A vacation rental welcome letter is an essential addition to your welcome guestbook. It is an important asset for increasing overall guest satisfaction and ensuring a successful business.
As a host, you already know that first impressions matter the most. You only have one chance to impress your guests on a personal level! That is why it is of utmost importance to do whatever it takes to create a warm welcome for your guests and ensure they have an exceptional experience staying at your rental.
If you’re wondering how to create a warm welcome, the answer lies in a well-written, personalized welcome letter. Here’s how to write a memorable vacation rental welcome letter.
Why Is a Vacation Rental Welcome Letter Important?
A welcome letter is used to introduce your guests to your rental property. It should guide them into having a great time from the very first moment. It can help you form a bond with your guests and demonstrate how much you invest yourself in making sure your guests are taken care of and are feeling comfortable during their stay.
A vacation rental welcome letter is also used to provide the information your guests need, in order to prevent miscommunication or any sort of confusion regarding how things work.
As much as it is important to make sure that your rental is spick and span by enhancing your cleaning routine, composing a welcome letter will show off your personality as a thoughtful, caring host, who wishes their guests have a great time during their stay.
What Medium to Use When Writing a Welcome Letter?
Although a handwritten letter is one of the best ways to genuinely wish your guests a warm welcome, it can be hard to write a new letter each time, as your business grows and develops. Therefore, you should consider other options. You can type out an editable template and print it each time you wish to welcome new guests. Add a handwritten note and your signature.
If you are handling your business remotely, you can always ask the cleaning service that is in charge of the guest turnovers to replace welcome letters and leave them someplace visible inside your rental. Managing your vacation rental from a distance doesn’t have to mean that you are distant too.
5 Essentials to Include in a Vacation Rental Welcome Letter
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Make it personalized
Start by setting the tone with a personalized vacation rental welcome letter. This doesn’t mean you should create a unique letter for each guest who books your rental. It means that you should pay attention to updating your template to make it more personal by including the names of the incoming guests.
If you have information on your guests, use this to your advantage and add simple details to your vacation rental welcome letter sample. This will not only enhance the first impression but also make your guests see that you put extra effort into welcoming them.
Add a note about their journey, mentioning that you genuinely hope their trip was comfortable and that you are happy they chose your rental for their vacation.
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Include property details
As you will give a more thorough explanation within your welcome guestbook, this section can be very useful for giving the basic info. Furthermore, if there is a lovely anecdote or rich history behind your rental property, you can mention that too. Something fun and informative that emphasizes the uniqueness of your property.
Write down your rental’s address, apartment number, gate passcode, etc.—the basic things they will need upon arrival. Having such basic information in one place will help them to avoid any confusion with coming back to your rental after exploring the neighborhood or going to the nearby store.
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Include your contact information
Although you will include this along with local emergency phone numbers in your welcome guidebook, providing your contact info in a vacation rental welcome letter is a useful option as well. This way it will be within your guests’ reach, in case they need to contact you for some urgent matters, right away.
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Mention a welcome guestbook and house rules
Write down that more detailed information can be found in your welcome book. Mention the house rules and where they are placed—the best location is to place the printed version near the entrance.
Be sure to keep all the important info for your rental in one highly visible place. This way guests will spot these as soon as they enter your rental and go through all the information you provided immediately.
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Wish them to enjoy their stay
After providing all this essential info, all you need to do is to wish your guests a pleasant stay at your rental property.
Add a note saying that you hope that they’ll enjoy their stay and thank them for choosing your vacation home. Write from the heart and your guests will recognize and appreciate it. And, their appreciation will be shown in the reviews after departure!
Now that you have a better understanding of the five key things to include and why they are important, here’s an example of a vacation rental welcome letter that you can use as a base for creating your own one.
Vacation Rental Welcome Letter Template
Hi [guest name],
Thank you for choosing to stay with us, and welcome to our lovely home!
I hope you’ve had a pleasant and comfortable trip from [location]. Now is the time to relax and unwind! There are snacks waiting for you in the kitchen and chilled drinks in the fridge. Help yourself to water, juice, or something more fun like beer/wine!
[E.g. This place has been in our family for four generations, and most of the stuff you see is as old as the house. Our ancestors built it as their family vacation home and decorated it with high-quality pieces of furniture that have withstood many years of usage.
Outside, you can find the fire pit (feel free to use it, there are instructions within the guestbook) where my brothers and sisters and I have spent many days bonding and sharing funny as well as scary stories. So, yeah, this place has been through a lot, and there are many wonderful memories surrounding it.]
Feel free to explore the neighborhood. You can find a local store two houses down the street and several supermarkets downtown. To help you get by, here’s the basic info:
Address: [0101 W Chestnut St. Chicago, IL 60610]
Gate passcode: [#1234*]
You can reach out to me via phone at [(555) 123-4567] if you have any additional questions.
Also, I’d like to ask you to take a look at our welcome guest book and house rules. There you can find more info on my top pick of nearby restaurants, pubs, cafes, galleries for art lovers, and much more. Be sure to read the house rules, to keep us both at peace and keep this charming house in order for many years to come.
And now, it’s time for you to rest and relax! I truly hope you have a great, stress-free time at our home. Go on, start exploring the area, and create wonderful memories!
Enjoy your stay!
[Your name]
Conclusion
As you can see, with these five key things, you can compose a great vacation rental welcome letter and enhance the guest experience.
Remember to write from the heart and your guests will feel it and be very appreciative of it. This will not be so hard since you probably do wish your guests to have an enjoyable vacation at your place, so simply write how you truly feel.