Marketing Your Vacation Rental

For vacation rental home owners, advertising and promoting their vacation rentals is essential to increase bookings. There are many different options online and offline for vacation home exposure. We will highlight online web marketing as the best and most powerful way to reach a much larger pool of vacationers. Each method takes a different mix of time, investment and expertise to set up and run.

The Major Listing Sites Charge Owners AND Travelers Now

Some, like the big listing sites such as VRBO, VacationHomeRentals, HomeAway, FlipKey, etc., take a relatively large cash investment to set up and have started charging additional fees to potential guests. This move to charge compounded fees have sent travelers searching on Google, Bing, Yahoo and etc., to find options to book direct.

An Industry In Transition

We’ve found that a mix of various sources is the ideal way to create a strong booking stream. Paid listing sites are your bread and butter — they will drive most of the inquiries. They’re also the most expensive, and beyond optimizing your listing on each site, there’s not a whole lot you can do to increase inquiries from that source. A personal property website allows you to engage more directly with guests, become involved in the local community, and build and individual brand for your vacation rental. Email newsletters and a Facebook page provide a way to maintain a connection with former guests and increase your repeat booking rate.

Others, like running an email newsletter for past guests. Many try this without regard to how spam and junk filters work and end up sending emails to nobody. Email marketing takes a bit more of a time investment but are relatively cheap in terms of cash. Again, DIY marketing online relates into time spent vrs return. It all depends on how much you value or think your time is worth per dollars back to offset.