“Eight out of ten enterprises fail, and holiday rentals are no exception. Your business must innovate or else it will fail. Marketing strategies will be critical in the coming years.” — Ivan Levchenko, CEO of iGMS
It’s nearly impossible to overstate the importance of vacation rental marketing in today’s short-term rental industry. You can be an excellent host with an interesting property and still wonder why travelers prefer your competitors.
If this is the case, examine your vacation rental marketing strategy and promotional tactics more closely. Are you maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing tactics and techniques? Are you going above and beyond in promoting your listings?
Without a doubt, the short-term rental industry is thriving, and maintaining a competitive edge is becoming increasingly difficult. Indeed, over 7 million vacation rental listings are available on Airbnb alone. How do you make your property stand out from the crowd with so many listings? An increasing number of homeowners are profiting from vacation rentals.
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How to stand out from the crowd with your product listing
“Keep in mind that YOU ARE NOT AN Airbnb… Market your home appropriately with your brand. It can begin with referencing your home’s name in all correspondence.” — Evelyn Badia, Founder of The Hosting Journey
How do you convince people to book your location over the countless others available through your competitors? In a nutshell, you need an amazing listing — nail it and you’ll receive plenty of views, inquiries, and bookings. Thus, the first step in your vacation rental marketing strategy should be to optimize your listing. This is accomplished through the incorporation of four critical components:
1. Titles That Captivate
A great Airbnb listing requires an excellent title, and it must be compelling if you want to maximize bookings. Not only will a better title rank higher in the Airbnb search results, but it is also more likely to pique potential guests’ immediate interest.
- Make the most of your available space — each word should entice potential guests to browse your listing. Concentrate your efforts by incorporating a landmark into your composition, for example.
- In the title, emphasize the best features or any special offers — good deals always attract attention.
- Save characters by using symbols and abbreviations. However, refrain from using them excessively — guests should be able to comprehend and take your title seriously.
2. Direct Descriptions
It does not have to be difficult to write a succinct description. With a few simple steps, you can create a concise, compelling description that conveys critical information quickly and gives prospective guests a glimpse into your home.
- Avoid using adverbs like “nice”, “spectacular”, or “outstanding”. Rather than that, stick to concrete descriptions that people can visualize.
- Attempt to make your property appear as desirable as possible, but avoid being dishonest or overselling your pad.
- Include subheadings to allow readers to quickly navigate to the information they’re looking for.
3. Photographs of Excellent Quality
Beautiful photographs can be an effective tool in convincing potential guests to view your listing. Your vacation rental marketing strategy should include a plan for optimizing the photos of your properties. The objective is to increase awareness of your property. Therefore, ensure that any image you use is professional and attractive. The following are some expert tips for photographing your property beautifully:
- Turn on the lights (even during the day) to eliminate shadows and dark corners.
- Ensure that all blinds and curtains are open — this will allow natural light to flood the room.
- Shoot from a corner; this provides a unique perspective on your property and a true sense of scale for room sizes. Photograph the neighborhood—potential guests want to get a sense of both the neighborhood and the property.
- Take panoramic shots; attempt to capture the entirety of a room in a single image.
- Pay attention to detail — highlight your property’s personality by emphasizing the unique amenities you provide to make your guests feel at home.
Engage the services of a professional photographer to capture high-quality images of your property. Yes, it will cost you, but you must present your property in the best light possible — prospective buyers will be drawn to clear, professional photographs. Additionally, you should be able to recover your expenses through subsequent bookings.
Conduct Competitive Property Research
Before establishing pricing, do research on what your rivals charge for their rentals. Investigate rival homes in your region using vacation rental websites or specialist tools such as AirDNA. Following that, build a pricing comparison table to assist you in calculating both the occupancy rate and average revenue of your nearest rivals (select competitive listings that have at least 10 reviews from guests).
Reduce the Price
As a first-time host, you’ll need to negotiate a lower daily rate, particularly for your first booking. Price your property 25% below its projected market worth, then gradually boost your prices as reviews begin to pour in. Utilize this method before receiving your first five reviews.
Maximize Occupancy
While popular vacation seasons vary somewhat, year-round tourism is pretty steady in urban regions. As a general guideline, the following chart will assist you in obtaining maximum occupancy at the best rates:
Dynamic Pricing Ensures Increased Views
Guests are always on the hunt for a good offer. The objective of the game is to enhance your rating; you’ll want to be towards the top when prospective consumers do searches for the ideal holiday home.
Having constant pricing throughout the year is not the greatest approach to generating money. Rather than that, go for dynamic pricing—ensure that your rates are competitive and fluctuate in response to demand.
Adjusting your price structure may take time, but it is well worth the effort if you want to increase your profit.
Pricing differences between weekends and weekdays
Reduce your charges on Monday and Thursday then boost them on Friday and Saturday. Additionally, boosting weekend prices encourages customers to stay longer or come earlier if they see a reduced advertised cost for the additional day (s).
Is It Worth It to Have a Personal Website for Short-Term Rentals?
Hosts often inquire if they should spend on developing their website for their short-term rental. While a personal website might bring visibility, the following should also be considered:
You will need to invest more time and money in developing and customizing your website.
You’ll need to advertise yourself and spend resources in advertising both your website and your vacation rental listing on vacation rental websites.
It is entirely up to you whether or not to create a personal website, but if you want to succeed with your short-term rental company, you will surely need to devote time and effort to market it. In terms of traffic and SEO, it’s almost hard to compete with Airbnb or Vrbo. As a result, it makes more sense to concentrate on advertising your home via various channels than investing in a personal website.
Use a vacation rental software
As hosts look for innovative methods to reduce operating costs, automation tool utilization is expanding. Vacation rental software, such as Lodgable, may assist you in managing several facets of your company without the need for a large crew. The following advanced features are available to you:
- Using a single dashboard to manage many accounts;
- Automating the guest review procedure;
- janitorial services and supervision of a crew;
- Reporting on finances.
- Listing optimization
- Dynamic Pricing