All Forum Posts by: Jason Eisert

Seller financing? Long term rental? Can you split it in to a duplex? Take a “break even” sale before interest, utilities, taxes, insurance eat you up? Talk to some “high end” realtors and see if they have opinions? Good luck. 

Jason, your house is amazing, I love it. 

I have a few suggestions for your listing.  Your cover photo shows the house all in shadow, and it's not showing its best.  Either lighten the photo, or change it to one where sun is shining on the pool area.  I agree with Jonathan about not quoting the remodeling price.  In fact, I would not say anything about remodeling and how you turned the property into beautiful space.  That sounds like it wasn't great before, and guests don't need to know that.  Just tout how wonderful it is, without alluding to its history. 

When you say "According to county records, our home is permitted as a five-bedroom dwelling", that sounds strange.  I would say, "the home has 5 bedrooms, with other spacious sleeping areas".    But your listing says and you have photos for 6 bedrooms.  Specify whether those flex areas have a door for privacy so they can function as a true bedroom or not.  And having a floor plan with bed and bathroom locations would be helpful to large groups, since many people will not be in the formal bedrooms.  And guests will want to see which rooms have en suite bathrooms.  

At the very end of the description, you say "This is a hosted rental."  Are you saying that you will be sleeping there too, or what does that mean?  Your heading says the guests are renting the entire villa. If you will be on the property, you should make that clear to guests. 

I priced some of your dates, and in Oct and Dec there are weeks that are $44,000 ! You are right that this will be harder to book, unless you can target the very wealthy. I have followed a guy named Bill Faeth for a few years now on his Facebook group and his YouTube channel. He focuses on luxury STR properties with loads of amenities as a way to stand above the crowd. He owns STRs and he co-hosts selective luxury properties for other owners too. You might look at his website, he also does coaching on targeting the luxury guest. I know he recommends having your own "landing page" for direct bookings, and using Facebook advertising among other things. I have used some of his tips, but I have not used his paid services so I can't personally recommend him, but his advice so far seems practical. https://www.billfaeth.com/

You say “the property is perfect for large families, yoga retreats, and corporate groups.”. Then you say “We ask that groups who book are limited to one family.”. 

It can’t be both. A corporate retreat all from one family? A family who all want a yoga retreat?

I’d suggest:

Remove the one family line, heck remove as many restrictions as you can. 
Try midterm/longer bookings at a lower per day charge? (Someone spending months.)

If you want to remain in the STR/MTR business: See if it has any resale value. Can you sell and buy 2-3-4 properties better suited to travelers? It might be a great property for a very large extended well off family but your targeted traveling market is very small.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out. 

I can recommend some folks on Maui who specialize in these types of listings.

Do you yourself practice yoga? If you're looking to capture that market, it's not that big and might be worth networking with some yoga folks yourself to get the word out. And also staging the place with yoga props. 

Also research what types of events come to Kona, like Iron Man, paddling races, etc. and market to those folks.

Quote from @Jason Eisert:

I am the owner of a 10,000 sqft luxury mansion in Hawaii that I have spent the past two years renovating and managing. We've found that the property is perfect for large families, yoga retreats, and corporate groups. Despite offering almost every amenity for an ideal vacation, my efforts to increase bookings through more than ten non-exclusive agreements with local property managers and continuous outreach to travel agents have not been fruitful. You can view the listing here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/739311990337556133.

I am seeking advice on more effective marketing strategies to enhance visibility and drive bookings for this unique place... It's got a large cost per night and our target demographic isn't "cookie cutter" like most listings. If anyone has insights, experiences, or can recommend specific platforms or techniques beneficial for marketing unique luxury vacation rentals, your guidance would be highly appreciated.

Thank you for sharing your expertise!

 Jason, I sympathize with your situation. I think your current marketing target persona requires a very special type of marketing and connections. Those wealthy families are not usually booking trips the same way and on the same platforms as the mass vacationers.

Much like amenities and pricing, marketing should start with asking "what are my competitors doing?"

Are they getting published in lists from travel blogs? Are they using social media? Are they using a third party agent to drive bookings?

Once you nail down how to play in the same market then you can get creative to find new marketing methods that are unique (or even guerrilla tactics).

Start by asking people in your network that you think would likely fit your target audience what they do when they're looking to book a multi-family vacation home.

Qualitative research then turns to quantitative, so gather ideas from your wealthy friends then do some try them out and be sure to ask any leads/guests "how did you hear about us?"

I look forward to hearing about your journey in solving your marketing need.

You have a large property that multiple families or groups of friends will need to go in together on. They have to plan in advance for vacation days and to coordinate with everyone. 

This is an expensive place and it's not drivable so everyone needs to arrange and pay for airfare.

This is tough.

When you did your research prior to purchasing, did you find other similar properties that were already successful or is this more of a hope everything will work out?

You might want to hire a company that specializes in this type of marketing.