Great news: Travellers are getting ready to hit the road — and over the summer months, our marketplace saw considerably more booking requests within weeks of the stay. Here’s what else they said would be most important when lockdown lifts and they’re looking to book.
Travel trends reveal how holiday rental owners can attract more travellers
Travellers are booking last-minute trips
As many as 31% of travellers said that they expect to book trips closer to their travel dates than they typically have before. If you use your dashboard on our platform to manage your listing, make sure that you’re ready to accept traveller bookings by:
Flexible cancellation policies are key
When asked what is most important to travellers interested in booking, travellers saw cancellation/refund policies as highest in scaled importance.
In fact, 77% of travellers surveyed said that they’ll be more likely to choose accommodation with a flexible cancellation policy—and during our user testing session, most participants used the ‘free cancellation’ filter when searching for a holiday rental.
Consider adopting a moderate or relaxed cancellation policy as part of your Covid-19 recovery efforts, if you don’t have one already.
Cleaning and safety measures are vital
As a result of COVID-19, 51% of travellers say that they’ll pay more attention to the cleanliness standards of holiday rentals prior to booking.
Here are the top three cleanliness details that travellers care about:
- When the property was last cleaned
- Details from the owner about the cleaning practices of the property
- Checklist of surfaces and items that were disinfected and/or professionally cleaned
To help put travellers at ease, upgrade your standard cleaning practices using these cleaning guidelines . Also, make sure that you mention your enhanced cleaning practices in your listing details and communications to guests (but don’t ever use phrases like ‘COVID-free’).
Travellers know the amenities that they want
Travellers indicated that they’re especially looking for the following amenities and property details, so make sure that you include them on your listing:
- All travellers see WiFi as important. Guests need it for working remotely, making video calls to family and friends, entertaining the children and even squeezing in online workouts. It’s a good idea to highlight it in your listing description, amenity details and any communications that you have with travellers looking to book.
- Travel advisories about the area are important to travellers booking a stay.
- Proximity to supermarkets and restaurants is rated as more important than the availability of grocery and food delivery — so if your property is close to supermarkets and restaurants, make sure that you highlight that in your listing description.
- The majority of travellers see clear check-in and check-out processes as important. Consider offering contactless check-in and using smart lock technology to streamline your process. Use our welcome guide feature to include detailed check-in and check-out instructions.
