Plan Your Marketing & Communication

I could dedicate a whole series on just this topic so I’ll leave it to highlights for now:

• Regular communication with guests during this time is critical. And no, I’m not talking just another mass email. PICK UP THE PHONE. I have found that phone calls have relieved tension and more times than not resulted in a postponed reservation in lieu of a cancel. If things change, it's much easier to then follow up with a text or email.
• I use Later to plan and schedule my Facebook, intagram and pinterest posts. I decided now would be a great time to organize and tag my photos and add new content. I am still actively working on this but by the end I should have at least a few months of content to pull from. Speaking of content…
• If your town looks anything like mine (aka empty), it’s actually a perfect time to get your daily dose of outdoors and snap some pictures while there aren’t hoards of people in the way. Over the weekend, I was able to get at least 60+ pictures I can use later on. Next, I plan to get into the homes for some lifestyle staging to get interior photos for social media as well.
• Start a campaign that shares what’s happening in your community and why you can’t wait to welcome guests in the future. I just kicked off a #NashvilleMissesYou campaign that I am excited to add to.
• Update your website. Y’all, I just launched a new site in February and even with that still have so much I could do to make it better. Don’t have a website? Get one. OwnerRez that I mentioned above offers templated versions!
• If you learned the hard way what “merchant of record” really means and you’re looking to diversify now is also a great time to add your listings to new OTAs like booking.com, FabStayz and more.