensure the fastest answers to your guests’ most pressing questions with Hospitable. Our tool is powered by Artificial Intelligence that recognizes questions on more than 20 common topics and can instantly create a personalized response.
Have conversations with your guests even when you sleep
Creating a welcome guide for your vacation rental on Vrbo is simple. Here is what you should do:
- Just log in to your account and select the listing if you have more than one property.
- Then go to Welcome Guide and choose the option Create a welcome guide.
- There, you’ll need to fill out the required information.
- Finally, select Finish.
Travelers can see some of the information from your welcome guide when they book their stay. But they won’t be able to see instructions on accessing your home or apartment or checking in.
Vrbo will email your guests the welcome guide information three days before check-in. They can also access your welcome guide through the traveler app or their account dashboard.
Keep in mind that only guests with active, confirmed bookings will be able to view info in your welcome guide. And this information will no longer be available after travelers check out or if they cancel their booking.
Create a Digital Guidebook
Today, digital guidebooks are becoming the new must-have for short-term rental hosts because they save them time on guest communication, reduce the number of questions asked, offer opportunities for upsells, and help make guests happier. You can easily update your digital guestbook with new info and add images, videos, virtual tours, and any content you can think of.
Tech-savvy travelers expect immediate access to information necessary for their stays, so they love digital guides. Online guest books are convenient as guests can access them on their smartphones wherever they are and quickly find answers to their questions.
That’s why creating a digital welcome guide containing all the information guests need about your property and the surrounding area is one of the best ways to improve the guest experience. It’s your chance to impress your guests and make them feel cared for.
Many tools are available online that allow hosts to make digital welcome books that look beautiful, professional, and organized. Hospitable has integrations with some of these tools, including an innovative guidebook platform, Touch Stay, and guest experience platforms like DACK, Charge Automation, and SuiteOp. So, if you opt for Hospitable, you can take advantage of any of these integrations and easily make a web-based guidebook to give guests insights into your Vrbo property and the local area.
Should You Create a Printed Welcome Guide?
Creating a digital Vrbo welcome guide is a good idea if you target millennials and younger travelers who prefer to consume content on the go on their smartphones. However, some guests don’t like reading on the screen and prefer content in print form.
So, we recommend creating both digital and printed copies of your Vrbo welcome book. This way, you’ll be able to please all your guests.
Besides, you can use your printed welcome guide to provide your guests with more detailed step-by-step instructions for the dishwasher, thermostat, oven, and other appliances. It will prevent you from receiving annoying phone calls from frustrated guests who can’t start the washing machine.
Travelers might be looking for recommendations about nearby attractions and places of interest. They will appreciate it if you include suggestions for activities and things to do in your town or city in a printed copy of your welcome guide. You can also add a list of nearby stores and shops to help your guests find what they need.
It would be best to place your welcome book in a prominent spot like an entry table or kitchen island. And don’t forget to leave a personal Vrbo welcome letter to give guests a warm reception to your home and make them feel special.
Vrbo Welcome Letter: Key Things to Include
A Vrbo welcome letter is one of the best ways to show hospitality when guests arrive at your vacation rental property. It’s vital for hosts who can’t receive their guests in person.
A welcome letter doesn’t have to be long. But it should be well-written to communicate your message as clearly as possible. Here are some tips on what to include in it.
- Tailor your welcome letter template to each guest. Although you don’t have time to write a new letter, you can replace a few sentences each time. You should speak directly to the person the letter is intended for.
- Include your exact address and details about your property. This will help avoid any problems with returning to your home after your guests have gone out to explore the local area.
- You may also share some memories or what you love about your home and emphasize what makes your place unique.
- Tell a few things about yourself and how you started your vacation rental business. Write in a conversational and warm tone that suits you and your personality.
- Share a link to your digital guidebook to introduce new guests to your property and local area so they can start planning their vacation.
- Don’t forget to wish your guests enjoy their stay and thank them for choosing to book your property.
Creating a welcoming atmosphere for guests is one of the most important aspects of a vacation rental business. You must do your best to ensure positive communication from the beginning and deliver an overall 5-star service.
That requires a lot of time and effort, especially if you list your rental property on several OTA websites or manage multiple listings. But with Hospitable, you can automate 90% of your business and save tons of time.
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Final Thought
If you want to succeed as a Vrbo host, you should try to make each guest’s experience memorable in the right way. You can do many things for that—make sure your home is spotless inside and out for every guest’s arrival, ensure quick communication, etc.
However, a comprehensive Vrbo welcome guide is key to a pleasant guest experience. It will help you make that first impression and build a good relationship with your guests. Your welcome guide will provide valuable information and can be the first place they will go for answers to the most common questions.
New to the Vrbo platform? Check out our Vrbo tips for owners to learn how to make the most of your vacation rental business.
