Increase Your Vacation Rental Bookings

If you want to increase the amount of bookings that you receive there are a few things that you can do instantly. It’s important to get inquiries and people interested in your property of course, but your ability to close on a deal will be what actually makes you money. So what can you do right now that will increase your vacation rental bookings? Here is a brief list for you to consider.

Information

Potential renters do not know your area so any extra information that you can supply them with will drastically increase your chances of getting a booking. Have you done upgrades to your property recently? Tell them. Is there a fun seasonal event they may want to see? Tell them about it. What activities are in your area? Tell them. Increasing renter’s awareness of your surroundings will significantly increase your bookings.

Pets

You may be hesitant to accept pets in your lovely, beautiful home but did you know that 29 million people bring their pets on trips with them? That’s a huge market that you could easily tap into if you are willing to allow pets in your home. You can always request an extra fee for having pets, or require a security deposit that can be kept it damage is done.

Response Time

We are a society that likes immediate gratification and vacation rental properties are no exception. In most cases a potential renter is interested in a handful of properties and they are willing to make a commitment with the first person that gets back to them. Respond quickly – the early bird gets the worm!

Photos

Take as many photos of your vacation property as possible. People like to see what they are buying before they buy. So take pictures of everything and put them in your listing.

Polite and Enthusiastic

It’s good to be excited about your property but don’t go overboard. Also, if a renter contacts you and asks a question that you already answered in your listing be polite and answer the question again directly. Don’t simply tell them to read the listing again. Your personality needs to shine through.

What You Need to Know Before Listing Your Vacation Rental Property

Your main objective when listing a vacation rental property is to minimize your costs. That means you should not be looking for sites that charge you to list your vacation rental property for rent. You want to generate revenue – not another expense. Maximizing your exposure while minimizing your costs is what our website is all about! So to get started on your listing there is a few things that you should do before publishing your listing to the general public.

Pictures

A picture is worth 1,000 words right? You will never rent out your vacation property if there are no pictures. People are very visual and they need to see what they are spending their money on before they commit to a rental. Pictures will sell your property because potential renters are given a sneak preview in a sense. Take pictures of every area of your home. If your vacation rental has good views of the beach, mountain, lake, etc. take a picture of it and bring renters into your life style. Let them see what it’s like to rent your property before committing.

Ad Content

It’s time to put on your sales cap and get to work! Your ad content is a big part of getting your vacation property rented out. Take a look around at your competition to see what kind of expectations you need to exceed. Then create your own content that is better than the competitions. A good sales pitch will capture your audience’s attention and your competition will need to go back to the drawing board.

When writing the content do not lie! There is nothing worse than renting out a property that is not as described. It will hurt you in the long run and will deter future renters from choosing your property over the competition.

Describe everything as accurately as possible and use words that are pleasing to hear or read in this case. Use some varying types of font enhancers like bold and italics. Things that will catch your readers eye immediately.

Pricing

Research your market. It’s pretty simple to do. You can either look online for vacation rentals near you or look in your local paper to see the prices that people are getting. You can even call other vacation rental owners in the area and pretend to be a potential renter so you can find out their pricing. It’s important to not be too high and definitely not too low either. Price your rental comparatively to your competition.

Winterize Your Vacation Rental

Your thinking this is about how to ensure that your vacation rental is ready for the winter month’s right? Well you’re right, but it’s not what you may be thinking. If you own a vacation rental property then you’ll want to rent it out all year round to maximize your profit and minimize your costs. How do you do that?

Vacation rental homes that are not in a high demand during the off-peak month’s can still entice vacation seekers with some simple marketing tactics. It can be hard to rent out a property during off-peak times so it’s essential that you offer as much of an incentive as you possibly can to potential renters. If you want to increase your vacation rental bookings during off-peak times then here are a few ways that you can do just that.

Winterize

What kind of activities are there in your general surroundings during off-peak months? Communicate these in your listing and you will be surprised at how many people will inquire about your property.

Always Advertise

Never stop advertising your property for rent; even during off-peak times. Often time’s renters will look at listings months in advance so if you take down your listing during off-peak times you could be losing bookings during the peak times and vice versa.

Save Your Money and Time

Use websites to advertise your vacation rental property. Take advantage of all the free listing websites such as ours before you spend a penny of your money on advertising. You will be surprised that we have a very loyal following and we don’t even charge for it! This will save you a lot of money.

Nightly Rates

Decrease your minimum stay requirement and you will drastically increase your bookings during off-peak times. Offer a nightly rate so renters can easily compare your property to the cost of a hotel. They will see the benefits instantly.

Special Offers

Think of a list of potential incentives that you can give a renter. For instance you may run a “rent for 5 nights and get one free” or you may offer them a gift certificate to a very good local restaurant. You can be as creative as you would like.