Take YOU to FULL OCCUPANCY this year
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A Pretty Darn Good Result
So I can’t deny that I’m extremely happy with our booking season so far, and I expressed my 2016 First Resolution:
“Take You To Full Occupancy Level!”
Now that for the 9th year in a row, I have plenty of time to focus on what I do best and what I love most, besides hosting guests from around the world in our rentals, I can share how I do what I do, so you can model and achieve better results.
One Of The BEST Traits Of Winning Owners

If you’ve been in this industry for a while and you are part of certain ‘progressive’ communities, you’ll have noticed how one of the best traits of winning owners and managers is their ‘giving attitude’, their willingness to rub shoulders, help one another and give back to their peers by sharing how they achieve success, what they discovered that works like a charm, in a virtual win-win cycle.
And if you think about it, it makes quite a lot of sense, since ours is a service industry.
I strongly believe that success is proportionate to the ability to stay humble and be flexible while learning from those who’ve solved creatively issues we all have. So while I keep learning new strategies and develop new techniques to grow my rental business even more, I’d like to share with you from today on and for a few weeks some of my secrets sauce for converting my inquiries into solid bookings, so you can apply the same technique, help me out refine mine and see results for yourself.
The only thing I ask is that you commit to follow me along this journey and implement what I’ll show you diligently.
You Win, I Win
I’m about to reshoot my Fully Booked Formula online course with all new material and I want to get a small group onboard with me on this, so we can all proceed together, while I walk you step by step on how to create the same system I use every time I get an inquiry and that allows me to be here now instead of trying to fill in my rentals.
It’s all about freedom, and the system I’ve been using for years now, that I want to teach you too, is what gave me freedom, and precisely 4 kinds of freedom:
- the freedom to make more than enough money to quit my former job and work from home or anywhere I want, since I only need a device hooked up to the internet.
- the freedom to pursue my dreams and aspirations, follow my passions, read books, study marketing and human behavior (which I love), learn all the things I find fascinating and useful and in essence, grow intellectually and spiritually.
- the freedom to choose who I want to work with.
- and the freedom of purpose, that is the one to do the work that I love and that I am meant to do, and that’s helping others in a way that rewards me and you countless times.
The Outstanding Email Sequence
So to cut a long story short, here’s my first tip for today! And this is really easy as it won’t take much for you to implement it.
Speed Matters –
Now we all know that the first thing you need to do when you get an inquiry is reply as soon as possible! I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone here that the longer you take to respond, the fewer chances you have to get that booking.

The Importance of the Speed of Reply
In order to have a really high chance to convert it into a solid booking though, you need to have:
- a piece of content that’s absolutely incredible, something that blows them away and they don’t expect to receive. A message that sells them right away and wipes out all your competitors. And I’m going to show you what that is, pretty soon.
- A pretty simple email sequence that you need to fire up every time you get an inquiry to ensure your email ends up in their inbox, to know if they opened it, if they read it and to start a little conversation that builds engagement and leads to the booking.
And this email sequence is made of just 3 simple messages, that you can fire up with a single click at the right time. And I’m going to show you all this sequence in action, so you see how fun and exciting this whole process can be, especially when it turns into cash without you having to do any heavy lifting.
Message #1
So message #1 in my plain killer sequence is this simple “standard reply”:
“Dear (first name),
first of all, thank you so much for your kind inquiry! (and here’s where you reply to any specific question they may have, such as is your home pet friendly’, ’do you have a baby cot’, ‘do you take credit cards’, etc.)
We just prepared a specific offer to make your stay a memorable one:
CASA TEULADA – MR. JOHN DOE <----(click on the link to view our offer) [NB for my followers: I’m going to explain more about how you can create a link like this in a later video]
If you are still seeking the best flights to get to Sardinia, we suggest you have a look at the following:
CHECK THE BEST FLIGHT DEALS TO GET TO SARDINIA
And if you need an affordable, reliable car rental, check out what we usually use when we are in Sardinia ourseleves:
http://www.auto-europe.co.uk/
We hope these quick and easy tips will help you organize your trip hassle free.
Should you need more information or should you want to proceed with a booking, please do not hesitate to contact me anytime.
We look forward to hearing from you and hope to have you stay with us in wonderful Sardinia.
Sincerely,
(Signature)”
Now, you may think this message is nothing different than what you already do, or you may spot nothing special in it at all…and here’s where the secrets is: this message embodies a link to a Bespoke Reply, that’s the reason I turned all my inquiries into solid bookings since New Year’s eve and brought home nearly $10,000 with just a few clicks of a mouse.
And if you saw my session at the Vacation Rental World Summit in 2014 you’ve probably seen part of this before.
The structure of the Bespoke Reply, refined over time, the software and platform I use, the elements and tools implemented, and the psychology underneath each single piece of the message my prospective guests see when they click on that special link in the above email are all responsible for filling up our calendars 9 years in a row at full occupancy, despite all head winds and hurdles, including the latest changes in the ranking algorythm of some listing sites most of us advertise on.
Start Building Your Sequence
So today I’d like to give you this first piece of content, that is The Standard Reply I send to each prospective guest, so you can download it below, copy/paste it into a folder in your mailbox and start building a great sequence that will help you turn more inquiries into solid bookings.
Look for an email from me in a few days with the second piece of the sequence and meanwhile leave me a comment below, ask me anything you want and share this with your peers if you feel it’s worth it, and you’ll make my day as much as I am committed to help you make 2016 your best year ever.
Now leave me a question or a comment below and I’ll be back again real soon.










Nice guidance Antonio – well done.
Thanks Bob, I hope it’s helpful. If you have any question, just let me know.
Makes sense. I totally understand the bespoke offer letter – I also have a website with a lot more information and colour than Homeaway offers (www.otrantoapartment.com) and also a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/otrantoapartment/?fref=ts) However Homeway.com redacts any website URLs and email addresses. I can see the email address of the person who is making the enquiry so I can go directly back. Would you suggest responding only directly or through Homeaway with a further information/links personal email? Or all too distracting from the major ai of securing a booking?
I am glad to report that I am at 40% plus too at this point but could improve my conversion of enquiries to bookings. Would you recommend picking up the phone as a first response to UK customers, particularly if they have a specific question?
Many thanks,
David
Hello David,
You have much more control of the rental if you reply directly.
Start harvesting email addresses while you still have access to them too! You can use them in the future by inviting them to join your email list!
Thanks so much Antonio for this information…
Teena
Love this Teena! Very much in tune with the way to go for all of us in the future. Knowledge and Independence are Key…
Thanks Teena,
Yes, I batch email lists by year of enquiry and then whether they have made an enquiry or booked. I then send them a % off early booking offer at the beginning of January, with the best deal for repeat visitors. What do others do?
This year I took up on Matt’s idea and did the following: http://enquiries.casateulada.com/specialoffer/ (I just reactivated the countdown so you can view it in action). It drove quite some traffic to the site. I actually ran a real Groupon promotion a few years ago, that was similar to this and had awesome results. Not quite the same this time, but it was worth doing it anyway, as I believe the key is also in the traffic it drives to your site. Also, I have a script that sends me a notification each time recipients open this offer and that’s ‘very’ useful to understand how the decision making process works 😉
Great questions, David! Phone contact proves to be extremely successful with lots of owners. It depends on how you feel about handling a conversation with your prospects. Some owners are afraid they may bother inquirers, so they’d rather stick to email. A combination of the two, i.e. a quick phone call, followed by the email, or the other way around to double check that they received it and answer any further query may make wonders.
I personally called a few of my inquiring travelers at times, and it works quite well, because you take a further step few owners do and you establish that rapport that sometimes triggers in your counterpart a sort of ‘obligation’ to comply. Not to mention the fact that you can direct them to close the booking where you prefer, thus avoiding in some cases unwanted commissions.
However, I am a bit shy (sounds crazy, right?) and do not feel overly comfortable picking up the phone, so I usually tend to stick to my email contact which works great.
Regarding the HA issues, as you know they may penalize your ranking if you don’t reply, so my first suggestion is that you always reply, and that you do it fast for the reasons I explained in the video. Sometimes, when you log in your dashboard and see that your prospect’s phone number/email is hidden, you can just click to view it and you instantly trigger the equivalent to a reply to HA’s eyes, so you don’t really need to answer in such case and you’ll see that HA gives you a ‘thumbs up’ notification that you ‘responded’ within ‘x’ minutes.
With that being said, what I normally do is sending my standard reply both from my HA dashboard and from my own. I have a way to know if they received the reply and most importantly, if they clicked on the link within, but I’m going to share that part in my next video, so stay tuned 😉
Antonio
PS: Nice! I’ve been to Puglia a few times, but never to Otranto and it’s on my list! I see that you got a couple of video testimonials…that’s one of the things I use as well and it helps building trust, provided that they are done well. If you’re able to collect more, go ahead. You may want to have a look at the ones I got here: https://casateulada.com/reviews/
Thanks Antonio for your detailed answer – very useful. I also need to upload a lot of the information, maps, directions, extra stuff that I send my guests. I have always posted this via snail mail as it is harder to just forward and i include some nice brochures from the area (I have loads of these from visiting the World Travel market show). I guess being able to unlock the apartment specfic info on Homeaway would be beneficial?
Like your videos – very powerful, and the personalised touch of where they have come from and their own photos. I have a map on my website showing the different countries that gets have come from but yours has more intimacy and relevance to the property and owner. Need more time!
Do get to Puglia when you get the chance; it’s the closest we could find to Lecce on the sea – what more can I say?
Grazie mille…
Grazie a te, David 😉
Appreciate you sharing your secret with us
Hopefully, you can try it out Cavel and see if that helps your conversions over time. Thanks for the appreciation, it makes my day 🙂
Anthony, I will and awaits your next update
Great advice Antonio. I remember you explaining this at the first Vacation Rental Summit and I put it into practice immediately. I can totally vouch for it’s effectiveness in WOWING prospective clients, earning their trust and most importantly closing the sale.
Looking forward to your next e-mail.
Awesome Nancy! I’m super happy to hear that you put it to work and it worked well for you too 🙂
Yes, I couldn’t agree more Nancy! I think the BESPOKE reply was brilliant when I heard it back in 2014! I too have put it into practice. I think guests really feel confident they can put a face to the name. Great stuff, Antonio! Keep it coming!
Great to hear that Amy! Wait till you see the new tweaks I added ever since which streamline the process a bit more and make it easier and faster.
Shortly after Christmas I tallied all of my bookings from the previous year by the month that was booked and when it was booked. It was an “ahah” moment and I recognized that the next few months would provide a critical opportunity to maximize my bookings. Your timing is perfect.
Very good move! Knowing when’s the best time and getting ready to welcome your inquiries with all the tools to turn as many of them as possible is an absolute must, especially now that it’s critical to drive more of them directly through your site or maximize the ones coming from other sources if such sources can’t guarantee a good flow any more.
Is this the first time you do that? If so, do it over and over every year. It’ll help you define how your bookings flow goes. In our case it’s been quite steady for the past 9 years.
I have a question about high season rates, which in my case is June-September. I’m usually about +95% booked so wonder – should I post higher rates now and drop my rates to fill holes as I get closer, or post lower rates now and then increase to fill those last remaining nights
What I normally do is increase my rates 10-15%, while taking into account others’ pricing in my region (so I monitor how high can I raise, then I stoop there). You should be able to do the first option you mention, then calculate your occupancy % and revenue and see how you perform compared to your previous situation. Then you can offer last minutes for vacancies you have. For a more technical and maybe better performance of this you may consider Eric Mason’s tool for dynamic pricing: http://www.myratemanager.com/
Hi Antonio: excellent reminder of the power of good 1st email contact [I always phone if I have a number and generally get the booking]. As a subscriber to original FBF do we connect to update?
One question: are you finding many bookings for N.Am this year.. For us Paris is a disaster compared to previous years [care-over from Nov 13 we suspect] yet Nice is filling up very well BUT mostly europeans. Need to turn this around so will fine tune my intial email again. Thanks again for the inspiration.
Hey Ralph! Good to hear from you! Yes, as an earlier subscriber you’ll be grandfathered in, so you can simply look at the refinements and fine tune what you already have 😉
The inquiries/bookings we’re getting are from our usual clientele: Europeans, mostly UK, the Netherlands and German speaking countries (as well as a few Italians). No Americans at the moment. I guess there is a sort of fear due to the increasing terrorist attacks, that may be one reason why you’re experiencing a decrease for Paris. Needless to say, Paris was in my opinion quite heavily hit by what happened and the effects may last for a bit. FYI, my teenage daughter, who’s a senior in high school and is taking a bilingual (Italian-French) degree was supposed to go to Paris with her class for a course…needless to say every activity with such a destination was cancelled by the school and none of the parents we know seems to be keen on sending their kids to Paris at the moment…
Thanks Antonio [nice to be a grandfather ;-)]. Interesting comment about Paris – we have not seen reluctance from Europeans going there and we look forward to being there in a couple of weeks ourselves. If I talk to prospective guest from US then the fact they have inquired is enough to close the sale 90% of the time….just need then to send and inquiry. We will try to blog and Facebook heavily while in Paris to increase exposure.
Good move. If you’re in Paris soon and want to extend the trip ‘across the Alps’, I’m happy to catch up 😉
Hi, Antonio. I haven’t forgotten you and I thank you for your patience. Great tips and I have always responded in this manner when I have any information to build on. However, what would be best when the inquiry is short and sweet, without any questions with which I could ‘open a conversation’? I don’t know how they are traveling, so can’t offer air info or car rental info. I may not know the number of guests, ages of children, any other sorts of conversation starters. I end up giving them everything I have which isn’t truly personalized for their inquiry. Any suggestions?
Hey Terri! Glad to hear from you too and Happy New Year!
The first thing that pops up in mind in a situation like the one you mentioned is that you may start a little conversation by asking them exactly what you don’t know. Like you said, you don’t know if they’re travelling by air or they need a car rental, so ask them; you may then offer good solutions you know and give them value right from the start: “will you be traveling by air? If so, – and you give them some info that’s useful tips; Is that their first time in your area? how may people are in your group? There is ground for asking and starting a conversation. Possibly, limit questions to just one or two and make sure you put them at the end of your message. You’ll stand more chances to get a reply.
What I posted in this article is not by chance what I called a “standard reply”. As such, it’s what can be applied most of the times with little variations. The key to this message is in the first link. You want your readers to click on that. I’ll explain more in the next posts. Thanks for asking 😉
Great video, thanks for summarizing into tips your Fully Booked Formula secrets Antonio! It is a perfect timing to update and refresh my bespoke reply this year. I have been using this technique for the last two years now and with great results I must say. Thank you!!
Glad to hear that Paola! I look forward to showing you the pretty cool small tweaks and updates that make everything easier to implement 🙂
Hi Antonio,
Fantastic info as always! After your presentation last year, I was blown away and did many changes. For that I thank you!:)
Quick question, the Specials Link that you set up in your email, where does it lead, what are you offering?
Thanks!
Celine
Hey @Celine! Thanks, I’m glad you found it useful as well. Hope the changes you made brought you better results.
The link in my mail leads them to a specific content rich message, which I shared on my session at VRWS2014 and that I’m going to mention in next week’s video. Stay tuned to learn more. I’m looking for a small group of ‘progressive’ owners who’re willing to model their template with me helping them along the way.
Have you watched video #2 as well? If not, you can find it here: http://vacationrentalsecrets.com/how-do-you-know-if-your-email-reached-your-prospect-check-this-out/
After a discussion on the level of participation after VRWS2015, I thought I should respond with a word or two at the very least.
Like you we are just coming into the main booking season and hopeful that with the tweaks we have made, some in the light of your suggestions, we will continue or exceed our bookings level. Our main market is visitors from the UK so having just seen the way the pound is sliding against the euro I am hoping that won’t have too much of an impact on confidence to book in advance.
Other than copying and pasting is there a better way of duplicating the prepared template page that you create for the link in the standard reply in wordpress? Been scouting around and it would seem that this is going to be plugin territory unless I am missing something obvious – highly likely! 🙂
Depending on the theme you use in WP, you may have the option to ‘clone’ pages. That’s faster than copy/paste.
Seems like I am having trouble leaving a message… so will use this as a quick test!
Seems like I am not having trouble leaving a message – rather I am having trouble knowing where to find the messages I have left! Apologies…
Hi Antonio, I’m reasonably computer literate and can make posts and not-too-complex changes in WordPress for my website, etc., but you have me stumped on this “leaving a link to a quote” in your email. I know how to leave a link– I just can’t figure out where the link would reside. On my website in a hidden post? Or ? That seems much more sophisticated (which I like) than what I do now, which is to create a quote in Excel, then cut and paste a quote in each email (and also into an e-contract, if the inquirer didn’t come from VRBO). Thanks again for all you do for those of us in the VR owner community.
Hey Becky, thanks for your encouraging words of appreciation. The link is a little bit more than a link to a quote 😉 Standby just a few days and look for my next updates. Then, since you like challenges, you may want to follow through and see for yourself what I do and most importantly how I do what I do. The fact that you’re reasonably computer literate is a bonus that’ll help you out, though I’m going to make it so that even computer novices get it instantly and can create the same exact thing. See you in a few days and if you haven’t see update #2 in the meantime, here it is: http://vacationrentalsecrets.com/how-do-you-know-if-your-email-reached-your-prospect-check-this-out/
PS: Feel free to share this with other peers, even within the VR owners Facebook groups, if you believe they may benefit as well.
HI Antonio, Love your videos! Thank you for all your great ideas! I am in the process of finding my fist home to be a Vacation rental. I am looking in the Sierra Nevada area in California, since this is all new to me, what do you look for when you are looking for a home to be a vacation rental? Thanks ahead of time!
Hey Randy! Welcome to this beautiful business!
I look at how can I make that house be truly ‘different’ from all the rest! How can I add the touch that will make it stand out. How will it impact my prospective clients, so they have a memorable stay.
You’ll see how often you’ll read about “location, location, location” as one of the criteria people look at and it’s quite obvious and self explanatory why, but it’s not always what everyone can get and it doesn’t necessarily apply to all circumstances… Actually a due research on the area, tourist flows throughout the year, attractions nearby, the number of VRs you’re going to compete with and a study of their calendars, rates and reputation (through reviews) on a few major listing sites are all good starting points to give you an overall idea of where you’re going to fit in the future.
To answer your question a bit more, I’ll tell you what I did, and it’s got to do with the heart more than just a mere speculative calculation (which was there from the very beginning though): I was looking for a place to call ‘home’ on a dream island, I found rubbles in a place that had huge potential and I envision what later became https://casateulada.com/ . It was rubbles when my wife and I found it and we had no money to begin with, no previous experience in buying and renovating and no idea how to market the property, but we had a pretty clear vision of where we wanted to be in 10 years from then and a strong determination to succeed, so we did our research, used our creativity and got our hands dirty. Success was instant, though yes competition was not as big as today. Yet Success has never declined, it grew year after year.
3 traits we set up from the very beginning, that we knew were going to make our property different from the rest and therefore a sure winner were (1) Character, (2) Personality and (3) Style. And we did all this on a budget, so money is not necessarily a barrier, the incorrect mindset is. When you find, or you build from scratch a VR that has these 3 traits quite solid, you’ll surely get the eyeballs you need to get it going well. If you then position, price and market it correctly, you’ll quickly reap lots of rewards and recognition for all your hard work.
I’m happy to read if anyone else wants to add their criteria in here? Would be quite an interesting exchange.
Hi Antonio, congratulations for your blog.. it´s really inspiring for all of us!
I posted a message last week but it seems as it´s been deleted, as I had no answer from anyone and I can´t find it here now, so I re-post it!
Your suggestion of a template to answer inquires and provide some useful info to prospective guests to help them plan their trip sounds like a great idea but I do have some concerns regarding the links you include.. let me explain myself:
for the car rental company there is no problem, as you can always suggest a small local supplier, but for flight tickets you must stick to big sites as Skyscanner and all of them also offer accommodation options apart from flight tickets. From my point of view it makes no sense to suggest your prospective guests (who have not confirmed nor paid their booking with you yet) to visit another site where they will find many lodding alternatives apart from yours.. didn´t you ever missed a booking for this reason? How do you handle this situation? which travel site do you suggest them to buy their flight tickets? I really want to know!! =)
Kind regards from Barcelona and I look forward to your wise advise!
Maria
Hey Maria! This is the site I normally use for suggesting flights: http://www.bravofly.co.uk/vg1/flights.do
In the past years I never had a single reservation lost because of that. At least not that I know…(but I’m pretty sure about that). I had a few prospects then turned guests because I pointed them in the right direction instead! They couldn’t find a flight to get to Sardinia from where they were and asked me for help. I made a search, found the flights (as a travel agent!) and got back to them: boom, I got the booking! Or they had found the flight but it was too expensive, so I sent them the above link and…boom again, I got the booking!
I may be wrong, but until recently Bravofly only gives people flights.
I honestly see your concern by a different angle: first off, I’m quite frankly confident that the appeal of our properties is a strong enough motivator for those who enquire to stick to their choice, as I know I don’t have much competition of the same level to fear (we’ve got an irresistible product to offer in other words, and it surely helps, but we built it that way from the beginning and we did it on a budget).
Secondly, as a service provider and a professional you’re winning the booking when you go the extra mile and help your prospect . You’ll see more of what I mean in my next 2 videos…
If you’ve got a good property and he/she is smart enough, they won’t let go. Otherwise, they weren’t probably going to be your ‘best match’ and may have caused you issues once there. I see it that way. Good karma.
Be helpful and meet their needs with an open heart. You should be able to attract the right kind of people almost always. And it pays over time countless times.
Thank you for your kind words of appreciation. I hope you’ll find even more inspiring resources around here 😉
Hi Antonio,
thanks for your kind and detailed reply. I think I get your point. I will try to put it in practice and I will let you know how it goes.
Bravofly is also a good alternative for flight tickets apart from Skyscanner, but they also offer accommodation alternatives …=(
I do not know about Sardinia, but the competition here in the Barcelona area is wild.. Of course I’m very confident about the product and services that we offer (we’ve been in this business for the last 11 years and we manage about 60 properties, so we know what we are talking about) but when there are so many apartments on offer, to stand out from the crowd and get to be the number one option for your prospective guests is not so easy… so my feeling is, why should I put this in risk once I have already catch the attention of the traveler and when they are about to close the deal? .. still not so sure if it makes sense, but I will sure try and let you know.
Thanks again for your advice and kind regards from Barcelona!
María
Hey María,
I get your point as well and I totally agree with you that Barcelona is a very competitive area. I will be at the VRMA conference in Barcelona in March and I was looking at a few apartments to rent and gee…there is really a lot of extraordinary rentals to choose from, at least for what I like!
How about removing the link to the flights altogether?
If you fear it may take some of your prospects to your competitors then it makes no harm to simply reduce the message, since what you really want them to click is the first link, the one to your own personalized offer, that is what I’m going to talk about in my last video in the 3 Step sequence (which should be possibly out later on today)!
Thank you again for your comment and who knows, maybe we bump into each other in Barcelona in March 🙂
Just to say thank you Antonio for the 3 videos. I especially like the psychology behind the 3rd email.
I’m the one to thank you for your words, Nick. I hope these tips increase conversions for everyone reading and willing to give it a try. They’ve been working beautifully for me so for years and yes, the psychology behind all this is quite powerful and if you think about it, there are very few reasons why it shouldn’t work.
Antonio, I have tried the 3 step sequence and have seem some improvement in my engagement, but not conversion. I am guessing the missing part is the bespoke page.
Might well be. There are owners who’ve seen conversions increasing just with the 3 step sequence. The Bespoke Reply is however the cherry on the pie, which makes quite an impact onto the recipients. When done correctly, it really does miracles.
Hi Antonio, You offer very good advice. However if I receive an inquiry through a booking site such as Homeaway or AirBNB I am blocked from sending links. Can you suggest a workwround?
Madeleine, can you still get the email addresses of those sending you the inquiries through HA/VRBO?
In my HA dashboard I can both add a link in my replies and also retrieve their email address, so I can reply from outside their site too, if need be!
Another workaround I know of is Vince Perez’s FetchMyGuest, that’s able to strip out all the data of your enquiring guests from dashboards and fetch it into a dashboard of your own.
Hi Antonio. All the advice you give has proved a major benefit to us. We have been using variants, but we followed the rules, modestly modified for our market and guess what, instant success and higher conversions.
We also did a bit of local research with competitors and I would really appreciate you not publishing any more advice like this (lol) incase they find out. In fact we are quite astonished how poor the response content, the speed, follow ups etc are.
This is raising our game!
That’s the beauty of it. You can take my suggestions and adjust them to your particular situation.
Then you’ll see even better results, as you say.
I’ll consider changing the access to this information I share. The advice I can give to those reading is to take advantage of it while they’re still here 😉