Airbnb Guest Experience

Airbnb Messages to Send to Guests During Their Stay

Your guests have already checked in, so there’s no need to keep in contact with them, right? Not so fast. Failing to communicate with your guests during their stay means you don’t have the chance to address issues, which can then be recounted in negative reviews. Use the following in-stay communication strategies to enhance the guest experience, rack up five-star reviews, and bring in more direct bookings.

by Hospitable

How to Communicate With Guests During Their Stay

Guests appreciate attentive hosts, and attentive hosts make a point of finding a healthy balance between reaching out to guests during their stay and allowing them to enjoy their vacation in peace. It’s this balance that will set you apart as a host and have guests recommending you to their friends and visiting year after year. 

There are multiple times you should be reaching out to guests after they check in and before they check out. 

The following guidelines will show you exactly how to manage in-stay communication to create the best guest experience possible. 

Check In With Guests on the First Morning After Arrival

Your guests just checked in, and you want to let them enjoy their vacation — after all, it has only just started. But checking in with guests the morning after they arrive to gauge their first impressions of your property is incredibly important. 

Some guests may not think to reach out directly to you if they had a small problem with the property when they arrived. Maybe there was a dirty towel on the floor or a stain on the counter. Get this information from your guests instead of letting them complain about it in a bad review

This allows you to apologize for whatever they complained about and offer solutions or fixes if necessary and helps to develop a positive rapport with your guest while showing you care.  

Make Emergency Contacts Clear

Always be sure to let your guests know how they can reach you and in what instances they should get in touch with you in an emergency. It’s important to set those guidelines and boundaries, as what appears to be an emergency to a guest may seem more like a minor inconvenience to you. 

Sharing emergency contacts with guests is especially important if you don’t live in the area. Be sure your guests know who to reach in case something happens and you aren’t able to respond to the situation yourself. 

Check In With Guests Throughout Their Stay

If a guest is just staying with you for a weekend or so, it’s not necessary to check in with them various times throughout their stay (this would be the vacation rental equivalent of a waiter passing by your table to ask “How is everything?” ten times over the course of an hour-long meal). 

However, if your guest is staying with you for more than a week, send messages at least once a week to make sure everything is going well and they’re still pleased with your property.

Just like the message you send on the morning after check-in, touching base with guests throughout long stays helps you to reduce the risk of negative reviews by addressing these issues as they occur.

This is also an opportunity to offer upsells, like additional cleaning services and replacement linens, to guests who are staying for an extended period of time. 

Upsell Additional Services

Aside from the occasional message to touch base, there are some other compelling reasons to keep in touch with guests during their stay: upsells. If you advertise all your upsells in your listing or a pre-check-in message, there’s no way your guests are going to remember or take advantage of them. 

You should personalize your upsells so they’re relevant to your guest (you should have gotten to know your guest during the pre-stay communication phase). 

If your guests are a young couple with children, offer babysitting or other child-friendly services. Perhaps your guests flew in from out of town. Offer them the option to hire transportation services to take them to the airport when they leave. 

You can also offer general upsells, like late check-out and extended stays. Offering guests the option to stay an extra day at a discounted price is a great way to fill in gaps in your booking calendar, which helps you bring in more revenue while giving guests the chance to enjoy their vacation for even longer. 

The key here is to find a good balance between accommodating and overbearing. Make your guests aware of upsells that could be of interest to them without overwhelming or annoying them. A good way to do this is by sending all relevant upsells in one or two concise and informative messages instead of sharing them over the span of their stay. 

Send a Thank You Message the Night Before Check-Out

Your final communication with a guest before they check out should be the night before they leave. Send your guests a message the night prior to check-out to thank them for their stay. 

You can also use this as an opportunity to remind them of check-out times and inform them of anything they need to do before they leave (Do they need to take out the trash? Where should they leave the keys?). 

Finally, be sure to ask how their stay went. This is your last opportunity to smooth out any issues they may have had instead of being surprised when you find them in a review. 

Keep in Touch With Your Guests During Their Stay — They Will Thank You for It

In-stay communication doesn’t only keep Airbnb guests happy. It ups your chances of a glowing 5-star review and direct bookings in the future.

With the right balance between being attentive and allowing your guests to enjoy their stay, you’ll be able to market upsells and address problems before they end up in a negative review. All the more reason to make in-stay communication a priority for your short-term rental business.