The vacation rental market is always developing and rising.
The industry is becoming more competitive as sharing economy platforms like Airbnb gain popularity. To generate reservations and expand your company, however, you can no longer just depend on listing websites if you want to remain competitive in this market.
Although having your website is a must, the job doesn’t end there. To get direct reservations, you would most importantly require website traffic. Let’s look at the most effective methods you can start boosting traffic to your vacation rental website right now!
1. Have a Contemporary Website Layout
We already know that in this fiercely competitive market, having a website to advertise your home is crucial. But you must make sure you have a professional website that is simple to use and sports an optimal design if you want to draw visitors and turn them into paying customers.
To establish a credible online presence, design a logo and utilize it throughout all of your websites and social media profiles. To highlight the distinctive selling characteristics of your house or the local attractions, use high-quality photography. An engaging title and a clear call to action (usually, “Book now”) will draw people to your website.
2. Use a Domain Name that is Optimized
In addition to being crucial for SEO, your domain name will be how most visitors will come into contact with your vacation rental brand. Because of this, you want it to stand out, be distinctive, and convey something about your hotel.
Start by doing some research to identify the ideal domain name for your website, and place branding at the top of your list of considerations. Make sure to choose a brief, memorable domain name and the proper extension for the location of your rental.
3. Have a Responsive Website
Nearly 60% of passengers who made a reservation in 2017 did it on a mobile device, according to eMarketer. Responsive designs, often known as mobile-friendly designs, are not merely a passing trend. They enable you to provide a seamless user experience that is suited to the visitors’ devices while also speeding up loading and boosting readability.
Furthermore, since Google now factors mobile-friendliness into its algorithm, mobile-friendly designs aid in enhancing your SEO. Additionally, they are a fantastic match for the minimalist web design style that has gained popularity in recent years.
4. Have your Website Translated into Several Languages
Even while English is unquestionably highly popular, it ranks only third in the globe in terms of the overall number of native speakers. Chinese tourists are known to spend the most money on tourism worldwide, with Germans, Russians, French, Italians, and Brazilians all ranking in the top 10.
What does this entail for owners, then? If your website is only accessible in English, you can be losing out on significant foreign reservations.
With Lodgify, translating your website into more than 25 of the most widely spoken languages across the world is simple. Please contact a native speaker to verify any translations to prevent errors since our automated translation depends on Google Translate.
5. Increase Email List Size
When considering ROI, email marketing is among the most effective internet marketing strategies. Therefore, a top focus for any vacation rental website should be creating and expanding your email list.
Make sure to remind website visitors that you deliver useful content if you want to expand your subscriber list. You may ask visitors to leave their email addresses in the sidebar or at the bottom of your website. To prevent disappointment, it is a good idea to specify the kind of information you will be releasing and how often. To expand your list, you may also use an inducement. Why not design a pop-up window that provides customers with a coupon or discount for a future reservation in return for their email address?
6. Offer a Complimentary Stay (or night)
Freebies are quite popular. Make a special page for the promotion on your website, then let your audience know about it through email, social networks, groups, forums, and blogs. This will bring back some of your regular visitors and encourage them to convert, as well as bring in new people who will go down your conversion funnel.
7. Hold a Contest
Running a contest on your vacation rental website is a great method to gather email addresses, build your mailing list, and increase traffic both during the contest and long after. Regularly post news to your social media platforms, and invite your followers to do the same by sharing, commenting, tagging friends, and retweeting. By encouraging them to advertise your offer on their social media platforms or even on their website, you may also drive traffic from other websites.
8. Execute a Campaign or Unique Offer
A smart strategy to increase traffic is to run a promotion or special offer. Sending out a newsletter, inviting your existing subscribers to visit your website, and gaining additional followers on social media are all excellent opportunities. To urge them to connect to your campaign on their website or social media platforms, you might also contact travel bloggers or websites that advertise deals.
If you’re out of ideas, you may promote a Valentine’s Day couples’ package, a special “Christmas package” discount, or added amenities to entice business visitors to book.
9. Distribute Credentials and Hospitality Awards
Displaying your honors, badges, and qualifications can help you use social proof. This will increase conversion, identify you as a good host, and develop trust to reassure future visitors. If you don’t have any credibility badges or hospitality awards to show, find out what it would take to earn one and build a strategy since it may be the last push potential customers need to make a reservation with you.
10. Start a Blog on Vacation Rentals
More than just providing luxuries like a comfortable bed and a spotless bathroom, running a successful vacation rental company involves building enduring connections with your visitors.
You may engage with visitors and advertise your company online with the aid of a vacation rental blog. You may use it to discuss the region, determine your visitors’ levels of interest (using Google Analytics), and get visibility via social sharing and enhanced SEO. You may even create a FAQ and a calendar of nearby events to demonstrate your knowledge and professionalism.
11. Use Lodgable
Let Lodgable do all of the heavy lifting for you. With Lodagble, you can have a beautiful SEO-friendly booking site directly integrated with our system, making it incredibly easy to manage your bookings no matter where they come. You will also get direct access to our SEO experts, helping to ensure that your site performs. When you succeed, we succeed. Sign up for an account today!
