How to Make Your Vacation Rental Stand Out in the Crowd
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9 Quick Ways to Make Your Airbnb Stand Out
Vacation rental platforms have exploded in popularity in recent years. Airbnb & VRBO along with Booking.com, GlampingHub, Outdoorsy, RV Rentals, all of these that started as niche vacation sites, are continuing to grow and become the norm as people look to get outside of hotels and away from crowds and city centres.
It has become more important than ever for Vacation Rental Property owners to know HOW to make your rental property stand out and maximize your bookings and revenue.
Our quick tips are intended for you to make a few easy updates to your amenities and listing info to help boost your listing’s visibility and ranking and hopefully help you to bring in more views and more bookings.
Hotels have great amenities and staff and locations, but they often can’t compete with privacy, designer charm, quality amenities and those added touches that make a vacation more comfortable or a business trip feel more like home.
Cute & simple curb appeal for this Airbnb in Amalfi from one of my past travels. Copyright Alanna D Photography
Airbnb has become the household name (good or bad) when people think about a private vacation rental getaway or hotel alternative.
The popularity for travelers AND the extensive number of new and inexperienced hosts, has led to muddy waters, and many great listings being lost in a sea of neighbours, sometimes hundreds or even thousands of listings trying to capture the same guests.
Guest’s aren’t going to view 100’s of listings. They might click through 10.
They are going to zoom in on a target area or price point, add their preferences on the filters, and click through a dozen or so listings with great looking first pictures or pricing and features that stand out quickly (Titles such as City Centre, Sleeps 10, Hot Tub!)
They will only look through the first page or two of results, or their key target spots on the map unless they are searching for the most unique rental possible, then they may browse through a lot more.
Every booking is important towards maximizing your revenue, but you want to find guests who book in advance and value what you have to offer, rather than constantly needing to discount your space to try and snag last minute bookings when you have too many vacant dates.
Two big mistakes new VRBO hosts make or issues I’ve seen with new Airbnb vacation rental listings:
#1 - Bad photos, or boring feature photos showing a bland exterior instead of the best highlights of your listing. Your first photo MUST be your best space in the rental and it must be your photo.
#2 - Too many beds, not enough seats. “Heads in beds” is about maximizing your rental rates, but I often see spaces that are not furnished with enough seating to relax, eat and hang out. If your space sleeps 10 and only has one couch and 3 bar stools in the dining room, where are the other people going to eat, going to sit and watch TV?
There needs to be comfortable living room space and seated dining space for the number of guests that you want to have sleeping there.
WAYS TO HELP YOUR VACATION RENTAL LISTINGS IN THE RANKINGS
Aside from the planning stage where you make your vacation rental stand out with unique, comfortable or quality design, appealing photos, you need to regularly update your listing by keeping the listing, rates and details up to date
Our rental at Cerritos Surf Villas, Baja Mexico
1) Use professional or High Quality Images and post them in the RIGHT order
The best 5 photos of your rental must be first in the order, with your absolute best photo being the first one. On the APP, the first photo is the only one a guest sees along with your headline and a couple tiny side photos, like this sample.
2) Clear Headline with your stand out features and # of guests or beds it can accomodate Skip the Emojis it’s just clutter. Descriptions should be precise, attractive and fit the headline photo.
Steps to Beach with Rooftop Views, Sleeps 10
Waterfront Condo with Private Pool
Couple’s Retreat Private Garden Villa with Firepit
Guests can only see the first 10 words or so when scrolling the list too. Your first photo and your headline are very important.
If you don’t seem to be getting many views, rotate your first photo to a different one or update your description.
Emojis will turn into gibberish characters on some apps and websites too for guests in other countries, so they are more likely to skip your listing than click on it.
3) Check your pricing against your closets competition and adjust often to keep up with market trends.
Each time you adjust your pricing, it refreshes your listing in the search results and can help boost views.
Click here for more on PRICING
4) Use Dynamic Pricing tools (Beyond Pricing, Pricelabs) to help adjust your rates with demand and maximize your rates with these automated software tools
5) Update something every 3-4 days on your listing, even just a couple dollars price change or edit one line on the description, it helps your listing show as "recently updated" and move up in the results.
Airbnb and VRBO will regularly leave prompts on your account or at the top of individual listings asking you to re-confirm information. Click through these regularly to make sure your listing is correct and it will help keep you up to date. We have heard that the algorithms on these websites prioritze superhosts/premier partners as well as boosting listings that have just been updated or reduced pricing in some way.
6) Slight price reductions help boost your listing in the search results
If you have upcoming dates in the next couple weeks, adjust your prices even by $5 a day, or by a lot depending on your margins. The reduced pricing is often featured and might boost your listing in the results. If you do a search in your local area right now for availability in the next week or two, what listings appear first in the results? Usually the ones with big price reductions.
If you do a small price reduction further in advance, this might help fill those bookings at higher rates rather than having to lower even more at the last minute. I am not a fan of discounting and I rarely offer discounts when asked, it tends to lead to the more high maintenance guests that value things left and are more critical in reviews. Just adjust your prices and watch the market demand but don’t offer discounts when asked. We regret it pretty much every time when we do give one.
7) Make sure your design, amenities, quality, location and features (IE your VALUE) match your pricing and local area and are competitive for similar listings.
Again I check out my competitors, and overall availability in the local area for different dates to see where we stand. I have a list saved in my Airbnb Traveller profile of local competition. I also have one for other places for designs that I like and spaces that are really unique and well put together.
Use the HEART button if you see any local competitive listings that you want to save for later to compare to your property or give you ideas for upcoming renovations or bonus amenities and updates you can add.
I recently photographed a 1 bedroom vacation rental property that was very casual cozy, lovely place to stay but a bit out of town with nothing around it and no real attraction to stay in this dirt road out of the way spot unless you want exactly that, peace and quiet.
I did a search nearby and just about every listing with 2-4 bedrooms, twice the space, closer to town or on the ocean, more upscale design, was less than HALF of the current nightly rate of this unit, in the slowest season of the year.
Unless you have amazing amenities and design and a really special location or bonus to your space, such as a farm stay experience or are walk on the waterfront, you really need to watch competitive rates closely and be in line with them for pricing and value or it’s going to cost you in bookings.
People won’t pay higher for your space if there is no obvious bonus to choosing yours, when they can see everyone around you has better location, cheaper pricing, better design unless you have something amazing that no one else does, like a treehouse.
I saved this listing because it’s unique AND in my local area and has nice trendy interior design.
8) Create a social media account JUST for your listing and promote local events, restaurants, activities using these accounts, and have your booking link readily visible on the profiles, along with occasional photo and video features.
Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook are all valuable tools to connect with guests who may not be looking to come to your area now, but will save your space or your info for later. It also gives you a chance to showcase upcoming events and activities by sharing stories and videos from local businesses and tourism companies, that will then link back to your account where you have your Airbnb or VRBO rental link in your profile.
Here is one of our Instagram accounts for Mexico where we mainly share stories posted by restaurants and local businesses to show off the great food and fun to be had nearby. Cerritos Surf Villas - Cerritos Beach Baja Mexico
9) Add Value with quality amenities that show in your photos, and little updates that guests have asked for in reviews
People are choosing your airbnb for location, because it looks nice, and because it generally has a better price point and better amenities than a comparable hotel, and you can fit your whole family if needed.
Consider who your target is - is your space a business spot for single travellers or couples who may want weekly or long stays? Is it close to a big family attraction and will mostly have families and kids? Is it a summer vacation destination with a variety of larger groups?
Cater some of your amenities to appeal to your target group.
Add spa like extras for your couple’s retreat space.
Add beach & pool items and outdoor dining ware for guests to enjoy the outdoors.
And don’t forget the bonus touches like adequate and ambient lighting indoors & outdoors
Make sure your kitchen has enough to be considered “fully stocked” for meals and cooking along with the basics, such as spices, other than just dishes
Snacks
Coffee station with herbal teas, flavoured syrups
Blender
Picture-perfect outdoor glasses
Check out our kitchen guide here
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