If you’ve opened a Rental Avenue Account, you’re already on the right path. Now, you can use your account to increase bookings, and we want to help! Here’s a great way to leverage your new Rental Avenue Account to get your first bookings from Google within 7 days. Follow these 4 simple steps today and you will have an online booking by in a week, I guarantee it!

1.  Finish setting up your account in Rental Avenue. Make sure you have good photos, descriptions, amenities and make sure your rate rules are configured properly. Make sure your prices are not too high or not to low. Read Blog article “Price it Right and You’ll be Tight”
2. Add Contact Info. If you don’t yet have a virtual domain website, use the header and footer tabs under Look and Feel to add your phone and e-mail contact info. Also put this info in the property description page. Here’s an example of contact info in the footer: http://bookitnow.rentalavenue.com/prop_main.php?id=35&_id=94
3. Go to Google and setup a Google Adwords campaign. Using Google Adwords you can drive traffic directly to your Rental Avenue Account when guests use Google to search for accommodations. 70% of all vacation research begins with a Google Search. If you go to Google right now and search location + vacation rental or Location + Condo’s or Location + Cabins you will see Google Ads running down the right hand side of the page. For example, if you are in San Diego the top key words are San Diego Vacation Rentals, if your rental is in Maui the top key words are Maui Vacation Rental and Maui Condos. Use this Maui search to see Rental Avenue accounts in action generating online bookings every day, 7 days per week. Vacation Rentals On Maui gets about 1 online reservation every day using Google Adwords. If you have a cabin the Smoky Mountains, the top key words are “Smoky Mountain Cabin” and Smoky Mountain Cabin Rentals” Here’s how you setup a Google Adwords Account:
• Click here: https://adwords.google.com/select/starter/signup/ForkAuth
• First Question, select standard account..
• Second Question: I do not use these services
• Design your ad by looking at the search above to see what your competitors are using. Make sure your ad stands out and emphasizes your unique selling proposition
• Use Rental Avenue Web Integration tab to find the URL to your property(s). Example: http://bookitnow.rentalavenue.com/property_result.php?_id=176
• Pick key words based on Location + Vacation Rental, Condo or Cabin. Use Google Key Word selection tool to get more key word ideas.
• Click the Analytics Tab to create a tracking account
• Add the tracking account to your website
• Add the tracking account to you Rental Avenue Account under Payment section.
4.  Ask for Help if you Need it.   If you need help our team of marketing professionals at Rental Avenue will help you setup and configure your Rental Avenue account and setup and configure your Google Adwords Account.

• For a free marketing consultation and FREE Google setup, upgrade your account to Pro or Gateway account to make the real-time credit card processing work.
• In Google, Click on the My Account Tab, then Access Tab, and invite me support@rentalavenue.com to access your account at Standard User Level Access.
• Once your account upgrade has been received we’ll get to work on your marketing program and Google Adwords configuration and optimization.

Price, one of the 4-Ps in marketing is extremely important for Vacation Rental owners. The advent of the Internet has made pricing transparent and given consumers perfect market information. If your price is off just a little, your real-estate investment will suffer. If it’s priced too low it will fill up too fast and you will lose potential income, and if it’s priced too high it will sit empty. The most common mistake we see owners make is to price it too low for Christmas or high season and too high for low or shoulder season.

To come up with the right price we have to take a couple to preparatory steps by creating a sales forecast spread sheet and do a rent survey. The best way to do a rent survey is to look at 20 properties similar to yours. Think of it like a home appraisal where the appraiser looks at comparable properties and adds or subtracts for various features and amenities. As you are doing your rent survey factor in occupancy levels. Look for properties similar to yours that have high occupancy. If they are filling up at this rate, then you should be able to do the same. The rent survey is something you should do at least on an annual basis and maybe more often in a volatile market.

Your annual target occupancy should be 75%. Set your pricing to achieve this goal and offer discounts to fill the holes and exceed your goal. Being booked 75% in a vacation rental is like 100% occupancy for a hotel. If you are booked 23 days out of a 30 day month with a couple of open days in between each reservation then your calendar is as full as it can be for that month, 23/30 = 77. Offering a 20% discount for the month is like having 80% occupancy and doing 1/4 of the work. By offering the discount you are actually making more money working less, and creating good-will with guests who will most likely come back and tell all their friends about your rental. If you are lucky and have the first 3 weeks booked with back to back reservations and the last week is open 60 days in advance, put it on sale at 20% off and you will be ahead of your goal. Don’t be afraid to offer deep discount of up to 50% of last minute bookings. Something is better than nothing. Don’t let your pride and emotions get in the way of making sound financial decisions. You know your place is worth more than half price but at end the end of the day pride doesn’t pay the mortgage.

If you rental is brand new on the market, make your price very aggressive (low) for the first 4 months, call it an introductory pricing. The next 6 months should be at market rate or slightly below market rate for high season and 10-20% below market rate for low season. There the three reasons to price your property very aggressively when you are first starting out:
1) Your calendar is wide open, and you have a lot of space to fill. Most vacation rentals are booked 60 days in advance, longer for larger properties (it takes more time for larger groups to plan and accommodate everyone’s schedule) or for properties in remote of far away destinations like Hawaii.
2) Because your calendar looks empty there’s a psychological barrier to over come in the minds of the consumers; it’s empty, there must be something wrong with it. Conversely, when it’s full the opposite happens; oh it must be a very nice property because everyone else likes, so I better book now before the last week in Summer is taken.
3) Once you up and running for a year you start to enjoy repeat and referral bookings. Momentum kicks in and it get easier to fill the property and thus raise rents.

Everything in this article assumes you have a good virtual domain website with an online reservation request system like Rental Avenue and are spending 7-10% of your gross target income on well placed advertising. If your website does not have enough traffic, you are not advertising enough, or if you are not able to take reservations 24 hours per day 7 days per week then the formulas and hypothesis herein fail. If you have a million dollar beach house and spend just $500 per year advertising you can fill it up if your price is way below the competition. But you will make much more money if you price it right and spend the right amount on marketing. See example below:

Here are the top 10 ways to get more bookings for vacation rentals.

1. Build a Virtual Domain Website (www.MauiParadiseVacation.com) - and or setup a Rental Avenue account. It’s really important to have your own website address, with ONLY your property(ies). Having your own website allows you to create a brand, and a place for past and potential guests to come and book only your properties where they are not distracted by your competitors. Make sure your website allows guests to make online reservation requests 24/7 so you never miss another booking. Your guests want to book vacation rentals online just like they book flights, cars and hotels. They are anxious to book and do not like waiting for an e-mail reply, playing telephone tag and spending hours going back and forth trying to find and book their accommodations.

2. Create a signature file for e-mails - Once you have a website put it in your e-mail signature file so that every e-mail you send to potential guest includes your website address. This way, they will be able to access your webpage and browse your properties. A signature file is simple to create, and once created it will automatically be added to each email by your e-mail client program. Check our FAQ on how to create a signature file with using MS Outlook or Gmail

3. Auto-Responders - Setup a special e-mail account for rental inquires that is used on all advertising. Configure an auto-responder or vacation responder for inquires that come from advertising using this e-mail address. The auto-responder is used to drive traffic to your website where potential guests can book your properties. One of the most delightful things is to wake up in the morning and see that an inquiry came in at midnight while you were sleeping, your auto-responder immediately sent out a message inviting the customer to your website, and then a short time later a reservation came through before you have even had your first cup of coffee. Check our FAQ for sample auto responders and how to setup an auto-responder using MS Outlook or Gmail.

4. Advertise Your Website and Online Reservation Capabilities Everywhere – Setup an advertising budget, track the results using Google Analytics and Rental Avenue. Keep trying to find new and more cost effective ways to advertise your rentals using reservation tracking reports. If your property is sitting empty it’s because of only one or two reasons; either it’s too expensive or not enough people know about it. Your advertising budget should be 7-10% of your gross target revenues. Everybody knows about VRBO and HomeAway, but there are many other directories which will produce traffic and inquiries also. Here are some other great place to market your property:

1. Free Directory Listings: CraigsList.com, Hutz.com, VacationRentals411.com, Licketytrip.com
2. Paid Directory Listings: BeachHouse.com, RealAdventures.com, RentJillsHouse.com, Rentals.com, PerfectPlaces.com
3. Local Directory Listings: Local Phonebook, Online Yellow Pages, Google Local Business Listings

5. Pay Per Click Advertising: Pay per Click advertising is available by Google, Yahoo and Vamoose. It allows you to create specific criteria, including keywords, location, price, and other specifications so that you can be sure your ads are meeting your target audience, and because you adjust the price to fit your budget, it is great for companies of all sizes. Google, Yahoo and Vamoose Pay Per Click advertising is an efficient way to drive qualified leads to your site. Using Rental Avenues integrated system, you can see which key words are generating bookings, and make adjustments where necessary.

6. SEO – Search Engine Optimization, the holy grail of all online marketing. Google controls 70% of the search volume and something like 70% of all travel accommodations reservations start with an online search. Imagine getting tons a free traffic to your website where potential guests see only your property. Register for our e-mail newsletter by clicking here, for tips and tricks and to find how we got VacationRentalsOnMaui.com on page ONE of Google for the leading key words (Maui Vacation Rental and Maui Vacation Rentals), and how we knew this was the top keyword search term, and what this meant to VROM in terms of traffic and bookings.

7. E-mail News Letter to Previous Guests – Staying in contact with previous guests, is a great way to create customer loyalty. Reaching out to your customers and showing them that you want their business, is also a great way to promote your specials. You want to keep your customers coming back each year. You already know that they travel, so the next time they travel, you want them to call you for their accommodations, or spread the word about your property. There are plenty of Email Marketing Programs that can help you to manage your customer database and the monthly newsletters, other Rental Avenue customers liked using www.ConstantContact.com

8. Direct Mail – Another way of creating recurring customers & customer loyalty is direct mail. Sending out a yearly Christmas Card to past guests is a great way to remind them who you are and how to find you. Especially if they are going to spend the holidays with their families brainstorming their summer vacation! Other direct mailers which have shown positive results are notifying them of ongoing specials, or discounts. You can create and mail postcards to your previous guests for under 50 cents each using any number of online services. Using Rental Avenue you can easily download an excel spreadsheet that contains all your customer data including both postal and e-mail addresses.

9. Join Trade Associations – Joining Trade Associations is beneficial way to increase local channel marketing. Most vacation destinations have a visitors association or bureau, chamber of commerce, and possibly more specific local associations. There are also trade associations such as the BBB, Vacation Rental owners Association (VROA.org) which can provide support and resources to the vacation rental owner. Being a member of some of these trade associations will not only increase the perception of security, but it can also open your door to many valuable networking contacts and resources locally, and improve your search engine rankings.

10. Use Resellers like property managers, travel agents or other Vacation Rental Marketers. – There are plenty of companies founded on the fact that they help book other people’s properties. At a sliding rate, you can utilize Vacation Rental Marketers, travel agents, and property managers to increase your occupancy and to keep your property booked. This is a great way of reaching markets that you may not have been able to support. You can also seek out vertical resellers, people who are not primarily in the business of vacation rentals, but perhaps, local activities; you can drive business to you and your website, before the guest even begins to look for their accommodations.

With over 14 years experience marketing vacation rentals, and countless success, the team at Rental Avenue has formulated some fool proof tips to help vacation rental owners and managers increase their market share and successfully reach out to their customers. One of the main concerns for any owner or manager is increasing occupancy and more importantly increasing profits from their properties. Using our tips and ideas, you can build your vacation rental business and increase profitability.

Preparing to Market Your Vacation Rental
To begin, as an owner or manager, it is your responsibility to know your property, your market and you competitors. You can not effectively market your property without understanding exactly what you are marketing. The marketplace is constantly changing, and as an owner or manager, you may be too close to keep an accurate perspective of your property, its message, and placement. I recommend creating a SWOT analysis, taking into mind all of the elements that effect your property. Once you know where you opportunities and threats lie, you can adjust your marketing message to best match your product and create a marketing path that will increase your revenue.
- A SWOT analysis is a method of auditing your property and its environment. Use the S.W.O.T. analysis to identify the key issues you will focus on while creating your marketing portfolio. “S” stands for strengths and “W” stands for weaknesses, list out each of your internal strengths and weaknesses also make sure to look at your property or company from the end user perspective. “O” stands for Opportunity and “T” stands for Threat, you will use these to list out external factors which can affect your business. You may need to do some more research into the market, location, economy, and trends.
Now that you know your property, you can now think correctly market your property. Your marketing message is very important, and will help to are correctly position yourself in the marketplace. Your next step in reaching your customer is to define your “Marketing Mix”. The Marketing Mix will help you successfully reach your target market and in turn increase your market share.
The Marketing Mix consists of 4 elements, known as the “4Ps of Marketing”, Product, Price, Promotion, and Place.
- Product: The product that you offer your customers is very important. Many vacationers who visit a property and enjoy their stay recommend it to friends and families. With the multiple traveler communities and forums, it is very easy guests to get the word out to many people, so you want to be sure that every guest is happy when they head home. The term “Product” generally includes Brand Name, Style, Quality and inclusions. With vacation rentals, I think it easy to say that “Product” can be defined as the entire rental process, from the moment they first get to your website, through the time they arrive back at home.
- Price: One of the most important factors in keeping your rental calendar full is price especially with advent of the Internet. Price becomes transparent as consumers have access to perfect information in the marketplace. It If you property is priced just a little too high, you are at risk of having an open calendar, if your property is priced too low, you could be missing out on revenue. If it’s filling way too fast, years in advance, then chances are your price is too low. If it’s sitting empty, and you have good traffic and advertising then it’s priced too high. Analyzing your pricing decisions include seasonal pricing, price flexibility, suggested rates, pricing strategy, and most importantly competitor price. Do a rent survey to see what comparable properties are renting for. Factor in not only price but also occupancy. Look for a property similar to yours with a full calendar. If the calendar is empty chances are the pricing is too high. If you are just starting out your prices should be below market average because you have a lot of space to fill. It’s easier to raise your prices a little each year. When you are just starting out your price should at market rate for high and holiday season, and below market rate for low season. After you have been renting your property for a while it’s easier to raise prices, and become a price leader especially in high season. With a full calendar and repeat customers and referral guests filling your property becomes easier. Plus when potential guests come to your website and see a full calendar that stimulates demand. In the consumers mind they think “this must be a great property at great price because everyone else thinks so.
- Promotion: When dealing with promotion, you are generally speaking of the marketing communication, and methods of reaching your customer base. Promotion includes your Sales promotions, Public Relations, Marketing budgets, advertising, promotional strategy, ect. Check out our 10 Ten Ways To Get More Bookings post which can help you with some ideas for Promotions.
- Place (distribution): Place can loosely be defined as your Calendar Management, Online Website, Marketing channels, market coverage, channel members, ect.