Extended stays can be extremely valuable for holiday home rental owners. Instead of booking for one or two nights, guests who are seeking to extend their stay will typically stay a few weeks or even a month. The reasons for longer stays are multiple. Many guests are travelling for work, and require a safe, work-friendly accommodation for the duration of their contract. Others may be planning a longer honeymoon, or even a well-deserved break that can be enjoyed for a longer period.

If you are aiming to offer your guests a chance to extend their stay, knowing how to encourage longer bookings is essential. In this mini guide, we are sharing a few tips on how to promote extended bookings.

Encouraging Longer Holiday Home Rental Bookings

Some of the simplest ways to cater for longer length stays for your holiday home rental include the following:

• Create an inviting home away from home. The biggest factor for many longer stay guests is how much comfort the rental offers. Creating a home-like environment that is designed to provide guests with everything they could ever want or need during their stay is therefore essential. Use terms such as ‘home away from home’ and ‘home-like atmosphere’ in your listings, and create an image of comfort, convenience and luxury that will appeal to guests looking for extended stay accommodation. This is the first and most important step.
• Equip your rental with the right amenities. To provide such a high level of comfort, your rental needs to be fully equipped with all the right amenities. Put yourself in the shoes of your guests for a moment to think about what sort of features would be appreciated and/or expected. These include comfortable beds, luxury linens, full bathrooms, a work space that has international plug points, guest concierge, security, irons, hairdressers, washer and drier and various other items that would be found at home or a high-end hotel.
• Consider a longer stay rates discount. Offering a special rate for longer stays is a very good way to encourage these sort of bookings. Having your rental booked for a long period of time means consistent income. Even if you have to lower your rates a little bit, you will still profit from extended stays. A successful extended stay guest can often result in a repeat guest, which is also excellent for your business. You don’t have to offer greatly reduced rates – essentially this discount is just a token that rewards guests for booking longer periods.

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The absolute best way to ensure that your guests want to stay as long as possible is to invest in holiday rental management that provides day to day management of your holiday home rental as well as guest concierge, bookings management and marketing. This will help you provide your guests with a world-class accommodation option that they will want to return to time and again.

To learn more about investing in high quality holiday rental management services, simply contact the Totalstay team today for a zero obligation, completely free evaluation of your property.