The Benefits of Using Digital Guidebooks

Digital guidebooks offer huge benefits to hosts and property managers alike, but most importantly, to guests. To begin with, digital guidebooks can simplify a series of tasks for you. As a result, you’ll be able to:

  • Save a lot of time – By using a digital guidebook to offer your guests all the details they need to know about the properties they’ve booked and about the area, you won’t waste your time answering the same questions over and over again. Instead, you can spend all that time addressing more important matters.
  • Keep your guidebook up-to-date – One of the greatest things about replacing traditional welcome books with digital guidebooks is that you can update information easily and quickly. As a result, you’ll never have outdated instructions and recommendations. Has a new restaurant recently opened in your area? Instead of having this information printed out and added as a hard copy to the welcome books in all the properties you manage—which could take several days or more—you can simply update your digital guidebook and make the information available to all guests simultaneously. As well, if you’ve just renovated some vacation rentals to offer your guests new amenities, you can easily add all the instructions required to the relevant sections of the guidebook.
  • Make your guests happy – While communicating with your guests on a regular basis could help you build a strong relationship with them, not everyone likes to chat. In fact, younger generations, which are now the driving force behind many trends in the vacation rental industry, seem to prefer accessing information in a digital format to having to ask someone a few questions every day. 
  • Get more business – Digital guidebooks and automated messages allow you to offer your guests complete information that they can access whenever they wish. Furthermore, transforming your guests’ questions into a comprehensive guidebook can help you create an exemplary experience for them. A wonderful experience is what makes most guests happy and willing to leave a great review once their stay ends. Besides the fact that happy guests always return or recommend the vacation rentals they liked to others, their positive reviews could help you attract more guests.

Coming down to the way digital guidebooks can improve the overall guest experience, here are a few benefits for the guest. 

  • Digital guidebooks answer many questions – By simply providing all the information that travelers might need to make the most of their stays and keeping your digital guidebooks up-to-date, you can turn a simple vacation into an unforgettable experience for your guests.
  • Digital guidebooks offer information from a trusted source – When it comes to house rules and the check-in and check-out process, which typically vary from one vacation rental to another, you need to offer your guests property-specific instructions. Not only could you provide all these details via a digital guidebook, but you could also curate a list of local restaurants, businesses, events, and activities for your guests and leave a few personalized comments about each of them. Although your guests can find restaurants as well as places to visit and things to do on their own, most of them will appreciate recommendations from someone they trust.
  • Digital guidebooks can be accessed at any time – Even if you’re a dedicated professional who is genuinely committed to providing excellent service to all guests, you or your staff cannot be at their disposal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But a digital guidebook can, and it is. Your guests will be able to access your digital guidebook from virtually anywhere, whenever they want to check instructions or the latest information about the area. 

Considering all these benefits, which enhance the experience for everyone involved, we can only say a big “YES” to using a digital guidebook for the properties you manage. Since a digital guidebook is one of the most valuable amenities you can provide to your guests, it’s important to select a product that’s available via a simple hyperlink, like Operto. The most important advantage of using a web-based guidebook is that it can be saved and accessed even when the guest is offline.  

Since digital guidebooks can ensure better stays for your guests and fewer messages and phone calls for you, getting a comprehensive PMS solution that also provides integration with a digital guidebook can help you get the most out of the system you intend to use. If you’re ready to take the leap, you can check out our software solution and all the tools that it offers! For additional information, feel free to get in touch with our friendly professionals!