Use These 9 Tactics to Increase Bookings at Your Vacation Rental

Vacation rentals have gained momentum among group travellers within a short span. But, most of them struggle for bookings during on and off season. 

Today, I’ll share some easy hacks that can help to increase vacation rental bookings.

What are vacation rentals?

Vacation rentals or VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owners) are properties used as a secondary dwelling by vacationers for a short period. They can be fully furnished holiday homes, villas, apartments, or professionally-managed resort condominiums. 

Vacation rental serves the purpose of a hotel, as well as home. It allows guests to enjoy the luxuries and comforts with their friends and families at any exotic location.

Moreover, with a capacity to accommodate six or more guests, vacation rentals have become a popular choice among group travellers.

Vacation rentals are available across the world but with different names, such as holiday villa in US, gites in France, and villa rentals in Europe. 

How do vacation rentals differ from timeshare accommodation?

People tend to get confused between vacation rentals and timeshare. Although both are a part of the hospitality industry, they differ from each other in various aspects. Let’s take a glimpse at some of them.

1. Stay duration: Vacation rentals are available for a short period in a year. They are bookable for long weekends, a couple of weeks, and sometimes even a month! On the other hand, timeshare allows guests to stay for a week or less.
2. Location: Vacation rentals can be found basically everywhere (city, hill station, beaches). Whilst timeshares are located specifically at tourist destinations. 
3. Amenities: Vacation rentals are like home away from home. They are fully furnished houses, with amenities such as refrigerator, TV, AC, microwave and so on. On the other hand, timeshare have exclusive facilities like babysitting, adventurous activities, valet including basic amenities. 
4. Ownership: In vacation rentals, the ownership lies with the owners, where they have to bear the property maintenance cost. In case any aggregators manage the property, the responsibility lies on their shoulders. However, in timeshare, the guests have to pay annual maintenance charges, which are included in their membership fees. 
5. Tariff: Guests can book vacation rentals at different tariffs, depending on the size, amenities, and location of a particular property. Apart from that, the rates fluctuate as per the season. On the contrary, timeshare have fixed fees based on membership tenure. 

How to increase vacation rentals booking?

Since VRBOs are bookable for a limited time of the year, they are pretty much cold in business for the rest of it. Let’s take a look at steps that can help to increase vacation rental bookings. 

1. Proper nomenclature

If you would have ever tried to book a vacation rental, you might have come across names, such as 2 BHK villas in North Goa, 3 BHK condos in New Delhi, and a fully furnished 4 BHK Bungalow in Tungarli. 

First of all, this kind of nomenclature would never fetch you any visibility on Google or any OTA. Guests search property’s name on Google to check reviews, compare tariffs, and amenities. 

Using cliched name tags such as 3 BHK, 4 BHK, beautiful villa, or anything of similar kind will just create confusion among guests. Additionally, it will be an arduous task to find the exact property they are looking for. 

Here’s an example for better understanding. If you look at the images below, the property in the first image is one that I would prefer to book.

 In order to check the reviews, I Googled the name, and as you can see there are multiple results in the picture below.

Now you know why I was talking about having a proper name for your vacation rental. Try to keep an easy and a catchy name, and ensure you keep it the same across all platforms.

2. Start with Google

Once we are done fixing your vacation rental’s name, it’s time to create your online presence. This starts with listing your property on Google. 

Google my business for hotels has made an incredible impact on the hospitality industry. With millions of hospitality businesses available on Google, it is vital for vacation rentals to be registered on it. 

All you have to do is list your property under the holiday rentals category, which can be followed by optimization for better results. 

Don’t forget to cross check details such as address, phone no, operational hours. Further, geo-tag your property correctly on Google maps.

In case, you need assistance with listing your vacation rental on Google, here’s a blog for your reference.

3. Get onboard with vacation rental booking sites

If your property is not registered on OTA, you are surely missing out on bookings. As per the infographics shared by stayfi.com, 

75% of vacation rental bookings were made on booking sites like Airbnb, HomeAway, or TripAdvisor. In fact, the property managers that used instant booking options on Airbnb, saw an increase in their vacation rental bookings by an average of 20%.

This proves that listing on OTA is definitely a successful strategy to increase vacation rental bookings. Here are some OTAs that deal exclusively in vacation rentals:

1. Airbnb 
2. Tripvillas
3. Turnkey VR
4. VRBO
5. Marriott Homes & Villas
6. Plum Guide

4. Let your website do the magic

Now that we are listed on Google and OTAs, we should take the next step – Establishing your brand. 

For that, you need to create your brand website. You can choose from various website development platforms, such as Wix, WordPress, or eZee Panorama.

However, there are two prime factors that can increase the visits and average session duration on your website:

1. Content: An engaging content is of uttermost importance to garner guests’ attention. Instead of using fancy and complex words, go for a simple and point-to-point content.
2. Visuals: It’s important that you update at least 2-3 pictures of every room, facade, bathroom, kitchen, swimming pool (if your property has one), and view from the rooms.

Alternatively, you can refer to this blog for understanding the requirements of an effective website.

5. Be flexible on tariffs

One thing that drives away guests is higher tariffs. It is fair to raise your rates in the peak seasons, but guests will expect reasonable rates otherwise.  

It’s better to go flexible on tariff as per the season. Do NOT miss considering the profit margin while updating the rates. 

Moreover, it’s important to have rate parity across all the online booking platforms. Although, you can keep different rates for OTAs, travel agents, and corporate guests. 

6. Promote your USPs

To give a fierce competition, promoting USPs (Unique selling propositions) is a vital step. You may be wondering, “What are the USPs of my vacation rental?”

Well, identifying USPs ain’t rocket science. You need to consider two aspects:

1. Guest reviews
2. Features

You can use a review management tool for analyzing guest reviews. It will provide you with details of your appreciated and criticised factors. 

List your features and compare them with your strengths. The common points in that comparison are your vacation rental’s USPs.

Once you have the list of your USPs, you can promote them on various online platforms using pictures or videos. Check out this amazing video by The Private World.

Here are some of the common USPs of vacation rentals:

1. Location 
2. Property’s theme (Such as vintage house, farmhouse, jungalows and so on)
3. Furnishings
4. Room view
5. Nearby attractions
6. Private and open spaces

7. Market the right way

Marketing is an unfathomable segment. New strategies are in the trend to capture the maximum audience.

But what’s important is, how much benefit you can get out of it. While marketing your vacation rental, you should cross check these 3 factors:

1. Target audience
2. Bifurcated your guests data
3. Marketing platforms

Once you have your target audience, you can filter guests’ data. Now that you have the correct guest segment, it’s important to decide which platforms can get maximum results.

You can go with email, WhatsApp, or social media marketing. Start with one campaign, and check for the results. Keep optimising your campaigns for better results. 

Here’s a blog that can give you an in-depth idea on implementing successful marketing strategies. 

8. Approach institutions and organisations

Last year, a friend of mine planned a visit with his family to my place. Being a hill station, they wanted to stay at a property with a picturesque view of the mountains. 

Surprisingly, his company had tie-ups with vacation rentals across the country. They provided him with an amazing property to stay for a week.

But, what I mean is that you should associate with numerous organisations and institutions for business. You can offer them a special tariff if any of their employees books the property.

Alternatively, you can fix the duration of guests’ stay, and charge a one time amount for the same.

9. Retain old guests

It’s never too late to retain your guests. I do understand that it’s not possible for all guests to visit the same place again. 

But, that’s the challenge you need to overcome. How?

There’s a simple way to do it. Run deals and discounts for your regular guests. 

Moreover, engage with them on a regular basis.

Keep them updated with your off-season rates, ongoing offers, appealing photographs of your property, or any other updates about your vacation rental.

As per the statistics shared by annexcloud.com, 

A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25% to 95%. 

 So, you can see why customer retention is an important strategy to increase vacation rental bookings.