Updated on September 30, 2024
As a struggling single mother, Neely Khan used storytelling to build a brand for her writing business, emotionally connect with her audience, and shine as one of the top writers in the vacation rental and hospitality industry.
She now helps vacation rental and hospitality brands connect with existing and potential guests and foster brand loyalty.
You, too, can use content, copy, and storytelling to be a more inclusive, welcoming, and memorable vacation rental brand with some of Khan’s tips.
“If you look at it from a commercial or business point of view, then you’ll find that when you wrap a story around something, its value increases tenfold,” Khan said, “…and that’s because memorable stories emotionally connect with people in an unbelievable way.”
“I believe that every word you write, every story you tell is an act of service. And actually the words that you use, whether it be on your websites, whether it be again on your social media, determine just how inclusive and how hospitable you are.”
Here are some key takeaways from her virtual presentation at the Rent Responsibly Summit on Dec. 13.
Understand your target audience
To be a truly welcoming vacation rental brand, you must be inclusive of everything in your marketing and in your services, but inclusivity isn’t second nature for everyone. It takes a concerted effort to get to know who you’re serving.
“A lot of people misunderstand inclusivity as the practice of treating everybody in the same way, when in fact such is not the case,” Khan said. “Yes, we are all equal, but we are definitely not the same. And for me, the core essence of hospitality is recognizing and celebrating every human being, every guest, welcoming them, and making them feel seen, despite all of their beautiful differences.”
How do you get to know your audience? Show curiosity, reach out to them, and ask the right questions.
If there’s a particular demographic that you don’t know how to serve, join Facebook groups or other online groups where you can find them and get involved in the conversations they’re having and visit the places where these people spend their time.
“Just going in with a really open mind and having conversations and again, exchanging stories, it’s the best way to learn,” Khan said. “… doing that is the best way to really connect with someone and gain their trust, which is also so important.”
A good rule of thumb: “Creating content is only about 10% writing; the other 90% should be spent on understanding who it is that you’re creating content for, and really sort of getting to know the people that you serve,” she said.
The story: A guest with a mental illness finds her voice when a vacation rental business asks how to serve her better.
To illustrate the importance of getting to know guests and asking the right questions, Khan told the story of Inara, a young woman who needs to take medication daily for a mental health condition to live her best life. Inara has a bad experience at a vacation rental where she forgot to take her medication because the cleaner moved the medicine from its usual place next to the bathroom sink where she was accustomed to finding and taking it. Missing a dose of her medicine caused her to spiral into a panic about traveling alone, but as part of her job, she had to travel alone.
Later while she was planning another work trip, she came across another vacation rental property’s website.
“On that website, it said, How can we make your stay as comfortable as possible?” Khan said. “Rather than telling Inara that they will do everything under the sun to make her feel comfortable, they were asking her the question, and they gave her the opportunity to be able to specify what they can do to make her feel more comfortable.”
On this particular page on the website, Inara wrote a couple of sentences: By the way, could you, please, ensure that my medication is never moved?
By asking rather than presuming a guest’s needs, you can make them feel more welcome and make their stay more comfortable, Khan said.
Inara also appreciated the fact that the website’s booking form allowed her to spell her name phonetically so that employees at the vacation rental business could pronounce it correctly.
“This is such a good example of how you can use words, you can use the right messaging, and be hospitable, be inclusive, before that guest has even met you in person,” Khan said.
Paying attention to these details not only makes your guest feel more comfortable; it builds loyalty to your brand, and loyalty stems from “how much you emotionally impact the people you’re serving,” she said.
Make guests the hero of your stories
Some vacation rental brands spend more time telling their own story than creating content that focuses on and connects with their guests.
“If you can figure out who your target demographic is – not only figure out who they are, but figure out what makes them tick, figure out what’s important to them, figure out what their life experiences are – you can then create stories around those experiences,” Khan said.
“Believe it or not, it’s not about you. Everything you write, everything you create, is an act of service. So ensure that every story you put out there that represents your brand is actually serving the people who are spending money with you.”
The story: A transgender man tests out his new name
The Starbucks’s What’s Your Name campaign in the U.K. in 2020 is an example of storytelling in a way that illustrates your brand’s commitment to inclusion and makes customers the heroes in the story, Khan said.
In a series of TV advertisements, Starbucks told the personal stories of transgender people who for the first time used a new name that aligned with their gender identity.
One video shows a milestone moment when a transgender man uses his new male name for the first time. (Khan referred to the man as Rob in the retelling of the story at the RR Summit; In the original TV advertisement, his name is James.)
“Rob decided one day to go to his local Starbucks to get his usual order of a cappuccino. Upon ordering his cappuccino, the barista asked him for his name as they do in every other Starbucks store, and Rob in this moment thought, you know, this is my chance. … I’m going to test my new name out. So he said to the barista, my name is Rob. And so the barista writes Rob on his Starbucks cup. And when the cappuccino was done, Rob went to the other side of the bar, he collected his cappuccino with his name on it, with his identity on it, and that was the very first time he used his name.”
“Many of us have our name written on a cup four to five times a week, if you’re a regular Starbucks goer,” Khan said. “For somebody like Rob, this was a huge moment in his life. And you can bet that in the future, if any of Rob’s friends or family ask him about this huge experience in his life and being able to share his true self with the world, not only will he think back to telling the barista his new name, he will always associate this memory with Starbucks.”
In today’s world,“sometimes, not saying anything offensive is not enough,” she said. “We’ve outgrown that stage now. But being proactive and actually reaching out to the marginalized communities who are waiting to be spoken to, through your copy, through your content, through your storytelling makes a hell of a difference.”
A marketing campaign like What’s Your Name “will work better and be more emotionally impactful than an Instagram reel with lots of shiny photos or a TikTok dance,” she said.
Turn a simple detail into something meaningful
Sometimes a moving story can come from a simple detail in your business, like a candle.
“There are so many different ways that you can take the simplest things in your business, in your brand, and wrap a story around them,” Khan said. “Not only will you humanize the experience for the people who are spending their time and their money with you, but you will make marginalized communities feel heard, you will represent them. Stories are a fantastic way of empowering other people to feel represented and celebrated.”
The stories can even be fictional provided that they are relevant to your audience.
“There’s nothing wrong with creating fiction stories [in your advertising], as long as they hit on real issues,” Khan said. “Because the idea is to create these fiction stories to represent a large part of your audience demographic that is probably left feeling not excluded, but as if they’re not being actively reached out to.”
The story: A single mother finds meaning in a Cotton Clean-scented Yankee Candle.
Helen is a single parent who has just given up her full time job to pursue a career in writing and is struggling to make ends meet and provide for her young daughter, Khan said.
“So on one particular day, Helen takes her toddler in her pushchair, her buggy, to a shopping center, and they walk past a candle store. Helen loves candles. To Helen candles signify moments of self care. She loves the way they light up in a dark room. She loves the way they smell. She loves the way they make her feel at home, even if she lights a candle in the most darkest and miserable-looking places. And Helen thinks to herself, you know what, it’s been a really difficult few months; I’m going to do something for myself. So Helen goes to this candle store, and she picks out a Yankee Candle. When you don’t have a lot of money, Yankee Candles are very expensive. And she picks out a cotton-scented Yankee Candle because it reminds her of spring. And she’s very excited about this candle, because this is the first time she’s doing something for herself. And she goes to pay for the candle. It’s Christmas time. So it’s very busy. There’s a long queue standing behind her; everybody can see what’s going on. She tries to pay for the candle, and the person at the counter tells her that her card has been declined. And the machine knows straightaway that it’s because she doesn’t have enough money; she can’t afford a Yankee candle.
So in that moment, when that happens, Helen leaves with her baby, and she doesn’t buy that candle for herself. And she made a promise to herself that day. That’s, when I make it as a writer, when I make it as a business person, I’m going to buy a Yankee Candle for myself every day. And I’m going to light it. I’m not going to wait for a special occasion. I’m going to light it; I’m going to enjoy it.”
A couple of years ago Khan shared this story – which is reminiscent of Khan’s own story – at another presentation.
“Another vacation rental property owner heard the story and they were so moved by the story that they made Yankee Candles a feature in all of their properties and all of their rooms and their properties,” Khan said. “And not only did they keep a Yankee Candle in every room that they had, they shared a little very short story with it on paper. The story was inspired by Helen’s story.
“I’m not saying obviously that this is something that everybody should do because your target demographic is going to be made up of single parents who want to become writers, but that’s not the point. The point is, when you take something, something as simple as a candle, and you attach a story to it, you humanize it so beautifully.”
The small detail was a hit with guests. When they read the story, “the candle went from being just a flame to being symbolic of such a powerful story of perseverance, of looking after yourself, of self care, of single motherhood.”
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