How to Create Guest Satisfaction Surveys your Guests Will Want to Answer
As your guests depart, they head home rich in something that's vital to your business — freshly minted impressions of the area, their rental homes and your management team. Small wonder the hospitality industry has embraced guest satisfaction surveys, from hotels to vacation rental properties.
With the ready availability of questionnaires that can be completed on personal electronic devices, it's never been easier to find out what guests did and did not like about their stay. But the feedback you get is only as good as the survey you create.
Devising an effective survey can be a challenge. Ultimately, it's a balancing act between being concise and being thorough. You don't want to annoy your guests with a lengthy list of poorly worded questions. Yet your vacation rental business requires that you gather the pertinent information you need about your guests' time at the properties you manage.
Here are eight tips for crafting guest satisfaction surveys that hit the sweet spot, providing the information you need while enticing guests to answer each question.
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Ask short, specific questionsThe best survey questions are clear, concise and focused on one idea. Use simple, direct wording. Avoid jargon, acronyms, double negatives and any language or phrasing that muddies your message. |
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Make sure each question is essentialHave a clear idea about the information you want from your survey, and delete any questions that don’t further that purpose. This is not a forum for posing an off-point question that you think it won’t hurt to ask. |
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Ask one question at a timeQuestions with multiple parts can be confusing. A question like “How would you rate the cleanliness of the house, garage and yard?” is actually three questions, and each part may have a different answer. |
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Be mindful about overall lengthYour guests are busy people. Shorter surveys that take five to ten minutes have a better chance of being completed than those clocking in at more than 20 minutes. If possible, limit your survey to 20 questions or less. |
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Present questions in a logical orderThe best surveys flow easily from question to question. Surveys usually start with a question about the guest’s overall experience, then proceed along a natural path, tracing a stay from the guest’s booking experience or arrival at the home to their departure. |
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Create a consistent rating scaleA rating scale will often elicit a more useful response to a question than a simple Yes or No. But a comprehensive study about surveys from Survey Monkey and the Gallup Group underscores the importance of presenting equal numbers of positive and negative options for each question as well as one neutral answer. For example, a balanced choice of answers to the question “How likely are you to recommend our vacation rental business to a friend?” would include Very Likely, Somewhat Likely, Might or Might Not, Probably Would Not and Definitely Would Not. |
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Send out surveys within three days of guest departureYou want to tap your guests’ brains before they forget the details of their stay. The Survey Monkey/Gallup Group study found that guests are most likely to open and answer a survey on a Monday, Sunday or Friday. |
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Research before you writeNot sure what you want to include in your survey or how you want to word it? Numerous surveys are available online, mostly from hotels. Look them over for ideas about wording, content and style. |
Here are some sample survey questions for a vacation rental manager.
Please rate your overall experience at the vacation rental home.
How likely are you to book one of our vacation rental properties again?
How would you rate your communications with the manager?
How would you rate the cleanliness of the home?
How accurate was the description of the property?
Please add any comments you have about your stay or suggestions for what we could do better.
Interested in creating surveys that can be sent automatically to guest as emails or texts? RueBaRue's Guest Communication Platform is designed to address every aspect of advanced guest communication, from scheduling and sending messages automatically to creating property guides and guestbooks. To learn more, schedule a 30-minute demo.