Take Great Pictures Of Your Vacation Rental
Pictures are one of the most important parts of getting people to click on your listing.
Humans are visual in nature. In fact, half of our brain is indirectly or directly devoted to visual processing. So it makes sense that if something looks more appealing, we react to it in a more positive way.
For a rental listing, this means better-looking pictures can draw more clicks and bookings.
You dont necessarily need to hire a photographer you just need to make sure your pictures do a good job at selling your property.
If you plan on going DIY, here are some quick guidelines for you to follow when compiling the photos of your property:
- Make use of composite lighting techniques. This allows you to show off the interior beauty of the property and capture the great view outside the window.
- Take photos in a way that shows off the flow of how your rooms connect. Consider also including a floor plan as a photo.
- Take lots of photos. 20 or more.
Promote The Homes Accessibility
Some senior travelers may need to know the accessibility of a home ahead of time. Some older folks have difficulties walking, and must know if an elevator is on the property and if easy parking is available. Seniors are no exception to the trend of vacations feeling like a “home away from home” and want to know if grocery stores, urgent care, pharmacies, etc., are nearby. Providing this information upfront in your listing will attract guests looking to have as much information as possible about their destination.
Using Facebook For Your Vacation Rental
Facebook is a great place to start with your social media efforts. Not only does it have 253 million users in North America alone, but its also uniquely suited for businesses. You can think of it as a catch-all platform for travelers because its the hub for most ages and demographics.
for your vacation rental that is different from the one where you have friends now. You can share your favorite amenities , photos of the rental, property reviews, and more. Be sure to include a link to your Evolve property listing on your page so that travelers can book your property when theyre ready!
To get marketing value out of a Facebook Page, youll need to post often and strategically . Your insights page is completely unique to your business page and is only visible to you. Youll get to see what days and times your followers are most active and what posts get the best response. These insights will help you plan out posts to get the most out of your page.
Out of all of the platforms, you can expect Facebook to attract the most guest inquiries and views. Thats because Facebook pages are often a one-stop-shop: they provide viewers with a place to see photos, learn about your vacation rental, see reviews from former guests, interact and engage with you, and so much more.
Facebook best practices:
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Highlight Your Villas Luxury Amenities
What amenities are emphasized on your listing? When someone reads the description for the first time, are they immediately provided with the square footage, number of bedrooms, and general location? Thats certainly how a lot of listings read, but its not going to get you much mileage with a luxury property.
Again, luxury-minded renters are a different breed, and theyre less concerned with the number of bathrooms than with the high-end accommodations. Think about the features that will get people excited. Is there an infinity pool? An in-house club or game rooms? Tennis or basketball courts? The most exquisite features shouldnt merely be mentioned. They should be emphasized. Dont bury them in the third paragraph of your description or hide them in an Amenities tab that a user has to click on. Make sure that the biggest selling points are front and center.
Get Social Media Savvy
Where is the first place people around the world go to post and share what is important to them with all their friends and followers? Social media. Social media has exploded in recent years, and now, homeowners have the chance to connect with potential guests around the world through free tools such as Facebook and Instagram.
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Use Videos To Entice Potential Guests
Creating short stylish videos is one of the best marketing strategies for vacation rentals. Most hosts only use images for advertising their properties, which is why videos will give you a substantial competitive advantage. It would be best to hire a professional because they:
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Know how to remove background noise
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Have high-quality equipment
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Know how to tell a story through visual media
Bear in mind that Airbnb doesnt allow hosts to post videos directly on their listings. However, you can always upload it to your profile. Here are some useful tips on how to promote your vacation rental property using video:
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Keep it under two minutes
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Include a call-to-action
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Post your video on YouTube
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Keep it professional
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Show off the entire rental
One Last Tip: Lean On Vacation Rental Marketing Experts
When you work with marketing pros who are experts at vacation rentals, like Vacasa, getting constant exposure can be a cinch . From SEO to social media, advertising campaigns to marketing emails, we have the marketing technology and the experts to keep your vacation rental in the right places, in front of the right people, all the time.
There’s no one way to market your vacation rental, but these tips are a strong foundation to start with. Vacation rental marketing can take a lot of time and energy, but spreading your reach online is what will lead more people to your homeand ultimately lead to more bookings.
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Why Should You Use Instagram For Vacation Rentals
Instagram is a highly visual platform. People go to it not just to be entertained, but to find inspiration. Thats why Instagram works so well for travel brands including those in the vacation rental industry.
Today, 200 million Instagram users visit at least one business profile per day. They use Instagram to search for products, services, and brands. And, they trust the recommendations of other Instagram users. That goes to show just how much potential Instagram has for businesses.
Whether youre planning to grow on Instagram organically or have the budget to invest in Instagram ads, your vacation rental is likely to see a boost in bookings as soon as you start consistently using the platform.
By promoting your vacation rental on Instagram, you can reach travelers from all over the world who are planning their next trip and looking to book the perfect accommodation. You can use the app to showcase your property, build your vacation rental brand and drive traffic to your website. You can build trust with guests and let them get to know you before they book your place.
Besides targeting potential guests whom you may not be able to reach on other platforms, Instagram also lets you keep in touch with guests youve already hosted. Building an engaged community is important for all vacation rental managers. After all, who doesnt like repeat bookings?
Confirm Your Listing Renew And Repost
Once you publish your listing, check to make sure it went live about 15 minutes later.
In a few major cities, Craigslist classified posts expire after 7 days, but most cities expire after 45 days.
Its critical to renew your post every 48 hours which will move it back up to the top of the search list. You can renew it as many times as you like until your post is 30 days old.
After that time, you can repost your listing and start the process over again. This is where an account comes in handy so you dont have to go digging through emails to find a link from a month ago.
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Unify Your Guest Communications
Don’t waste your precious time logging in into all different booking portals. Smoobu’s messaging inbox is the only communication hub you will need.
From a unified view, to templates and automated messages , it provides you with all communication tools you will ever need to professionalise your business.
Furthermore, since you will only need Smoobu to manage your communications, you can access it anywhere and anytime via desktop, mobile web and/or our mobile app.
Enable push notifications on your Android or iOS device and stay always informed.
The Best Ways To Market A Vacation Rental To Potential Guests
As a property manager, you need to be able to show vacation rental owners that you have the expertise to successfully market their property.
This can include advertising, special offers and digital marketing.
In addition to traditional online listing websites, there are several other ways that you should advertise the vacation rentals you manage to potential guests.
While many of these strategies may not seem like the obvious choices for marketing, they can be highly effective in creating a consistent occupancy and guest base for the vacation properties you manage.
Plus, vacation rental owners will see that you go above and beyond when it comes to marketing their properties, making them more likely to choose to work with you over another manager in the area.
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Hire A Professional Photographer
It might be time to move on from your iPhone camera pictures and on to a professional photographer. While the new iPhone 11 boasts a wicked camera, a professional photographer will know the best equipment, angle, and lighting to get the best shot. Real estate photographers use wide-angle lenses to make your space look bigger than it already is therefore, attracting more potential guests. You may end up spending some money, but the payout will be exponential. You might even consider asking your real estate photographer to do some detail photos that you can periodically post on your social media accounts.
The 12 Best Vacation Rental Sites For Hosts And Travelers
Guides,All posts,Vacation Rental Tips
The role of vacation rental sites and marketplaces is increasing. Each day they attract millions of visitors who seek accommodation for their vacation. For hosts, vacation rental sites are the perfect place to reach their target audience at the right place and time. So, if you are looking for new ways to maximize the number of bookings, you should start by advertising your properties where your potential guests are.
As a guest, you might want to find the best home away from home for your next vacation. To help both guests and hosts, weve researched the top 10 vacation rental websites.
Read on to find out which of these platforms are the best short-term rental sites for you.
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Make A Promotional Video About The Local Area
Create a short video about why you love your local area. Include seasonal events, favorite restaurants, unique local attractions, and all of the things you like about the town/city/state. If youre not great with a camera, find an already-made video about your area online and write a description to go with it! This makes a great social media post, or a good link to include on your vacation rental listing.
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Make Sure Google Can Find Your Home
Search engine optimization is a marketers best friend, and it can be a vacation rental owners, too.
Simply put, SEO refers to the tactics used to make sure a piece of content appears in search results for the right people at the right time. It requires an understanding of how search engines determine what the best answers are to questions people type in their search bars and it can tell you a lot about what people are looking for in your area.
Without this expert knowledge, a vacation home might be a perfect fit for a guest, but theyll never know because search engines wont know to surface it.
Here are some basic vacation rental SEO tips owners should keep in mind:
- Conduct location-specific research to identify how people are searching for amenities and property details.
- Weave applicable research into your listing headline to catch the attention of scrollers.
- Feature popular amenities and more property details in your listing description to help attract more guests and convince them to book.
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Give Older Guests What They Want
Be sure to detail the propertys accessibility. This is important in terms of accessing both the property itself and the local area. Consider answering the following questions in your property description:
- Is there an elevator if guests are staying on a higher floor?
- Is parking available in the immediate vicinity?
- Do guests have easy access to public transportation and other conveniences like grocery stores?
As for the properties, youll have to cover the basics which apply to any vacation rental guest demographic:
- Your space should be inviting and cozy.
- The mattresses should be comfortable.
- The properties need to be immaculately clean.
Finally, if youre attracting more senior travelers, youll have to let your maintenance crew know what to look for when they inspect the properties. They should repair outdoor stairs and sidewalks as quickly as possible. Similarly, landscaping surfaces like interlocking stones cant be uneven or have protruding edges.
Create Your Booking Website Easily
With Smoobu’s codeless Website Builder, you can create your own Booking Website and generate additional sales without paying commissions. All tools are seamlessly integrated.
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Create a fully responsive website within minutes
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Accept online payments via Stripe and/or PayPal
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Accept online deposits via Swikly
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Calendar is synced with all booking portals
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Translated in over 30 languages
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Connect to your existing domain
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Search engine optimised
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Dynamic Rates Increase Overall Revenue
Homeowners who have never experienced dynamic pricing may be hesitant to embrace a pricing strategy that involves variable rates. We understand its a new approach for many. But our data shows that the best way to deliver more revenue is by dynamically adjusting rates.
Our system is all about specifics and can adjust one nightly rate to optimize your overall revenue. For example, if we see most people booking three-day weekends , we may drop the nightly rate on Wednesday so guests are encouraged to book four nights instead of three. While the average daily rate is lower for the four-night trip, incentivizing the extra night ultimately results in more revenue for your home.
Though the difference seems small for one reservation, the more competitive ADR benefits revenue in the long run. We know through experience that having competitive pricing for a home in the off-season adds up and, in turn, increases conversion to put your home in a stronger position when peak season hits.
Apartments Boutique Hotels Cottages Holiday Homes Serviced Apartments Short
These are some of the world’s leading listing sites where owners and managers can list their holiday rental accommodation free of charge. Whether you manage an apartment, boat, caravan, cottage, house, room or villa, this list should give you a great starting point in finding the best ways to advertise a holiday let for free across the internet.
These sites include completely free listings, commission-based ‘pay-per-booking’ models and those offering free trial periods.
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What Variables Determine Your Rates
Our rates are based on a number of variables, including seasonal weather patterns, holidays, location-specific events, competitor pricing, demand elasticity for your home, occupancy rates, booking window trends, current sales and promotions, regional demand trends, proximity to local landmarks, seasonal demand curves, changes in demand, and much more.
Where To List Your Vacation Rental Property Online
Youve furnished your vacation home. Stocked it with all the guest necessities. And now youre ready to open the doors to your first guests. But where do you find those guests? Or, rather, where will they find you? Travelers today have more places to browse vacation rentals than ever before. The key to your success is to diversify, instead of simply listing on one site. The equation is simple: More websites your home is listed on = More exposure + more earnings.
Here, well sum up some of the biggest booking sites where individual homeowners can list their properties. Focus your efforts here first. Then, you can explore more niche sites to fill in the gaps.
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Which Guesty Accounting Features Make Managing Your Books Simple
Having an automated, pre-configured system with reporting functionalities such as producing owner statements will ensure you are keeping the books balanced. Additionally, the ability to sync the financial recordings for guest and owner-related transactions from the PMS with the companys managerial and operational financial information, as well as tracking accounts payable, are some of the features that make managing your short-term rental and vacation rental accounting a breeze with Guesty.
Increase Engagement Through Short Surveys Or Quotes
You could also ask questions to increase the engagement of your posts. The users of popular photo and video-sharing social networking services seem to love answering questions.
You can also drive engagement by asking your followers to provide reviews for your short-term rental. In the example from Tripadvisor below, you can see that using the right tone is crucial: the Tripadvisor team behind the account explained the benefit of providing feedback for other travelers as the angle for their post.
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