When we wrote our book, Rock Your Rental, never in a million years would we have predicted this surreal pandemic situation. The world is a different place than just a week ago.

As lovers of travel and as rental owners, we totally understand how difficult and trying these times are for the travel industry (especially in our beloved Italy). We hope that you are turning this quiet time into an opportunity for yourself (since the situation isn’t changing, we decide our attitudes might as well be as positive as we can be). This is when we get to show our best selves — in our worst situations.

Since many of us are “Shelter-in-place” we thought it might be a good time to do a bit spring cleaning and design assessment to make sure we are Rocking our Rental so when things do get back to normal, we are ready to rock and roll.

Thinking of you all.

virtual - 6’feet away xoxo

Rosanne and Joanne

No… Joanne is not free… the toilet is… Taking a break from the deconstruction phase of this remodeling project at Main and Mountain Motel to test one of the many craft cocktails the new owners created.

1. SIT ON YOUR TOILET…Please

Go ahead…have a seat. It’s rare that we have the opportunity to have some downtime with our vacation rental, boutique hotel or inn so let’s try to find the silver lining. Here is an opportunity to go and sit on the toilet and have a look around. What are you seeing? Because your guests are seeing the exact same thing. Hopefully, they are seeing nicely designed and sparkling clean bathroom. But if they are seeing dust in the fan vents, moldy caulking, dirt in the tile, dust on the baseboard, broken shower curtain rings, or anything that is not going to bring them joy — this is the time to fix it. Look up, look down, look under and look behind (get it… behind…). :)

Budget friendly renovation doesn’t mean it can’t look amazing. Keep materials simple—and it will be easier to keep the bathrooms clean.

2. CONNECT AND GET PERSONAL…Hello, Thank You

Have you taken this opportunity to update your contact list? Have you created personalized thank you cards to have in the rooms when your guests arrive? You are home… pull out the markers make some cards, have a pile of them ready when things pick back up and you don’t have time to get as personal as you would like. Use this time to really create unique ways to reach out to your guests and say, “Thank you, we appreciate your business. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your stay more enjoyable.”

Creating personalized thank you notes is always a good idea — whether you are doing it for guests, friends or family members. Get the kids involved. No matter the situation, it is always great to encourage them to be thankful. Joanne created these w… — Creating personalized thank you notes is always a good idea — whether you are doing it for guests, friends or family members. Get the kids involved. No matter the situation, it is always great to encourage them to be thankful. Joanne created these with only some blank paper and markers. If you don’t have a glue stick or blank cards to put them on - you can do that later. Just do something fun and creative for now.

3. UPDATE YOUR MARKETING…Pinterest is your friend

There is a lot of marketing advice we give in the book about getting to know your customers and where they get their information but here we are going to remind you about Keywords for Pinterest.

Here are some simple things you can do now to update your Pinterest pages. What you don’t have a Pinterest page? START one today…get pinning. Watch a video on Pinterest best practices. We will wait….

Your Pinterest board, if done correctly, can drive traffic to your website. Have boards that showcase your spaces and beautiful designs. Have boards that showcase things to do. For example, The 10 Best Hiking Trails Near Us, Our Favorite Breakfast Spots, 24 Hours in Burlington, Etc. Create pins that have KEY SEARCHABLE WORDS and links when appropriate. Make sure your Pinterest header is engaging and your information. Use your customer information and pin items that matter to them and share things that matter to you. You can even create a PINTEREST page that can link to a blog post — adding KEY words in the descriptions.

This adds value to your customers without asking for anything in return, is something we should all practice. It is not only a great thing to do — but it increases your search engine to get more folks to your website.

You may not have had the time to do this in the past…so take advantage of a little downtime and do it today.

We practice what we preach… we work hard on marketing, using our social media, pinterest, instragram and the like, to get the word out there about our new book.

4. WE ENCOURAGE SLEEPING AROUND…Get your mind out of the gutter and test those pillows

When was the last time you had the chance to sleep in your vacation rental, hotel rooms? Go ahead… do it. Lay on the bed and close your eyes. What do your guests hear? What do they smell? Are the sheets soft enough? Do they have a choice of pillows? Open your eyes. What do they see? Cobwebs on the ceiling? Flies in the light fixture? Stand in the room. Do they have a place to put their suitcase? Hang their coat? We have a section in our book about a walk in your guest’s shoes — every moment is a touchpoint — a first impression — which sets the tone for their entire stay.

Make sure every touchpoint from the moment they drive in — use the bathroom — use the kitchen — and climb into bed… is the best experience it can be. So sleep around… and check it out for yourself.

We are the queens of sleeping around… and love to find places that have the best reviews that are still in our budget.

5. TAKE SOME CLOSE-UP SHOTS…Aren’t you beautiful

We talk a lot about the importance of great photos. It’s important to have full room shots so people have an idea of the beautifully designed space but close-ups are just as important. Vignettes can evoke emotion. This is your opportunity to create some vignettes and take some beautiful pictures of the spaces styled. If you have a lovely window seat, show it with a book and a hot cup of tea. If you have a cozy tub, show it close up with a couple of glasses of champagne. Just get some emotional, close up, dreamy shots and you can add them to your hosting site pages, use them in your social media and your website. Don’t forget to tag the photos with keywords and when describing the picture…tell a story.