Me and my monkey

In this edition of Lay My Hat, more advice from rental owners on what we all want in life: more bookings.

One couple tells us how to get repeat renters each year. I'm telling you how to run a simple linking campaign to give your site a real boost in the search engines. And one valuable tool you may be overlooking (like me!) - a guest questionnaire. I reckon these can be extremely useful.

Lay My Hat recently grew into a website - www.laymyhat.com - where you'll find all the advice from past newsletters, and even better, a discussion forum for rental owners. If you haven't been yet, have a look, you can talk to fellow owners about anything that's on your mind. There are all sorts of subjects being discussed now, and you can add whatever you want to talk about.

As always, I would love to hear from you because this newsletter is intended as an exchange of ideas in the community of rental home owners. Email me your views, suggestions and tips, or post them on the forum - you'll notice that contributors get a link to their own site, giving them a nice boost in the search engine rankings!

All the best,

Paolo De Paolis
Editor, Lay My Hat
paolo@laymyhat.com

P.S. You can read past editions of Lay My Hat here:http://www.laymyhat.com/newsletters/newsletterList.php.
If you have friends who are rental home owners, why not email them this address so they can see what they are missing?

If you want to get repeat renters, it helps if you can make a stay in your home a memorable one. This is how one couple in Normandy do it:

For 6 years now we have had a little holiday rental house close to where we live in St Malo, France. Some of our guests are now returning for the third time.

• We think the welcome is very important and for us it begins several months before they arrive, when we sow vegetables from seed which they will be able to gather during their stay (beans, radish, courgette, tomato, etc.), as well as all the aromatic herbs for the barbecue.
• There are also the fruits which guests can gather according to the season: cherries, plums, strawberries, pears, apples and grapes.
• And also a choice of jams which we get as much pleasure from making as giving.
• We provide bicycles and all the gear for learning to fish, either with hook and line or by hand (shrimps, sand eels, cockles and clams) with tips on the best spots known only to locals!
• For days when it rains (it does happen) and for a break from walks and the beach, we have a big games room in the attic with books and videos, and board games for kids.
• Our Visitor's Book is where our guests, who quickly become our friends, can share their thoughts and give us ideas for further improvements.
• Another idea we use: send a postcard 2 weeks before their arrival to say everything is ready and we are looking forward to meeting them soon.

Thanks to Victor and Francoise for sharing these tips with us. You can see their property here: www.armor-vacances.com/boureau

For instant feedback and discussion, try the Lay My Hat forum: http://www.laymyhat.com/forum. It's where owners can help each other out.

Do you use a guest questionnaire after each stay? If not, you may be missing out on some invaluable feedback about your home, your marketing and yourself!

Guests won't generally complain to you in person, or in the guest book, about minor problems and omissions in your property. But if you give them a simple questionnaire to fill in, they will let you know that you really need to supply a coffee-maker, or a light by the front door to find the lock at night - all sorts of inexpensive improvements you haven't thought of.

This is really the last step in the communication process that starts with the first enquiry. It's the owner's way of saying "How was it for you?"

And you don't have to limit the questionnaire to what's in your rental home. You can also get feedback on the quality of your marketing, or how you can improve your enquiry-to-booking ratio with better communication.

This is being discussed now in the Lay My Hat forum - you can see what other owners think about what should go in a guest questionnaire and add your say here: http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=80

Owners share their trade secrets - if you find them useful, why not join in? Email to paolo@laymyhat.com

"We always put brand new soaps in the bathrooms and find that if you don't supply detergents, etc. they tend to use whatever's there, e.g. washing up liquid in the dishwasher or washing machine! [Editor's note: recently guests used washing up liquid in my clothes washing machine - it broke. Some people go a little absent-minded when on holiday so make it obvious what goes in which machine and save yourself a repair bill]"

Thanks to Jane - www.chateauduberouze.com

Remember, the point of Lay My Hat is that it's an exchange of ideas and opinions for holiday rental owners, so please don't be shy in sharing yours. Here's my address: paolo@laymyhat.com