Maximize Your STR Guest Experience with Tyann Marcink-Hammond of Touch Stay

Well, welcome back, everyone, to the Short Term Rental Riches podcast. I'm happy you're here again. And I've got another special episode for you all. Another special guest. Today we have Tyan Marsink Hammond, officially known as the queen of guest experience for Touchstay. Welcome to the show, Tyan.

Thank you, Tim. Really appreciate you guys having me here.

Yeah, we're excited and I'm excited to have a queen of guest experience on the show. This is the first for us royalty, so we can dig into this a whole bunch of different ways. I know you've been in the industry since 2007, which is about as early as you can go, you know, I mean, Airbnb started what, in 2008 or something like that.

It did. It did. Yeah. When I started, my first listing was vrbo and everyone had you. Every listing was manually looked at by them and it was a holiday weekend, so it took three days for my listing to appear. On top of that, if you wanted to upload photos digitally, you could, but at that time, most people actually mailed physical photos.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, it's literally like very much like Craigslist. And Craigslist was a platform that you used as well to market. So very, very different than what it is today. What's really interesting, though, is back then, you know, I took most payments by check, and now we've switched with this. Now we're doing more and more checks as well. So it's. It's kind of fun seeing some things around.

Yeah, interesting, interesting. Well, I know you have your own short term rentals that sound really unique and I want to, I want to chat with you about those. But before we do, you're with touchstay, and so can you give our audience just a little brief background about Touchstay and what. And how you work with them? For those of you, those of you out there that don't already know Touch Day.

So Touch Day is a digital guidebook, basically. Think about that manual that you've got in the three ring binder back at your property that talks about the property. It might have coffee stains, kid boogers, a little bit of spaghetti sauce on it. And you really don't feel like making it fresh and new every single time you turn the house, because that is a little difficult. And sometimes guests even put it in a place where it's safe, safe out of the hands of kids as well. And then your cleaning crew has to go hunt it down too, because it's got really good, important information for your guests about the Property, about the area, information, safety things, house rules, things like that. But what touchday is, is the digital version of it that you can actually send to your guest as soon as they book. So they have the information on their phone, they access it by any device, any web browser. All you're doing is sending them a special link to them, and then they can have that information ahead of time. So that means your guests that are the huge planners, like, we have big family reunions right now. We're booking groups of 50 to 80 people or more. And that digital guide book is so important for them to figure out. Where are people going to sleep? What are the house rules? What's the safety information? What are the things they're going to do in the area? And they're planning all of this out. So you've got your planners and then you've got the folks that, oh, about a week or two ahead of time, they start looking at the types of things. But they do want to book things, they do want to know about the property. It's right there waiting for them. And then you have the travelers like me who rock up, already on my way and wait a second, what was that address again? Oh, yeah, I'm at the door. What's the lock code again? And your, your Touch Day digital guidebook, you have sent it to them. It's on their phone. They can access it easily. They know what to do. And it really, really helps, too, to set expectations so that they know what are the quirks of the house, what do they do in case of emergency. But the key is, with a digital guidebook, whether it's Touch Day or some other way that you're doing it, you definitely need to communicate to guests why they need to open it. So, for example, I know, Tim, I told you, I've got several properties, been doing this for 17 years. In my 18th year now, and I was that hobby host who would forget to tell my guests the code. And they'd be calling me, literally standing on my doorstep saying it's, hi, how do I get into the house?

What it does. Touch Day also has memo where I can send triggered texts and emails and give my guests the information with the right method at the right time, and direct people exactly what they need and to do and what they need to know and just increases their guest experience so they have better time, they want to spend more money with me, they're buying more things, they're adding more nights and increases my reviews, too. So. So it's a major impact on not just my Profitability, but also on the time I spend managing my guests because it cuts out so many over and over repeated questions again and again because I'm answering those questions before they even ask them.

Yep, that's. That's the name of the game, isn't it?

Yeah, exactly.

That is the name of the game. And yes, things have changed a lot over the years and. And so have people's patience levels or their attention spans, I guess you can say. And so we know we send stuff out to our guests all the time. And there's the people that study up, and then there's people like myself and sounds like you that do it very last minute, you know, before we get to the door. So what are some ways, maybe you mentioned we can send via text and email, but what's maybe the timing that someone might want to get this information out in front of their guests? Or do you have like a sequence, a preferred sequence that you might recommend?

I do, actually. If you go to my website, so tyenmarcing.com forward/, blog, you'll find my entire communication flow for my big houses. And we're at about 25 different touch points. So between text, email, physical card, we actually call them after arrival. Now, 25 sounds overwhelming. We don't do that many for our other brand of properties in historical wine country and Missouri. Missouri, that's less. It's a different target guest, it's a different booking window. But you, the key is, is number one, you need to send more than two messages. So last year, Touch Day did a guest communication study and found that over two thirds of guests are receiving two or fewer messages, and that's not enough. And when once we correlated how many messages and communications that guests are receiving to the amount of money they're spending, once you hit three or more, they're spending more money with you. When you hit six or more, the amount of money they're spending with you even doubles. So between extending stays, they're adding upsells, things like that. So more communication actually means you're also doing less. So what I tell folks is one, you want to send them information right away upon booking, and then you want to send it again. Depending upon the booking window, it might be 30 days out, it might be 10 days out. Definitely want to send it again about three to five days out, and then I would send it again the day before or the day of. And one of the things we do is I time my messages according to what they're doing in their planning phase. Since I've been around so long. And I've looked back at reviews, I looked back at questions. What questions are they asking me? When are they asking me this? And I time things to when my guests are wanting the information. And I only send a little bit of information at a time, answering one or two questions at a time and always sending them back to my touchday digital guidebook, but throwing in fun things too. So like two days before arrival, they get a text saying, we're really excited about your road trip to come see us. Here is our road trip playlist and we have a Spotify playlist embedded in our, in our Touch day guidebook that they go see. They enjoy it, they've got music for their drive, it's fantastic. And then one other thing, Tim, is the type, the method of the message that you're sending is. We found in the guest communication study that guests want emails and then when it's close to the arrival and during their stay, they want text messages because nobody wants to check email while they're on vacation. And then afterwards they want to switch back to email. So it's really interesting, you know, listening to what it is your guest and traveler wants and when they want it and how they want it.

Great, great insights and some great tips and nuggets in there. You've gotta, you gotta live up to that name, don't you Diane, that queen of. But you've gotta figure it out. You know, it really. Timing is a huge thing. The method of the message is a big thing. So sending text message closer to the check in. I like that. I'm curious your thoughts on. So it sounds like some of your properties are really large. You have really large groups coming. Maybe what touchday has found in terms of a lot of our audience, it's across the board, right. We've got a lot of people tuning in that have really large homes. And then we have a lot of people tuning in that maybe have small like urban apartments and they have business travelers coming. What would you say to the differences between the type of guests and maybe the way someone might want to change their guidebook or maybe change their communications depending on, you know, that maybe that business traveler versus the vacation traveler.

Sure. So for our business travelers and our other brands, we do more texting than email. And because one, they're booking very close to this day, sometimes the day before or the day of arrival and when they're already on the move, we know that text messages are going to the best thing. I believe studies have found that text messages are opened usually within 90 seconds. And they're probably 98% of them are opened as well. So it's real important to send that information. Also, the way you word your messages is really important, especially with text messages, and I would say, of course, emails also, because a lot of people are reading them on their mobile devices. So think of it as, do you want to send your guests in a giant wall of text that they're going to not be able to read past a line or two and then they're going to give up because their brain says, I do not want to process this right now. Or are you going to send them one or two sentences at a time? If not, if you're going to be a longer message, you want to do that, hit that return sharp return button, put some space in there. That way their brain can process it better. And when you send messages, one to two calls to actions at the most, I try to keep every message to only a single single call to action, the most important one. This way they are not having to process a ton of information, but I am also always sending them back to the digital guidebook. So for instance, we have a message that says, hey, it's really great. All the formalities are out of the way. Now it's time to have some fun. Here is our tips for the shows and attractions. If you want to buy tickets, click here for more information. And then that directs them back to the guidebook with all the information and how to access our concierge service and everything.

I love it. I love it. Great insights again.

So in in Touch Day, you guys have the ability to include these other services and potential upsells and things as well. Can, can you talk about that part or how you're going about upselling reservations?

Yeah. So Touch Day has all kinds of different things you can actually embed into it. So Touch Day, think of it as anything you put in a PDF or Word document you can actually put into a touchstay guide. So you can even embed Google forms, jotforms, the playlists that I mentioned, all kinds of photos, videos, and then you can link out as well. So for instance, I do a charcuterie board on arrival that guests can order. So five days before arrival, and this is for both the business travelers and for the vacation travelers, they get a text saying, hey, if you'd like to order a charcuterie board to have on arrival, when you guys get there at the house, you've got the next two days to order it, here's a link. And that link goes directly into my TouchStay guidebook. There's a JOT form in there that has, you know, the size they can choose. I've already got it set up that they'll pay for delivery. They can easily buy it with their credit card or PayPal. Their stripe jotform has all kinds of different payment options so that you're not having to have on accounting, yet another payment option. You can probably find what you already use and then all you can have that process go through. So there's all kinds of different ways you can do upsells. It's touchstay is just, it's. Yes, there's a structure, but it is so flexible in a way that you can be creative and do all kinds of different things with it. For instance, I actually have my integration with my pms, my property management software to where guest details flow into my guidebook. So it has their name, it has personalization, it has their check in and checkout time. It has all these different bits that says, hey, you're my guest. I know you, I'm expecting you, I'm welcoming you already. And I'm using the most important word to that guest, which is their name.

I love it. Great, great insights and great to know that TouchStay integrates with, I'm sure, quite a lot of PMS systems out there. These.

All helping to make the guest experience that much better.

I love it.

Okay, so for the newbies out there that maybe don't have a digital guidebook yet, or maybe they've got one or they're looking to get one, what would you say are like some of the most important things? Well, let's do this. What would you say people are leaving out most of the time that maybe they might want to include? Are there any things that come to mind?

Yeah, so what? So when you sign up for Touch Day, we actually start you with a template with pre written content so you're not looking at a blank page. So you don't, you're not looking at me like, oh my gosh, what did I leave out? What did I forget to tell my guests? That's super important because we've got the structure there that you can then put your own info in, change it up, add to it as well. I think one of the things that people forget to put in there is that they forget to think about the three most important, most asked questions that their guests ask you. So it could be different for you, Tim, than for me, especially with your properties like say in Brazil or in Colombia, you know, your guest especially If I was a guest coming from the US to come stay at your property, there's questions that I want to know. Like, okay, what do I need to do about money? Is, is it cashless? Do I need to, you know, bring cash with me? Is there. What's a safe place to get cash while I'm there? What's transportation like? You know, those might be those types of questions that are super important to your guest. Whereas my guest, it's like, okay, are there any best stops for our road trip down, you know, Route 66 to get to your place? And I'm like, yes, you have to stop at Uranus, because the best fudge comes from Uranus. And then you got to go in there and yes, you have to laugh at all the really funny jokes using the word Uranus and kid and fudge and I mean, just total. Have a blast. So, you know, you have to think about what is it, your target guest, what your traveler is wanting to know, and then make sure you've got it in your guidebook. So it's. It's one of those things is okay, yes, we start you with a template, your structure, so you're not having to really think hard. But the cool thing about Touch Day, too, is that you can get it started and be sending it to your guests within an hour. I mean, it's that easy. We make sure everything is the kiss method. Keep it super simple, and then you're always wanting to update it. Get an idea. We've got a secret Facebook group called the Touch Day rock stars and folks are in there sharing their guidebooks and ideas where, you know, I've swiped a couple ideas from other folks. Like, I have a welcome letter to my guests, but I also have a doggy welcome letter telling the doggies. Okay, you know, tell your person XYZ while you're at our house. So there's all these different things you can get from other creative minds that are in. In the group. And the cool thing, as I said with Touch Day is anything you can think of, you can practically do. So TouchStay is not just a property guide house manual. You can. We also use it as a guide for standard property appearance for our cleaning and maintenance. I also have one that is our team field guide. So for instance, it has all our backup lockbox codes. It has all the information about the utilities and emerg emergencies and our maintenance. It has the wi fi networks and codes for when we need to troubleshoot something. I mean, we also have a guide about our property management services. So when someone says, hey, we're super interested in you managing for us. I can send them that guide that talks about expectations and ROI and our services and all our houses. There's all kinds of different things that, that you can do. A lead generation guide. So when you go to my website, you'll get a pop up that says, hey, do you want our guide to free things to do in the area? Just, just give us your email address. So I get their email address, they get our guide. Really great trade. So when you're looking at starting, it doesn't matter if you've got one property or a thousand properties or anywhere in between. It's something that I do warn you though. It's very addicting. It's so fun.

Great tip, Stan. Really, really great points there too. I mean, knowing who our guest avatar is is essential, right? And a lot of creative ways to find out more information about that. Now, I mean, we're in the digital age. We have lots of ways we can, we can research, but really monitoring the feedback from our guests, the way they send the messages, when they send them, picking up on all those little cues that you mentioned, I think is one of those key components to just great hospitality.

Let's see. So we're in the digital age. We've got all these cool tools. We can do a ton with Touch Day and really boost our hospitality is what it comes down. Then we get better reviews and then that helps our property. We at the end of the day have higher revenues. We sort of, well, we're not doing that much written anymore, are we? How necessary do you think it is to still have a guidebook printed out in the property or some printed information?

So we stopped printing the whole manual. Gosh, years ago I even went down to, okay, I'm just going to print the things that aren't going to change about the house and then made a little book of that. And then after that I'm like, why am I even doing this? So now we are, we have a one page. It is laminated and it is on a magnet on the fridge where everybody goes so they can see it. And this page has the most important information. So number one, emergency information. So calling us and calling emergency services, right under that is the address of the house because you cannot expect every single guest to remember the address of the house in case of an emergency. So this is part of that safety thing. And then next to that is the QR guide or QR code to our Touch Day guide. So it says to find out more information about the house, our favorite restaurants, things to do, just scan here and they can scan that code and access it right away. And then at the bottom is our checkout instructions. Super simple, just a couple to do. But it's also putting it right there in front of everybody so that when mom tells her teenagers, hey, we need to do checkout, can you check what it is? You know, the name the teenager who has been at the fridge how many times that day, plus a couple times at night has seen it. It's there. They can't say, Mom, I don't know. She's like, it's on the fridge. And they can go look and they can take care of. Oh, yeah, I need to take my trash out from my bathroom and pick up the 10 bazillion water bottles I have all over my room. So it's no experience whatsoever with my teenage boys. Not that I know that, but it's. It's the thing of, again, understanding who your guest is, where they're going for the information, and then you're communicating it in the way that they can best understand. And then, Tim, you mentioned, you know, people are going away from the written. I would say yes and no. So in Touch Day, yes, you have written, but you can also do videos and photos. And we highly recommend putting videos in there with the text as well. That way, photos or people who their brains process by written word is. It's there for them. And those people who like to process things by video, it's there for them. So, for instance, when I read instructions, I want to read my husband, on the other hand, he wants a video because his brain processes it that way a lot better. So with Touch Day, you can do both things and hit the different ways that people like to communicate.

Great stuff, Tan lots of good tips. And I think one of the nice things, too, is that these things are pretty easy to do. I mean, like, we record a little video and it can be really personal. I mean, our phones record amazing videos these days and we can add really nice touches to our stays. No, no pun intended.

So I love that. I love the one pager. We. We also do that with the one pager and the fridge. Great location. Pretty much everyone sees the fridge, right? Unless they're. They're dining out every meal of the day. So good stuff there. So Touch Day, before we end, we'll. We'll make sure everyone knows where to find out more about you and Touch Day and all that good stuff. But I want to chat about your properties real quick. And I love that you have properties and are working within the company as well because you have that hands on experience. Right. And things are changing. They are different, very different from when you started in 2007. So can you tell us a little bit about your brands and your short term rentals?

Yeah. So I've got my big houses down in Branson, Missouri at Table Rock Lake. Like I said earlier, I started 2019, 2007. I signed the contract at I was seven months pregnant at the water park saying yeah, we want to build a house and had my baby and two months later set up a four bedroom house in five days with a two month old on my hip. And the first guest came an hour after we were finished. So that means I am one of those people that will list dirt. So I am very much. You tell the story, you market you. I try to have at least 30 to $50,000 in bookings before a house is even finished and actually ready. So I've taken that and gone forward with it as I established my other brands. I ended up with a drug house for one house. Had to get rid of the druggies, rehab the house and turned it into that town's very first short term rental. And then I had some money burning in my a hole in my pocket. So I decided to buy a bank. This bank is the only bank you can legally launder in the Ozarks. It was a 1902 bank building with two original vaults and I rehabbed it into a four bedroom, two and a half bath vacation rental. It sits in Missouri Wine country. And you can come ride the Katy Trail, the longest rails to trails in the country at 237 miles. And you come stay with us. Visit wine country, the first dedicated wine country in the United States States there in Augusta, Napa Valley was number two. Just so you know, for your little bit of trivia. And then we started to grow in Branson. So we've got where we're at 14 large houses down in Branson and I believe we're at nine in wine country. I live by wine country. So I'm also. I started out as a remote host, learned how to do it that way. I treat everything as a remote host. We've got two teams. Well, I say two teams, but it's me, my husband, his daughter and her husband, the four of us to manage all these properties. And then we got boots on the grounds with cleaners on each of them. So going and knowing all the struggles of raising three small children while you're hosting and growing and then later becoming boutique property. Management and working with family, not killing your husband and making it through high season. So it's. It's a lot of fun. One of my favorite things this summer we decided to do was hand deliver donuts to guests after arrival. And the number of literal hugs and stories we get from our guests, it just. It fills my heart up. And I'm like, this is what I want to do. This is what I am doing. I'm so glad I'm doing it. And then when you get those guests that aren't your favorite guest, I remember. And I look back. Donuts. Donuts, Donuts. Tyenn Donuts. Okay.

Wow. You certainly have your hands full, and you have for a long time. It's awesome. So kudos to you for everything that you've accomplished. And it sounds like your brands are amazing.

You mentioned some interesting things there. One thing, getting reservations, for example, before the property's even complete. That is an interesting one because I know, you know, from my personal experience, construction timelines aren't always on time. Can you just elaborate a little bit more on that and how you kind of make sure you're not.

Let'S see.

Renting the property out before it's ready, I guess.

Yeah. So it is tough, especially when you're dealing with construction. And so what we do is we look at who our target guest is, what kind of booking window that is, what is the demand? Where is construction supposed to be finished? When can we actually get in and set up? How's it gonna. How long is it going to take to set up? Because, you know, all those logistics of everything is like, oh, it just. It's a lot. And so what I do is one, especially in Branson, is I make sure that calendars open, but doesn't start opening until I am 100% positive that it's going to be ready. So, for instance, our latest houses were built. They were finished last summer, and they were supposed to be done by June 30th. That is what the con we were told we were promised. And that is right smack in the middle of high season, right before the holiday. And so I said, you know what? We're opening the calendar from August 1st on July will be a maybe, because we're not going to book something without knowing 100% we can have a guest. And then I went ahead and listed them in the spring because people are going to start looking a lot earlier. So, for instance, right now we're actually booking summer 2025, because I know that's what my target guest is looking at and booking. So they need to have that availability so that they're going to find this. And then as people inquired, we can let them know, hey, it's, it's not going to be ready. That we know of 100% for sure. If you want to wait, then, you know, keep us on your call list or we can put you down and let you know if it's going to open up. And then as the time gets closer and we, we know when things will be done, we can start opening the calendar a little bit more. A little bit more. So there is that, you know, watching, waiting, being aware of who your guest is. Because I wanted to capture the next summer's guest already and plant the seed. And hey, here's a cool new house. Here's what's going to look like. Let's make sure our family knows about it so we can consider that one too. Whereas the immediate ones, for that very close time in July, I'm like, no, not going to book yet. Not until it's open, open. And then once we know the moment, it's okay, we know for sure on Friday we'll be able to have access. Then I can open up the cat the calendar more.

So good planning and knowing your guests avatars again. Knowing the booking windows. Yeah, if you're, you know, larger homes very often have the bigger, longer booking windows. Right. So great stuff there, Tan. Gosh, I wish our episodes were normally like three hours so we could just keep chatting. But, but they're typically pretty short. So I've got one more question for you and then we'll make sure everyone knows where to find you and to learn from you because you're full of wisdom. The name of the podcast is called Short Term Rental Riches. And a lot of times when people hear the word riches, they think of finances and that's the only thing they think about. But we know that life is more than just finances. So curious if you have anything in your life that you've changed recently. Maybe a new habit or something new in your life that's enriched your life, but in a non financial way.

Yeah. So this last year I got connected with a community, a community of women who are badasses. So we call ourselves the House of Baddies. And we aren't local at all. We're from all over the country and we all have that same drive and leadership and love for people that we've all connected. We've got all different personalities. But having that community that I can go to with these women who just understand where I'M at in life and who are a huge support of each other. It's just. It's amazing to have that. So I encourage anyone, whether you're coming, you find your community, Is it local, is it more family, is it others that you've connected with online or through your travels? But having that community to help you emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually, all of that is so important.

Awesome. I love it. Fantastic advice. Okay, well, we talked about a lot. So we talked about Touch Day and what has made you the queen of hospitality. And you had some really good nuggets in there. It's understanding our guests. You talked about timing with our messages, which is crucial. All the amazing things that we can do with Touch Day. How can people find out more about you? And if they're interested in learning more about Touch Day, where's the best place to go?

Okay, so for Touch Day, you're gonna go to touchstay.com free trial. Sign up when you're ready to convert over. To sign up for a subscription, use the code Queen. Just Q U E E N Queen. Let that'll let them know that I sent you over and you get a discount on your first year or the first month, whatever you guys sign up for. So touchday.com on socials, Instagram's Touch Day. Welcome. Facebook, I think is at Touch Day. So is Twitter. Me personally, I am at Diane Marsink at all of the socials. So Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, all of that. You can also find my properties on Instagram and Facebook, at Branson family retreats and then at Missouri House. That's the German spelling, H A, U s. And then of course my website, tiamarsync.com and you can see my total tech stack tools. My press, all my information there. And then my properties are at bransonfamilyretreats.com and missourihouse.com would love to have you guys.

Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Diane and I look forward to staying connected.

All right, thank you, Tim.

Take care. I've dedicated years figuring out how to manage my personal portfolio remotely. And it wasn't always easy and it took a long time. But now my amazing team can professionally manage my properties without me. And good news, our team can also manage yours. Let us save you the stress and headaches and some money by offering you an industry low fee. To find out more about partnering with us, head to Strike. Hit the property management button, answer a couple quick questions and meet with me personally. That's strriches.com rest easy knowing that with my team. Your properties will be in excellent hands.