Upselling from your welcome book

The keys have been handed over, the QR code has done its bit of magic, your guests are settled in. That is precisely the point where most hosts stop, just as the relationship is beginning.

Over the following days, your guests will open your welcome book several times: for the wifi code, for the check-out time, to find a restaurant. Every one of those visits is a chance to offer them something useful. Not to sell to them: to save them a trip.

A bottle of wine, a sharing platter, a canoe trip, a late check-out: all of it can be offered straight from the welcome book. Here is what genuinely sells, at what price, and then the steps to set it up.

The moment when the guest is genuinely free

An offer sent by message before arrival lands in a crowded moment: the guest is packing, sorting out transport, not thinking ahead. The same offer read from the sofa of the property, on the first evening, lands in an empty moment.

That is the whole difference between a sales follow-up and a service. The guest asked for nothing, but they are in your property, they are hungry, and they do not know the area. A charcuterie platter offered at that moment does not feel like selling.

What genuinely sells in short-term rental

Three families work well, and one fails regularly.

Anything that saves a journey. The arrival hamper with breakfast supplies, bread ordered the day before, a bottle of wine from a nearby producer. A guest who arrives at 9 pm with tired children will buy without a second thought.

Anything that solves a constraint. End-of-stay cleaning, late check-out, early check-in, extra linen. These are services whose value the guest already knows, because they have seen the price elsewhere.

Anything that gives access to something local. A canoe descent, a wine cellar visit, bike hire from the shop in the village. You put nothing up front, you simply connect people, and plenty of providers will accept a commission.

What fails, on the other hand: branded merchandise and souvenir items. Guests in a holiday rental are not there for that.

Setting a price that causes no hesitation

The rule is simple: the service must cost less than the effort it saves. An arrival hamper at 25 € sells, because the supermarket is twenty minutes away and closes at 8 pm. The same hamper at 45 € does not sell, because the guest would rather go themselves.

For comfort services, compare with what the platforms display. A late check-out charged at 20 € or 30 € goes through without discussion. Above that, the guest feels they are being charged for a favour.

Setting up upselling with Stripe

1. Create your Stripe account

Go to stripe.com and follow the sign-up steps.

• Enter your details (a SIRET number is compulsory in France). If you are outside France, select the country you are based in and Stripe will update the information requested.
• Confirm your email address

2. Set up your business

Once logged in, add your business information.

• Click on "Start now"
• Enter: identity, bank details, trading name
• Verify your identity (within 24 hours)

3. Create your first product

• Products tab >> Add a product
• Give it a name and an appealing description
• Choose the payment type (one-off or recurring)

4. Generate your payment links

• Products > Payment links > "+ Create a payment link"
• Select your product and switch on the options you want
• Copy the payment link, you will use it in the welcome book

The PayPal option, quicker to set up

Create a PayPal account

• Go topaypal.com
• Choose between a personal or a business account

Create a PayPal.me link

• Activate your personal link atpaypal.me
• Add a photo (optional)
• Confirm your personalised address >> your payment link is ready!

Track what gets clicked, and what does not

A payment link is good. A short, trackable link is better.

• Create an account onbitly.com
• Click on"Create link"and paste in your Stripe or PayPal link
• Bitly gives you ashortened version(e.g. bit.ly/yourshop)

Bonus: you get access to click statistics in real time.

Placing your products in the welcome book

Add a "Boutique" category to your welcome book and insert your payment links with a short description and a photo of your product. Your guests can then browse and buy in one click:

• Open your welcome book >>Practical info module
• Create a new category (e.g. "Local Boutique") with an icon
• Add your products one by one with:
  • The name in the title block
  • A short description including theBitly payment link
  • Photos to show the product off

Your guests will see a neat list of products to buy as soon as they tap the category.

Quick tip: you can also add your Boutique to the check-in and check-out info modules for more specific products.

Two extra touchpoints that make the difference

• Add your products to the welcome emailSlip a friendly line and the link to your Boutique straight into the welcome email sent to your guests. For example: "During your stay, do take a look at our selection of local products: View the Boutique"

• Create a dedicated QR code for upsellingCreate a QR code linking to your Boutique and display it in the property. Simple and visual! If you fancy it, the site"Mon Affiche QR Code"lets you design your own personalised poster with a QR code.

Product ideas to get you started

Here are a few product ideas to create for your upselling:

• Household linen (towels, bed sheets)
• An earlier or later check-in/check-out
• Breakfast
• End-of-stay cleaning
• Local produce (jams, honey, wine, beers, soaps, etc.)
• Arranging guided tours

Three mistakes that ruin everything

Offering too late. An offer discovered the day before departure is no longer of any use. The arrival hamper needs to be visible from day one, the late check-out at least two days before the end of the stay.

Mixing the commercial with the practical. If the wifi code and the charcuterie platter are fighting over the same screen, the guest can no longer find the code and does not buy the platter. Practical information should stay practical information.

Promising what you cannot deliver. A hamper offered when you are not available to deliver it turns into a bad review. Two services you always deliver are worth more than eight of which three fall through.

Start with two products, not twelve

The temptation is to offer everything at once. That is the surest way to get no feedback on anything and to have no idea what to fix.

Take the service your guests already ask you for unprompted, and the one that costs you the least effort. Two lines are enough. After one season, you will know which of the two performs, and you can add a third knowing exactly why.