Podcast episode (Boostly S7E2) hosted by Mark Simpson interviewing Sapphire from Wishbox about improving the guest experience for short-stay accommodations. Wishbox was founded by hosts with vacation-rental experience and helps properties worldwide (notably Europe and the US, also Australia and South Africa) automate and improve guest communication. Key advice so far: start communicating well before arrival — confirm bookings, send follow-ups, begin coordinating arrival details, and proactively offer services and information to set expectations.
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Hospitality podcast. My name is Mark Simpson. We are in season seven, episode two and today we're talking about the guest experience. And like every episode of the Boostly podcast, I like to bring in a guest who will help me talk about this subject. I've got Sapphire, who is works at Wishbox, and Wishbox is an awesome company that helps you help and your rental accommodation make the whole guest experience 10 times. So, Sapphire, thank you so much. If you could just go ahead and the floor is yours. So I'm gonna tell a bit about myself and experience of the Wishbox founders. I come from the hospitality world, specifically in hostels, so I used to be in hostel management and marketing management. The founders have also extensive background in hospitality. They actually used to manage vacation rentals. And so the way Wishbox was created was created from deep knowledge within the hospitality industry and essentially just, you know, there was a need, there was a need to communicate better with guests. And so the founders, who know and understand a lot about the vacation rental industry, just decided to go ahead and develop it. What sort of countries around the world are you helping? Is it predominantly in the States or is it more like worldwide? So it's definitely worldwide. It's a fair, I'd say at the moment a lot, a lot of companies in Europe, but definitely also the us. Those are the most prominent countries. We also have companies in Australia and South Africa, so it's definitely all over the world. So this topic is all about the guest experience and the guest experience is key if you want your short stay accommodation business to grow. So the first question that I have for you, Sapphire, is from the point of booking to arrival, what do you think are the most important things that a guest needs to do to set the expectation of the guest before they arrive? So what sort of things do you recommend that they can do? So, first of all, it's very important to start communicating with the guests well before they arrive and well before they contact you to coordinate arrival details, etc. So how many times would you recommend from the point of booking to the guest arriving? How many different forms of communication would you recommend having with the guest to make sure that you are in control? The ideal scenario would be obviously confirming the reservation. Like you said, that's the very first step. But secondly, before the guests arrive, the guest books in advance, so the best thing to do would be to communicate again. Hey, looking forward to having you. And then start, start having a conversation over coordinating the arrival itself, but also already preparing them for the reservation and taking part of the plan. Any different services and information you can offer your guests to enhance their experience, essentially is what you should be focusing on. And that's what we focus on. That's what guests are looking for to have that interaction.
