How to market your Vacation Rental

The vacation rental market has become saturated with not only vacation rental properties, but also the tools to help you market those properties.  For Rent By Owner (FRBO) has been in business for 12 years offering short-term (vacation) rentals and long-term (residential) rentals, so we’ve learned a thing or two over the years.

If you’re serious about getting into the vacation rental business and generating a healthy income from it, here are a couple of tips for helping you drive customers to your property.  These are in no particular order.

1. Catchy Name: If you want people to remember your property, you need a catchy name that is easy to distinguish your property from thousands of others.  It doesn’t need to be completely unique, but “The place where we stayed in Aspen” just doesn’t ring like “Ski Ajax Lodge”.
2. Great Photos: Hire a professional photographer to prepare and shoot your property.  There is a reason they are called “professional photographers”.  They have the experience, and sometimes the equipment, to capture good, quality photographs that show off the unique characteristics of your property.  Photos sell your property more than anything else.
3. Quality Description: After the photos of your property, the description is the second most important item on which to focus.  A good description of the property can paint a picture in their mind.  It also allows you to highlight some unique characteristic or feature.
4. Domain Name: There are multiple benefits of having your own domain name. The obvious one is that you can host your own website where you list your property or properties.  The less obvious reason is that you can have a personalized email address. Dave@MyAspenProperty.com.  Using your own domain for email shows your clients that you’re serious about your vacation rental business.
5. Multiple Listing Sites:  This might seem strange that a listing site recommends using other sites, but every site has a different audience.  There are also some niche players that might bring you a completely different audience.  For example, ClanVenture.com focuses on rental properties that cater to families traveling with small children.

We’ll go into more detail about each of these in future posts, but hopefully this gives you some ideas to help market your