This year Padre Island Rentals celebrates 35 years of being top in the vacation rental business on South Padre Island. Condominium projects and hotels began springing up shortly after the Queen Isabella Causeway opened in 1974. More people began to discover our little island and vacation rentals became a way of life. Part of that vacation rental way of life is helping to manage the Padre Island guest experience.
Today we find ourselves much more engaged with guests than just providing great places for families and groups to stay on the beach. Guests have come to expect more! We live in a society where people, young and old, are connected 24/7, with everyone watching the experiences of others via social media. People no longer just take a trip somewhere, they are looking for fun and exciting experiences they can share with others. And if a guest does not have a good experience, for whatever reason, everyone knows about it. No pressure there!
Our job at Padre Island Rentals, and what keeps guests returning year after year, is to guide our guests experiences so that they are both easy and fun, a vacation that they favorably remember and share with everyone they know.
A balcony view of the Gulf of Mexico is an experience by itself. The condominium or home where a guest is staying can and should be part of the experience. (More on that later.) Being by the pool, walking on the beach, wading in the surf all turn into “Kodak moments”, if anyone even knows that term any more.
Then there is the plethora of island activities; dolphin watch tours, parasailing, jet skis, horseback riding, surfing, paddle boarding, flyboarding, fishing, water bikes, kayaking, dining, night clubs, island golf carts, segway tours, and more. As vacation rental managers we realize it is our responsibility to help every visitor with their own unique Padre Island guest experience, and we have a number of great services that we offer to help navigate the vacation planning process.
How do we help our guests take advantage of all these experiences on South Padre Island?
Our reservation specialists get asked all the time about fun things to do on South Padre Island. To shorten the distance between our guests and fun things to do on the island, Padre Island Rentals has created a relationship with a number of local activity vendors to accept our SPI Fun Pass. An SPI Fun Pass is a voucher of a specific dollar amount good for any activity provided by the specified activity vendor. Each SPI Fun Pass lists available activities and instructions on how to book and redeem the value of the voucher. We will soon be making SPI Fun Passes available to owners at a discount.
While Padre Island Rentals is taking strong steps to improve guests experiences the most important experience is the one between the guest and the property they are staying in. After an eventful day at the beach a clean, comfortable, modern, fully functional property is the expectation of today’s guests. In many ways people expect a property on the beach on the Gulf of Mexico to be a luxury property, and perhaps, exceed what they live in at home. A 5-Star property review by a guest translates directly into rental income. Anything less can cause loss of income.
If you have ever been on a cruise ship you understand the excitement of crossing the gangway and arriving on board. After breathing in the grandeur of some of these magnificent floating cities, and getting lost several times, you arrive at your cabin. You walk in, put your things down and the stage is then set for your experience at sea.
Similarly, South Padre Island guests, sometimes after very long drives, will finally arrive at the foot of the mainland side of the Queen Isabella Causeway, scale the height of it, and begin to inhale what is “the island”. After some searching, guests will check in and arrive at the property they have reserved, put down their things, and excitedly expect the experience to begin.
The relationship between Padre Island Rentals and our owners is more important than ever. We encourage our owners to take a fresh look at the island the next time they come across the causeway. Tell us about your experience. And the next time you arrive at your vacation property try and see the experience from a guest’s point of view. We, meaning you as an owner and Padre Island Rentals, are no longer in the business of just renting a room, we are selling an experience! Take a look at the way that your vacation rental property can influence a guest vacation, and work with Padre Island Rentals to instate any reasonable improvements. We will all find it rewarding!