Buy a Vacation Home Guest Book

Do You Have A Guest Book In Your Rental?

Whether you own a beach home, a country cottage or a cabin in the mountains, a guest book or visitors journal is a ‘must have’ for any vacation rental home owner. Your visitors can write their recommendations and share some of their experiences – and you get valuable feedback. After unpacking, one of the first things your guests will probably do after they arrive is to make a bee-line for your guest book! People value the first-hand information from the guest book comments left by previous visitors who often make useful suggestions, like best sightseeing spots, which beach is less crowded, or a certain restaurant with a fantastic live band which plays every Tuesday, for example. For us, as owners, it’s an absolute delight to read about the positive experiences our guests have enjoyed when they’ve stayed at one of our properties. It’s the first thing we read when we visit our properties; we take pride in our guest book! We always encourage our guests to write in the guest book and we first remind them of this in the Arrival /Welcome information which we send out. The book is always left in the centre of the table so they see it when they arrive. Of course, not everyone remembers to or perhaps wants to contribute, but a good percentage do – probably about 75%. Our first guest book had a plain cover, but we’ve found by having a colorful cover with a holiday theme the book gets noticed more and reminds people to write in it. As well as the warm comments of appreciation, some families have their children write and draw things they’ve seen. They love to journal and we love reading the stories about where they visited, often learning things about our vacation area we didn’t know! Your Guest Book is also a great resource for reviews! TIP: We take a photo of the comments page and after they’ve returned from their holiday we email it to our guests, thanking them and asking if they’d be kind enough to leave it as an online review. It reminds them of what they wrote and makes it easier for them to think about what to say in a review. Regular reviews inspire confidence and can positively affect your rank on advertising sites. So the more visible the guest book, the more likely the guests are to remember to write a few words, which could ultimately lead to you getting more 5 star reviews!