5 ways to Market Your Vacation Rental Listing
5.6 Million Airbnb Listings competing for 150 million guests - Now that’s some competitive math right there!
Feeling a tad bit overwhelmed?
Don’t worry, you don’t need to get a marketing degree or hire a marketing specialist to market your Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Sonder listing.
From understanding your ideal buyer persona to marketing on the most effective channels, we bring you the detailed step-by-step action plan to market your listing in a way you can be the most overbooked host in your area.
Let’s start with your ideal buyer persona (we’ll explain it below) and work our way from there. Ready?
Let’s dive in starting with an understanding of the profile of people who are most likely to rent from you!
1. Understanding your Buyer Persona ( And Customizing the brand message according to each Persona)
There is a saying that when you market to everyone, you market to no one. This is why Buyer Personas are so important - It's just a profile of who your target customers are, and how they make their buying (in your case renting) decisions.
Here are some of the most popular Airbnb Buyer Personas (+ Insights on how to market to each of them
The Workation Folks
Work + Vacation = Workation
Sounds cool doesn't it?
Workations have become very popular post-pandemic with major companies offering “Work from Anywhere” in their policies.
About 67% of America went on workations in 2021 and another 94% of Americans are planning workations in 2022 & Beyond!
Marketing Tip: For workation folks, you’ll need to advertise your indoor facilities (Wifi, Working Space) as well as the aesthetics of your home.
Advertise your listing on LinkedIn, and Startup communities on Facebook & Twitter.
Trekkers, travelholics and digital nomads
These are the outdoor folks who’ll want to go on treks, do water sports, nature trails, and hiking - and eventually come back to a warm cozy home to relax or work for the rest of the day.
Marketing Tip: Adventure-themed Facebook groups & Instagram pages are great channels to find and market to this target group.
Airbnb for Medical
Many people book Airbnb's close to a hospital where they are being treated - Be it for surgery, delivery, or other forms of critical healthcare services or respite care.
In fact, Airbnb has officially launched its Medical Stay Program for people travelling for healthcare reasons - If your listing is in a neighbourhood with hospitals, make sure that you market it amongst doctors and healthcare practitioners.
Leave pamphlets with the hospital’s TPA section so your listing can be shared with patients looking for stay arrangements.
Marketing Tip: The top priority of guests in Airbnb’s Medical Stay Program is Hygiene and cleanliness. Recovering patients are also more susceptible to dust mite allergies, so hosts need to go the extra mile to maintain a cleanliness level that supports their healthcare and recovery needs.
Cleanster can provide the level of cleaning need it to hosts that offer listings to healthcare guests. You can have dedicated cleaners to maintain homes for Medical guests.
Check out our demo here to know more!
2. Storytelling adds a tinge of magic to an Airbnb listing
Did you know that Nike sells 25 pairs of shoes EVERY SECOND and makes $100 Million Every Day?
There are literally thousands of shoe brands everywhere…So what makes Nike so distinguishing?
Storytelling is at the heart of Nike’s every marketing campaign. People buy into stories more than the products themselves - Great stories develop a relationship with people.
It's not just the no. of bedrooms or the amenities of your listing but the narrative of your story.
- What’s interesting about your home?
- Were you raised here?
- Any experiences in your home and your neighbourhood that left a lasting impression on you?
Airbnb super hosts generally turn out to be master storytellers - And the best part is: You don’t need to be a copywriter or content creator to do that.
Just speak from your heart about the memories of your home & you’re all set.
3. Market to Travel Influencers
Get into the email list of Travel Bloggers and lifestyle influencers - They have your target audience ready on their social media.
1 Instagram Post, one appreciation Tweet, one facebook shoutout or a couple of stories can get you in front of 50,000+ travel enthusiasts just like that!
4. Market an Event to Market your Listing
Is the Miami Reggae Festival happening in Your Neighbourhood? Or maybe your listing is close to the Vaughan Pizza Fest in Toronto?
Market the cool and happening events in your locality to attract vacationers to check out your listing.
You can try to partner with such event organizers so that you both can mutually benefit through cross-promotions.
5. Flaunt your Reviews
Did you know that 94% of all Airbnb listings have a rating of 4.5 to 5 Stars?
You need to maintain a 4.8 to be considered by prospective guests on the site and a 5.0+ to be in the league of most preferred Airbnb hosts.
If you have your eyes set on being in the league of Super Hosts who have their listings booked weeks in advance - Be prepared to go the extra mile on hygiene and cleanliness.
At Cleanster , we work with 2000 + property managers and Airbnb super hosts to help them maintain a standard, superlative level of hygiene. You can make house cleaning as easy (and affordable) as ordering on Uber eats!
Click here to get a demo of how we do it!