GUEST RECEPTION
This article looks at the practicalities of welcoming guests into your Sicilian vacation property and hosting them throughout their stay. It’s part of our comprehensive series of guides for owners.
What should I do before each new group of guests arrive?
Building a reliable pre-arrival routine and using it consistently is more valuable than any single act of preparation. Confirm the arrival time, check that the guests know everything they need to get into the accommodation (or wherever you will meet them), and test out all of the property’s systems, including WiFi, air conditioning, entry systems, boiler and appliances.
Providing a supply of essential consumables like cooking oil, condiments and toiletries makes a good impression. Quality matters, but small containers or single-serving products like coffee pods work better than full-size bottles, since not every guest treats them carefully. Leave an ample quantity of bin bags. We think every rental apartment should have a bottle of drinking water in the fridge – if you have a water filter installed this can be a refillable one, but everyone arrives hot and wants to cool off quickly.
Small personal touches like a bottle of local wine or snacks go a long way towards a warm first impression. Freshly laundered linen is of course a must, and everyone appreciates a fluffy, regularly-changed set of towels.
Cleanliness is the factor guests mention most often in reviews, so the property should always be presented to the standard you photographed for your listing. A welcome note and something local to eat or drink cost very little and come up consistently in positive reviews.
How Solemar can help
Our team will take care of every step of this for you. We carry out a thorough inspection and inventory check before every new guest arrives, provide clean linen ourselves, and send guests clear communications in their own language covering access, parking and local information.
We can ensure that any extras you would like to offer your guests are waiting for them on request.
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What’s the best way to manage check-ins and check-outs in a Sicilian vacation property?
These days, most guests are comfortable with self check-in, and many of them actively prefer it. A smart lock or simple lockbox saves significant time and gives you greater security, as you can change the code before each new arrival.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t meet guests in person. Even if guests have checked in by themselves you have a legal obligation to identify them in person during their stay. So you will need to pop by (either yourself or by proxy) after they have settled in. This however gives them time to get their bearings, and you an opportunity to check their ID in a more relaxed setting. It’s also a chance for them to ask questions after they have first explored the property in person.
Tell visitors about security deposits, energy billing, meter readings, tourist tax and any relevant house rules in writing before they arrive, not on the doorstep.
You should absolutely ask guests to tell you their expected arrival time, but never assume that this will be reliable. Anything up to two hours earlier or later than stated is common. We recommend sending a confirmation message a few hours before you expect to see them, rather than waiting for them to contact you.
Make sure the check-out time is clearly stated in your pre-arrival message, house guide and probably on a sign as well. Be specific about the way in which you expect guests to manage recycling and waste disposal, where they should leave the keys and anything else you need from them on departure.
How Solemar can help
We recognise the importance of the first impression, and it is our highest priority to manage every check-in and check-out professionally. with a welcome wherever possible from someone who speaks your guests’ first language. This covers your legal responsibility to check their identity in person.Â
Owners have real-time access to their booking calendar, occupancy and income through our management platform.
How much does cleaning and maintenance cost for a holiday home in Sicily?
To get the job done well owners tend to have to invest more than they expect in cleaning, either in either time or money. Get quotes before you start the journey so it can be in your budget and pricing from the outset. If you cut corners here it will have real negative consequences for your review scores. For a two-bedroom apartment you should budget around €60 for cleaning between each group.
In order to keep your cleaning teams unstressed and working to the best of their ability, you should allow four hours for a turnover between guests. Slightly earlier check-out and slightly later check-in times will give you breathing room for this. Of course, if guests ask for more leeway on a day when things are more relaxed you can make a very favourable impression by saying yes.
For maintenance expenses, a rule of thumb is to budget 1% of the property’s value per year for maintenance and repairs, although by their nature these are unpredictable. For an older property allow up to 4%.
How Solemar can help
Our in-house staffing means that we will always be in a position to send someone we trust and who knows the property to take care of the cleaning and maintenance of your Sicilian holiday home.
If you have specialist cleaning or maintenance needs, for example if your property has a swimming pool or home gym, we can get you the very best rates from local contractors.
How do I handle problems or complaints during a guest’s stay?
When visitors to your Sicilian vacation property have a problem, how quickly and thoroughly you can react to it will have a much bigger effect on your review score than the issue itself: if a guest waits several hours for a reply it will create a negative impression regardless of how well things are eventually resolved. For this reason you need to make sure someone can be on call, all day every day. If you’re not physically in the area, a local contact who can attend the property quickly is a basic requirement of professional management.
Keep your focus on solving the problem rather than explaining why it occurred, and document everything. If something has genuinely disrupted a guest’s stay, consider making some kind of goodwill gesture before it can cost you a bad review.
How Solemar can help
Our team can be contacted from 08:00 to 23:00, seven days a week, in order to resolve any maintenance problems that may arrive on your behalf. We will act proactively, but document everything carefully for your later reference.
While you can always call someone in from overseas, having people who know the property guarantees a speedy and hassle-free service, which is very difficult to be sure of otherwise.Â