Vacation Rental Advertising Tips

How To Increase Your Vacation Rental’s Profits

In the game of vacation rental advertising you have to be on your toes looking for opportunities where you can make extra income for your vacation rental property. When we are marketing our vacation rentals we always need to ensure that the travelers experience is not compromised just to earn additional profits, no one likes to be knickeled and dimed. Earning additional profits is sometimes a challenge if you want to remain competitive with your rates. There are many ways you can earn more income from your vacation rental and still offer exceptional value. In this post I will mention just one idea, however in my next several blog posts I will be discussing more ways to help you maximize your rental profits.  You’ll need to realize you have alot expenses with managing your vacation rental and understand you’re in business and a business needs profits to keep their doors open. Don’t be shy about charging for upgrades, up sells or extra fees just a few extra dollars here and there can help pay for your vacation rentals advertising budget. Advertising vacation rentals online these days cost more than ever, with that said how can you maximize your vacation rentals ROI?

Charge for early checkins or late checkouts. My family and I were in a vacation resort near Tampa Florida. We were having a great time at the resort and we wanted to have a little more fun. I live in Orlando Florida and the drive to the Tampa area isn’t very far, so we decided to head there for a quick getaway. When we realized how much fun we were having in the vacation rentals resort we didn’t want it to end so soon. We wanted to stay another day but we couldn’t because we had obligations the next day, however we could stay till the evening and drive home a  bit later. We all wanted to extend our checkout time so I called over to the front desk and they offered us a late checkout. They offered to let us enjoy the property until 5 or 6pm which was great for us we could enjoy the pool resort amenities and the nearby beach. The resort informed me that it would be no problem for us to extend the stay for a “half day” rate. We gladly paid the fee because it was perfect for our situation.

Since this experience we have captured our own rental fees for late check outs or early checkins . Many vacation rental owners have been very successful with charging for this feature. This is an acceptable upsell as the clients appreciate that they are offered this flexibility and if its important to them they will gladly pay for it. You can come up with your own pricing structure for early check ins and late check outs. Of course your property must be available to allow your customer to check in early or check out late but if it is why not squeeze a little more from that booking.  After all they are enjoying the extra benefits of your facility. When deciding what you will charge renters for this great option make sure that it is reasonable. The renter has to justify the purchase in their own mind so it should be in line with your daily rates.

You should not offer this as an option upfront this is a back-end deal. There are times when a renter is booking and they’ll ask for a early check in or a late check out, however this often happens after more detailed planning with their traveling party. You will usually receive an email asking you for this option. Of course you can chose to throw it in but I would consider this an opportunity for an upsell and extra income for your business. Over a year these figures can add up. If you use several upsell options you will accumulate a substantial amount of money you were leaving on the table.

The right way that you do this is to have set pricing for this option. This lets your renters know you didn’t just come with the idea to charge them off the top of your head. Briefly address this by setting your policy upfront once you have set your policy let your customer knows what it is if they ask for extended stays. You can even send an email to your guests after they have booked with you informing them this option is available.  An idea for the theme of an email can be something like ” Relax and Enjoy a Little Extra Sleep”. You can get creative with this option and when you do it right you’ll help increase your rental profits.

We have an owner in our program with a 5 bedroom villa who charges a half rate of $89 and he has sold this 8 times to his customers this year.

One of our property managers enrolled in our marketing program reported shes been able to secure 24 late check out request equaling approx. $1800 in extra income for her management company since she implemented this policy.

Stay tuned for more vacation rental advertising tips to increase your rental profits.

Need help marketing your vacation rental?