Holiday rental properties continue to grow in popularity every season as more and more travellers want to have memorable locations and fond memories of the places they visit. The privacy that private accommodation provides is hard to come by when using mainstream travel agencies so now is a great time to make sure your holiday rental business is getting its fair share of the market.
Making your properties stand out from the crowd can be tricky but if you have a well thought out and expertly executed marketing plan in place, then you can reap the rewards of a successful online business that makes use of your physical assets, which is the property you will use for short-term vacations as per this guide.
But how do you get started?
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Know your market
Before starting any kind of advertising campaign, you need to know several factors. This includes who you are targeting adverts at, their demographics and age etc plus what your competitors offer, among other factors. Doing the necessary research is crucial to getting it right.
Get a really good idea of who you want to attract to your business, how you want them to see your business and above all how to attract them to stay with your holiday rental properties.
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Get your listings right
First impressions are very important. When creating your listing for travel websites, you have a very small window to create a lasting impression. The clever use of headings and imagery can make a strong impact on whether guests choose to book with your or your competitors.
Show guests exactly why they should book with you and don’t give them the option to leave without booking. If you begin to over promise, then you are just asking for bad feedback.
Keep everything above board and honest and if anything, underplay your property if you think you can because the added benefits that surprised your guests will be reflected in their gleaming reviews of your property. See examples of an exemplary vacation rental company with great reviews and brilliant listing descriptions.
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Make Sure You Have a User-Friendly Websites
Although many people that rent their property out for short-term rental will be using sites such as Airbnb or HomeAway, you will still need to have your own website. You would be surprised to see how many people do not have their own website. This leaves them wide open to constant fees being incurred from using a third-party vacation rental website.
Having your own website is essentially there for repeat business. If you have a manual in your house with your website on the manual and some business cards, your current guests can make a note. This way they will be able to book another stay via your website – that is as long as your website makes bookings and finding information an effortless process.
On top of this, as there will no website fees incurred for the repeat booking, which you would get on HomeAway and other such sites, you can make the prices on your website a lot more attractive and still make more money.
Check out Lodgify vacation rental property management software for more info. Rather than fork out a fortune to have a custom-made site built as well as getting tied in with the maintenance fees website companies usually an add-on, you can use a ready-made website from Lodgify. The company’s vacation rental software option comes with a complete calendar management system that synchronizes with sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway, so you will never have to worry about double bookings. Furthermore, the built-in booking system makes it extremely easy for repeat guests to make reservations.
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Pay extra cash
Advertising is such an influential role in creating a buzz about your holiday rental business, you can’t afford to cut corners here. Extra money on advertising is money well spent and you will see the difference in your profits account.
Putting your money in the right place will show promising results, though maybe not overnight, and it will be much more worthwhile in the long run for establishing your business.
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Make it easy
Accepting payments for your lodgings should be easy, fast and straightforward. Potential guests can be put off by a long winded system so don’t fall into the trap of losing guests. The acceptance of credit and debit cards can come with charges for your business but the amount of business they bring in will outweigh any fees you incur by using the service. Once again, you should check out the Lodgify website because it comes with a built-in booking and payment system.
Round-Up
As with being successful in any career, you will need to know your market well when starting to operate an online vacation rental business. This will help you with providing website visitors with accurate listing information and ensure that you get positive feedback because you are not overselling what your property. Also, have your website so you can draw any guests that could potentially rebook for more dates to a place where prices are cheaper and where you can expose them to your brand name.
Last but not least, make sure you do not skimp on investing in your marketing and property upgrades because this could harm you in the long run. By all means, stick to a budget, but don’t be too tight because sometimes spending more can give you a much higher return on your investment. One of the points most businesses tend to fall over on is not providing an easy payment system.
There is nothing worse than losing sales. As a result, you should make sure that you invest in a decent payment system!
