 |
The Benefits of Listing Your Vacation Home on Multiple Web Sites
Exclusivity is not a good idea when listing your vacation rental property.
Jack Simpson, a real estate columnist, once wrote, “Advertising is a powerful tool – without it, your business is dead. If you ever run out of money, cut your pay, cut your staff, quit paying your bills, but DON'T ever stop advertising. Because if you do, it's all over!”
The importance of advertising your vacation rental property is obvious. But the effectiveness of your ads and proper exposure is something that we often don't pay much attention to.
More travelers than ever choose to rent vacation homes over staying in hotels. The number of homes available for rent has also grown. But the number of travelers seeking homes to rent still far exceeds the number of vacation properties available. Simply put, the demand exceeds inventory.
Then why do we hear this common refrain amongst vacation rental owners? “I have rented my vacation home for X years and have always been booked; over the past two years we're getting fewer and fewer weeks booked.”
The most revealing piece to the puzzle is the answer to this question: “How many websites do you advertise on?” If you're only listing your second home on one website, the reason you're not booked might be a reflection of your marketing exposure rather than the trend of the vacation rental industry.
For many years I listed my properties on a single site. But over the past few years I have added my vacation rental properties to more websites. With each additional web site listing I added, the number of bookings grew incrementally.
Benefits to listing your vacation rental on more than one web site include:
- Attracting different audiences – There are obvious differences between the look, feel and navigation of various vacation rental websites. Some vacationers love a certain website while others might find the same site difficult to navigate.
- Additional exposure for your vacation rental property – Each website attracts different types of website users. Advertising your property on various websites will maximize your exposure and increase the opportunity for more bookings.
- Different features and inventories – No two websites are exactly alike. Different websites offer different features beneficial to both the vacation rental owners and vacationers. Inventories also make sites unique. While one site may list thousands of properties in a particular geographical region on one site, another site may only have a few homes. Some vacationers migrate toward the websites that offer more choices.
- Balance seasonality – Most sites deliver scores of inquiries during the busy booking months of January, February and March. But when you're looking for renters during the shoulder or off-seasons, certain sites may work better during different times of the year. For instance, I have found that every year my snow birds book from a particular site.
- Cost vs. Return – In the vacation rental business, advertising is cheap; the average vacation rental property owner spends only 2-10% of their gross rental revenues on advertising. In many other industries, 10-20% of the gross revenues are spent on advertising. The additional bookings you'll receive when you list your property on more websites usually outweigh the costs.
The main disadvantage to listing your second home on multiple websites is managing each of the listings. When you change your rates, photos, descriptions, etc., it can become cumbersome to edit each website. To mitigate this disadvantage, utilize services that are compatible with multiple websites. This is by far one of the best advantages of the HomeAway Network.
© Christine Karpinski 2006
Related Tips
|
|