Making the most of high season

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Making the most of high season

Handle peak season like a pro.jpg

 

Hello everyone,

 

The peak travel season can get hectic, right? More bookings mean more guest questions, more check-ins, more supplies, and tighter cleaning schedules.

 

Successful hosts have developed a number of clever strategies for handling the rush of seasonal traffic while still creating fantastic guest experiences. That’s why we went straight to the experts to get the best tips on staying organized and efficient during the busiest times of year. Here’s some of the smartest advice offered by hosts in the Community Center.

 

Stock up on supplies

Before your high season even arrives, stock up on extra cleaning supplies and amenities, and consider investing in extra linens and bath towels. That will be one less thing to worry about as you’re juggling guest needs. Filling your pantry in advance also provides you the opportunity to buy in bulk and save money.

 

Recycle guest messages

Guests often ask the same questions, so creating standard responses will save you a lot of time. Rather than typing out a new answer to a common question, you can reuse a response that you’ve already provided to a different guest.

 

To make it even simpler, you can save or edit a message from directly in the messaging stream:

  • Click Use a saved message to open a pop-up window.
  • Then click Save a new message, which adds the message to your library.
  • Click Edit saved messages to browse all of your saved messages.
  • Finally, click and edit the message that you want to send.

 

Sync your calendars

Keeping track of guest arrivals and departures alongside all the other things happening in your life gets even more complicated during busy season, especially if you’re keeping separate calendars. Avoid scheduling mishaps by syncing your Airbnb calendar with any other program that uses the iCalendar format, including Google calendar or the calendar on other home-sharing sites, such as HomeAway or VRBO. Learn how to sync your calendars here.

 

Create cleaning kits

Keep all of the cleaning supplies you might need for each room in a separate, ready-to-grab bag or bucket. For example, your bathroom cleaning kit might include rags, glass cleaner, and scrubbing powder while your kitchen kit might contain all those things plus dish soap and floor polish. This ensures you have everything you need to clean a room quickly, without having to rummage through a bunch of extra supplies or carry unneeded ones from room to room.

 

Streamline linen management

Having a few extra sets of linens available is the first step to a speedy turnaround between guest arrivals. A laundry service, if available, is also recommended as a lifesaver by many hosts. Other tricks include marking a corner of each bed linen set to indicate the size, room, or bed so you always know you have the right ones. If you prefer smooth sheets, you can save time on ironing by using a travel steamer while making up the bed or spritzing with linen spray and smoothing with your hands.

 

Do you have tips to offer other hosts for surviving a busy season?


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Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

100 Replies 100
David2796
Level 2
Gold Coast, Australia

I'm new to Airbnb, I have worked in the Tourist industry for many years. The way I see it apart from the amazing tips above, in 2 words “Guest Experience”

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

A warm welcome to the Community Center @David2796 and of course Airbnb. 🙂 

 

It is fantastic to see you like the tips above, it sounds like you too have lots of experience. As part of "Guest Experience" do you have any specific areas you would highlight in order to achieve this?


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Talia21
Level 2
St Leonards, Australia

I have lost my link to a guest review. It may have been deleted or moved, unsure. Is there any way to have the review link re-posted?  Reviews are SO important! I do not wish to miss any.

Talia21
Level 2
St Leonards, Australia

I hosted my guest seven days ago. The review time is still open.

David2796
Level 2
Gold Coast, Australia

Hi Lizzle, for what its worth

My take is that guest experience is not a singular event. It’s tangible and intangible.

The experience of staying at my place Jeffersonthebeach for example , is not just when you actually check inn.

It starts when you first start looking at Airbnb options, then making your booking, your pre-arrival, the welcome, the stay and the facilities experienced, the checkout and then the follow up afterwards. It goes further when you recognize and remember and reward a guest who has stayed here before.

The experience is also broken down into two main areas ( expected experience – for example when you are arriving and there is an expectation and remembered experience – when you have stayed and you remember your experience).

Lawrence16
Level 6
Bristol, United Kingdom

May seem obvious but if you accept last minute bookings then you can make your life a lot easier by making a room guest ready as soon as the last guest checks out.

The times when I've thought I'll leave it as there's a few days before the next arrival and then had to rush and clean when a late booking pops up has added pressure.

Make sure your check in time allows you plenty of time to change around a room too.

Ditto.  I have done the very same thing an left it to the last minute thinking I had time.  Well that completely unnecessarly stressed myself out.   I find if you clean a shower after they have taken one upon Checkout it's way easier to clean because it's already wet.  

If you stay ready you don’t have to get ready 🙂

Seems obvious but hadn't actually done that! Today had a last minute booking and hadn't arranged for someone to come clean it! End result = I had to rush there and clean it myself!! 

 

 

Sometimes we don't do the obvious!!

Will start doing this now, great tip!

SP

Agree completely, I usually ask my guest about what time they are leaving so that we can be ready to  "turn the room over" as soon as they are gone.  We have multiple sets sheets, towels, etc so that we can do this very quickly should we be pressed for time in our own life.  With instant booking always having the room ready is a must in my mind.

Jelena65
Level 2
Bar, Montenegro

Thank you for usefull tips.

Adam-And-Hannah0
Level 2
Gloucester, United Kingdom

“Linen management” is great advice - our lives got significantly easier after buying two extra sets of bedding! We also bought a monthly planner which we hang on the wall, which lets us plan ahead and anticipate bottlenecks at a glance.

I give my cleaning crew a cash bonus everytime we have a same day turnaround. It keeps them sweet and limits the chance of a guest checking into a half cleaned house.

having people around all the time is very stressefull, as we do not have time to recover, before the next guest, but be running to get things ready. One thing that would help is if airbnb could reduce their fees, and put little more money in our account,  so we could afortd to pay for help sometime. But as we wait for airbnb generosity, I do set check in 5pm to 10pm and check out 9 am. Still I have been almost completelly booked and 99.9% 5 stars. Becasue I can be a better hostess if I have time for myslef and to do everything I need to do.