How To Overcome The Fear Of Travelers

Have you ever felt a traveler was even a little bit nervous about making a payment or deposit?

When you sense that vibe, don’t taint the deal by taking it personally. Their uncertainty is just a sign that you haven’t yet fully earned their trust. If you react, rather than respond to their insecurity, it shows a lack of professionalism on your part and breeds further distrust.

Consider the fact that some travelers might be unfamiliar with booking a vacation home. According to HomeAway, 40 percent of Americans say they have never stayed in a vacation rental, so the whole concept could be new to them and they might be concerned about sending someone they don’t know a big stack of money over the web.

Some people just have deep-rooted issues when it comes to trust due to past purchases and relationships, so how do you respond to that?

It’s your job to show customers you can be trusted as early as possible, minimize their skepticism, and hopefully, there is no need for a response.

By the time the traveler has contacted you, there should be a sense of trust already there. That is the goal! If there isn’t, you’ll have to unnecessarily work harder at closing the booking.

Remember, trust is earned, so it’s understandable that people expect to see some proof of this “earned trust,” and when you fail to show them enough “proof” quickly, they become uncertain, which leads to fear.

The truth of the matter is that customers are not always going to vocalize to you that they’re scared to trust you – so even if you are unaware of it, it doesn’t mean customers don’t have trust issues.

People Are Less Trusting These Days. Deal With It!

A study by PEW found that people are a lot less trusting than they once were. In the study, people were asked the question,“Can most people be trusted?”

Only 19% of Millennials said most people can be trusted. These numbers are down over 100% from the baby boomers- 40% of them said most people can be trusted. Trust is a growing concern for Millennials and travelers. How are you dealing with it?

As I will share in our trust series, a traveler’s trust concerns go beyond the fear of just losing their money. In order to truly overcome their fears, you will need to address all of their concerns.

In a previous blog post, I shared with you 5 resources that increase trust. If you missed that you can check that out here.

When issues of trust pop up, you should first look inward for improvements that can be made to better communicate trust to potential guests. You’ll need to ask yourself,  “did I present myself in the best possible way to show I am trustworthy?”

How exactly do you become a more “trusted” source?

To build trust, you’ll need to focus on these 3 key areas:

Reliability: A host can be seen as being reliable by answering inquiries quickly and being thorough and helpful in their responses to guests.

Reliability also means being predictable in your service. Developing brand standards for your vacation rental business can help to convey the reliability of your service to travelers.

If you want to communicate reliability to a potential guest who interacts with you, you should set up proper protocols, systems, and processes. Your process produces predictability. I’m sharing more on how to set up profitable business processes soon, so stay tuned.

Honesty: When writing a description of your vacation rental, be truthful about the property. If the property isn’t a good fit for a certain type of traveler, you should say that in the description.

This type of honesty in your listing description helps travelers feel comfortable with what you’re telling them. Knowing you aren’t just looking for ANY booking you can get is comforting for them.

Honesty means you need to be transparent. Sharing more about yourself and your company will help to create an “openness” that travelers will find refreshing. This will help to bring down their guard.

Competency: Competency is key to cultivating trust. You can effectively express your competence by sharing your knowledge with travelers. By doing so, you show that you know “your stuff” and it makes people feel comfortable in working with you.

Writing blogs that help travelers with tips and secrets will be appreciated and build on your competency. And yes, excellent reviews help to further validate your competence.

Definition of Trust: Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

Look at your property’s presentation, what about it exudes these traits to travelers?

In my next post, I share tips and a neat tool to help you establish trust with your potential guests.

Stay tuned!