For some, renting vacation rentals is an excellent side hustle, but for many, it’s much more than that.
If you’re ready for more than just supplemental income and are thinking about adding more units to your inventory, then these ten ideas on how to make money from your vacation rental properties can help you maximize your earning potential.
1. Invest in professional photography
Photos are the foundation of your vacation rental listings. Your guests need to have a crystal clear picture of what it’s going to be like to stay in your property, so, one of the best investments you can make in your vacation rental business is professional photography.
Look for a photographer who is skilled in photographing interiors, and make sure that they capture what makes your rental special. If you don’t have the budget to hire a photographer, check out our tips on shooting your own vacation rental property photos.
2. Drive direct bookings by improving SEO
Having your own direct channel with a powerful booking engine is a must for any business looking to scale. Driving bookings - especially those of repeat guests - without the channel fees are a huge revenue boosts for a growing business.
But to make the most out of this marketing tool, one must focus on attracting relevant, organic traffic to their site. While it can take persistence to see the results you want, the best place to get started is with our step-by-step SEO eBook, designed specifically for vacation rental property managers.
3. Write strong property descriptions
If you want to make more money from your vacation rental business, you have to get the phone to ring. To attract more inquiries, you need property descriptions that make travelers want to click on your listing and book with you. This means you need great headlines and descriptions that draw people in. Our vacation rental description tips will help you in this process.
4. Price yourself accurately
With great photos and descriptions, the next thing you need to be concerned about when it comes to bringing in money to your short-term rental business, is to ensure that your pricing is competitive. Do some research to make sure that your property is priced right for your location and for what you’re offering.
While this is one of the most important factors for your listings, it can also be one of the most difficult to nail down. We suggest using a dynamic pricing software that integrates with your property management software, like Beyond Pricing, Wheelhouse or PriceLabs.
5. Solicit five-star reviews
For travelers, there’s nothing as reassuring as a pentitude of five-star reviews for a vacation rental property they’re considering. In the world of short-term rentals, reviews are what make you credible in the mind of travelers. If your guests don’t review your property, contact them within a day or two of their stay to ask for their feedback. These days, reviews are like currency, and guests understand that.
6. Focus on guest experience
The best way to drive these five-star reviews is to provide a five-star guest experience. When you’re thinking about how to make money on vacation rental properties, you have to focus on offering the very best guest experience that you can. This means providing a seamless check in/check out experience as well as investing in quality linens, reliable WiFi, a well-written guest book and as many personal details as you can think of.
7. Expand your reach
Diversifying your channel management strategy is critical to reaching your business’s full revenue potential. Each channel attracts a different traveler segment with unique booking intentions ranging from the type of rental they’re looking for, to their length of stay, and beyond.
You don’t have to add each channel at the same time, but you should create a plan that adds channels incrementally as you grow.
If you’d like assistance in creating your channel growth strategy and would like to know more about revenue growth from adding channels, schedule a call with MyVR and we’ll walk you through it!
8. Enhance your channel rankings
While it’s vital to be on each channel, it’s equally important to be seen on these listing sites. No matter how good your photo and descriptions are, you won’t make more money if your listings don’t appear in traveler searches. Check out our tips for how to get your listing to rank higher on Airbnb.
9. Fill vacancies with last minute bookings
Another great way to make more money from your vacation rental properties is to reduce vacancies. It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? However, many property managers neglect to be proactive in this area.
An excellent strategy to avoid vacancies is to focus on targeting last minute bookings. You can go after these guests by specifically targeting them with your marketing efforts.
10. Automate with property management software
When you’re trying to scale your vacation rental business, you need the proper tools that can manage your day-to-day operations but also provide guidance to developing a personalized strategy that will reach your long-term goals.
As you add more properties to your roster of rentals, property management software will help you efficiently run your business.
MyVR not only provides you with all of the tools you need to scale and automate your business, but our staff of industry experts are here to support you every step of the way in order to ensure you achieve your unique goals.
