Why All Your Airbnbs Should Have A Guidebook | The STRR Podcast #64 | Tim Hubbard

We want to make sure that we answer all of our guest questions before they ask them or before they have to look for a phone number or something like that to make it as convenient for them as possible. That means we need to get as much information to them as easily as possible. I've got one thing I've been doing with all my properties since the beginning and I want to share that with you this week and why I think it's important. Welcome to Short Term Rental Riches. Quick, actionable ideas to help you along your real estate investment journey. But with a specific focus on short term rentals. We've got another topic. As always this week, it's something I've been using in all of my properties since the beginning to help answer guest questions. And that really is the key to everything. We want to answer guest questions, really, before they even have them. We want them to have the best experience possible. And so to do that, to help with that, I've got this one page document that I put in every single property and this week I want to share with you exactly what I have in it and why I think you should have one as well. So let's jump right in. This is basically a one page document and this is a physically printed document. We're not talking about a digital guidebook, which I highly, highly recommend you have. If you haven't yet, go back and check out our podcast on digital guidebooks. But this is a physical paper that I think you should have in your rental with some super, super important information. Now why is it only one page? It's not because I'm super lazy, but really it's just because we don't want to overwhelm someone with a bunch of information written down in the apartment or in our rental or in our vacation rental. And honestly, if you've been doing this for a while, you probably know that a lot of people don't read too much anyways. They look at the photos. So I think by having a one page document, double sided actually, or printed out side by side, it adds valuable information without overwhelming someone. And also, the more properties you add, if you need to edit something on there or something changes, then you got to go back and edit all of them. It's kind of a lot of work. So I just keep it nice and simple. I want to share with you what I've got on there. So it's a one page, but it is front to back or printed out side by side. So on one side I have information for the guests, I have the address. Now People can find this on Airbnb. They can find it on your guidebook. They can find it on whatever OTA or website they use to book. But it's nice to have just a real quick reference if they're ordering food or they're ordering an Uber, and so they don't have to go back and find it again. I have the Internet access instructions right on there in bold. You can't miss it. You know, sometimes people will print this out separately and even frame it and put on the walls where. I think that's a great idea, too. You just want to make sure that they have easy, easy access to that. That'll be in your guidebook as well. We did talk in the past about having the same password for all your properties. If you have a lot of properties by using the same username and password, if the guests have stayed with you before, even if it was at a different property, they're going to log in automatically. So it saves them a step. So make sure you're doing that if you've got multiple properties and you have the ability to change your username password. We have TVs in all of our units and real quick instructions on how to use that. We also have a little note in there that says we don't have cable because we don't have cable television any of our. Any of our rentals, but we do have YouTube, AC and heat instructions. Where's the thermostat located? And how do you use it if it's a complicated one? Now, again, this is like a really basic sheet that we put in the apartment, so we're trying to keep the text down really as small as we can, so we can fit all of this on one page. We also have our house rules on there, or at least our most important ones. Now, if you're using the digital guidebook that we recommend, they've already agreed to those. They've also already agreed to them on Airbnb, if that's the platform that they're using. So this is like the third place that they're seeing them. It's just another friendly reminder. Now, we have a contact on there who they can reach. We have a business phone line that we put down that can go to multiple people. But if you have someone local, whoever it is that they need to reach, it's nice to have that for them there, too. Now, this is probably going to get used more by our older guests, you know, that maybe don't like using the apps and all of that. And I'll tell You where we put these by the way too, so that people, guests don't miss them when they go into our rentals. So we've got our contacts on there getting around. I just put, you know, call Uber. We have Uber available or Lyft in all of the areas where we're at. So but sometimes, you know, there's like a trolley and some of the downtown places we're at. So we've got a few notes on that too. If there's some other form of transportation, you may want to put something about the airport in there, but I don't think that's really necessary. And then also laundry and trash, if there's laundry in the unit where it's located, if there's trash cans outside where they are, if a guest wants to use them. So that's all real basic. And again, I've cut that text down really short. So it's just nice and short and sweet. Now there's a little note at the bottom that says turn this page over. If you've printed it out on one page, double sided or some of our propert, we've got it right on the wall when they enter through the entry door. And so we've got side by side printed out and on the back are my top recommendations. So again, they're gonna have this in their guidebook, they're gonna have it on Airbnb if you've already done it. But this is just one more place to make sure that our guests have access to all the info that they need. But you can also add a little bit of a personal touch here. And we get lots of reviews of people said, I love the restaurant you recommended, I love the cafe you recommended. So let me just break that backside down of this one page document or double sided document. So at the top I've got the closest places to them that I think they may want to go to. It says these are walking distance, less than one mile. Most of my properties are near a lot of entertainment, grocery stores and things like that. Now if you're in a vacation place or it's a little further away, you can still have that same section, the nearest recommendations, but just put in parentheses next to the name each one, either the miles or the time it takes to get there in an Uber. Five minutes away, three minutes away, 1.2 miles or walking distance. And now this top section, this back page is basically broke into like three sections. The top one has my favorite places, but just the name really. Oh, and it also says google it to find the address and also to make sure that it's still open or their hours. So below that heading, it's basically just boom, boom, boom, boom. A bunch of different bullets with the distance or time and the name, so they can check it out for themselves. But I also include in their grocery store, also include in their pharmacy. So that's the top section. The middle section of this back of the page are my top three cafe recommendations. I love working in cafes. You know, I'm like a digital nomad dude. And I. I like going to a nice cafe that has good Internet, it's got a good vibe, it's got good coffee. So I've got just my top three cafes, but I also put a little blurb in there about them. You know, I like this one because of the funky decor or, you know, I like this one because their coffee is amazing or they have this amazing scone or something. You know, just put a little. You can put a little bit of a personal touch in there. And then I do put the full address there and the time it takes to get there. So those three recommendations have a little more detail than that top section. And then lastly at the bottom, I have my top three recommendations in the whole city or in the whole area where my rentals are. And so this is different for each city, obviously, but same thing. I've got the name in there, I've got the address and how far away it is, but then a little sentence of why I love that restaurant. Maybe something like, these are the best tacos you'll ever have. Try their margarita, the one with this or that. You know, something that gives a little personal touch. It really astonishes me how, how many reviews we get back that people say, oh, I loved your recommendation there. And I know not everyone's using our digital guidebook, so the only other place that they could be getting it is here or on Airbnb's guidebook. But I, I know a lot of people actually see this and a lot of it is our kind of older guest probably. But you can't miss these because we put these right in the entrance. So when you walk through the front door, we've got side by side on the wall, laminated, so people don't spill on it or anything like that. And you can't miss it if you can add a little bit of color on there and just kind of dress it up so it's not this stale black and white document that's going to help a it. You might consider putting it on like a coffee table or where Maybe you leave a garage remote or somewhere else. Just somewhere where they're not gonna miss it. And it really, it really does help. It's just one extra step to make sure our guests have the best experience. They have the most information available to them and another way to add a little bit of a personal touch. So if you don't have something like this in your rental, already highly suggest just breaking down this double sided page. I don't think the giant guidebooks are necessary anymore. They're kind of hard to keep up to date. They get spills on them and they're dirty. And especially with COVID you know, you can't really clean them. So not saying it's a bad idea to have one. It's just a little more to keep track of. So in my experience, these have worked just fine alongside the digital guidebook. So if you don't have one, check it out. And until next time, I hope you guys have a wonderful day. As always, want to get on the fast track to financial freedom through short term rentals. Well, it all starts with the properties you acquire. But you want to make sure that you acquire the right properties. I want to give you my ebook that will show you how to do just that. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. Just go to restmethods.com that's R E S T methods dot com.