6 Strategies for Vacation Rental Owners to Boost Bookings

Vacancies are bad for business when you’re a vacation rental owner. Turning a profit means keeping heads in beds as many nights as possible. How can owners make this happen as the vacation rental market grows more competitive? The best practices covered in these vacation rental tips for owners help to keep the booking calendar reserved through all seasons.

1- List On Multiple Vacation Rental Platforms  

The best vacation rental sites for owners to appear are industry leaders Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, and Booking.com. How do short-term rental owners choose where to list their rentals? Good news: pick as many as makes sense for your budget, time investment, and target audience! Listing the property on multiple platforms exposes the vacation rental too as many potential guests as possible. The greater the exposure, the higher the chances of being booked. 

2- Optimize Listing Profiles

The listing description must include detailed information about the property. Write about the vacation rental features, like the size, bedrooms, and property highlights. One of the vacation rental tips for owners creating their profiles for the first time is to fill the entire profile out for that listing platform. Remember to be specific about what’s included, like special kitchen appliances or guest access to the community pool. Regularly update profiles with the latest information to let Airbnb and other platforms know you’re an active property manager or a host. 

Write your vacation property description to sell the experience. Do talk about the stunning mountain-view sunsets from the balcony or the property’s distance to a popular attraction. Your story of the experience will help attract your target audience.

3- Use Professional Photos And Videos 

People looking to rent a vacation home want to know what it looks like. Your photos and videos are crucial to their booking decisions. While owners can do-it-yourself with a smartphone or camera, springing for professional images of the interior and exterior is worth it. Capturing the right lighting and angles can be tricky. The best real estate photographers know how to use spaces to visually tell stories and sell the property. 

4- Consider Competitive Pricing

Vacation rental advice articles frequently talk about pricing, and for a good reason. Set a rate too high, and guests will opt to book at a cheaper place. Set a rate too low, and you’ll be booked more but generate less revenue. 

When renting out a vacation home, owners need to do regular market research looking at comparable vacation properties and market interests. Update the pricing based on seasonal demands and occupancy rates. Some markets have a peak, shoulder, and off-peak seasons and set variable rates based on these fluctuating demands. 

Research to keep rental prices updated takes time. That’s why vacation rental tips for owners include using a dynamic pricing tool to stay competitive and balance the need to stay booked while generating profit. The dynamic pricing software automates searching listing platforms for the latest booking activity, vacancy rates, and prices to adjust your rates. It ensures you’re getting fair value for the booking without the extra work.

4- Follow Marketing Tips For Vacation Rental Owners

Vacation rental owners can’t rely on guests to organically discover their property through a listing platform. The owners who actively push their listings to the world are the ones to stay booked. 

What marketing can vacation owners do besides paying to feature your property on a listing platform? Talk to local tourism boards. Ask for tips for renting your vacation home through their marketing arms. Consider marketing locally to attract domestic travelers looking for a more affordable vacation. 

Leverage best practices in search engine optimization, like using keywords for the area, in your property profile and marketing copy. Advertise on social media. Other marketing vacation rental tips for owners include joining vacation rental forums, forming local partnerships, and print advertising.

5- Impress Your Guests

Remember to put the guest experience first. People heading on vacation want experiences they’ll never forget, but in a positive way. The last thing they want is a story about the place swarming with pests or arriving at their vacation rental only to find it previously booked. 

Positive impressions start with prompt communication from the beginning. Get back to potential guest queries as soon as you can. Create a solid plan for cleaning and maintaining the property between guest turnovers. Always have a Plan B for cleaning and turnovers.

Have a guestbook with local information so guests can find the things they might need during their stays such as the grocery store, pharmacy, gas station, and local restaurants. Go a little further with extra services and experiences. Offer grocery delivery before guests arrive so the fridge is stocked and ready to go. Rent bicycles, kayaks, or throw in a free ski lift pass. 

You can also use the extra services and experiences to increase revenue, like offering a local winery tour for an additional fee per person.

6- Use Vacation Rental Management Software 

Figuring out how to manage a vacation rental in a way that enhances the guest experience, drives profit, and saves time is one of the challenges vacation rental owners face. 

Vacation rental software helps automate rental business processes like guest communications and reviews for guests. Having multiple positive guest reviews is crucial to helping guests discover your rental, but they don’t always remember to leave feedback. These services automate reviews for guests so you get more good reviews to market the property in return.

Besides enhancing guest communications, a provider like iGMS manages multiple accounts on different listing platforms from one place. It makes synchronizing booking calendars easier and prevents double bookings. Vacation rental management software also helps with team management by assigning properties and tasks to cleaners or vendors. 

Vacation Rental Tips For Owners

Keep your vacation rental booked by applying these vacation rental tips for owners to your property listings. Impress guests from the moment they see the photos and read the property description. Your prompt communication builds confidence that they’ve made the right booking decision. 

Efficient management improves the guest experience, which leads to more positive guest reviews. These reviews characterize the property for people when they search for their next vacation. Active management creates a cycle that keeps building upon itself, leading to fewer vacancies and more revenue for vacation rental owners.