What do Vacationers Actually Want?

What do Vacationers Actually Want?

In this day of huge consumer choice and increasing demands upon the purses of those individuals, consumers are become much more selective and choosy about what they want when choosing a vacation rental.  With less money to spend, and therefore fewer annual holidays, those with the money to spend want the very best “bang for their buck”.  So, what is important to vacationers?  What is that they actually want and how can you get your property to match their requirements?

Increasingly, in this world of social media, holiday makers are encouraged to tell the world what they think about everything, from the weather (if you are British!), to the state of the economy, from their view opinion in the Starbucks -v- Costa scenario, to their view on the state of the antarctic.  More importantly, others do read this stuff and they are influenced by it.  So, what are these choosy people looking for in a vacation rental and what can you do to make sure that they write great things about your property once they get home?

Firstly, can I point you to two earlier posts of mine?  These deal with the concepts of “primacy and recency”, the two parts of a holiday that will stay with your customer for the longest. This is the first “Word of Mouth – The Best Advertising of All” and this is the second: “Vacation Rental – Making Your Advertising Bucks Work For You”

Secondly, let’s have a look at the things that make people write great and not-so-great reviews about your property.

The most important thing to any visitor to your property is pretty obvious – Is it clean? A dirty vacation property is a total disaster and no matter how fantastic your property may be, if it isn’t spotless when your visitors arrive, they’ll hate it – and they will tell the world all about it.  Make sure that mirrors and windows are sparkling clean, that there are no dirty marks in any tub, shower or toilet.  Bedding must be clean and crisp,  furniture must be pristine, surfaces dust free and crockery unchipped.  These things seem really obvious, but clearly, from some reviews available, it just ain’t happening all the time – and it must!!

The next complaint that visitors seem to have is – Is there enough stuff? If your vacation property sleeps 9, then you have to have 9 sets of everything – including a dining table that seats 9.  Having to eat in shifts is a major complaint of holiday makers.  Don’t forget that supplies of dish soap etc need to be plentiful.  What will suffice for a one week vacation, simply isn’t enough for a two week vacation and getting a less than dazzling report due to lack of cheap essentials is crazy!

Another thing that seems to ruin vacations for some is – What do I do if something goes wrong? Again, this would seem to be really obvious, but apparently, not all vacation property owners have it covered.  If something breaks down – the garbage disposal, the boiler, the dishwasher – do your visitors know what to do?  You need to have contact numbers clearly visible to them when they arrive and you need to have someone to the property fast to fix the problem.  No one minds a problem, they are a simple fact of life, however, those who are spending their hard earned cash on your property mind very much if that problem doesn’t go away!

In my next post I’ll look at how to get Great Reviews!

See you soon.

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