( Direct link to video http://youtu.be/-yDBPQSHjFI )
Take The Vacation Rental Inquiry Challenge!
I’m always talking with vacation rental owners and the conversation usually has to do with increasing their bookings. But what if I told you that you’re letting the bookings you could be making slip through your fingers?
We used to hear from HomeAway that responding to your inquiries within 24 hours greatly increases the chances of the traveler booking your property.
Unfortunately, this has given the idea that responding to inquiries within a 24 hour period is acceptable….. it’s not folks!
Have you ever received that inquiry and your thought was “ I’m done for the day, I’ll have to get to it tomorrow” ? Been there?
I’ve been guilty of this one myself, so I’m not judging. I just hope I can make you feel a little guilty the next time you leave a traveler waiting too long for you to get back to them. (wink)
I think when you know how it really is affecting us, we just can’t ignore it.
We really need to change our perspective, and know that answering an inquiry in 24 hours will GREATLY decrease the chances of travelers booking with us. By how much??…. by up to 60%! Dag!
Let me break it down for you.
HomeAway now tells us that if you answer your inquiries in 3 hours you can increase bookings by 57% good stuff to know, right?…. that ain’t the whole story though.
You want to do better than others in your market, don’t you?
Most everyone is looking to do more with their marketing, so they can earn more business and profit. However, we sometimes fall short on nurturing the leads we do get into bookings. Why is that?
How you respond has a lot to do with you getting the booking (we’ll be addressing that in upcoming posts) but when you respond may be equally important.
When is the best time to respond to your inquiries? “The Golden Hour” have you heard of it?
The Golden Hour is that first hour when a traveler responds. If you respond within the first hour of an inquiry compared to the second hour, studies show there is literally a 10x difference.
Its 10x more effective for you to make contact with that person who inquired when you respond to the inquiry within the 1st hour compared to the 2nd hour.
BUT WAIT! Lets break this down even further…minute by minute.
As we dig deeper the statistics show us that with every passing minute after the inquiry has been sent, the chances of securing the booking drops significantly.
As you break the Golden Hour down per minute, you find that it isn’t the Golden Hour at all but instead its the “ The Golden 5 Minutes”
If you reply to your inquiries within five minutes of the prospect sending it, it’s 4x more effective in making contact with the potential renter than if you wait just 10 minutes. Responding to your vacation rental inquiries in 5 minutes is going to have 4x the impact.
If you decide to wait to finish your lunch (30 minutes) before you get to that inquiry, you should know there is a 21% difference in results compared to when inquiries are answered in 5 minutes.
What a difference 5 minutes makes…right?
So the next time you get an inquiry for your vacation rental and can’t get to it right away, understand this timetable and how your response time affects your booking conversions.
To make the most of this new information you’ll need to set up your systems and process to help you handle your inquiries. In order to do this properly you’ll need to embrace technology.
I’m going to show you several ways you can use the power of technology to help you answer your inquiries in my next upcoming video and its not what you may be thinking!
I’m so confident in this strategy that I am asking everyone to try the 5 minute response challenge for 1 week, and then tell me if you’ve seen a difference in your bookings and client interaction.
Will you take the challenge? If so, let me know in the comment section below.
Stay tuned by subscribing to our newsletter. I’ve got some really great tips coming up to help you respond better and faster to your inquiries.
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