How welcoming is your vacation rental to LGBTQIA+ guests?
Without your knowledge, you may be making prospective visitors feel unwanted or uncomfortable.
To coincide with Pride Month, we want you to consider how you may make your property more inclusive and welcome to all tourists, regardless of how they identify or who they love.
What does LGBTQA+ represent?
Everyone who identifies as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Asexual falls under the LGBTQA+ umbrella.
There are other acronyms, but these are an excellent starting point if you want to build a holiday experience that is more inclusive for various people.
As a host, you can make a significant impact on their holiday experience and their life.
Why should you accept LGBTQA+ visitors?
Everyone has the right to feel secure and welcome while traveling, but there are other solid reasons to open your hearts and doors to this group than demonstrating your commitment to nondiscrimination.
Contribute to the diversity of your town and the tourist economy.
As an Airbnb or vacation rental owner who welcomes LGBTQA+ guests, you can encourage other hosts to do the same.
Step by step, one host at a time, the industry will improve and become more inclusive.
Attract visitors with purchasing power
As a host of a vacation rental, you must choose who you want to attract with your property.
The LGBTQA+ population is an important sector of the tourism industry from a strictly economic standpoint.
The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association estimates that LGBTQA+ tourists in the United States have an annual spending power of $100 billion.
In addition, according to a poll conducted by the same organization in 2021, 36 percent of 6,300 LGBTQA+ visitors from across the globe intended to stay in vacation rentals instead of hotels or resorts in 2021.
It is reasonable to conclude that this population travels more than others and has higher disposable income. Therefore, catering to this segment makes sound financial sense.
By offering a little love to your LGBTQA+ visitors, you are likely to get excellent guest evaluations, secure repeat visits, and receive word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied consumers.
In addition to this, you can also use vacation rental software to further market your properties.
How can a vacation rental be more LGBT-friendly?
Be comprehensive in your descriptions
Use inclusive pronouns when identifying oneself as a host in property listings to show LGBTQA+ visitors that they are welcome in your house. This generates an environment of understanding quickly and at no expense.
There are currently anti-discrimination regulations in place at the majority of online travel agencies (OTAs), but it does not imply that individual hosts cannot and will not discriminate against this population.
Include your property in gay-friendly OTAs.
Misterb&b is the biggest LGBTQA+ travel community in the world, with 1 million listings in 200 countries, including private rooms & apartments and LGBTQA+-friendly hotels.
By advertising your rental on our website, you instantly boost its exposure to an entirely new audience.
Fabstayzs is a vacation rental platform that targets the same demographic. We like their goal statement: “to provide a haven for all tourists who want to have a fantastic trip without the fear of disclosure and acceptance.”
And if you want to learn more, they offer master programs for hosts and owners who want to understand the problems LGBTQA+ travelers encounter and how to satisfy the demands of increasingly diverse visitors. Bravo!
Show your stripes
Display LBGTQA+ symbols such as rainbow-colored flags, lapel pins, and inclusive imagery on your rental property and your websites, such as rainbow-colored flags and pins.
They will quickly recognize that they will be handled with respect.
Be respectful
When responding to any visitor request, avoid making assumptions about bed or room choices or asking inquiries that might make someone feel uneasy.
Always be professional, kind, and considerate in your responses.
Use gender-neutral pronouns
A gender-neutral or gender-inclusive pronoun is a pronoun that does not assign a gender to the person being described.
In English, gender pronouns serve as third-person singular gender descriptors. In the past, masculine (he/him/his) and feminine (she/her/hers) pronouns were divided.
This division of masculine and feminine characteristics is known as gender binary, and only men and women are recognized.
Many individuals identify outside of the binary gender system. They/them and xe/xer/Xers are gender-neutral pronouns that enable people to pick the pronouns that best reflect their identity.
To avoid insulting transgender (a man who has turned into a woman or vice versa) or non-binary (someone who identifies as neither male nor female) tourists, avoid using the terms sir and madam. Always maintain neutral pronoun use in discussion.
If a visitor specifies the pronouns he, she, or they like to be addressed with, make a note of them and use them in any future correspondence.
You may also choose to inquire as to which pronouns your visitors prefer.
Offer gender-neutral facilities
A gender-neutral bathroom is another simple technique to help certain visitors feel less alienated in our society.
Provide information on LGBTQ-welcoming attractions.
Determine which restaurants, pubs, stores, clubs, and gyms will welcome your LGBTQA+ visitors and give a guide or list of things to do in the area.
Include LGBTQA+-friendly ideas in your website’s roundups, welcome book, and blog posts.
Don’t forget to add the contact information for any necessary support agencies, including the police, in case anything untoward occurs during your visitors’ stay.
This demonstrates that you care and are aware that they may be vulnerable to prejudice and even assault.
Train your workers
Remember that the buck stops with you if one of your employees offends an LGBTQA+ visitor during their stay at your rental property.
Educate your employees and do not allow discriminatory conduct.
Appointing staff members from different groups – not just regarding gender or sexual orientation, but also age, color, religion, and ability – must be one of the most effective strategies to make all visitors feel welcome.
Everyone deserves decency and respect
To be a genuinely wonderful host, you must treat every visitor with the same amount of respect.
However, as long as prejudice persists in our society, your LGBTQA+ guests would appreciate it if you made them feel particularly comfortable and welcome in your house.