How to become a Superhost and Boost Your Vacation Rental Bookings

All of us property owners, whether a hotel or short-term vacation rental, want to know how to become a Superhost and all for a good reason. If you’re a Superhost, the top OTAs like Airbnb put your rental on top of their list when guests are looking for accommodations. This is based on your prestige and reputation.

For this reason, a lot of hotels and vacation rental owners want to become a Superhost to boost their vacation rental bookings.

So what does it take to become one? For sure, it takes a lot of hard work and strategizing to achieve that status.  Here are some guidelines to help you become a superhost and when you take them by heart, they will help you succeed.

Accuracy and Honesty

Using the best adjectives might benefit you for a short time. However, if what you include  in your listing description is not true, the truth will soon catch up with you, and you may end up losing more customers than you earn. Disappointed guests  can leave damaging reviews and testimonials that will cause you unrepairable footprint. Don’t be afraid of telling the truth. For example, if there is some construction going on across the street, you can say that it’s a bit noisy at this specific spot of the apartment or room. Guests will appreciate your honesty and prepare upfront.

Aside from descriptions, include high-quality photos but make sure that they accurately show your rental property. Nothing worse than entering a place that does not look anything like what you booked, right?

Neatness

What separates a good rental from a great one is the degree and level of cleanliness each one has. Customers will notice whether your sheets are crisp and clean, whether your sofa has coffee stains or not, or your sink has uncleaned toothpaste stains, or it is spotlessly clean. All of these little things matter, so if you want to boost your vacation rental bookings or become a Superhost, take note of your rental’s cleanliness.

Customer Service Experience

No one explains better how important excellent customer service is in business than author Ken Blanchard. In his book, One Minute Manager, he reads:

“Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.”

And what does excellent customer experience means to your guest?

• You respond quickly to their queries.  Don’t wait for days before you respond to them. A Harvard study reveals that a company who wants to become world-class should respond within 15 minutes or less. As a hotel or vacation rental owner, make sure that there is someone who will assist guests before they book up to the time they leave your place.
• You provide tons of helpful information. Giving your guests instructions – how to get to your place, the cheapest ways to go around the city, what they should expect when they get to your hotel – will not only help them but avoid any problems for you. Plus, they will truly appreciate how you take care of them.

Search Rankings

If you want to increase your bookings, you should pay attention to the search rankings as well. Just like Google, vacation rental sites use an algorithm to rank hotels and vacation rentals. They use a number of criteria to rate properties. Some of these criteria include customer review, responsiveness, accuracy, high booking acceptance rate, rates, and many more.

Gaining global visibility for your rentals becomes much easier with Nuevah’s channel management tool. It connects you with the major vacation portals, such as  Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia, Hotels.com, HomeAway, and Agoda. This means that your visibility online grows bigger with every additional OTA that you are listed on.

Don’t Forget Your Conversions

If you want to boost your vacation rental bookings, you have to make sure that they stay on your site until they book directly. Use your Superhost status to your advantage!

How do you do this?

• Your website should have an instant booking feature, and you can do that with Nuevah’s Booking System. The widget can be easily installed on WP, Joomla or any other website.
• Offer a flexible  cancellation policy to trigger more interest, use a higher rate to compensate for any risk.
• Use engaging headlines on your website and social media postings
• Keep your reviews and feedback top notch throughout all the booking channels, but also social media and google reviews.
• Keep your property photos high-quality and good resolution.

The tips we have shared are usually what the most profitable property owners do. Try incorporating them into your vacation rental business and see if it will truly impact your short-term rental. If you want to know more how to become a Superhost, connect with us, we will help you.