How to Prepare Your House to be Vacation Rental

Plus the cutest free downloadable welcome letter!
How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental with @schlagelocks matte black door hardware with keyless entry! Also tips for hosting guests and assembling a gift basket. #SchlageCustom #ad

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Schlage. The opinions and text are all mine.

As I mentioned briefly before, once #mytinybungalow is totally finished, we plan to use it as a vacation rental. Initially, I thought a normal rental would work, but the more we think about it… the more we want the flexibility to stay at the house whenever we feel like it! This strategy would fit in nicely with our longterm goal of owning and living in a cabin in the mountains, so every home improvement project we take on is with these goals in mind. Today I partnered with Schlage to share tips for how to prepare your house to be a vacation rental — especially so you get great ratings and repeat guests!

How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental with @schlagelocks matte black door hardware with keyless entry! Also tips for hosting guests and assembling a gift basket. #SchlageCustom #ad

How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental

Make an Excellent First Impression

Now that our backdoor is welcoming and lovely, I am more than happy to receive guests through that entrance! I prefer to welcome guests into our home through this door because they can walk through our garden and instantly feel like they are transported to a different place. Also, parking is a lot easier on that side of the house. Our new Schlage door hardware with keyless entry makes it especially easy for guests to check in because we won’t need to coordinate a key exchange. All I need to do is simply message them the key code (that I can reset after each guest) and that’s it! I love that I don’t need to physically be home to welcome the guests. Personally, I’ve found that I enjoy it much more when the host is not home because it feels less awkward and I can settle in at my own pace.

If you’d like to install the same hardware in your home, I paired the Schlage Sense™ Smart Deadbolt with Century trim with the Century Front Entry Handle and Latitude Lever. With the Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt, you can enter up to 30 access codes, which adds an extra security layer and ease of use for managing a rental property. I just love how easy to use the app is, especially remotely. Also, it means guests won’t have to carry around a key and worry about losing it or getting locked out!

How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental with @schlagelocks matte black door hardware with keyless entry! Also tips for hosting guests and assembling a gift basket. #SchlageCustom #ad
How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental with @schlagelocks matte black door hardware with keyless entry! Also tips for hosting guests and assembling a gift basket. #SchlageCustom #ad

Leave a Welcome Letter

I’ve stayed in so many vacation rentals… probably every time I travel, actually! The places that stand out the most in my mind are ones that offer a concise, but informative welcome letter. A few essentials for the letter include:

  • wifi network information
  • house rules
  • check out procedure
  • emergency contact information
  • suggestions for our neighborhood

I asked my good friend Becca Luna to design this gorgeous free downloadable that you can use for your own rental — click here to download your free welcome letter printable!

Once you’ve printed it out and added the relevant information, make sure to place it in a highly visible place so your guests can easily find it. I usually keep mine on the dining table with a basket of local goodies.

How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental with @schlagelocks matte black door hardware with keyless entry! Also tips for hosting guests and assembling a gift basket. #SchlageCustom #ad

Curate a Local Gift Basket

Speaking of treats… I suggest always giving your rental guests a goodie basket of local treats like coffee, wine or beer, chocolate, or tea. Because we’re in Seattle, I always make sure there’s a bag of fresh coffee that they can take home with them as a souvenir (I make sure the kitchen is stocked with coffee as well). I’ve heard that it’s best practice to give a gift that is worth 10% of the nightly rate of the vacation rental. You can also include some snacks for your guests to munch on, like your favorite locally made potato chips.

Consider the Details

My final tip for setting up a vacation rental in your home is to make sure all of the details are fab. For example, I’ve invested in gorgeous linen bedding so that the bedroom feels more like a hotel than a house. You can also upgrade your towels, provide luxury hair and bath products, and even stock the refrigerator with breakfast essentials. I really urge you to consider what would make you leave a glowing review!

How to Prepare Your Home to be Vacation Rental with @schlagelocks matte black door hardware with keyless entry! Also tips for hosting guests and assembling a gift basket. #SchlageCustom #ad

I’d love to hear from you: what was your best vacation rental experience?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Schlage . The opinions and text are all mine.

 

Behind The Blog

Joanna Hawley-McBride is a Pacific Northwest-based social media strategist, content creator, and former textile designer. Joanna is the founder and editor-in-chief of Jojotastic, a lifestyle blog focused on Joanna’s work-in-progress cabin, finding the best pair of underwear through #UnderwearThesis, and empowering women to explore nature — all in her signature unfiltered style. Her work has been featured in Domino, CNBC, and Eating Well.

Let's stay in touch:

Shop my picks on Amazon

Shop now

Please note that I use affiliate links at times here, as well as on my social media accounts. This means that if you click on a link to a product and purchase that product, I may receive a commission based on your purchase. I only feature products that truly inspire me. Any products that have been gifted to Jojotastic for review are noted at the bottom of the post. Sponsored posts are noted as such. All opinions are my own and always will be! Thanks for supporting content that keeps Jojotastic going.

Leave a Comment