10 Ways to Market Your Vacation Rental on a Budget
When you are just starting out you may not have a big marketing budget to spend hundreds of dollars listing on all the big sites. Spend wisely and you should get good return for your money. There’s plenty of low and no-cost ways of promoting your property too, so if you have the time to spread the word using all these resources, your budget will go a lot further.
1 Start a blog
If you started a blog, posted twice a week with relevant content about the location of your vacation rental, local attractions, places to eat and things to do in the area, you could see results quite quickly. Do it right, from the start, and get a self-hosted blog with WordPress.
2 Use Kijiji or Craigslist
I’ve seen terrific results with ads on Kijiji and Craigslist but you’ll need to commit the time to submit new ones every few days, and keep on top of the responses. You will get more people looking for bargain breaks from these sources but if you have a weekend or mid-week period you really want to get booked, and are willing to offer a discount, this may be a good source.
3 Find free online listings
There are lots of new listing sites popping up. Most will go nowhere, never get seen and the owners will realize there is more to setting up a listing site than a flashy design and a lot of empty promises. Your time will be wasted setting up a listing on one of these. Check the vacation rental forums for posts on new successful sites. Keep careful note
4 Referrals
Your past guests can be your best form of marketing. Offer them a bonus if they refer a new guest to you. This could be a discount on an out of season weekend, or a 3 night for the price of 2 offer. Give them a referral code so you can track their referrals.
5 Word of mouth
Talk about your place…..to everyone. Carry business cards with your web site address & telephone number. Start up conversations with strangers in supermarket line-ups or airport queues and give them a card. I gave one to to the cashier at a Lowes store last week, and he passed the card to a family member who has now booked a weekend. Don’t be shy – marketing is about getting the word out
6 Twitter
As a serial Tweeter I have seen the value of signing up for Twitter and getting into the conversation. It takes a little time and perseverance but is well worth the few minutes each day to share some information on your property, a link to a local attraction, or a tip on how to enjoy a vacation rental. Learn how to use Twitter effectively and you’ll be surprised with the results.
7 Second Porch
Sign-up your property on Second Porch. It’s free and only takes a few minutes to set up. It’s a Facebook application that is going places and is very strong on marketing itself. Once you are listed, join in the conversations, become a fan of other properties and watch your network grow.
8 Facebook Fan Pages
Savvy owners have a Facebook page in addition to their personal profile. This can be used to network with guests, sharing photos and video, and advertising upcoming local events.
9 YouTube videos
Create a video. In fact create a YouTube channel and upload several. Capture the different seasons at your property; take some at local events or along trails. If you are in an area where there’s a lot of birds & wildlife, put together a short video showing what your guests might see.
10 Flickr albums
If you don’t have your own web site, and are advertising on sites where you can show a limited amount of photos, use Flickr to create additional albums. Collate them in themes – Fall; Festive; Summer Fun etc – and use appropriate keywords to help people find you.
So, there you are! A whole bunch of marketing resources that won’t break the bank. Visit us at Renting For Profit for our Marketing Resource Guide where you’ll find links to all of them.
Heather Bayer is founder of Renting For Profit – a membership and resource site for vacation rental owners. http://www.rentingforprofit.com. She is also the author of Renting Your Recreational Property for Profit, and has owned and rented eight of her own properties in the past 20 years.
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