Hospitality

This is NOT your opening line

Your very first text to new guests matters a lot

Sound Familiar?

Pesky Problem

You’re treating your new guests as if they’re your worst guests.

Let me set the stage. It had been years since we booked a trip. Literally. Years.

We went into the covid-19 pandemic as a travel loving couple on the road so much that our neighbors were skeptical we actually lived at our legal address. At the other end of the pandemic tunnel, we emerged as parents of an adorable little chickadee who, thanks to the historical circumstances of her birth, had no concept of travel (or restaurants for that matter) until she was well over a year old.

Which is to say, that when we pressed send on our very first Airbnb booking request in 30+ months, we were pumped. This was a couple’s retreat. We had meticulously arranged the weekend babysitting and puppy sitting with family. We had scoured the Airbnb getaways in a three hour driving radius of home. And we had carefully selected what looked like the perfect place to reconnect in our first solitary weekend on the road in years.

Then we had our first interaction with our host. Like a needle pricking a balloon, her text popped all of our excitement. To our upbeat booking request, the host responded:

“If the rules have been read and will be followed we are good to go and can’t wait to host you guys for a weekend away.”

It felt as if we had somehow managed to offend the host and disrespect her space by sending a single, ten-word text. Trepidation set in. We even discussed just canceling and booking a different place. That might sound like overreacting, but we’ve had our fair share of bad Airbnb stays.

We’ve spent several trips with overbearing, combative hosts who spend each stay waiting in the wings for guests to mess up and prove their worst fears right. Needless to say, walking on eggshells while carrying a preemptive sense of guilt is not a relaxing way to spend a vacation. Especially if it’s your first one in years.

Let's Try This

Bite-Size Solution

Treat every guest as if they’re your best guest.

Now clearly, this host had been burned by disrespectful guests. For all we know, it could have been the very day we sent our booking request. And when we saw how much love they had poured into their beautiful space, we were even more empathetic. In the same way that we’ve stayed with a handful of unacceptable hosts, we know every host has (or will) encounter a handful of unacceptable guests.

But even with a bad apple stay in recent memory, each new guest deserves your very best experience. After all that’s why they chose you and that’s what they’re paying for. And an opening line rooted in defensiveness and mistrust is not the best experience you can create.

Imagine if a hotel compromised your experience, even just the check-in process, because the folks who left that morning were particularly bad guests. Sound absurd? That’s because it’s the antithesis of hospitality, and hotels, just like hosting, fall squarely in the hospitality industry. Every guest deserves to be treated as if they’re your very best guest, not your worst.

5 Minutes

Here's Your First Step

Proactively (not reactively) write an opening line to use every time.

We’re big fans of communication templates so that each guest receives your very best stuff. Craft your go-to opening message to new guests in a calm, intentional headspace before you need it (not on the fly when your current emotional state, for better or usually worse, will inevitably come through.)

We recommend keeping that first message to a new guest short and sweet. Even if you wanted to point folks to the house rules, as this host clearly did, it can be done gracefully sandwiched in a proactive template.

Look how differently this message reads compared to the one above.

“We can’t wait to host you for your upcoming trip! Before you arrive, don’t forget to take a look at our house rules so you have the best possible experience. We’ll send you check-in instructions the day before your stay. Thanks for choosing our Airbnb!”

Same content, same instructions, but the polar opposite emotional charge. You want your opening line to amp up your guests’ excitement for their trip, not plant the seed of doubt (or dread) about whether or not they picked the right place.

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Hospitality

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Your welcome material game is on point. Just inside the door to your Airbnb, guests find a thorough house manual, an expansive local guide, and

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