If you’re constantly finding yourself with an empty apartment or villa, these vacation rental marketing tips may just help you get the bookings you need to succeed. For many new short term property investors, it can be all too easy to make vacation rental mistakes that set you back. Choosing the wrong channels, wasting time on endless listings only to realise that they are not as effective as you thought they were and taking poor quality images are some of the things that can sabotage the most diligent of efforts. Marketing plays a huge, vital role within the vacation rentals business, and if you are trying to do everything yourself, you may well find that it is a full-time job trying to promote your property.

Of course, not putting in any effort at all to market your property is just as risky. If you are making the assumption that guests will find your property without you having to do much work to get it out there, you might pay the price when your investment yields little return.

Vacation Rental Marketing Tips

As you can see, the ideal way to approach marketing is to find a balance between smart marketing and consistent marketing. How do you go about promoting your property? For starters, you can consider the following vacation rental marketing tips:

1. Consider working with a vacation rental manager. The single most effective thing that you can do for your investment is to partner with an experienced vacation rental manager who is able to provide a comprehensive management solution that encompasses marketing, day to day management, bookings management and guest services. This will ensure that your property is expertly managed and actively promoted across multiple channels. You will not have the hassle of trying to do everything on your own – instead, you will have the advantage of a skilled manager that can help you create a strategy aimed at growing your investment returns.
2. Take time to do your homework well in advance. Market research is essential in almost every industry. In the highly competitive short term rental space, it is especially important. Identifying and understanding your target market will allow you to reach guests, while competitive research can provide a solid advantage as well. Is your pricing suitable for your area and tourism grading? What features can you focus on? How can you position your property over others in a similar price range? Taking the time to think about these things in advance will make it far easier to develop growth-driven strategies.
3. Have your listings written professionally. Badly written listings can be a make or break factor – especially if your competitor’s listings are written in a way that encourages bookings and enquiries. If you work with a property manager, you won’t have to waste time on listings. A good manager will have a team of experts on board, ranging from copywriters to photographers and social media strategists. If you do decide to write your own listings, make sure that they are checked by someone who has a good eye for catching mistakes.
4. Use social media wisely. Marketing your property is not always as easy as simply putting up pretty pictures and waiting for the likes to roll in – you will also need to engage with followers and actively promote your property on a regular basis. You could fork out for a social media manager, or you could sit back and let your rental manager take care of social marketing for you instead. Handling your own social media is not recommended, unless of course you have a background in social media management. With many guests using tools such as Facebook as a way to voice their feedback (negative and positive), you will need to proactively monitor your accounts accordingly.
5. Harness the power of guest reviews. Reviews are the lifeblood of any vacation rental. Glowing reviews can help your bookings significantly, but poor reviews can all too quickly put guests off from making a booking. One of the most important of all vacation rental marketing tips is therefore to maximise your reviews wisely. The best way to encourage good reviews is to deliver a high level of service. Asking guests to leave their thoughts is also a good idea (but only if you have provided a level of service that warrants a good review). Yet another way that a rental manager can help is to ensure that your guests are so happy that they will want to shout it to the rooftops.

______________________________________________

Here at Totalstay, we provide a comprehensive, full-service approach to managed vacation rentals. From the day to day management and maintenance of your property, all the way to marketing, concierge and reservations management, we take the stress out of short term rental management. To find out more about our unique approach or to get one-on-one vacation rental marketing tips from our team of experts, contact us today for an evaluation of your property.