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Vacation Rental Welcome Book | How to Create one using Canva - YouTube
Channel: Fully Booked Consulting
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Hey everyone, and welcome back to my channel.
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In today's video I want to talk about how
you can create a welcome book that really
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wows your guests.
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Your welcome book is important because it
really sets the tone for your guests, and
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it's one of the first impressions.
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So you want it to be welcoming, helpful, and
polished.
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When it comes to the format, you have a few
different options that you could go.
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Now, you could go the simple route and provide
something in a binder format, or you could
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go a little bit more professional and create
something using a service like Shutterfly,
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where you incorporate a lot of beautiful pictures,
and you print it out in a book format.
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Then the third option I see that is becoming
more and more popular is doing a digital guidebook,
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using a company like Touch Stay.
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And I will link to them below, I think that
they are great option.
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We don't personally use them, but I know a
lot of hosts that do, and love it.
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And that provides the guests mobile access
to your guest book, and then it also gives
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you an option to print it as well.
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Now, if you want to go with the simple yet
still professional and beautiful route, in
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today's video, I will show you how you can
create your own guest welcome book using Canva,
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so let's get started.
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I've broken this into four steps, and step
number one is, gather the important information,
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open up a Word doc, and start putting all
of the information that you know needs to
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go into your welcome book.
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So the first piece of this is you want to
write a nice welcome note, it doesn't have
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to be super long, it may be a paragraph, but
something warm and inviting, since this will
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be the first thing that they read.
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Next, you want to provide their local contact
information.
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Who are they going to contact if an issue
arises?
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And then next you'll also want the important
phone numbers, so local fire department, local
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police department, if there's a home association
that they would need to get in contact with
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for any reason, those type of numbers would
also go in your first page.
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Then you want the important information like
your wifi password, garbage instructions for
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taking out the garbage, and checkout time
and maybe anything that they need to do before
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checkout.
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So make sure you have all the basics covered,
and that will be in your first few pages.
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Step number two are your how-to guides.
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This is where you will think about all of
the different items in your home, is it easy
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to figure out how to operate them?
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You will want to make sure you have how-to
instructions for any tricky appliances, if
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you have a hot tub, technology is a big one,
make sure they know how to work the TV.
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So just include all of the how-to instructions
in that Word doc as well.
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You'll also want to capture specific rules
that apply in your home, building, and/or
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community.
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So think about those as well, and that will
go in this section.
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Step number three is, be their tour guide.
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This is the fun part, this is where you get
to really help them enjoy your area as a local.
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Give them those insider tips, give them your
favorite bars, restaurants, rental shops,
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shopping, attractions, all of that.
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Kind of, if you have a family member coming
in town, what are you going to tell them?
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So put that in this welcome guide as well
and really help be their tour guide.
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That will be much appreciated, and something
that guests love reading in these type of
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welcome books.
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Step number four is, make it pretty.
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Now I love this part, this is where you take
your Word doc, and then you're going to make
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it really pretty so that you can print it
out, put it in a binder, laminate it, whatever
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you decide to do, but really you want to put
a little bit of design on this so that it
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looks professional and polished.
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A tool that I love to use for this is canva.com.
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Canva, you can create a free account, and
you can do everything you would need to with
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the free account.
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So you can upgrade if you want a little bit
more bells and whistles, but you definitely
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don't need to.
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You do not need to have any design experience,
and I think it is a very easy and intuitive
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platform to use.
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So I will walk you through right now, I'm
going to jump in my computer and show you
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how you can get started designing your guidebook
in Canva.
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So let's get started with that.
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Okay, I am in canva.com, you can just start
a free account, it'll give you everything
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you need, and you'll go to create a design,
and then it will give you all of their templates.
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So for this case, go ahead and choose flyer,
because you want an 8-1/2 by 11, and then
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this will give you all of your template options
to choose from.
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For this example, I will choose the first
one, and you'll click on that, it'll automatically
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be brought over, and then this is where you
can customize it.
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So I am going to start by ungrouping this
so that I can delete these text boxes out
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of here, because all I want it to say is,
"Welcome to Echo Valley."
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So I am going to change the font color, I'm
going to bring that down, and I will say,
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"Welcome to Echo Valley Cottage."
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I need to bump this text down a bit so that
it fits, and then I can bring my box over,
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and I'll start with that.
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Then you will upload your photo, you can upload
your photo there, but I already have a photo
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here.
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So I'll take my photo of the exterior and
drag and drop there.
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That's going to be my cover, and then I'm
going to go back to my template, and now I
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will add the second page.
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So this is where I would again, update my
photos here just by dragging and dropping,
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maybe you can include some interiors of your
home or some shots of the views at your home.
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And then this is where you might change the
text color again to whatever you decided your
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brand family is, and then this is where you
will customize your text, "Hello, we're so
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glad you're here," and then down here is where
I would write my personalized welcome note
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that shows your appreciation for them staying
at your home.
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Then the easy part comes, once you get this
page the way that you want it, then you can
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really just start duplicating it for the next
pieces of information.
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So on the next page is where you would have
your important contact information, you could
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continue to swap out new photos, or you could
just delete this altogether, and then just
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make this more of a text page.
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You could update to say, "Important phone
numbers," and then this is where you would
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outline all of those important contact numbers.
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Once you get this looking the way that you
want it, change out your colors to make sure
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your colors and fonts are consistent.
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Then just copy that again, put in your how-to
guides, put in your guidebook information,
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where you recommend that they visit.
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I hope that this was helpful.
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I use Canva for absolutely everything, and
I think that you'll find it a really easy
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tool to use to create your guidebook.
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Creating a great guest welcome book is one
of several important steps to starting your
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vacation rental.
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Now, be sure to grab my free marketing roadmap,
because it lays out the seven important marketing
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pillars of starting a vacation rental.
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So I will provide the link to that below,
if you want to grab that free guide.
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Also, if you are getting started, I would
recommend you check out this video right here,
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it is the first six steps to take when you're
getting started, and it's a really good starting
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point for anyone that is new to the vacation
rental industry.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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Be sure to subscribe and hit the bell to be
notified because I post new marketing videos
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for vacation rentals every Tuesday.
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So thanks again, and I will see you next week.
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