STR do I need to learn SEO to maximize my listings?

Question

Hi guys, I’ve bought my first STR home, and in 2 weeks got it furnished, met neighbors, found someone to “emergency manage’ and clean as I’ll be long distance, now all that’s left is my city- required safety inspection and a few more organizational things. Vacasa Guestworks and Evolve have stated their listing process will increase my bookings- Vacasa listing on 30 sites etc.  Vacasa Guestworks(partial MGMNT model) says their fee of 12% is almost covered by the fact that THEY will pay the Airbnb host fee   Also they will handle the tedious filing of monthly taxes as required by my city/state regulations

I’m not scared at all to handle the online listing and am not keen to pay their 10-12% fee. BUT is it true that I’ll need to list on 30 sites and use certain words to make my listing show up ? Also how much does airbnb charge the host- it’s confusing whether to do the full host option paying airbnb like 15% (?) or the split model where guest pays part of that …

Anyone have specific experience on these two issues?

Collin Hays · Answer

VACASA is garbage.  And trying to get direct bookings for a single rental isn’t worth the effort.  Put your house on VRBO and call it good.

Sarah Kensinger · Answer

This is not that hard! If you want someone to help you walk through listing your property, I can give you a couple names to companies that offer a service like that. Then you'll be ready to self-manage without paying Vacasa a fee to look pretty and do nothing! Your listing will not increase in bookings! In fact, many many customers from Evolve and Vacasa are leaving and switching to companies like mine due to low bookings and other issues.

Rob Anteau · Answer

I agree with everyone here. List on VRBO and AirBnB. There is no reason I can think of not to be on both. Just sync the calendars and you're good. For the SEO it is key at the very beginning (first 30 days) to get your SEO results in a good place. There is a podcast I was strongly suggest you listen to. It gives some great insight to SEO. Its called Winning the AirBnB Algorithm Game by The STR Insiders. It is worth the listen.

Michael Baum · Answer

Hey @Noelle Debruhl, so I agree with the others that it is a waste of cashola to use Vacasa or Evolve. Just list the property on AirBNB and VRBO and you should be fine. They hold the lion's share of the market.

Regarding SEO, that is a non-starter IMHO. SEO is so much more complicated than it used to be. There are a number of companies that specialize in SEO and make a good living doing it.

It would take you a few years to get it down pat. I am not saying that you can't learn some about the basics and make it work for you for a direct booking site, but there is a lot that goes into it these days.

Theresa Holl · Answer

Noelle - SEO is a good skill to have.  While there are a few trickier technical items that make it work on the back end, you can use AI and trends.google.com to combine automated blog creation with high-performing keywords.  Semrush is another resource to be familiar with.  Here's how we teach it:

1. Look up high-performing keywords with the tools above

2. Use Jasper AI to write blogs for your site.  This is how you load your website with the keywords Google wants to see.  Use every high-performing word at least 5 times so Google sees it.  This is why blogs are so repetitive.

3. As far as optimizing your listing on the OTAs, you can also use Jasper or even ChatGPT to write captions for each picture and describe all the furniture, bedding and kitchen utensils/gadgets in detail.  More than just describing the items, describe the experience the guest will have.  You can tell your AI tool to make the copy more emotionally compelling and you should perform much better as a listing.

4.  Hospitable has a feature called "heartbeat" that automatically updates your listing every day or so.  The effect is that Airbnb boosts your search performance because it prioritizes updated listings.  This is totally automated, so you don't have to do anything but set it and forget it.  Not sure how many people know about that feature.

Zachary Cain Humphrey · Answer

Vacasa and evolve are both terrible. You would do much better yourself to personally manage or find a local management company. Learning SEO is important in any business. Consider reading "profitable properties" by Daniel Rusteen to help with understanding HOW to "maximize" a listing. Your home can be great, but if the listing you make sucks then it dont matter. Everybody is judging your home by the first 2-3 pictures you use and the first few lines of the description and the title of your listing. So try to communicate as much as you can through those 3 parts of your listing to optimize your performance on the airbnb search engine.

STR do I need to learn SEO to maximize my listings?

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