Creating Your Vacation Rental Brand

If you want to create a remarkable vacation rental company you need powerful marketing strategies.

And If you’re going to be a successful property manager or vacation rental owner in this increasingly competitive industry, you’ve got to take full advantage of one of the most effective market strategies you have…your brand.

With all that is happening right now in the vacation rental market many problems may arise, but your brand, or lack thereof, shouldn’t be one!

Do you have a remarkable vacation rental brand?

A quality brand will make your vacation rental services distinctive and unique when compared to other vacation rental companies in the industry.

Developing your own brand is like standing on a hill.

A brand helps you to stand on higher ground than your competition, allowing you to position yourself better in the market.

A brand equips you with more than just a product or service. It’s an experience.

Humanoid Brands

Brands today are becoming more social and vocal than ever. They’re almost taking on the persona of real people.

Your goal should be to masterfully craft your brand so that it will form a connection with consumers visually, emotionally and culturally. Is it time to re-think your brand?

Brands are alive! They can have beliefs, opinions and raving fans.

Since brands are “alive” they have the ability to “touch people.”

A brand can support causes

“Brands that establish a reputation for environmental stewardship among today’s youngest consumers have an opportunity to not only grow market share but build loyalty among the power-spending millennials of tomorrow.” – Grace Farraj

A brand can be controversial

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Starbucks red cup controversy?

The emotional reaction from this controversy shows how well Starbucks has done at integrating their brand into the culture.

Your brand may not be as big as Starbucks but it doesn’t matter. A myth I’d like to debunk is that branding is only for larger businesses and corporations.

The Experience

A smart business owner uses the power of the brand and its branding angle to win a spot in both the hearts and minds of travelers.

Can you can think of a couple of brands that do this really well?  Coca Cola and Disney come to mind for me.

It’s brands like these that have a positive association, a familiar name and in the mind of the consumer, these brands are perceived as being higher in value compared to their competitors.

Let’s have a look at Disney for a moment, one of the amazing world brand leaders.

Disney is an example of branding with purpose.

The brand is an intentional brand and needs ongoing work and determination to fully support the brand and what it stands for. Disney knows that having a high quality brand means you have to be fully committed to the brand.

Set Brand Standards

Disney’s brand message is consistent in everything including its marketing. Disney is fully aware that offering your customers consistency in your service and offerings is key to a reliable and successful brand.

Disney’s brand represents good old family fun, super clean locations, and of course excellent service.

Disney only employs those that meet up to its standards.

I remember at one time you couldn’t work for Disney if you had facial hair. That’s how committed they were and are to their brand.

Disney goes as far as taking their employees to their Disney University to help them learn their roles as a Disney employee and to provide their guests with exceptional customer services.

They want to empower each employee with the proper tools to support the brand’s identity.

What are the benefits of having a powerful brand?

Customer loyalty and brand value.

Every time a customer prefers what your business offers, they’ve just increased the brand value of your company.
In addition you’ll also be able to retain more guests as repeat renters. You may ask how does branding help me retain more return guests.

The answer is in your brand experience. When a traveler rents your vacation home, it’s the experience that they receive that’ll persuade them to rent from you once more.

Your brand is what helps to connect your vacation rental with the type of traveler it’ll attract. It’s similar to the law of attraction, you’ve heard of it right?

For example, if you put out luxury, you’ll get travelers who want luxury. If you offer eco-friendly accommodations, those will be the types of people you will attract.

On the other hand, if you’re only thinking budget, you’ll always get the budget traveler.

What does your brand represent?

Create Brand Fans

Creating brand fans reduces the costs of your marketing and helps you to rely less on listing sites because you’re recycling your leads.

It’ll help you to break through your industry much more effectively further helping you maintain and raise your piece of the market share.

And your brand fans will tell other people about their experiences, especially on social networks.

FYI- 80% of consumers are more likely to seek solutions from the brands they follow on social channels.

Are you leveraging your brand?

How To Train Your Vacation Rental!

We can learn from Disney in the sense that proper training is needed to set up a consistent brand experience.

We are in the hospitality business. Remember that if you need a crash course on hospitality…take it!

If your staff needs to be trained properly to support the company’s vision, do it.

These are the fundamentals of creating a respected and sought after brand for your vacation rental businesses.

I hope this blog was helpful to you. If you have a question or need some assistance with your brand, please feel free to reach out to me.

And stay tuned for my post on the 3 Guiding Lights That Give Your Brand a Soul.

What do you think about this post? Please share your comments below!