Vacation Rental Marketing

Vacation Rental Marketing Tips For Owners & Managers.

In this day of vacation rental marketing you must be smarter than the average bear because it’s a jungle out there. You need to do things that your competition is just not doing.

There’s a lot of competition in the vacation rental market. It takes creative marketing to separate yourself from the crowd.

Separate Yourself From Competitors With Better Marketing
If you want your vacation rental to stand out in the crowd of vacation rental properties then you have to be different.
Everything should be different, including your marketing. Your vacation rental marketing should be dangerously effective. Think of clever ways to attract customers to your vacation rental like moths to a flame.

One way your vacation rentals advertising can be different is by offering a vacation rental layaway plan. Have you ever heard of that? Probably not that’s exactly why you should consider implementing it.
Most vacation rentals owners require a small deposit to make the reservation and the balance due several weeks prior to the guests’ arrival.

Take Something Old & Make Something New!

Instead of presenting this in the traditional way most owners do, put a spin on it.
Layaway is a sales strategy that still works. In fact this Christmas I remember commercials from K-mart introducing layaway and there were other stores that followed, even Wal-Mart brought back layaway. It’s a sign of the times
If you don’t fancy “layaway” you can call it “Flex-Pay”.

Embellish The Benefits

Explain to your website visitors and potential customers how easy you make it for them to reserve their perfect vacation.
Most owners do not tell travelers how flexible booking a vacation rental can be. I find this to be a mistake vacation rental owners make. Because this is just one more reason it’s better to book a vacation rental over a hotel.

If you go to hotels.com and book a Hotel you have to pay for it right then and there as you make the reservation. So it’s a good idea to let travelers know that you offer flexible payment options to help them plan and prepare their travel arrangements.

Vacations as you know can get very expensive make it easier for your renters and they’ll appreciate the gesture.
Presenting this as a benefit for your travelers can help you book your vacation home more often. This may seem obvious to you but that isn’t the case for your customers. Remember its all about the presentation; if you present this right you’ll get more reservations because of it.

Set Your Own Terms

Of course, this is something that you can offer during certain times of the year, if you prefer. Get creative and create terms that work for you and are appealing to travelers on a budget.

You can also choose to have renters to make monthly arrangements dividing the total cost of the booking by the months remaining before check in. If you decide to break up the booking into monthly payments it could help you to know whenever there is a problem with a booking.

If your renter misses one month’s payment you’ll at least be aware that there may be an issue arising. Should there be a cancellation or no show on that booking you’ll have time to arrange for someone else to book your home. This option may be especially helpful to property managers who have more than one property to rent.

It’s Now Being Implemented By Large Travel Agencies (Is it a sign of the times?)

As I was writing this blog I did a little research and found that Sears just recently began offering layaway on their new travel website www.searsvacations.com (you can see the tab on the right hand side)

Further research showed Gate1Travel.com reports that a whopping 60 percent of its clients have been paying with layaway. You can see their new layaway plan here http://www.gate1travel.com/layaway/

Another clever way to use the layaway marketing strategy is to offer Christmas layaway.
Your ad can read something like “give the gift of relaxation, adrenaline and fun layaway the perfect Christmas or Birthday present today”. We’ll keep it a secret!

You can easily point out the benefits of flex pay or easy pay options.
Some examples of these benefits could be:

• Guaranteed vacation
• Low down payment
• Easy payment plan
• No price increases
• No Interest (unless you decide to charge)
• Get the exact dates you need
• Excited family and friends

You get the concept now work it into your vacation rental marketing.

For more one on help to make your reservations contact us today. We can help. We make it easy!

Jay William
CEO+President Villa Marketers
https://villamarketers.com
Author Of Vacation Rental Marketing Secrets
www.vacationrentalmarketingsecrets.com
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