Bonjour! Well, that’s my best French accent. I just spent a bit of time over in France and I want to give you a couple insights that I learned this week, things that you need to consider for each and every one of your properties. Stay tuned. Let’s jump right in.

Welcome to short-term rental riches. We’ll discuss investing in real estate but with a specific focus on short-term rentals. Quick, Actionable items to Acquire, Manage and Scale your portfolio. I’m your host Tim Hubbard.

Welcome back to the Short-Term Rental Riches podcast. I’m back from a recent trip in Europe stuffed full of croissants. Yes, I ate a lot of croissants. I don’t know if I pronounced, I haven’t yet learned French. It’s on my list to do. We’ll be working on that one sometime in the near future. But I want to talk today about guest expectations. We talk about that a lot. I got caught in the rain when I was over in France. We went out to a nice dinner and we’re sitting there kind of like on an outdoor indoor patio thing and the rain started coming down and we did walk there and we’re close enough to our Airbnb. I was staying there with family. So, it was a really amazing location. It was right at that point where like it would be almost insulting to call an Uber, but it was still a little far to go with the rain pouring down.

So, we made the trek. We went for it. We sort of hid under awnings wherever we could so we didn’t get too wet. I love the architecture in France. Oh my gosh, I got to say it’s one of my favorite cities in the world in terms of architecture. But anyways, we get back to our Airbnb, which did not have an awning and it also had the world’s longest lockbox code.

I’m serious. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a lockbox code as long as this one. This was not an ordinary lockbox. It was actually a digital lockbox to get the key out. And with the rain coming down and touching the digital codes of the lockbox, it was hard to input the code, the incredibly long code. And yep, you guessed it. We got incredibly soaked. Made for a fun experience, right? Definitely not the host’s fault. But I just wanted to bring up a couple of points because a lot of times we don’t really think of this.

A lot of times our guests get caught in the rain, you could say because they headed out from our apartment and maybe they didn’t have good insider information on the city. Maybe they got caught in horrible traffic at certain parts of the day or whatever it happens to be. They didn’t have the insight they need to make the ultimate experience. So, in this situation, of course, having an awning on the property would be really nice if your property is in a place where you get some serious rain or snow and your guests need to check in and it’s a long walkway or something like that. It might take them a little bit of time to get in. If you have an awning or you can add an awning there, well, that certainly helps. Umbrellas are also really nice to have. So, if you’re in a very rainy place, not a bad idea to have a little pot or vase or whatever you would call it with a bunch of umbrellas in there so your guests see them as they go out, right?

So, our entrance is important. And the easier it is for our guests to get in the property, the better it is. I actually left out that before we got to our Airbnb door, there was another common area door which had another digital code. So, it was one digital code to get into the common area, another digital code, the longest one I’ve ever seen in my life to get the actual key out of the door. And then finally we’re inside. So, this host had something going on with codes. They actually had one of those incredibly long Wi-Fi passwords. I’ve seen some long ones in my days, but I’m just going to read this one off because this is still happening out there.

This Wi-Fi password was CJPC5SFV48KMHF3ZSE52. Can you believe that? That’s really long. So, these days we have the ability to make that something special, you know? Like ours, for example, is just relaxing. That’s much easier to remember than that crazy set of numbers. You better believe you’re going to have guests calling you saying that your internet does not work if you have a code like that. We also have the option these days to have a little QR code, depending on what sort of router we’re using, where your guests could just scan it and connect automatically. That makes it really nice. They also have the StayFi routers available if you’re planning on doing marketing. I think we should all be doing marketing for short-term rentals, but that will allow you to collect a lot of emails.

So, I’m always learning from my travels. These are things that I’ve already learned in the rentals, but I just want to bring them up. Remember that the easier it is for your guests to get in, the better. The more you plan for the unexpected or the more you keep your guests aware of what could potentially happen, the better it will be for them. If you’re in a place that gets tropical storms, for example, have a guidebook. We should all have guidebooks we use hostfully, but put a note in there about the weather that you don’t want to get caught in the rain. So, it’s allows us to see the way that other people live, which I think is the most special thing about it. We’re born in these places. A lot of times, a lot of us never leave. Our families are there and we have commitments there, but just getting out and exploring a little bit can really open our eyes up.

So, I hope that gave you just a little bit inside. Change your Wi-Fi password if you haven’t already. Get rid of digital lock boxes if you have one out there and just have a lock on the actual door. Try to have the shortest code possible. Hopefully you’re using a system where you can control those codes remotely. Hopefully you’re using one that just controls them automatically. We use lock states so all of our guests get a unique code just for their reservation and programs automatically. Of course, we do always recommend having a backup lock box just in case a guest has a problem with the digital locks. Take another look at your entrance. If there’s something you might be able to do to improve it, your guests will thank you for it.

So just a real quick short one for you this week. Try to keep your guests from getting caught in the rain. They will thank you for it. Until next time, I hope you have a fabulous week.

Whether you’re just getting started with short-term rentals or you’ve been in the game for a while, one thing remains the same. Your management can make or break your performance. Our team has learned a lot managing thousands of guests. And we put together a handbook just for you with our checklist to cover our exact process. There’s a lot to consider from verifying guests to managing reviews. And you don’t want to miss a step. You can get your free copy by going to restmethods.com. There’s no charge. It’s my gift to you for being one of our loyal subscribers. And I hope it helps you earn higher returns with less headache.