Stand Out From The Crowd
“Relationship Marketing” is simply trying to use your most valuable resource, your guests, to help you spread the word. We often say “if you simply meet a guest’s expectations” then you have lost a golden opportunity. For most folks is easy to “Meet Their Expectations“, whether they are going to a fast food restaurant, the grocery store or choosing where to stay on a trip. The real key is to find a way to DELIGHT them so you stand out from the crowd and build the loyalty that is so critical to your success. So you look for the little ways to make their stay special. Sometimes its things you provide like offering them a special coffee or providing information about local attractions. But most often its in a caring and thoughtful staff who are seriously interested in your guests experience with you. A sincere interest in learning more about your guests and letting them know how pleased you are that they choose to stay with you. By setting yourself up as a special place for them, not only are you well on your way to earning their loyalty, but you also have the opportunity to reach through them to others in their circle of friends and family. Even better by taking that extra step you make it all so much more likely that they will report on their delightful experience by writing a great review.
Inquiries
Handling Inquiries: You use a variety of advertising services and many of them will send you inquiries from potential guests. The question is do you see all of them? Do some go into your spam folder? How quickly do you respond? It’s a simple rule of thumb that, the quicker you get back to potential guests with interesting information the more likely you are to get a booking. Especially in the vacation rental world where a potential guest may be sending out similar inquires to a host of other properties. With MakeRez there is a response in your potential guests hands within five minutes of them sending in the original inquiry. That’s a timeline that will be hard for others to compete. You may not be able to answer their questions immediately, but you can certainly provide them with compelling information why staying with you is their best choice.
Confirmation
As part of the reservation process, a confirmation email is sent that lets your guest know that their reservation has been made. The confirmation includes the specifics of the booking and asks the guest to review and let you know about any corrections. And don't forget to thank them for choosing to stay with you. Its also a great time to re-introduce them to your amenities and let them know about any special offers they might want to take advantage of.
Contract
After the payment details have been set, the contract email can be sent detailing the terms and conditions, which the guest should already have reviewed. But it gives them one more chance to understand them and ask any questions. This is a great place to detail the cancellation charges with a link to the right page/section on your website. The contract email also contains these payment details. All which helps to avoid questions and confusion later on.
Welcome
Automatically sent during the nightly processing, the welcome email is a perfect place to let your guest know that your glad they will be staying with you. It should also provide directions from all points of the compass on how to get to the property. Its a natural place to provide information about what is going on in the area. A great place to provide them with a rich attachment about your property and ask them to share it with friends and family.
Thank You
Automatically sent during the nightly processing,this is a great opportunity to thank your guest for staying with you,and provide them with an easy way to review you. A great place to provide them with a rich attachment about your property and ask them to share it with friends and family.
Cancellation
Cancellation are always a problem. Valuable space has been taken up on your calendar and you may of actually had to turn people away for those dates. makeRez will automatically notify reservations on either side of the cancellation that there is now space available for them for additional days. Folks who you have put on the makeRez wait list for nearby days are also notified. Perhaps a special offer may be in order.
Extend A Stay
Automatically sent during the nightly processing, this is typically done around 10 days before a guest arrives. An extend a stay email is sent to a guest when there are day(s) available in their room either before or after their reservation. This is a great time to make them a special offer to encourage them to extend their stay.
Reminder
Automatically sent during the nightly processing, a few months before the anniversary of their last stay, a reminder email will raise the visibility of your property and let guests know about new things to do in the area. This is also a good place to make a frequent stayer offer.
Inquiry Reminder
Automatically sent during the nightly processing, and contacts folks who never converted their inquiry into a booking, make them a special offer to bring them back. Typically done 2-8 months after the inquiry. May can be done several times.
Recontact
Automatically sent during the nightly processing. When potential guest is put on the recontact list, makeRez will automatically will send additional emails at set intervals to try to re-open the door to them making a reservation.
Custom Emails
Whether its making a special offer to folks from Tennessee to come in January, or reconnecting with guests who made a reservation and then had to cancel, custom emails can do the job. There are many possibilities! makeRez has the ability to slice and dice your guests based on their demographics, when they visited, or their presence on a variety of "workflow" lists.
Daily Emails
Send daily information about what’s going on. Let folks know about the weather that is coming up, special events and links to popular actvities around town.
One place that really can start to make that difference is in how you communicate with your guests and that’s where makeRez really shines. It uses a combination of automated and event driven processes to send out rich messages that will engage, educate and inform your guests. One of the most powerful features is to provide your guests with a rich attachment that they are asked to pass on to their friends and family.