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I can’t think of any other meaningful messages that I could write that aren’t a waste of the guest’s time since everything else is “in the system” as pre-booking details, post-booking details (House manual)
I’m a college professor and instructional designer. In instructional design, we have “the rule of 3,” meaning every piece of information is repeated 3 times, using various modes. Since guests are as unlikely as college students to read and grasp information the first time, I repeat almost everything in scheduled messages: Directions, Where to get gas and groceries on the way, How to access house manual and video tour, House rules, Access and address info, and Wifi info.
It’s true for all market verticals. My clients all hear things 3 times via various means of communication. I’m still amazed when I hear “You never said/wrote/emailed/texted me that.” sigh…
If you decide to do this, just discipline yourself to revisit them now and then. Occasionally I look at mine and am unpleasantly surprised by information that no longer applies.
Here is what I have set for 8pm the evening before checkout:
Good evening. Hope you have been enjoying your stay! Just a reminder that check out is tomorrow no later than 11AM. Please be mindful of check out procedures on our listing. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Regards,
It can’t take more than a few seconds to just copy and paste and add the name instead of having an auto message. It would be worth the very minimal effort.
I have automated a series of messages. 1) I send checkin code and check in instructions immediately after booking. 2) 5 minutes later I message local recommendations to a few restaurants and hiking etc. 3) The morning after booking I send driving instructions from the local airports. 5) A week before the guests reservation I send a “looking forward to hosting you in a week” reminder. 6) The day before checking I ask when they plan to arrive and that anytime after 4 is fine. 7) Two days after check in I ask if they would like anything more to make their stay excellent and 5 star worthy. 8) The day before checkout I as them to text me when they depart.
I find that these are all helpful at preventing guests from asking or calling to ask questions and for better communication if a guest is arriving late 11-12pm incase they have trouble locating our home and helps me communicate with cleaners when guests have departed. Some guests love all the communication. Some ignore it. Non have complained about it. Some don’t communicate via the app but will respond to direct text messages. I also send check in instructions to the guests email but they rarely notice that.
Considering the short reading attention span a lot of people seem to have these days, while some hosts may consider all those messages to be too much, I think guests are more likely to pay attention to brief messages concerning one thing at a time, rather than trying to cram all the info into one message.
It’s also easier for them to access. “Okay, where’s the directions to the listing message?”, rather than having to read through a longer message to find the info they need at that point.
Some host’s listings aren’t findable with GPS, nor do their guests have GPS. My guests do not drive to my location, my place is hard to find- they need my hand-drawn map and directions.
Other hosts live places where the route the host suggests is actually faster and has less traffic than what a map app or GPS might suggest.
Hosts may also need to give public transport info- what buses to take, what subway stops to get on or off at.
I have been in the education business as well, and I agree with what you say. But I am not trying to help them pass a test or have top-of-mind knowledge. If they want directions, there is Google maps. Same for gas and groceries. Am I mistaken in thinking this is enough? I have never received feedback that they wished I had provided that information, though I know that they might have those feelings and choose not to communicate it. I do have a guidebook with information on groceries and much else and I often remind them that there is a guidebook and how to find it. I am not saying that you are wrong.
What I have received feedback on informally is difficulty in knowing how to use the oven, the washer, that kind of thing. What I am doing temporarily is providing in the listing the model numbers so that they could Google the manual (though I don’t stay that is why I am communicating the model number) and my work in progress is developing a Q&A for Alexa on an Echo 8 so that they could ask Alexa questions on how to use the appliances and receive the answers with pictures on the Echo 8 to ‘show’ while Alexa tells.
I once arranged with a woman I knew to caravan into Mexico. I was leaving from Vancouver Island, and she was leaving from Seattle, but I was planning to stop along the way and visit friends, so we planned to meet on the US side of the border, in Nogales, on a specific day.
She had never done the drive before, but I had done it several times and told her what route to take. Instead of listening to me, she decided to follow Google maps, which sent her through mountainous, twisty turny terrain, her cat projectile vomiting in its carrier. She arrived half a day late, driving in the dark, when she had assumed she would arrive mid-afternoon and relax.
People have ended up stranded in the desert following Google maps instead of following the directions given to them by those who know what they are talking about.
Of course, I totally agree. We each demonstrate our hospitality style and personality uniquely. I also realize that people don’t always/often say what is on their mind. So some of our guests might feel that they wish that we had provided more information.
This might be a new topic but I have for this very reason considered providing a survey monkey after their stay asking for their feedback. So, I know from my education experience that if I asked them to rate a statement from ‘not at all’ to ‘strongly agree’ on a 1 to 5 scale, on “I received relevant and timely information related to my stay” [with an area permitting a comment] and I didn’t receive a ‘strongly agree’ that I have work to do. My co-host feels that such a questionnaire is intrusive and we haven’t done that though I would love to, and questions wouldn’t be limited to information but also how they rated the amenities and any that were missing.
Guests are already asked a ton of questions when they leave a review. I agree with your co-host. Also if you ask them to fill out a survey, they likely won’t bother to leave a review.
