Let’s start with an ordinary but important question; do you know about the best practices in marketing vacation rentals? Whether you are a newcomer to this market or have started your vacation rental business for a while, there are always some tips to learn to cope with new challenges you may face due to the unpredictable and voluptuous nature of this business. By knowing vacation rental marketing secrets, you will build up your market on a strong basis and ponder your work to see if you are still on the right path. We want to offer you a list of top 6 vacation rental marketing secrets to make your rental stand out in this highly competitive, and a time saturated, line of business.
1. Define Your Target Audience
In the vacation rental market, this is a must to recognise your audience and run your business in an appealing way to that specific group of audience. The type of properties you are managing, as well as the location of your rentals, determine your target guest. For example, a luxury beach-side house is more appealing to families that want to enjoy their holiday far from the crowd. However, a serviced apartment downtown would be in high demand for corporate travellers who prefer to use public transport for easy commute between their workplace and accommodation.
Another important aspect of this strategy is that by recognising your audience you can distinguish the best online travel agencies (OTAs) for listing your properties on. It may seem unnecessary, but you will see its positive impacts on your revenue in the long run. Instead of listing your rentals on various OTAs, you can focus your efforts on cooperating with those agencies that best expose your property to your specific target. You can find more information regarding this here.
2. Improve the Representation of Your Vacation Rental
To catch a chubby fish, you should show a delicious bait on your hook. The way you represent your vacation rental on OTAs or your direct booking website should be done carefully since the first impact on your audience is the advert of your property on related websites or blogs. However, be careful to stay realistic, and don’t exaggerate the features of your property and the amenities you offer.
Professional Photography
Once you open a page, photos take your attention right away. Uploading high-quality photos of your rentals give your viewers an experience of a virtual tour of the property and convey what you want to say in a blink of an eye. But to turn your viewers into bookers, you need to hire a professional photographer to take artistic photos since bad and blurred photos leave a negative impact on your show and invalidate your description. People prefer to rent a beautiful place whether for a short or longer-term stay, and high-quality photos can convince them to do so.
Impressive Content and Description
A brief but impressive description of your property’s different aspects takes potential guests on a virtual journey and convinces them to give your place a chance. To achieve that, pay attention to write descriptions in an understandable language and avoid grammatical mistakes. Give your audience a vivid description of the type and particular aspects of your property. Moreover, to enrich your description, it’s better to give information about specific attractions in your area, such as introducing good restaurants in the city, monuments, and seasonal exhibitions, to name a few.
A Selection of Guest Reviews
People watch out for their expenses carefully and always seek customer opinions, whether they are buying an electrical instrument or renting a room. Guest reviews are a valuable source to help new visitors, and it’s an impressive and free advertisement tool that a property owner can take advantage of. It is always recommended to ask your guests to fill out the review section and write down your review about the guest to show them that their opinion and leaving a review are important for you.
3. Create Your Vacation Rental Website
If you have just entered the market, Online Travel Agencies are the best way to start, but running a vacation rental business would remain sketchy without implementing a website, especially if you have multiple properties. To start making your own brand, showing more specifically who you are, and to have better control of your market, you must create a direct booking website alongside listings on OTAs. It is not only for displaying a high-class business but also to guarantee your placement in the market by improving your connection with potential guests. Receiving direct bookings provides you with guests’ contact information, which is almost impossible to reach through OTAs. Therefore, by creating a personalised website for your properties, you will gain this opportunity to find potential guests and turn them into loyal bookers.
4. SEO as an Important Part of Vacation Rental Marketing Plan
The main key to success in the online marketing of vacation rentals is to use search engine optimisation (SEO). Not all customers look for listings on OTAs, but some simply use search engines like Google to find a place. Therefore, improving your website traffic brings you more visitors, and to achieve this, you must include specific keywords in your website content that the target audience usually typed into search engines. Keep in mind that getting higher ranks in the search engine results will positively change your vacation rental business and make you ahead of competitors.
5. Set Appropriate Price for Your Properties
Be aware that your customers consider all the available choices and compare them to select the most affordable. To win the competition and save your potential audience, the price of the property must match the quality of the facilities you offer. Compare your property with other related listings in the case of age, location, features, amenities, and other factors, and then determine the average price for your rental. No need to mention that charging a high price leads to losing the competition, but bear in mind that offering too low prices can attract the wrong guests.
6. Stay Up to Date
Last but not the least, it is always necessary to see one step ahead to win the game. The dynamic feature of vacation rental marketing requires staying on top of everything by following the relevant information. Analysing related data to access real-time information, time to time evaluation of your situation in the market, as well as measuring your performance. And participating in seminars or webinars to follow world trends are all considered vacation rental marketing plans that can boost your work’s future performance.
In summary, knowing about vacation rental marketing secrets and using them lead your business to be built on a strong basis if you are a beginner, or helps you stay in the race as a vacation rental holder. Reading these tips might spark some new ideas about implementing new modifications in handling your business; however, bear in mind that isn’t a one-night effort. You should take wise steps and reconcile every plan with your work because each business is unique and holds particular shortcomings. It may seem huge for you to regulate all aspects of this market alone, and to be honest, it is so, but you are not alone. A good property management company is out there ready to give a hand, take the load of work off your shoulder, boost your efficiency, and for sure your net income!