A guestbook is a book that’s left in your vacation rental home for guests to engage with while they’re staying at your property.
There are two types of books that owners will typically use in their homes. One is a guestbook, the other is a welcome book, the two are often confused.
A welcome book is used to help travelers become acclimated with your vacation home, house rules and the surrounding area as well as things to do.
If you’d like to learn more about using a welcome book, I’ve written an article on how to create a modernized welcome book experience using Alexa.
Using a guestbook in your vacation home is a great way to get people to leave you a review of your place.
We often hear from owners that they wish more guests would take the time to post a review after their stay.
They’ve also asked when is the best time to request a review from a guest? Why wait for the guest to leave to request a review!
They’re at your property, in the moment, with all the joys of vacation fresh on their minds – what better time to ask for a review.
When you add a guestbook in your home you provide yet another opportunity for guests to leave you a review at the most opportune time.
A guestbook can also help you strengthen your branding. In order to achieve that, your book needs to be nice to look at.
If it isn’t, it can have an adverse effect. Also, if the book looks nice in appearance people will want to participate in writing in it and they’ll make an effort to do it more clearly and neatly.
If you’ve taken the time to create a logo for your vacation rental, now is a time to show it off like a pro by adding it to your guestbook.
You can get creative and create a custom guestbook with your logo, slogan or something cute or welcoming like in the example below.
If you want to encourage more guests to leave a comment, don’t leave the pages blank. Instead, ask travelers a few questions such as:
“Where are you from?”
“What did you enjoy most?”
“What’s your favorite amenity?”
“Do you have any recommendations of activities, things to do or restaurants?”
What if I get a negative comment in the guestbook?
Negative comments are actually good for business because it gives you an opportunity to improve on something or learn of an issue that you otherwise may have not known about.
If you do get an unflattering review, don’t just remove it. Consider the comment and if it’s a legitimate issue address it right away.
Your written reviews can also be transferred from your guestbook to be used on your own vacation rental website.
Employing this into your marketing strategy is a small expense that’ll become a valuable asset to your branding and overall advertising.
So if you don’t have a guest book for your rental property, it’s easier than ever to get one.
Order one online straight away and open up your lines of communication while improving your rental business.
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