Creative and Effective Ways to Market Your Short Term Rental Property

Short-term renting allows the owner to still utilize the property in between stays. When it comes to short-term rental listing, it is important to get it in front of a lot of people because you can’t count on income from a sole renter. Short-term rental means lots of clients over short periods of time, so you need creative ways to market your short-term rental property listing.

Listing Platforms

Don’t stop with Airbnb, there are lots of places to market your vacation rental property. Increasing the places your listing is posted will help increase the eyes that see it. A few other listing platforms include:

• HouseTrip – A European site that started in 2010 and offers over 300k homes in over 20k destinations worldwide.
• FlipKey – A TripAdvisor site with over 260 million visitors. Fees here are on the higher end when it comes to listing sites.
• VRBO – A site with over 1 million listings and has been around since 1995. This is also a TripAdvisor site with higher fees that can be cumbersome for the seller.
• Sabbatical Homes – Aiming their listings to academic or educational people (teachers, students, professors, researchers, medical professionals, etc.), the site was founded in 2000 often offers a slightly longer short-term stay of 1-6 months.
• Craigslist – Often forgotten or written off, this popular classified listings site is an option, though risky. Because the site isn’t vetting or verifying members, you have to exchange personal information and work with potential renters on your own. It can be done if you are willing to do the legwork and learn about potential scams.
• onefinestay – Built-in 2009 with over 2,500 short-term rental homes across NY, LA, Rome, Paris, and Miami (so only operating in a few major cities across the globe).

SMS Marketing

Text is a tricky area, but a great one to master. You don’t want to be invasive, so this isn’t about contacting a list regularly. Instead, offer SMS services for your guests. Use a bot to handle inquiries quickly and then respond in person as soon as you can. SMS can offer reminders for check-in times, check-out times, assistance if help is needed during the stay and a survey after the stay to get a guest’s feedback.

Email Marketing

Emails are a great way to keep guests coming back for more. Offer news about the area and any changes to your properties (like upgrades or new businesses/attractions being built nearby). Short Term Rental Property you can build an email list with each guest that visits your property and keep them in the loop so they are more likely to return. Always allow your guests to opt-in, so they don’t consider you spam. Send a welcome reminder immediately so they remember signing up for your emails. Offer special deals through places like email to encourage your visitors to stick around.

Social Media

Posting on social media is important, but boosting those posts is even more important. With social media, you can often get very detailed in who is seeing your ads. Try to aim for those who have used platforms you list on to book rentals. Use social media to post content that shows off your property. Share reviews and experiences your guests share with you—especially if they are good. Respond to all questions, compliments and complaints in a timely way so that potential guests can see how much you care about things that may crop up.

Photography

A picture says a thousand words. Great photography will draw in potential visitors and set your listing apart from the millions of others it is compiled with. Professional property photography will show off your space in the best light, increasing the appeal. A great property photographer will have the skillset, knowledge, and equipment to get the right shots in the lighting, angles, and location of your listing. It’s going to be very hard to compete with hotels and other rental properties if your listing contains a bunch of cell phone snapshots. Ideally, you want a lot of vibrant, sharp, and cohesive images in your listings.

Video Tours

Along with amazing pictures, professional videos can really show off space. Provide virtual tours for your guests so they can get a better look and feel at the space they plan to rent. Video is a great way to get extra eyes on your property on social media, with a lot of social media encouraging video content. From Pinterest to Facebook, video content is good for exposure and engagement.

Blogger Reviews

There are plenty of influencers and bloggers that are willing to post pictures, reviews, and content in exchange for a stay. Find bloggers and influencers who target the same audience you want to reach. But remember, they aren’t salespeople—they are content creators. You will get a twofold value with their stay; your property will be put in front of their audience and you will have new content to share. A blogger can write a great article about your specific rental or write on something related (family vacation ideas, tips for saving money over spring break, business trip packing ideas, etc.) and plug your property. A blogger or influencer will also provide you with images of your property in use. These content pieces are things you can share in newsletters and on social media to give your followers more content without extra work on your end. Bringing in bloggers or influencers during dead times of the year is a great way to drum up future business.

Ratings and Feedback

Encourage guests to provide ratings and feedback. Start by asking for private feedback (like via SMS text). If the stay was good, ask them to leave a rating on the platform they booked through, Google and Facebook. The more positive ratings and feedback you get, the more people will trust your listing when they see it for the first time.

If you need help with Airbnb management services, marketing your listing, or getting the most out of your short-term rental property, we would love to help!