Helpful Articles - Vacation Rental Management Resource Center

How to Create Effective Vacation Rental Listings and Web Pages

Copyright 2009 VacationRentalDesk.com

Introduction

This article will teach you how to create an appealing and informative vacation rental advertisement listing so that you can maximize the response possible from all of your advertisements.

We'll go step by step through the different parts of a rental listing and provide advice and samples to demonstrate how to make each as effective as possible.

Vacation rental owners and managers often ask me "How can I get more bookings for my vacation home?", "What's the best place to advertise?", or "What are the best ways to attract more renters?"

Although there are some clever ways to get more bookings, such as using rental coupons, the first thing I do is take a good look at their rental listings.

Some questions I ask myself are:

• Is the listing's text well written, coherent and descriptive?
• Has the owner provided multiple high quality photos so I get a good sense of what I'll be renting?
• If I was a guest, would I feel comfortable booking with this owner?
• It is easy to contact the owner if I have questions?
• Has the owner provided enough details concerning rental policies so I don't have to waste my time if I'm a pet owner or only want to stay 1 night?

What most people do

More often than not – and this is true with advertising in any market -- I find people like to buy advertising and just hope it magically works for them. If it doesn't work at all, they quit, and if it works just enough, it's labeled "good enough" and left alone.

After all, if it's not broken - don't fix it, right?

Better than the Rest

Many vacation rental owners are not making the best use of their paid advertisements. Vacation rental websites today are a dime a dozen, and each features thousands upon thousands of listings. Generally the top few vacation rentals will receive the majority of the bookings.

So how can you get to the top? How can you make your vacation rental stand out among the crowd?

Begin by showing visitors high quality, professional photos! When guests browse your rental listing, they're not going to start by reading it word for word.

The first thing they'll do is look at one or two photos of your vacation home that catch their eye. If interested, they'll scan the page looking for information such as the number of bedrooms and occupancy limit to see if the property is suitable for their needs. Only after these steps have been performed will they dedicate time to actually reading the text you've written for them.

Remember, guests are searching through dozens of vacation rentals on multiple websites to find their choice vacation home. The visitor's time is of the essence, and the best way to buy their time is through appealing photos.

Tips For Better Photos

Here are a few tips for better photos that will turn heads and get guest interested in your vacation home:

• Use high quality, high resolution, photos. Both 640 x 480 resolution and 800 x 600 is the best compromise between size and download speed. However, some websites will still restrict you to smaller resolutions to save them money on bandwidth. 480x320, or about 4 inches by 3 inches on a regular computer monitor is minimal but will also suffice.
• Make sure to have one good outside portrait or landscape shot. This is a picture of your vacation home that the guest will expect to see when they arrive. TIP: If you have a seasonal property such as a cabin, take a beautiful snowy photo to show your home in the winter season, and a sunny dry photo to use in the summer season.
• Include professional interior shots with good lighting for your living room, kitchen and master bedroom. Also include special any amenities like entertainment center, pool table, and resort features and facilities. Remember, lighting is the key to getting good interior photos.
• Include a few local scenery shots – local sunset, resort grounds, beach and surf, or ocean or lake scenic shots. These are important because they convey a great aspect about your vacation home: its location.
• Add descriptive text below or next to each picture if possible. Although you may think guests will intuitively know what it is they're looking it, it never hurts to highlight and point things out.

Well written and descriptive rental text Proven fact: it will pay off spending time writing appealing and informative rental text for your listing.

Your rental listing needs to get a lot of lot of information across in a coherent manner. This information can be broken down into four categories:

1. A brief 2-3 sentence introduction
2. 2 or 3 short paragraphs of amenities
3. 2 or 3 short paragraphs of local or nearby activities and attractions
4. 2 or 3 informative paragraphs about your rental policies and conditions

1. The Introduction

Your introduction is the most important piece of text on your listing and serves to peak your guest's interest.

Have you ever noticed how enticing some of the descriptions are for homes sold by professional realtors?

"This beautiful home offers an architectural mix of Spanish and French Country style featuring a comfortable front porch with ocean view, inviting exterior courtyards, and two expansive rear yard decks. Offering 3 bedrooms and 2,562 square feet this home creates the perfect environment to enjoy the natural beauty of its coastal-close location."

Talk about rich introduction! Your rental listing should use the same proven strategy. The only difference is you're not selling your home – you're renting it.

Don't worry, you don't have to write text like this for your whole listing; in fact, it can get old fast. I've seen some listings where everything from the introduction to rental policies is written like this, and it's a bad idea. Keep it short but sweet, usually around 2-3 sentences. Another great example, this time for a 2 bedroom cabin:

"Relax and enjoy this 2400 square foot vacation home build in 1999. It is single story with two bedrooms and two bathrooms that will sleep eight for true hospitality. The distinctive beauty and charm of Green Gable Cottage sets this apart from the rest."

You can also add special touches if your vacation rental isn't located in a city that's publicly well known, or is in a newly developed area. For example, most people don't know that "La Jolla del Cabo" is located on the tip of Baja California, Mexico, next to the famous city of Cabo San Lucas. For example:

"This beautifully appointed 1 bedroom 1 bathroom condo is located in the five star La Jolla resort. The La Jolla is a magnificently landscaped beach front resort just a few minutes from quaint San Jose del Cabo or 20 minutes from Cabo San Lucas."

2. Amenities

The amenities section serves to describe your accommodations and highlight your property's best qualities. Try writing this an informative, warm tone that makes your guest feel welcome.

"Your home away from home lends itself to a relaxing, fun vacation in the Big Bear area. The dining table seats eight in a bay-window area decorated with moose and pine trees."

"A spacious open living room has a cathedral, vaulted ceiling of knotty pine, and rustic decorations adding to the cabin atmosphere. There is a floor to ceiling wood-burning fireplace. The kitchen is fully equipped for all your cooking needs. Other amenities include…."

3. Activities and Attractions

Although guests probably know the main activities and attractions in your locality, the purpose of this text is to reconfirm and reinforce the fact that guests can do these by booking your property because of your vacation home's great location.

Chances are that when you bought your vacation home you knew the main reason people were going to book it was because of its great location. So make sure to really sell this point in your rental listing by telling distances in miles or driving minutes it takes to get to them.

One problem I'll commonly see is that people overdo the activities and attractions by listing dozens upon dozens of them. Keep your list short, including only the main local or nearby ones so they don't get lost in fray. It's convenient that your vacation home has "mini-marts", "car rentals", and "grocery stores" nearby, but it just clutters up your listings. If guest's need the information, they'll ask.

Sample:

• Championship Golf
• World Class Fishing
• Famous "Zippers" surf spot
• Beach Front Restaurants and Swim-up Bars

4. Rental Policies and Conditions

Last but not least, this section serves to outline important policies and requirements in order to screening unqualified renters.

It's up to you to decide whether or not to disclose special items like security deposits, booking fees, and other details. However, I do recommend you provide the following information because you'll get more qualified responses from your listings:

• What payment types you accept (credit cards, cashier's checks, etc)
• Minimum nights stay requirement
• Maximum occupancy
• Whether children, pets, and smoking are allowed

Remember, most vacation rental owners are not making the best use of their paid advertisements. With a little time and creativity, you can create an appealing and informative vacation rental listing to maximize the response from your paid advertisements.