How to best market your vacation rental property; whether you’ve been in business for five minutes or five years, you’ll find that vacation rental listing descriptions do have an impact on how guests perceive your property.
For all those potential cust searching for the ideal vacation rental, the description of your short-term rental serves as a business card.
Because it will allow you to establish a trusting relationship with the potential guest right away and persuade them to continue their search on your listing or website.
But how do you come up with an exciting vacation rental description? Here are some pointers for writing vacation rental descriptions to help your listing or website generate more inquiries.
1. Make an Effort to Understand your Target Market
The main goal is to use vocabulary that will persuade the right guests to book your vacation rental, so think carefully about who your target audience is before you start writing your vacation rental descriptions.
Your content will need to be written differently depending on whether your target audience is millennials, young families, or retired couples.
Start by imagining yourself in your audience’s shoes and deciding which details entice you the most. Is it the child-friendly picnic area in the backyard or the quirky poolside cabana?
Always keep the focus on your audience, no matter who it is.
2. Before they ask, Answer Their Questions
Consider all of the questions your prospective guests might have and include your responses in your description. Among the most frequently asked questions by visitors are:
Is public transportation available near your home? Is there a train station, subway station, or bus stop nearby?
Is there a store nearby where you can get some necessities?
In your rooms, what are the bed sizes? (so they can get an accurate count of how many people the venue can hold)
Is it okay if I bring my pet to your house?
Is it okay for them to go out and have a good time? If that’s the case, what should they remember? (For example, noise levels, condominium laws, party house rules, and so on.)
Remember to be honest and provide clear answers to these questions. You don’t want to surprise your guests with something that contradicts their plans.
Unique selling points (U.S.P.s) are highlighted in this vacation rental description.
3. Set the Tone of the Conversation
Airbnb encourages its users to “write as you talk,” and we couldn’t agree with them more. When it comes to writing, many vacation rental owners make a mistake assuming that professionals equal formal. But consider this: Your website is the first point of contact for potential guests with your vacation rental, so displaying your personality as a host is critical. It’s simple to do with the tone of your writing.
If you write your listing descriptions as if you’re explaining your home to a friend, you’ll be able to capture a casual yet enthusiastic tone that will entice your reader. Just make sure it’s consistent throughout.
Describe your vacation rental in your voice.
4. Double-check that your Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.) is, in fact, unique.
Everyone understands that the vacation rental business is expanding every week; therefore, the only way to get more reservations is to provide unique content that eliminates competition. I’m joking! Well, sort of…
Your listing descriptions are your best chance as a business to show off exactly what makes your property stand out, so concentrate on what makes your home unique.
We can’t stress enough that your vacation rental’s unique selling points should be exclusive to it, so familiarise yourself with your competitors.
After you’ve determined your U.S.P.s, build the rest of your property description around them. This is something to consider, whether in your introduction or as headers, to break up the information. Guests will appreciate that you took the time to include specific items, particularly contemplating their options.
5. Succeed by Sharing Stories
Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that an extensive list of all the features your resort has to offer would be enough to entice visitors. Instead, try to entice viewers with an adequately crafted tale about their holiday at your property.
To give the reader the most vivid picture of their stay, use active verbs and avoid cliché words, and couple your tale with some high-quality photographs.
When a website paints a descriptive picture of a place, you can imagine what it’s like to stay there, and this is precisely what helped Matt Landau double his listing views and triple his inquiry rate.
6. Emphasize your distinctive features, services, and extras.
Make an extra effort to set yourself apart from the competition in your area by mentioning everything that makes your property special.
Description of the vacation rental with highlights of the amenities here are a few simple and inexpensive options:
Breakfast and snacks are provided.
Books, cards, and board games
To assist your visitors in getting around, provide them with transportation cards.
Chargers for the iPhone and Android
If you have one, bath bombs or fragrance oils can be left in the bathtub.
7. Keep it Brief and to the Point
Experts predicted that by 2016, 73 percent of Americans would research vacation options using a mobile device vacation rental listing descriptions, which is a growing trend. It’s best to write in short, snappy sentences that readers can skim through quickly on their mobile devices.
There are several ways to organize your website’s content into easy-to-digest chunks that will improve your search engine rankings – our expert guide to vacation rental on-page optimization can assist you with this.
8. Be Specific
It’s all too easy to get carried away writing about the entire area because, after all, you adore it! Remember that your site visitors are already looking for a property in your city or town, so consider what will set you apart from your competitors.
You’re not the only vacation rental within a few kilometer radii that’s a five-minute walk from the beach or a ten-minute drive from the mountains. However, you can be the vacation rental that knows where to spot wildlife, how beautiful the sunset is from that spot up on the hill that few tourists know about, or where to eat the best local cuisine.
Always concentrate on the details; they are the key to securing more direct bookings.
9. Include a Clear Call to Action
This isn’t something you’ll find on most vacation rental descriptions, even though it can make a big difference in converting lookers to bookers.
A call to action in the vacation rental description
If a potential guest reads to the end of your description, it’s possible they’re interested in booking it. Here are some ideas to get you started:
“There isn’t another place like this.”
“Our calendar is filling up quickly, so make a reservation as soon as possible!”
Please send me an inquiry, and we can start talking about the details from there.”
10. Avoid these ten advertising terms.
There are some terms you’ll want to avoid, just as there are some that help your vacation rental stand out from the crowd. Avoid marketing terms like “T.L.C.,” “cosmetic,” “bargain,” “nice,” and “must-sees, such as square footage and the number of bedrooms if you want to keep your description short because those data points are displayed in a different part of your listing anyway.
A well-written listing can help guests envision themselves staying at your vacation rental. Spelling errors, dull descriptions, excessively long listings, and exaggeration of your property’s features can all hurt your rental marketing efforts.
Have someone proofread your listings before they go live on your website so that your listings are error-free and tailored to your ideal guest.”
However, as long as you follow these policies, you can include things like:
Services for self-check-in / no-contact check-in
Cleaning procedures and steps you’re taking to sanitize your home
