If we can capture guests while they are on a ‘happiness high’ and help extend that beyond the first excitement of booking a vacation, we can create more loyal guests who ultimately become our ambassadors.  This is the vision of vacation rental entrepreneur Nancy McAleer, and one that underpins all her activities on both her own property website, AMI Home Rental, and the fast-growing listing site, Florida Rentals by Owner (FLARBO).

More hosts and owners are developing websites than ever before and property managers are scaling up their #BookDirect messaging.  

Nancy has been at the forefront of how we manage the process of direct bookings and shares her insights into the importance of guest nurture strategies.

Using her workflow, Nancy plots the guest journey from booking to follow-up and creates emails, newsletters, and PDF content that keeps them in that anticipatory mode well beyond the search and booking phase.

Here are her 6 steps to Start the Guest Nurture Campaign

1. Plot the client journey
2. Jot down all of the key pain points that a guest has during that journey that you can problem-solve
3. Include answers to common questions you've been asked during the client journey
4. Create amazing rich, content on your website that answer the above 2 points (blog or PDFs work too)
5. Think about addressing your goals that will fit within this guest journey (affiliate links, offering benefits, repeat guest coupon codes, improve social reach, gain reviews, etc...)
6. Create your newsletters linking your content, videos, etc.. in an appealing way with a focus on your brand.

This, of course, requires some work but Nancy believes time spent on upfront content creation pays dividends in terms of the happiness quotient experienced by guests which convert to great reviews and repeat bookings.

In this episode Nancy shares:

• Why she believes owners should consider a direct booking strategy
• What a drip nurture campaign is and how to increase engagement through it
• Four essential emails to send
• The value of video messaging
• How to benefit from affiliate marketing
• Ideas on content
• How to meet guests goals in terms of what they want and need to know
• Her favorite platforms for website creation, graphics and booking software

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Links mentioned in this episode:

‍Florida Rental By Owners

‍Anna Maria Island Home Rental

‍VRS305 – How To Win In Short-Term Rentals With Direct Bookings Featuring Nancy McAleer

‍The Happiness Study

‍CNBC article – Airbnb Hosts Building Their Own Websites

‍The 4-Step Incoming Guest Nurture Sequence (VRMB)

‍OwnerRez

‍Touch Stay

‍Mailchimp

‍Constant Contact