Marketing STR/vacation rental outside of booking platform?

Question

Anyone had success marketing your vacation rental or short term rental outside of relying on the booking platform (Airbnb/VRBO)? I'm starting to experiment with FB ads, Instagram and pinterest. Also was thinking about google ads? I have my rentals linked from my custom website which I'm trying to attract visitors with content like blog posts. I'm not asking about avoiding the booking platform altogether, just driving more traffic to listings on Airbnb/VRBO.

Curious if anyone has had success in doing this and if so, any tips/pointers to consider? Thanks!

Curious if anyone has had success in doing this and if so, any tips/pointers to consider?  Thanks!

Ariel Smith · Answer

@Selena Walsh Oh, gotcha! I use the below tips to drive views to my listings. It's working very well and lately I'm gathering over 1000 views per month.

1. Update your calendar daily. Even just going to "calendar" on your host dashboard will trigger an update in Airbnb's system. I set my calendar to be my home page on Chrome so that I always open it each day.

2. Get professional photos! I cannot stress this point enough. If your listing has professional photos, it will show up higher in search and also be clicked more in search when guests are looking at other properties in your area. If you don't already have professional photos, get those taken asap. It's totally worth the investment.

3. Fill out your entire Airbnb profile. This means answering each question and filling out information about yourself as the host, as well as the property. Having a full profile will help your listing appear higher.

4. Respond quickly to guests and inquiries. Having 100% response rate is crucial.

5. Turn on instant book, make your property "business travel ready" if possible, and try to gain superhost status. Airbnb will instantly boost your property in search when you have these features.

6. Continue to promote your listing link on social media. You want to do this as a traveler and not as a host. If you send the link from your host profile, it doesn't boost. However, logging in as a traveler and sharing the link to your property on your Facebook, Instagram, etc. will boost traffic and also boost search rankings.

You can also tweak pricing, minimum stay, max number of guests, etc. to make your home show up in more guests' searches. This will depend on your personal strategy and property. But for me, I allow up to 12 guests (my property is near Coachella festival so this makes sense), I have a 2 day minimum, and I set my "base rate" just below the competition. This allows me to show up on more searches. The great thing about the "base price" feature too is that you can set all of the individual date pricing to be completely different, but for marketing purposes, your property shows up at that rate!

Dj Larsen · Answer

Ariel - Looking forward to your STR pro tips blog (please!).  Especially for those of us just getting up to speed with STR.

Shelby Pracht · Answer

Wow, that is a goldmine of tips @Ariel Vincent, thanks so much for sharing!

Ryanne Hodson · Answer

i also use CL, but i never hear if anyone found me there. get on Instagram, get a hashtag on there. that's my newest site to try and i'm having fun with it, people are finding me there and i link directly to my Airbnb in my profile.

Andrew Wong · Answer

@Ariel Vincent, could you elaborate on #6? What do you mean by host profile vs traveler profile? Are they suspected to be tracked differently somehow?

Ariel Smith · Answer

@Shelby Pracht No problem!

@Dj Larsen haha I don't know if I'm there yet, but I'm always happy to share any tips or information! I have experience working with hundreds of landlords who run STRs at my previous company, as well as the ones I manage on my own. Feel free to PM if you ever have any questions!

Selena Walsh · Answer

@Ariel Vincent Not looking to book directly, just drive traffic to my listings.  I have my Airbnb listings linked from my website which I'm also trying to drive traffic to with content.  My question was how else can I drive traffic directly to my Airbnb listings...  In terms of Airbnb SEO - I have a couple new listings which are getting a little buried in the Airbnb search so trying to increase the number of clicks they get.  I'm trying to make sure I consistently update the listings and have plenty of pictures. I also mention local attractions in the listing text... but if you have any other Airbnb SEO tips or resources to offer, would greatly appreciate!

Ryanne Hodson · Answer

@Andrew Wong i also tag with the name of my area/town/county and other relevant tags. so anyone searching those will also see my photos and hashtag. also #Airbnb is a big one!

Ariel Smith · Answer

@Selena Walsh are you saying that you're trying to drive traffic to your VRBO/Airbnb listing or you are trying to drive traffic to your website so that you can have guests book direct?

If you're trying to drive traffic to your VRBO/Airbnb listing, I'd spend more time on SEO for those platforms since you are already paying for them. There are many tricks you can use to get your property higher in search within their algorithms.

If you are trying to drive traffic to your website or to book with you direct, I would not advise using google ad words. It is incredibly expensive and you will lose money per deal 99% of the time. I would stick to Instagram, the blog posts and other low cost (or free!) platforms to drive the traffic. I've never used Facebook ads, but am interested to hear from you or anyone who has! I just have experience with Google.

I'm very weary of Craigslist because of the plethora of scams on the site, so I do not use it for my property.

Andrew Wong · Answer

How do people find you on instagram? What other tags do you use to drive up search results?

Marketing STR/vacation rental outside of booking platform?

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