6 Tips on Optimizing Your Vacation Rental Listings

Oct 16, 2012

Online listings are the first step to getting guests to your vacation rental. They are popularly searched by people looking for vacation homes in a new place. Therefore, these listings play a big role in giving your vacation rental business a boost if you utilize them properly.

6 Tips To Optimize Your Vacation Rental Listings In An Efficient Manner

1. Enhance Reachability

A brilliant vacation rental loses out on getting a high response from clients if its website or online listing does not have explicitly specified contact details of the owners. You must therefore try to put your phone number and e-mail address in a prominent position in the listing. If you have a website dedicated to the rental, mention contact information right on the home page. Let your users reach you with the minimum amount of navigation on the website. This is bound to get you more queries from prospective customers.

2. Be prompt in your responses

Whenever you receive a mail of interest or a query from someone, respond to it without any delay. You need to remember that there is immense competition in the vacation rental market, so if you don’t entertain a customer at the quickest pace, someone else will. For responding fast and from anywhere, you can keep a template of the reply mail ready and customize it to the particular client’s requirements before sending.

3. Add professionally shot photographs of the home

The online listing of your vacation home should majorly comprise of pictures of the house. Take enticing shots that show your home in the best light. Also cover the location and any nearby attraction that it may have. If your house oversees a beach, let it show in the snaps. It is always better to have a professional photographer shoot your home for you.

4. Include video and slide shows

Though images play a crucial role in generating interest, you may get better page views if you include a video of your vacation rentals. Many property owners include a video which has a slideshow of their vacation properties with link to their respective pages.

5. Don’t forget to groom the interiors

The interiors of a house too are of great interest to most guests. So keep them well-maintained and up-to-date with latest technology like LCD screens, Wi-Fi connectivity, etc. And even if your home doesn’t have these features, try to highlight other features inside the house that you feel may tempt people for spending their vacations at your place.

6. Invest in a good website

While online listings may do a good job for getting your holiday home noticed, you are likely to get an even higher response if you have a full-fledged website that showcases a huge collection of pictures, text, and blogs about the house and its location. And once you have a website ready, the best way to get traffic to it is to advertise your vacation rental on a number of popular listings and place a link to the site on all of them.

A well-maintained vacation house with a set of tools for effective online marketing is a remedy for success in the business. Once your business catches up and you have bookings from customers throughout the vacation season, your yearly profits from the house can touch the skies.