Gone are the days when the owner of a tourism apartment in Barcelona could get away with letting their visitors in, handing them the keys, and then head out of town for the weekend. Thanks to online portals like Airbnb and Booking.com, skyrocketing hotel prices, and more interest in staying in apartments when on holiday, the market for renting holiday flats is booming. But where there’s a market there is soon to be supply, and competition has become stiff for snagging Barcelona’s would-be apartment renters. You need to know how to make your flat stand out and earn your visitors’ loyalty.
Whether you have a tourism license and can rent your apartment by the day or you don’t have a license and have opted for monthly rentals, your guests’ first days in Barcelona will be similar. They’ll probably arrive exhausted and hungry after a stressful day of travel. They’ll have spilled something on their shirt and need to clean it. If they’re dying for their first Spanish meal, they need to know where to go. When they discover that they forgot to pack their shampoo, they’re going to hope there’s a solution. And this is your golden opportunity to earn your first points with your guests.
Here at Lodging Management, after over a decade of tourism apartment management in Barcelona, we’ve got more than a few tricks up our sleeve and specialised services we offer so that our clients’ guests come back again and again. But one of the simplest (and cheapest!) ways straight to your visitors’ hearts is to provide them with a thoughtful Welcome Pack. You don’t need to spend €100 or worry about fancy presentation. Remember that you are addressing your renters’ most immediate and urgent needs, and they will be struggling to get the packaging off and into the trash as quickly as they can. Focus on contents that will really help them navigate their first few hours in the city, when the last thing they want to do is search the neighbourhood for a convenience store.
Among whatever other items you can think of, we recommend that you include the following in your holiday apartment Welcome Pack:
Snacks: After a day of travel, a guest wants to drop her bags and catch her breath. And then after about 20 seconds she probably realises she’s starving. Buy a case of snack-sized peanuts, mini-cans of olives, crackers, or chips, and put one in every welcome pack. You don’t need to provide food for an army, just a little something.
A personalised neighbourhood restaurant guide: Give your guests something to look at while they’re enjoying their first olives filled with anchovies. And something that will help them when they realise that a few olives aren’t going to quell the rumbling of their stomachs. One of the best aspects of travel is trying local cuisine, so provide your guests a small list of favourite neighbourhood restaurants or cafes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It can be handwritten or printed, or even professionally designed; whatever you prefer. But make sure to give addresses, directions and opening hours, as well as your personal description! By all means, provide your guests with a larger Barcelona guidebook for later, but upon arrival they need to know where they can walk within 5 minutes and what’s good. And save the amazing Thai restaurant for your longer list of city recommendations, not the Welcome Pack. Most travellers want their first taste of Spain to be Spanish.
Soap, shampoo, and the like: This is an area where you can really set the tone for your guests’ stay. If you expect them to pretty much take care of themselves, you can give them refillable (but charming!) bottles of the basics such as shower gel, hand soap, shampoo and conditioner. If you’ve opted to provide a more luxe experience, you can order mini-bottles of premium brands online and provide those to your guests. But some version of these items is an absolute must. The easiest way to frustrate your visitors is to make them go buy soap upon arrival.
Beverages: Is there any experience more Barcelonan than a drink on a terrace or one enjoyed in the company of friends? Give your guests this gift by providing a few beverages they can enjoy upon arrival. If you don’t know their preferences, it’s a good idea to provide a mix of drinks with and without alcohol, but whatever you do, don’t forget a bottle of water! This is probably the most-craved beverage of travellers everywhere in the world.
Staples: Provide some nice coffee or tea in your welcome pack, as well as a bit of sugar and other basics like small quantities of salt, black pepper and olive oil. There’s nothing worse than having to buy a full litre of olive oil when you’ll only be staying in an apartment for three days. And nothing more annoying than being halfway through scrambling some breakfast eggs when you discover there’s nary a grain of salt in the house.
Washing powder and dish soap: It’s not obligatory to provide your guests with these items for the entirety of their stay (especially if you are offering monthly rentals), but you should aim to get them through a few days. You can buy large bags of dishwasher tablets, for instance, and mete out a few to each visitor, or give them a limited amount of washing powder or liquid in a smaller container. But don’t fail to give them something. Not only will it make your guests’ lives easier, it’ll save your machines from being filled with an off brand or the wrong type of product completely. Don’t forget that if your guests come from a different country, their laundry and dishwashing systems may be different and they might not know what to buy. And along these same lines, make sure you’ve provided clear instructions for all your appliances in a variety of languages!
Pretty much everything on this list comes in a wide range of price and quality options, so use your Welcome Pack to serve your guests’ needs and demonstrate the level of quality they can expect during their stay. Get creative and showcase a bit of your personality as well, putting in the things that you wish you had available upon arrival in a foreign city. A pay-as-you-go SIM card, dog treats for guests traveling with an animal, slippers…these are but a few of the many, many ideas you could employ. Amaze your guests with your forethought and care for their stay and you’ll see your rebookings rise, just as our clients have seen under Lodging Management.
