Vacation rental managers improve revenue
February 22, 2022

Top 5 Ways Vacation Rental Managers Can Improve Revenue

In today’s competitive VRM market, improving your vacation rental revenue may seem like a daunting task. But the high demand of today’s market can also be a good thing: it means that there’s plenty of opportunity for your vacation rental management business to tap into, both by attracting new guests and wooing past visitors to return.  

Here are five straightforward ways that vacation rental managers like you can improve your revenue. 

Invest in Your Marketing

In order to improve your revenue, you have to put your vacation rentals in front of potential guests. This means your marketing strategy needs to be robust and omnichannel. Now is the time to make sure your website is optimized, both for SEO (so the search engines can find you) and for user experience (so guests are more likely to #bookdirect). Get active on social media. Create email nurturing campaigns using past guest information and send them regular correspondence with special deals, new listings, and information-rich content that will keep your business top of mind.

Highlight (or Add) Your Best Amenities

An easy way to improve your vacation rental revenue is to make sure you’re highlighting your listings’ best features and making updates and additions where it makes sense. Do a little competitor research to see how other vacation rental managers are pricing their units based on their offerings, and how they’re marketing those amenities. 

For example, let’s say that one of your properties recently put in a hot tub. Does the listing mention the hot tub? Are there high-resolution, well-shot photos of the hot tub for your website? A hot tub is a high-end feature, one that guests are probably willing to pay more for. Do your prices reflect the hot tub? 

So sometimes adding a hot tub to a listing is out of the question. That doesn’t mean you can’t highlight the rental’s best features—a nice view, a special nook, high-end appliances, an outdoor gathering place, a big yard. Whatever it is, do it justice. 

Make Booking Easy and Instant 

This is pretty self-explanatory, but the easier it is to book directly on your website (with an actual BOOK NOW button and by accepting credit card payments), the more often guests will do it (and the more revenue you’ll earn because you don’t have to pay for OTA fees). The longer it takes for a booking to process (or if they have to wait for a response from you), the more likely you are to lose a guest. 

Reduce Your Channel Costs

While you should aim to get most of your bookings straight from your website, it’s still a good idea to utilize OTA websites to share your listings with as wide an audience as possible. OTA sites like Airbnb and booking.com can be useful tools when trying to expand your reach. However, the cost of maintaining your listings on these sites can take a toll on your bottom line. Understand the cost of each OTA conversion and trim where necessary. 

For example, Airbnb can be quite expensive for some vacation rental managers to use depending on the size of their portfolio. But because so many guests end up on Airbnb via search or simply through cultural awareness, you shouldn’t give up on it completely. So you could use Airbnb to advertise new listings for the first few months or first year of booking for the visibility and the reviews, and then “retire” the listing to more cost-effective sites.

Optimize Your Rates With Dynamic Pricing 

One of the surest ways to improve your revenue is to optimize your current inventory by making minor adjustments to your rates based on market fluctuations, seasonality, and upcoming events. Additionally, keeping your calendar flexible and leaning into shorter booking windows can help you capture more spontaneous travelers—guests who may look elsewhere if your minimum stays or rates are too restrictive. Utilizing dynamic pricing like this can ensure that you’re earning every dollar possible from your listings. 

Dynamic pricing, of course, takes a great deal of time and effort to manage well. Revenue management companies like Rented are here to help, with expert guidance and cutting-edge technology to make adjustments quickly and smartly. Speak with one of our revenue management experts now to learn how dynamic pricing can help improve your vacation rental revenue, schedule a demo here.

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