Maximize Revenue with Effective Short Term Rental Upsells
Unlocking the full potential of your short term rental goes beyond offering a cozy bed and a scenic view; it’s about creating an experience so memorable that guests rave about it to others and book a return stay.
The difference between a good stay and a great one lies in the extras — strategic upsells that enhance your guests’ experience while opening new revenue streams for your business.
This guide explores how to harness technology, creativity, and personalization to master the art of upselling — providing the tools and inspiration to turn your short term rental business into a revenue-generating powerhouse.
Table of Contents
1. Understanding your guests: The foundation of successful upselling
2. Popular and effective upsell ideas to increase revenue
3. Promoting your upsells: Strategies for success
4. Conclusion
Discover your revenue potential with upsells.
Understanding your guests: The foundation of successful upselling
Before we get into the specifics of what to offer, it’s valuable to understand the importance of guest data in a successful upsell strategy. By gathering insights into your guests’ preferences, reasons for travel (business or leisure), and any special requests, you can tailor their experience and make every offer resonate.
Collecting data is only as valuable as the actions it prompts. This is where tools like StayFi can come into play, acting as a CRM system to help you manage and utilize the data. Consider leveraging it for remarketing, focusing on direct bookings to bypass costly platform fees, or informing your marketing efforts by sending out targeted offers and promotions based on past guest preferences. Implementing a check-in form that captures additional guest preferences can help you further tailor their stay.
To continually refine and improve your upselling strategy, it’s valuable to clearly understand what is working and what isn’t. AI tools can help to analyze your performance, suggest the most effective upsells, and identify patterns and preferences among your guests. These insights allow you to refine your offerings to ensure you’re always providing the most value to your guests.
Popular and effective upsell ideas to increase revenue
Now that you’re armed with ways to collect valuable insights and preferences from your guests, it’s time to determine the unique upsells that will elevate their stay.
Early check-in and late check-out
Offering the flexibility of early check-in and late check-out options caters to guests’ varying travel schedules, allowing them to maximize their vacation time. Early check-in caters to those arriving before standard times (typically 3 pm-4 pm), providing a seamless transition into their vacation by allowing them to rest, or drop their luggage and explore. Late check-out affords guests extra time to enjoy their stay without feeling rushed on their departure day, perfect for those with later flights or plans. By strategically suggesting these options a week before arrival for early check-ins and the day before departure for late check-outs, you solve common travel dilemmas and also add a thoughtful touch to the overall guest experience. Consider implementing a flexible pricing model based on the additional hours provided, ensuring the service is both attractive to guests and profitable for you.
Experiential dining
Go beyond merely suggesting local restaurants by offering an in-house dining experience with a personal chef. This could include a farm-to-table meal showcasing local produce, or a cooking class where guests can learn to prepare local dishes. It’s a delicious way to immerse guests in the local culture and cruising, creating memorable dining experiences without leaving the comfort of their rental.
Pre-stocked fridge and pantry
Offering guests a fully stocked fridge and pantry is a thoughtful convenience that elevates the guest experience from the moment of arrival. By allowing guests to pre-order their preferred snacks, breakfast items, and cooking essentials, you ensure their stay starts without the hassle of immediate grocery runs. Partnering with local grocery stores for direct delivery to guests’ accommodations is an alternative way to offer convenience.
Another option is adopting the familiar hotel mini-bar approach, but more extensive. This way, guests pay only for what they use, offering both flexibility and ease, without a need to make any decisions upfront.
Transportation services
Navigating transportation logistics can be a daunting aspect of travel. Offering a direct airport transfer service eases this burden and adds a personalized touch to your guests’ arrival experience. If personal pickups aren’t feasible, consider collaborating with a transportation company as an affiliate, allowing guests to book their rides through a link you provide, while you benefit from a share of the revenue.
Renting out a spare vehicle offers guests the convenience of mobility during their stay; however, it’s crucial to ensure all legal and insurance requirements are checked to avoid any complications.
Amenity and equipment rentals
Enhance your guests’ stay and your revenue by offering convenience equipment rentals directly from your property. Whether they’re interested in biking, kayaking, paddleboarding, skiing, or other outdoor activities, providing these options allows guests to travel light, and eliminates the need of finding rental shops. Keeping rental prices competitive with local shops encourages guests to opt for your on-site rentals.
Offering baby equipment such as high chairs, booster seats, and playpens for rent is a smart move if your guests frequently include families. It helps cut down on the extra luggage that comes with traveling with children and ensures they have a comfortable and convenient stay from the moment they arrive.
Local tours and experiences
Connect your guests with the culture, history, and attractions of the area through guided tours and local guides. By partnering with local businesses and tour operators to offer exclusive discounts or packages on activities such as guided tours, wine tastings, adventure sports, or yoga classes, you’re offering memorable experiences to your guests, and also earning referral commissions.
Third-party sites like Viator, GetYourGuide, or Civitatis aggregate a wide variety of local tours and activities that you can promote to your guests. Becoming an affiliate of these sites allows you to easily earn commission on each booking you send their way through customized links, making it an attractive option to earn revenue with minimal effort.
Mid-stay cleaning
Offering mid-stay cleaning as an upsell provides a touch of hotel luxury, especially appealing to guests on longer stays. This service helps to ensure the property remains pristine and comfortable throughout their visit and highlights your commitment to cleanliness and guest satisfaction.
Toiletry and beauty kits
Incorporating a selection of health and beauty items available for purchase can turn a common oversight into a thoughtful convenience for your guests. The frustration of forgetting essential items like toothbrushes, deodorant, or sunscreen is familiar to many travelers. Offering pre-packaged kits or the option to purchase individual items saves your guests from an inconvenient trip to the store. You could also make local beauty products or artisan soaps available for purchase, providing guests with an opportunity to take home a tangible memory of their trip.
Promoting your upsells: Strategies for success
Strategic timing
Understanding the best time to introduce each upsell is important for conversion. Sending out your digital guidebook before guests arrive gives them ample time to plan and book services or activities for their stay. Introduce early check-in and transportation services immediately after booking, when guests are planning their travel logistics.
Another strategic time for offering upsells is one week to ten days before arrival, when anticipation is high and guests are finalizing their plans. A well-timed reminder for late check-out a day before their departure can also capture those last-minute decisions.
Tailored recommendations
Personalizing these offers based on your collected guest data makes them more relevant and attractive. For example, a family might appreciate a mid-stay cleaning service or baby equipment rentals, while a couple may prefer a romantic local dining experience.
Seamless booking process
Make it as easy as possible for guests to add upsells to their reservations. This can be achieved through direct booking links in digital guidebooks, easy-to-navigate booking platforms, a simple request via a messaging platform, or even QR codes in the rental property that lead to upsell options. Reducing friction in the booking process can significantly increase uptake.
Leveraging technology
To truly harness the power of upselling, integrating technology and automation into your strategy is key. Solutions like those offered by Operto Guest and DACK are revolutionizing the way hosts approach upselling — transforming it into an intuitive part of the guest experience. These solutions allow for the creation of digital guidebooks, or Airbnb welcome books, which serve as a comprehensive resource for guests during their stay, and a dynamic channel for presenting and managing upsells.
Guests can easily discover and opt into additional services from the comfort of their smartphone — whether booking a late check-out, arranging for mid-stay cleaning, or finding the perfect local experience. Using dynamic messaging systems, SMS messages, emails, or push notifications can be triggered to deliver upsell offers to guests at strategic times.
Integrating IoT hardware alongside digital guidebooks takes this convenience further by automating processes like early check-in.
By simply approving a request for early check-in, the digitally connected smart locks at your property are instantly informed of the new check-in time and grant guests early access without any manual intervention from your side, enhancing the guest’s stay from the very beginning.
Conclusion
Successfully upselling in short term rentals is all about creating a meaningful guest experience. Yes, it’s about driving revenue through your Airbnb marketing strategy, but it’s also about offering more value. This approach builds your bottom line and leaves a lasting impression on your guests, encouraging them to return and share their positive experiences with others.
Central to achieving this is not only what you offer, but how you offer it. This is where technology like Operto Guest and DACK can transform your operations, by streamlining this process and making it easier for you to offer and manage these add-ons in a way that feels natural and convenient for guests.
Through intuitive interfaces and automation, these solutions allow you to effortlessly present tailored options to guests to enhance their pre-, in- and post-stay experience.
By leveraging technology that streamlines the upselling process, you can effortlessly elevate your guests’ experiences, leading to better reviews, and more revenue.
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