What have you tried to increase your STR bookings? Anyone Try a design refresh?

Question

Hey fellow investors!

I hope this post finds you well. I've been in the exciting world of short-term rentals for 4 years now and have been actively exploring strategies to increase bookings for my properties. I know many of you have a wealth of experience, and I'd love to tap into that collective knowledge.

Here are a few questions to kick off the discussion given the current state of short term rentals:

• 1. What specific strategies have you implemented to boost bookings for your short-term rentals as of late?
• 
• 2. Have you tried a design refresh or any other strategies, and has it faired well?
• 
• 3. How do you optimize your pricing to attract more guests without compromising profitability?
• 
• 4. Do you have any favorite tools or platforms that have been particularly helpful in your booking optimization efforts?
• 
• 5. Have you successfully utilized social media or other marketing channels to increase your property's visibility?

Feel free to share your success stories, lessons learned, and any challenges you've overcome. I believe our experiences can benefit the entire community of investors, especially those who are just starting or looking to enhance their booking strategies.

Let's make this a collaborative space where we can support and inspire each other on our short-term rental journeys!

Looking forward to hearing your insights and tips.

Cheers,

Theresa Holl · Answer

Ok - as far as tips and tricks people never mention, here are a few of my favorite marketing secrets I never see anyone mention online.  I guess people don't know what they don't know. LOL.

This is all assuming you have your own website and aren't just on Airbnb.

1. Learn the keywords people are googling to find listings like yours and ensure they are each on your website 5 times at a MINIMUM.  Google is blind to keywords below 5 instances.

2. SEO!  The easiest way to load your site with keywords is to have a blog.  You can then cross-market and send the blog out to FB and LinkedIn as well.

3. Backlinking.  A backlink is just another website linking to yours and increases your google score. The easiest path is to link any of your old websites to yourself and have a partner page where you're all linking to each other.  The more backlinks, the higher you'll be in the search results.

4. Coachmatix is a website platform with built in CRM integration and decent automation for the price. Last I heard it was around $97/month. I don't know them but for that price, it's worth checking out a demo I think. https://coachmatix.com/

5. Once you've done all that above, you can make sure Google Analytics is running on your website (tons of tutorials on YouTube) so you can study your traffic and start planning a targeted ad campaign.   Budgetwise - a good agency will want a $2k - $3K monthly retainer plus you'll need a few grand monthly for ad spend​ for Google Ads.  ​For lower budgets, Facebook ads are a good start.  Make sure the copy illustrates the problem you're solving and connects emotionally with your audience.

Robert Phillips · Answer

Where is your property located in compared to the local attractions or whatever reason people are visiting your area, secondly what ammenities do you offer compared to yoour competition? Stacking low cost amenities can be a easy way to seperate yourself from your competition. On the othe rhand if your property looks like something out a Golden Girls episode and the top competion is well designed and nicley appointed then you will have to compete on price and at that point its a race to bottom.

Nathan M kiefer · Answer

We paid to have a nice website done, use hostfully for our guidebook and advertise on Airbnb and VRBO as well as one local booking option.

light social media presence on our end.

Rafael Ramon · Answer

I think the idea of a photo wall is the next wave (if its not already here) of amenities that people will be offering and promoting. It's wild how much of our world/life is driven by something social media related these days.

Rafael Ramon · Answer

Totally. I was just hoping to stimulate some conversation and see if anyone had any ideas on how to make our properties even better.

Rafael Ramon · Answer

This is a very good idea. We are looking at a design refresh, but I like the idea of playing with pricing a bit more. What do you use for data on pricing and what needs to be changed?

Andrew Steffens · Answer

I think it depends on your market and your listing.  Some places are in a huge need of refresh in today's competitive landscape.  Some not so much, some need to refresh their pricing from 2021.  It really is market and listing dependent but it is good to be thinking of any and all ways!

Sarah Kensinger · Answer

So many hosts are investing in several thousand for a design refresh and seeing good results! Also, dial in on a pricing software by taking the time to study the data and what events are happening in your area, so you can set competitive pricing. This is huge and something more hosts should do! It's not a set a forget item, so make sure to take time once or twice a week to work on the pricing of a STR. Lastly, if your curious about marketing to people, especially past guests, looking into a marketing software may be a good option for you. There's Market My STR and Go STR Marketing. Their names are very similar, but two different companies and ways of marketing to past guests.

Shawn McCormick · Answer

@Rafael Ramon Great questions. I'm in Orlando and the market here is ultra competative and we have 10's of thousands of units so owners have to be creative. In my experience, I believe it will depend on your market and what is driving people to book. Are they coming with small groups/families, is it vacation driven, adventure, scenic, weather, mountains, skiing etc.

I think using the enemy method would be a good place to start to see what others are doing, or not doing and capitalize on that information. At the end of the day, you still have to make money, so you can only offer so much, but often its about the little touches that make you feel you are dealing with a person who cares about the quality of your stay rather than a bunch of shiny objects that they really don't want and you are probably charging a higher rate for.

One of the things I'm seeing a little growth with is (and I'm not on either of these) is doing an Instagram or tiktok wall or space with the name of your place and get the guests to post something tagging your place and incentivize it for them, something fairly trivial like a $10 discount or a pizzz delivered to them.

Hope this helps, best of luck!

What have you tried to increase your STR bookings? Anyone Try a design refresh?

Most Popular Reply