Promoting your holiday let
Marketing your holiday rental will involve a specific formula to ensure you reach the right guests at the right time. But it’s an easy area to get lost in. For example, which area do you devote more time to? How will you find the time while running and managing a holiday rental simultaneously?
NO MARKETING. NO BOOKINGS.
How important is marketing your rental?
How do you expect it to be found without marketing your property to tourists, the local area and the wider public? Word of mouth is a strong marketing tool, but you can’t rely on it to bring you business because you’ll have a lot of downtime. As a manager of a holiday let, you’ll need to devote a lot of time to promoting the property and boosting bookings – and Google and social media should play a large role.
Promoting your rental through Google
A search engine you likely use yourself all the time to find the best of the best is Google.
As the ultimate search engine, guests will also use the platform to find properties like yours to stay in, too, particularly if they’re looking for something specific or unusual.
So, if you’ve set up your own website, you’ll want to include Google marketing in your strategy to attract potential guests to your site.
Suppose you’re relying on your site to bring in bookings, but it can’t be found on page one of Google for keywords related to what guests interested in your property would be searching for. In that case, you can expect a quiet season if you’re not advertising elsewhere.
Search Engine Optimisation will only be relevant if you want to make your website a significant business marketing tool. If you need a website just to be a brochure, you can relax, knowing it doesn’t have to be an internet sensation.
But if you are serious about making your site the source of your central bookings, you’ll need to be taught the basics and dedicate time daily to its management.
We could spend an hour each day looking after our own site, which typically involves running through the analytics to understand:
- The actions taken by visitors – the pages they visited and if they converted
- Where the conversion falls off and how we can improve this area
- Tweaking the website’s copy and images
- Ensuring the website is functional, working and fast
- Performing all the same checks on the mobile, iPad and laptop versions of the site
- Checking where the site ranks on Google for keywords important to us
Even if your website ranks well for keywords, it does not mean that it will stay that way without attention. Remember, others want to rank for their sake keywords too, so when you’re not working on your site, you can bet they’re working on theirs to earn money, so there’s always competition for the top slot, no matter how niche your industry is.
Why social media might be better
We’ve all got at least one social media account, and at some point or another, would have seen an advertisement for some getaway, holiday or break.
Social media uses images, videos, and music, so it’s very easy to generate a response from potential customers. And seeing as we all buy from emotion, your holiday rental couldn’t be better positioned to sell. In reality, holiday rentals are in the business of selling experiences and memories that last a lifetime.
Owners of excellent properties with views will be in the best position to entice guests quickly, as will owners of great amenities and facilities. This is because, from one post, guests can imagine their experience and the types of memories they can create with their friends, family and loved ones.
It offers excellent visibility – even if guests don’t want to visit you now, they’ll save your place for later.
A great example is Centre Parcs, which has boosted its popularity by being more visible online and showing off some of its sought-after facilities, like a lazy river and rapids, which guests have been filming themselves using at night. Bookings have soared since then, and their prices have climbed.
One post has the potential to reach thousands and even millions. One holiday rental we came across on social media recently marketed itself as an isolated spa getaway with all the facilities you need for a perfect private spa escape.
The place had just opened, and one post got them fully booked for the next two years. Incredible. But being a success on social media is not always easy – and it’s not just luck. You need great, visually appealing content, so knowing what you’re doing here is essential, too.
What accounts would we recommend you use? Well, all of them – but you’ll find particular success using specific platforms over others. For example, Twitter and LinkedIn might not be the most appropriate spots. But Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will be perfect. We recommend advertising them when you’ve taken terrific pictures and videos. Remember, video is king in this market currently, so even if you have to hire professionals to get some great footage, we would do it – because you can use it repeatedly!
Read More
- The Right & Wrong Attitudes Of Hosting. More.
- A Host Guide To Dealing With Complaints. More.
- Solved: Do you use direct marketing for your Airbnb? – Airbnb Community
- Introducing Your Airbnb to The World. More.
- The legal requirement for holiday lets in the UK? More.
- Conducting Airbnb Market Research. More.
- First Steps: Running a holiday rental business. More.
- Setting The Right Price At The Right Time. More.
- Tax Tips For Holiday Lets. More.
- How You Can Earn The Most On Airbnb. More.
Summarise Page
HelloGuest argues that bookings depend on marketing: use Google to capture search demand (SEO/ads, analytics-driven website upkeep) and prioritise social media’s emotional, visual selling – especially Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok —with strong video content.
Summarise our “Social Media Marketing for Airbnb” with ChatGPT?