The vacation rental industry continues to grow at an impressive rate. The trend continues to give new and experienced property owners alike exciting opportunities to grow their business. As travelers look for more customized options when it comes to vacation accommodations, there are some common mistakes made by property owners that can be easily avoided. Doing so will help you provide your guests with a more memorable stay with every booking, while expanding your business as a well-trusted vacation home in the area. Our Pocono rental management tips below can help.
Not Investing in Quality Appliances and Finishes
It can be tempting to invest in lower-cost appliances and finishes throughout a vacation rental when you’re trying hard to stay on budget. However, this turns out to be a big mistake time and again as your bookings increase and foot traffic through your home leads to faster general wear and tear. Investing in quality countertops, durable flooring, and state-of-the-art appliances throughout your property upfront is a great way to save money in the long run as these features last longer and require fewer repairs and replacements along the way. It’s also a good move when ensuring your guests receive the best hospitality experience possible. The inclusion of high-end features often leads to great reviews and return guests over time.
Skipping Staging and Professional Photos of Your Property
Another way vacation rental property owners often try to cut down on overall expenses is attempting to take marketing photos of their home themselves instead of investing in professional photography. This leads to less-than-polished listings that don’t catch the eye of all your potential guests and often miss highlighting the features and amenities that make your property one-of-a-kind. If you want to stay ahead of the crowd in a competitive marketplace, it’s important to have a professional photographer capture your home’s best angles, features, and amenities in every season of the year. A trained professional will know how to photograph your home in a way that reaches a wider audience of prospective guests, ultimately increasing your occupancy rates year-over-year.
Overlooking Regular Maintenance Schedules
As your business grows, it’s important to not overlook more frequent maintenance schedules. The once or twice a year run-through that might have worked well initially won’t be able to keep pace with wear and tear over time in your home as your bookings increase. Making sure to enhance your maintenance and cleaning standards in tandem with your growing business is must when it comes to keeping the highest standards of health and safety in place for your guests at all times.
Not Being Immediately Available to Guests
Managing a vacation rental business on your own is certainly a massive time investment, but no matter how busy things get, customer service absolutely can’t slip from the top of the priority list. Even the most beautiful vacation rental on the market will inevitably end up with terrible reviews and a steep drop in bookings if your guests can immediately access you when they have questions, inquiries, or concerns. Travelers deserve to know exactly who to go to when questions arise during their stay, and as the property owner, you need to be available to them day and night. If this isn’t a possibility in your personal schedule, partnering with a property management team is a great way to ensure that top-notch customer care is part of the experience you’re offering guests at all times.
Limiting Marketing Platform Exposure
Online exposure is vital to ensuring that your vacation rental is getting seen by the widest audience of prospective guests possible. Far too often, property owners fail to list their rental on enough major platforms to reach the travelers they need to grow their business. It’s extremely important to not limit your home’s listing to a single site, but to expand your options and invest in making sure your property has a place on a wide variety of rental sites that speak to niche audiences from near and far.
Being Hesitant to Ask for Reviews
Many property owners fail to ask their guests for reviews in fear of finding out the experience wasn’t what they expected or seeing negative feedback come their way. However, asking for feedback is vital to growing a successful business as it not only pinpoints areas of growth to focus on, but lets you know what guests are loving too! Consider leaving a comment card right in the rental and following up with a request for an online review too. As you make improvements to your property, you’ll find positive online reviews only lead to more bookings and your secured place in the community as a trusted hospitality provider.
Reach Out to Pocono Mountain Rentals Today to Learn More
When you’re ready to see just how much potential your vacation rental really has, reach out to the team at Pocono Mountain Rentals to learn more about our comprehensive property management services offered in the area. We know exactly what it takes to help you maximize your return on investment while providing your guests with the truly exceptional getaway experiences they deserve. Reach out today to learn more about our approach to successful Pocono property management and to get started!
