Book That Rental!

So, now that you’ve tricked out your rental with rugs, furniture, pillows galore, how do you actually get people to pay you money for all that hard work you’ve done?

Well, my dear Rentalists, it’s time to talk about booking sites! On the web there’s a huge variety of websites designed to help people find places to vacation, work remotely, or find a place to stay.

While some owners also use sites like craigslist and facebook to find renters, and some even make their own websites which I’ll cover in an upcoming article, but most renters will come through a booking site. The most popular booking sites, Airbnb, VRBO/Homeaway, and Booking.com all use a similar format for your listings, so here are some tips and tricks to make your listing shine!

The Basics

Listings on booking websites have a few basic components:

• Title
• Description
• Pricing
• Photos
• Rating

Title

Since the title of your listing is the first thing a potential guest will see, it is one of the most important aspects. To be effective, make it concise, descriptive, and attention grabbing. “Serene Poolside Getaway with Mountain View” will get more renters than “$250/night 2bed 2bath with a Pool and View of Mountains, very serene and good for elderly customers.”

Description

Your listing’s description is where you get a chance to convince people to come stay at your rental, and equally important include terms people may be searching when looking for a rental like yours. People want to know it matches their expectations, and that it offers what they want in a rental. Don’t forget to add information about the surround area and attractions. Also, use general keywords like “beautiful”, “comfortable”, and “romantic”, since feelings-first descriptions are among the top searched terms on these sites, as well as location keywords like “quiet”, “beachside”, or “wooded”.

Pricing

Pricing is often one of the most difficult aspects of renting. If your price is too high, you’re unlikely to get bookings. However if your price is too low, you could lose revenue. Take some time to look at other rentals in your area, and what they offer in different amenities, to find that balance for your area and figure out what their average price is. Do your research into what you can get, don’t simply put what you “feel” is the right price.

Photos

Good photographs can make or break a rental. The most booked rentals will have between 10 and 15 photos, and although some sites will let you add as many as 50 photos to each listing, you should stick around that rate. Start with a staging photo of your property that has good lighting, lots of color, and is taken from the perspective of someone coming across your property. Then take interior room photos from the corner of the room in order to take advantage of  angles that makes your rooms look as large and inviting as possible and ideally include the kitchens or bathrooms in your photo set as those are some of the most make or break parts of the house. Think of it like a photo tour, but don’t too far and include hallways.Finally, if you have a particularly nice view or feature, include that in your set towards the end. Don’t include too many, but it doesn’t hurt to show off. Customers want to see your property in order of importance: where it is, what it feels like, and what it provides that nobody else does.

Ratings

The final aspect of listings that you will need to consider is unfortunately the one that you have the least control over in the beginning. Since these ratings can only come from renters leaving reviews on your property, consider inviting friends to stay a few nights at a lower price in exchange for good reviews. It’s not cheating, since they’re honestly staying there, and it’s standard practice in the business. Also, as you build up your reputation be sure to encourage each guest to leave a positive reviews when they leave, and be proactive with letting them know to come to you with  their complaints (if any) before the listing website.

AirBnB Specifics

Airbnb customers, in general, are usually looking for quicker and cheaper bookings, on a short term basis. Our most common bookings from AirBnB are last minute vacationers, business-persons on trips, and people who’ve been stranded at the airport . This means your guests want to know that your rental is clean, comfortable, and has internet access. It also means that first impressions are everything, since AirBnB guests are likely to only return if you out-do your competition. AirBnB has a list of aspects that make their top rentals, and specific qualifiers for things like family rentals, business rentals, and becoming a superhost that are worth going for if your rental can accommodate it. The more you qualify for, the more customers will be sent your way by their search engine.

VRBO and Homeaway

VRBO and Homeaway are set up as two separate websites, but they  run the same listings from the back-end. People looking on these sites are looking for a vacation, and are planning several months in advance. They want to know more about the attractions and benefits of the area, and why they should spend their vacation days with you over someone or somewhere else.  You are going to want to anticipate vacationer’s needs and do your best to provide everything they could be looking for a in a great vacation. It’s a good idea to list local attractions, your amenities, and what makes you special in the description of your VRBO listing so guests know what’s going on at your rental.

Booking.com

Booking.com is often more difficult to get going than either VRBO or AirBnB, as it has a longer approval process and is more difficult to integrate with other booking websites. Booking.com has a less designed interface and the people booking on booking.com are not required to make profiles as guests. This means that it is a favorite of the less tech-savvy guests, and those who don’t want to link up accounts. Booking.com listings are often short, to the point, and have few pictures.

CROSS BOOKING

One of the biggest fears that many vacation rental owners have with running their rentals on multiple websites is the possibility of double booking, or being unable to manage requests from multiple sources. While it certainly is possible to manage a few listings on multiple websites using free tools like iCal and Google, many owners and property managers find it easiest to use a third party management system. Some that we’ve tried include Guesty, MyVR, and AvailabilityOnline. All have their perks and downsides so shop around to find the best service for you.