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[00:00:05] Sarah: Hello, listeners, welcome back for another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

[00:00:09] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:00:11] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:00:12] Sarah: And this is the–

[00:00:13] Both Annette & Sarah: Hosting Hotline. 

[00:00:14] Sarah: Listeners, call us. We love hearing your voices. We love hearing your challenges. Go to hostinghotline.com, and it’s really, really easy. You just press a button, record your question, give us your first name, and press send, and we’ll answer your question here on the podcast. You will help all of our listeners with the challenges that you are facing because they may be facing it too, or they will in the future. With that, let’s hear Sarah’s question.

[00:00:40] Questions: Hey, ladies, a long-time listener. First time caller. I absolutely love the show. Thank you so much for everything. My name is also Sarah. Hi. And I’m wondering about the extras that you do for guests, the stuff that really, really wows them. Is there a rule for how much money you spend on this? How do you decide when to do something special? How do you organize it? All of the things. Thank you so much for everything. Love you guys.

[00:01:10] Sarah: Thanks for the question, Sarah.

[00:01:12] Annette: We love you too, Sarah. Let’s dig into this. It’s a wonderful question. I love that she’s wanting to provide extras for her guests and go that extra mile. 

[00:01:24] First thing I want to say about this is got to know your numbers. We’ve seen some hosts get in trouble with their extras, and we’ve got to make sure that that bottom line is positive for you.

[00:01:35] So the first thing that I want you to understand is your numbers, knowing your numbers. And I think a lot of times that “welcome gift” or some of the extras, what some of those amenities, maybe not even just a welcome gift, but some of those extras that you might leave for your guests should be priced appropriately with their stay.

[00:01:54] And I want to let everybody know. I think some of the best gifts or extras are the ones that don’t even cost that much. A simple card with someone’s name, using a guest’s name on something physical like an envelope with a card inside your property, it’s a game changer. It’s huge. It’s so personalized.

[00:02:14] It can be very, very inexpensive, but pack a huge impact, pack a punch there. But start with understanding your numbers because I’ve seen runaway train hosts that they’re getting robes for every room, and slippers, and all the extra snacks, and high-end chocolates, and candies, and wine. You got to be careful and understand your bottom line there.

[00:02:39] Sarah: A little, not shameless plug, we built a spreadsheet. We call it our numbers hub, and our members inside of our membership use the spreadsheets. And we have a special call every month dedicated to the spreadsheet, but we can tell you what’s on it. And what we do is you can plug in the numbers for everything that you spend money on as it relates to your short-term rental, including your time, but you could plug in there whatever an amenity would cost per guest and see how that affects.

[00:03:10] You really need to not just guesstimate either because depending on how fancy you want to get, it can make or break the stay. Obviously, we all host in different cadences, so some of you might have strict everyone stays at least three nights, or five nights, or one week. Other people might have one-night stays, two-night stays.

[00:03:30] Sometimes people book for a week or two. And so, like Annette said, the welcome amenity can reflect how long a guest is staying. So maybe you offer a couple of options or three options depending on the length of the stay so that it matches how much the guest is paying. That’s something you could do.

[00:03:47] Annette: And I think there are some also extras or amenities that might seem like they’re just for that guest, but they can be used over and over again. Let’s say it’s a reusable bag. Maybe you’re close to the beach or the mountains, and it’s a cooler, something that’s there for them. If they just so happen, if it has your logo on it, maybe it’s some koozies or some mugs, if they so happen to treat themselves good, it’s just your logo running around. But there are some things like that that you can always have on your property too that seem like they’re individual for the guest, but they’re for every guest that stays each time.

[00:04:24] Sarah: Sarah asked how we keep these things organized, and I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it again. My favorite project management software is Asana, and there is a great free version. This is what my team uses. There’s a ton of software out there, but this one is super easy because we have a different project for every property that we manage. And we have a standard welcome amenity.

[00:04:46] We’re an urban market. A lot of our properties are priced under 150 bucks a night, so our welcome amenity is a handwritten card that addresses their guests by name and says something about their stay and gives them a suggestion that is curated to why they’re coming to town and where they’re going.

[00:05:01] Annette: Anniversary, birthday, football game.

[00:05:03] Sarah: Right, right. And maybe if it’s a younger group coming, we might suggest one thing. If it’s an older group coming, something else– that kind of curated experience. Now if we want to go above and beyond, we use Asana that has a due date of their arrival and what we think would be a really great above and beyond, whether that is– what are some of the things– birthday surprises or anniversary surprises are a lot. 

[00:05:28] We had a lot of OSU, so we might get something OSU related because they’re visiting their kids or dropping their kids off to college, and that is really going about– and obviously that expense is higher, but we know that the numbers of their stay back that extra gift.

[00:05:43] Annette: And last but not least, the thing that Sarah taught me immediately when her and I first met, I think this is something that all of us can do for each and every guest, is the forgot-something basket that has those amenities like a front desk at a hotel. So everything from earplugs to razors, toothbrush, toothpaste, something that is that forgot-something basket is there for each and every guest.

[00:06:10] That’s a way that it’s a one-time spend. You’d be surprised how long they hold up for each and every guest, but that also shows everyone checking in that you thought about them, and you want them to have an amazing stay.

[00:06:24] Sarah: So Annette, you didn’t see this, but listeners, for our membership, we have a Facebook messenger chat, and there was one specifically for our conference, for TFVCon this year. And we had our forgot-something basket. Coach Wendy put a forgot-something basket in our bathrooms. Our members are still talking about how great the baskets were and asking about different aspects of that basket that we put in there. There’s different skin toned band aids that we have.

[00:06:47] Annette: The wine, teeth erasers. This is something I can say that Wendy is awesome with these. She got everything I think on Amazon, but that packs a punch where people see that you thought about all this. I know she did the mini Tic Tacs. It’s amazing what that basket can do for each and every one of your guests. 

[00:07:08] Sarah: If you check the show notes, we have a link to the basket and everything that we have in it in addition to whatever else we also put in all of our short-term rentals as a baseline. So check the show notes out for that checklist and get some ideas there. But with that, happy surprising and delighting. Just make sure it makes sense with your average daily rate.

[00:07:28] Annette: If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.

[00:07:31] Sarah: With that, I’m Sarah Karakaian.

[00:07:33] Annette: I am Annette Grant. And together we are–

[00:07:34] Both Annette & Sarah: Thanks for Visiting.

[00:07:35] Sarah: Talk to you next time.