Vacation Rental Inquiry Tips!
How Many Times Should You Follow Up with a Vacation Rental Inquiry?
Recently, we posted a step-by-step process showing you how you can make the most of your inquiries by responding to a vacation rental inquiry more quickly using a free app. In another video, we encouraged you to set a five minute rule: respond to a vacation rental inquiry within five minutes!
Today, I want to help you make your inquiry conversion better by being persistent in your responses. The big question is,
How many times should you follow up with an vacation rental inquiry or lead?
How many times are you personally responding to your vacation rental leads? We’d love to hear. Please leave your answer in the comments section below.
Consider this: Fifty percent of leads/inquiries are not yet ready to buy when they first contact you. In fact, only 2% will buy at the first point of contact; 98% will only buy once a certain level of trust has been built up. (Source: Gleanster Research.)
But we usually stop trying after the first time and give up on our vacation rental leads if they don’t reply or if they don’t give us a favorable response.
We’re doing something wrong!
What we need to learn how to do is be persistent and build that trust without being pushy. How do we do that?
We find a way to stay on the top of their mind.
Think about it. Someone is looking for a vacation home and sends out inquiries to about 20 different properties. Who’s going to stand out?
The vacation home owner who responds only once? No. The one who responds twice? No. The one who keeps getting in touch with them and following up, thus, keeping their property in front of the potential guest so they don’t forget you.
How many times should you respond to a vacation rental inquiry? Five times. Five!
I know that seems like a lot, but you can do it! In upcoming posts, we’ll learn how to respond more frequently to these inquiries, providing your guests with help, new information, ideas, and offers for assistance. And we’ll learn how to do so in a way that is manageable and organized.
So if you don’t already subscribe to our posts, do so today to get the latest vacation rental inquiry tips. You don’t want to miss out!
Has The Vacation Rental Inquiry Series helped? Should we continue it I do have more to share if you’d like, or should we retire it? I’m leaving it up to you?
What do you think?
I have made it a top priority to respond in minutes of the inquiry and I have seen a move upwards in bookings. Please keep the vacation rental inquiry series going, I still have so much to learn. I’d like to see what other tricks you have up your sleeve.
It was nice to see this in my inbox!
Josh , thanks for sharing with us how the series has helped your bookings. I think there are still so many areas that managers and owners could use help with when it comes to responding to their inquiries.
What did you think of this video?
I see that I’m quiting way too early. I’m embarrassed to say I only try one time. If they don’t respond I assume their not interested. I realize that’s a mistake knowing half of the people arent ready to book at the time when they’re inquiring.
I would like to see more of this series. This was eye opening, I would thought 5 times is too many times but you always seem to change my thinking on things like this Jay. Thanks for that. I will be more patient with people working on the trust. When you see the numbers it changes things. To think only 2% of bookings happen on the first inquiry is astonishing. I guess I thought more people would be ready to book when they reach out to me.
Consider this; 80% of bookings occur after the 5th engagement. That’s a big reason you need to follow up at least 5 times before giving up!
Jay, this really makes sense! Especially, when you consider that the people who do respond to you after the first or second attempt don’t actually book until after approximately 5 emails/conversations. So, it is important to carry this logic through to those “potential” guests that don’t reply after the first or second attempts. Especially, when very little information is given besides the travel dates. I find that the people who respond after the first or second reply, usually leave information as to why they are traveling. This is where I am failing and look forward to learning more about your “rules of engagement” and the reminder system to accomplish this process. I look forward to your suggestions and plan of action to increase my booking rate for the “non-responders”. Thanks Jay…incredibly informative! Irene H.
Irene, thanks for jumping in here
The key is “top of mind” , where they’re reminded every so often about you, thats why email marketing works so well. You know the saying “out of sight out of mind”… remembering that will get you more bookings, considering; only 20% of leads are ever followed up on. Combine that with, 50% of people are not ready to book when they make contact, you’ve got a better chance than the others if you just hang in there a little longer. I think MANY of us write off people as “tire kickers” when really, they just arent ready. And because we gave up on them too early, they looked like tire kickers but really someone else took that booking when they were ready, what do you think?
Ok, so I received a comment from Serenity Vacation Rentals on YouTube and I’m sharing it below.
The last sentence is exactly why I have been working on this series for you and why we WILL keep it going!
” Hi Jay – Rockin the beard now! What we have been doing is we will respond to our initial inquiry right away – within the 5 minute window if possible. We then always do a followup at around the 2 day mark. About half of the time we will do a second follow up in another 2 days depending on how hot the initial inquiry was (did they seem like they were just kicking tires or did they seem like they really wanted to rent) If no response after our second follow up we will give up! You’re video has inspired me to stick with it a little longer and do a couple more followups. “
Can’t wait for more information… : )
Hi Jay, This is a great tip for vacation rental managers and I absolutely agree. Can you tell me where you got the “80% of bookings occur after the 5th engagement” and “only 20% of leads are ever followed up on statistics” from? We are big data heads over here and I would like to quote you and then reference the statistic source to share this info with others. Thanks!