Your vacation rental has a 360° view of the city, your sheets are 1,000-count Egyptian cotton, and you even have a television in the bathtub, so why did your renters leave such bad reviews about your property? Maybe you did one of these five things that drive renters crazy and drive them to other vacation rentals.
- Using areas of the house as storage. It’s great that your vacation rental property has five bedrooms, a den, two game rooms and nineteen separate closets, but if a bunch of them are being used to house Christmas ornaments, old tools, or even your family’s off-season clothes, they’re not much good to your renters. Renters look at a property the same way they look at a hotel room (can you imagine walking into a hotel room and finding someone’s clothes in the closet or old ski equipment under the bed?) so a good rule of thumb is not to use your rental property in any way a hotel wouldn’t use theirs.
- Asking your renters for help with anything. Imagine if the concierge at your hotel asked you to stay in your room from 12-3 to wait for the cable guy or help with the hanging of a heavy chandelier. You’d probably be inclined to say no or even change hotels. Asking your guests to take care of anything, no matter how small, is a real turn off, so try to avoid it at all costs. It may be a working home to you, but it’s a vacation spot for them and it’s important to always remember that.
- Showing other renters around. Even though they know it’s not true, renters like to believe, or at least, feel, like they’re the only renters you’ve ever had, so never show a potential renter a property while you have another guest in residence. Aside from reminding your guests that many other people stay there, it can also make them feel as if they have to spend time cleaning up, which is not how most people want to spend their vacation time.
- Having strange and/or strong smells in the house. So, you love to come home to the scent of a nice pomegranate/sandalwood/lemon candle filling the air or a bed doused with your favorite perfume, but there’s a very good chance your guests may not. Even the smell of cleaning agents can bother some people (and let’s not even get started on smoke and animal scents) so try to make the place smell as neutral as possible and you’ll find you’ll get few complaints.
5. Having objectionable and/or explicit reading material and/or other items on display. It’s a true accomplishment to have a priceless collection of 18-century Japanese nudes any museum would envy, but if you’re hosting a family with a bunch of young kids, be sure to keep it out of the vacation rental. The same goes for books with adult themes, or frankly, even political or religious ones. Keep your “objects” and your library tame and family or (travel) oriented else you may not see your renters again.
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