If done right, an Airbnb email sequence will give your guests that extra bit of reassurance that they made the right decision when choosing your house.
Effective communication with your guests is vital to a smooth booking experience and stay for your guests.
Your message flow guides them through the booking process and tells them what to expect as well as what to do next.
We’ve spent quite a bit of time on our message flow, and updated our message templates as we gained experience.
Here we’re going to share what our Airbnb email sequence is and why, along with a few tips.
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What’s The Goal Of Your Messages
Your specific goal may vary, depending on who your typical guest is.
But for the most part, the messages should help guests feel comfortable, happy with their choice, and help answer their questions before they even ask them.
At the end of each message, there should be an action item.
It can be either something the guest should do or what they can expect next.
It’ll set their expectations and also guide them to the next step.
Our email sequence hasn’t changed very much in the last few years.
We have ironed out a lot of the kinks, and questions from our guests are pretty rare.
No matter who your typical guest is, the right email sequence will show them that you haven’t forgotten about them, and it’ll also help them have a better stay – which translates to more great reviews!
That’s what every vacation rental host should aim for, especially in the beginning.
Reviews are the currency of vacation rentals – more reviews equals more revenue.
Try To Keep It Wooty
I know you have no idea what that means. Let me explain.
We try our best to keep our messages casual and relaxed. It hasn’t been that easy for us. It’s most likely because we came from the corporate world, where writing in a more professional tone was expected… and now I guess it’s ingrained into our being. lol
When we first started working on our message sequence, we realized that our messages were way too uptight.
After all, this isn’t a real estate closing. It’s someone booking their vacation, let’s make it more fun!
Back then, we used to get regular emails from a site called woot.com. They were kind of like a deal of the day website, and their messages were really fun and relaxed.
That fun and relaxing style was the writing style we were going for.
So from that point forward, we tried our best to make the email sequence “wooty”.
Our messages are still not full-on wooty, but we’re still a work in progress. 🙂
So without further ado, here’s the messaging flow we use after a guest books.
Email #1. Thank Them For Choosing Us
We send this message right after they book their stay.
The first thing we do is thank them.
Let’s face it, we know that there are a lot of vacation rentals to choose from out there.
Expressing our thanks for choosing us over the others is a great way to start the conversation off on the right foot.
We also ask them for proof of id. We want to make sure they are who they say they are and that they meet our minimum age requirement.
Email #2. Thank Them For The Copy Of Their License
Once they send us a copy of their license, assuming that everything jives with it, we thank them for sending it to us.
If this is their one and only payment we also include some information about the area activities and restaurants so they can start planning their stay. Otherwise we send this info with the second payment thank you email.
We also let them know that we’ll send them info for their stay when their check-in date gets closer and that they can reach out to us with any questions.
Note: If our gut tells us that something feels off with the booking, this is where we let the guest know that we don’t think they would be the right fit for our house.
Email #3. Thank Them For Their Second Payment (if there was one)
If their payments were split in two, then we thank them right after they make their second payment.
Since this guest didn’t get the information about the activities and restaurants in the prior message, we give them that info here.
Email #4. The Check-in Info
We send them this message 21 days before check-in.
The check-in message has a lot of info. The message itself has all the meat that they’ll initially need.
Things like keycode, address, contact info, check-in and check-out times and WiFi password.
We also send them the house guide as an attachment.
Email #5. The Welcome Message
We send this on their check-in day, a few hours before their check-in time.
In this message we let them know that everything is ready for their check-in.
We also let them know about the supermarkets in the area and once again remind them to reach out to us if they need anything.
Email #6. How Are They Doing?
This is sent the next day in the late morning. It’s really just to see how everything is.
This is the last message we send during their stay – unless they reach out to us.
Email #7. Would You Like A Late Check-Out?
The day before their check-out we send them a message asking if they would like a late check-out and if the do what time works for them.
Of course, that’s only if no one is checking-in on the day they check-out.
Email #8. The Thank You Message
After they check-out we send them a simple thank you message wishing them safe travels and letting them know we’d love to have them back again soon.
Email #9. Please Write A Review For Your Stay
The day after they check-out we send the guest a review request.
The message says we hope they had a safe trip back home, we loved having them, would appreciate a review and hope to have them back soon.
If we don’t get a review then we send them the second review request message 5 days after check-out and the third review request 10 days after check-out.
Make Sure To Create Templates For Your Email Sequence
Templates have totally revolutionized corresponding to guests.
Putting some time into creating templates now will make responding to guests soooo much easier going forward. It really is a night and day difference.
If your ready to start saving some templates, take a look at my next article, how to create your Airbnb email templates and it’ll give you all the details you need to create them.
If you’re not sure you see the benefit, take a look at this post, why you need to use airbnb email templates.
Did You Like The Email Sequence?
There’s the email sequence that we’ve used for several years for our vacation rental business.
Was there an email that you were missing?
Is there something you do differently?
Let me know in the comments below!
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