Almost every vacation rental owner or manager has already had to face the low season issue: for some, the low season happens in winter whereas for others, summer has the lowest rate of bookings.

Yet, seeing a decrease in your rentals’ bookings isn’t necessarily inevitable - there are tips that could help you maintain a steady flow of travelers in your properties, if you know how to use them. We’ve selected some of the best tips to help you with your vacation rental business.

1. Communicate on social networks

Admittedly, the period is quieter, but that doesn’t mean your communication should be too!

Often, the only window travelers can have on your property comes down to booking platforms, your website and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… It is essential you keep feeding your pages, but also answer to your followers’ and fans’ questions and keep posting on your blog, if you have one. Why not seize the opportunity to prepare a contest and offer a few nights on your property during the low season to the winner?

Make sure the potential travelers won’t forget you!

2. Reduce prices and set up flash sales

Adapting the prices of your properties depending on the season is one of the keys of the vacation rental industry. Indeed, why would travelers want to pay the same price for a villa on the Côte d’Azur in July and in January, whilst your rental doesn’t offer the same attractive features?

You can also organise promotions and flash sales, that will last a few days or even a few hours only for the low season, in order to boost them.

3. Adjust your rental ad

We introduced you to vacation rental listing optimisation on a previous article:don’t forget to update your pictures and the activities that are available depending on the seasons (skiing and snow during winter, hiking and sun during summer, for example).

4. Advertise

With the advent of internet and social networks, advertising isn’t only limited to TV, papers or the street anymore. New and cheap solutions have been brought to fit every business’s needs: Google AdWords, Facebook Business, Instagram Power Editor…These tools will help you reach new potential customers.

5. Highlight your region’s strong points

Whether you’re in low or high season, there’s (almost) always something to do!

Show your guests that in winter or in summer, your rental is THE ideal destination. Highlight the tourism activities that are available during the low season, create partnerships with some of the local businesses.

6. Make the difference thanks to a new tourism trend

Ecotourism, sports tourism, niche markets… There are so many possibilities for you to stand out and attract new customers thanks to 6 new tourism trends!

If you want to galvanise the off-season, keep this question in mind: why would a traveler choose my property to go on that particular season, rather than another season?

Bring an added value, one more reason that would help make your potential customers forget that there even exists a low and a high season in your region.

If you’ve recently travelled to Prague, there are chances you’ve heard of one of its latest startups created: Airporter. Whether you’re travelling from, to or inside Prague, this company could definitely improve your stay!

We’ve interviewed Airporter’s co-founder, Marek Smejkal, and asked him a few questions about his company.

Hi Marek, could you introduce yourself?

• Hi there, so my name is Marek Smejkal, I’m 39, living in Prague with my wife and two children. I‘ve been working in tourism and hospitality for the last 12 years running my own travel agency, working as a private tours planner and a tour guide in Prague.
  

• I recently became an Airbnb host, but have travelled with Airbnb for a long time.
  

What about Airporter, how did you get the idea to focus on short term rentals?

• After becoming an Airbnb host, I was wondering what we could do next, which service we could offer to travelers instead of only hosting them.

• I used to offer my guests in Prague a transportation from the airport to make their arrival easier and I quickly found out that the guests really appreciate this kind of service and that was something that made their experience with me as a host even better. It was also very convenient for me, as I knew exactly when to expect them. When I was not in Prague or I was busy at work, I used to leave my keys to the driver picking up my guests.

• This is how, on August 2016, we came with the idea of creating Airporter with my partner, who happens to be also my wife! We aim to make hosts’ and guests’ lives easier.

Isn’t it like a simple taxi service? What services do you offer?

• We are nothing like a taxi service! We offer a tailored transportation service, designed and thought for vacation rentals users. We can either pick up at airports, stations or rentals and take the travelers to wherever they need, even to other European cities such as Vienna, Budapest, Berlin… We adapt to their needs!

• But that’s not all, hosts can also call on our services: we offer a key delivery and check in service. We can manage everything on our side, assuring the best Airbnb reviews. Our rates are fixed, there are no surprises for the travelers. The price is indicated when booking the transportation. We have one flat rate from the airport to anywhere in Prague.

• We can also store luggage before the check in or after the check out, when the rental isn’t available. It gives tourists more time to enjoy the city as they don’t need to drag heavy bags on Prague cobblestones. It is also a pleasant way for the hosts to gently refuse early check in or late checkout requests.

• We also provide the most important tourist information in English, so that guests can enjoy the city at its best.

Why should travelers and hosts use your service instead of another one?

• We are hosts ourselves and we understand the nature of short rental business and hospitality, so both tourists and vacation rental owners can rely on us.

• We are available 24/7 with fair and fixed rates, which means we won’t charge more during weekends or at nights, unlike other services such as Uber. Our cars are spacious and comfy, with free wifi. Our English speaking drivers can also make city tours and day trips, depending on what the travelers need. We are reachable via our website, email, phone, Whatsapp or Viber.

• We monitor actual arrival time and always stay in touch with hosts: we send a message when a driver is waiting for the guests and when they have entered the car. This way, there are no surprises for anyone!

• Collaboration with Airporter has many benefits for the travellers but also to vacation rental owners, so we work directly with them. I am proud to say that we have established a collaboration with many individual Airbnb hosts as well as short term rental management companies, and we work as their recommended transportation company. Happy hosts recommend our services to their clients and this works as the best reference for us.  
  

Is it only available in Prague, or also other cities?

• We can pick up or take people wherever they need to, even outside the Czech Republic!

What are your plans for the future?

• Our first goal is to grow in Prague, hire more drivers and extend our car fleet. We’d also like to focus on promoting our key delivery and luggage storage service, and widen our day trips offers.

Airporter takes vacation rental transportation to a new level, making the short term rental industry always more professional and personalized.

More and more travelers are tempted by vacation rentals whether they’re students, a family or alone but how can you adapt your business and attract new customers, faced with the diversity of the demand?

The sector is turning professional since a few years now, leading to new markets being created: it is your challenge to know to identify them and take advantage of those new tourism trends to make the difference and create customer loyalty.

We’ve selected six new growing vacation rental trends for you!

Ecotourism

Also called “sustainable” or “green” tourism. Respecting the environment is the greatest issue of the decades to come. More and more people are being concerned by the pollution and the challenges it offers, they wish to find some kind of “connection” to the nature and know that their travel will have the least impact on the planet.

♦ Planning a better energy management in the housing (water-saving technology, “green” electricity, etc.), waste sorting, having access to a local and organic market and sports activities that are closer to the nature, providing bikes…

Ideal for rural vacation rentals, it can also be adapted to urban areas by offering typical local activities, in immersion with the region’s culture and respecting the locals’ life habits and heritage.

Sports tourism

This tourism is developing especially during great sports events such as the Olympic Games or the Euro football championship.

♦ If you own sporting goods that are available in your rental (e.g musculation or cardio equipments), you could highlight them in your listing in order to target sporty travelers. You can also list all the sports that can be practiced and discovered in the region, print a planning of all the sports meetings, give away brochures for specialized museums or even stadiums that can be visited.

You can check our blog post from last summer, in which we had listed some advice for your travelers that would like to watch the Euro 2016 and that can suit any sports event.

Young travelers

Mostly students, with mostly limited financial resources! But don’t underestimate those travelers: fueled by the Erasmus program (European student exchanges), this sector is developing faster than any other. They’re more mobile and more open to new experiences than their predecessors. They want to discover new cultures and opportunities.

♦ Day and night, offer everything that can be new or uncommon (meeting the local population, extreme sports, theme parcs, escape rooms…), not to forget the night activities (bars, restaurants, clubs).

Wellness tourism

Whether it’s for medical reasons or a need for relaxation, wellness tourism is quite a wide sector that can fit costal, thermal or mountain regions.

♦ Set up a hot tub or sauna, list all the wellness centres of the region, negotiate partnerships with dedicated local businesses, offer some samples such as massage oils, essential oils, etc.

Unusual tourism

This trend aims to make us discover new sensations: the traveler wants to experience a completely new way of life, ideally on a rural or wild area.

♦ Tree cabin, yurt, “bubble” bedroom in the forest… Do some research on original activities that are available around your vacation: bungee jumping, rafting, canyoning, etc.

Other trends

The trends we just described are, of course, not the only ones to be emerging! New ones appear every day, allowing any traveler to find what they’re looking for: culinary tourism, women’s tourism, LGBTQ tourism…

There are so many opportunities for you to create your own identity!

Meet BookingSync near Bordeaux, France, at the Casino of Arcachon on December, 8th at the HomeAway event as a partner.

This meeting is dedicated to vacation rental agencies and independent property managers. It is open to all the professionals of the sector. If you’re interested in participating, you can sign up right now!

We’ll make a presentation from 11 to 12.30, during which you’ll get to know better our vision of the vacation rental world. Thanks to BookingSync, manage your HomeAway bookings payments directly from our interface, with your favorite payment solution!

Event schedule

09:30-11:00 am: Maximise your performance with HomeAway
11:00-12:30: Save Time, Book More thanks to BookingSync
12:30-1:30: Buffet lunch
2:00-3:00 pm: Let’s chat + personalized appointments

Feel free to sign up and join us at the event, we hope to see many of you there!

We introduced you to Facebook Live for Vacation Rental some time ago, and explained how it could be beneficial for your business. Today, we’d like to show you how Instagram could help you gain visibility. Despite being only available for mobiles and tablets, the photos and short videos sharing app gathers 500 million active users.

We’ve listed a few pieces of advice to help you develop your account and if you don’t have any yet, well, now is time you create one! Your online communication will greatly benefit from this platform that is accessible and easy to use. “Liking” and sharing a picture has never been so easy!

Getting started on Instagram

Before sharing your pics, you need to download the app. It is available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. Then, choose a nickname: keep it simple, it should contain your business name. For example, our BookingSync Instagram name is… BookingSync. This is the only way you can ensure your potential users can find you under the brand they know.

Once it is done, add a profile picture -why not adding your logo or one of your best-looking properties- and write a short description.

Let’s take, for example, our client’s account: LuxVacation. Their presentation is simple and straightforward. When visiting the page, people know what to expect. Also, don’t forget to add a link to your webpage!

Start taking pictures!

Determine which users you are targeting and what they would like to see published on your account. The first criteria is in direct link with the type of client you’re targeting by your vacation rental activity in general (e.g family travelers, niche markets, businesswomen and men…). You need to adapt your pictures to each target.

Once you’ve selected a photo, put it online and add a description. Information such as the property name, its location, etc. can help bring new clients.

However, highlighting your rentals isn’t enough: appeal your travelers by using storytelling, just like you did with your rental listing. 70% of your posts should be related to travels: places, cities, monuments, activities of the region. People choose a destination before selecting a housing, not the other way round.

Hashtags

This is a key point!

Hashtags allow you to be listed on Instagram: visit similar accounts to yours and learn how to integrate them to your pictures descriptions.

#holidays, #vacationrental, #airbnb, #bythesea… There are endless possibilities, but you need to learn to identify the most used and relevant ones.

When to share on Instagram

Define the rate at which you wish to publish. Once or twice per day or per week, depending on your possibilities and goals. Be careful not to spam your followers, only share what’s pertinent with your business.

Publish time is also an important point, as pictures will only be displayed on your followers’ newsfeed for a few hours at most. Pick the most active hours depending on your time zone and your followers’. No need to post a pic at 4am!

Manage your account

Several tools will help manage your account, such as:

• Gabstats to see your account’s stats, its followers, and identify which hours are best for publishing

• Iconosquare to manage your community, answer with your PC, organize photo contests…

• Schedugr.am the only tool that allows you to schedule your Instagram posts

Joining Instagram and posting regularly will show your future travelers they can trust you and that they can safely travel with you. Visit other accounts, comment, like bloggers’ pics and other vacation rentals photos to get the best results.

If you want us to follow you, write your Instagram account name in the comments and we’ll join you! ;)

The 3rd edition of the Vacation Rental World Summit (VRWS) took place on October, 29th and 30th, in Barcelona. Our founder and CEO, Sébastien Grosjean and Romain Giacalone, Marketing and User Happiness Strategist, made the trip. Let’s come back together on what marked this weekend!

As we were expecting, the 2016 edition has been a real success: all participants, coming from almost 50 different countries, generously shared their knowledge and experiences. A lot of information has been shared during those two days!

The future of vacation rental

Through several interventions and discussions, we noticed a great trend is emerging. Putting emphasis on the user experience is a priority in the vacation rental and travel industry in general. Professionals have an unanimous view on the importance of the role of the property manager, the owner or the agency on that point. Establishing a close relationship with the customer and offering new services allow to improve this experience.

How we approach vacation rental

As a sponsor of the event, we also had the opportunity to address and share our vision of the short-term rental world, through 3 major lines:

• The importance of the management processes automation

• Improving customers relations through a personalized and lasting communication before, during and after the stay

• The necessity to anticipate the future thanks to connected devices and interconnection tools such as Zapier and IFTTT (web process automation services)

You'll find below our presentation made at VRWS conference in Barcelona October 29 & 30 th october 2016:

Created by Antonio Bortolotti, successful “Rentalpreneur” and founder of Vacation Rental Secrets and the Fully Booked Formula online training program, the VRWS 2016 allowed us to know better the main actors of the vacation rental industry and to freely exchange ideas with them.

Thank you Antonio for making this possible, we’re already excited to see you all in Florence for the 2017 edition!

On October, 29th and 30th, meet BookingSync at the Vacation Rental World Summit (VRWS)!

For its 3rd edition, the international event dedicated to vacation rental is settling in Barcelona, Spain. With participants coming from almost 50 different countries, this year’s meeting promises to be successful.

The show was created by Antonio Bortolotti, founder of Vacation Rental Secrets and the Fully Booked Formula online training program. He’s also a successful “Rentalpreneur”, speaker, consultant and coach.

This year, BookingSync is a Silver sponsor: our co-founder and CEO, Sébastien Grosjean and Romain Giacalone, Marketing and User Happiness Strategist, will present you their ideas and show how it is possible to add some fun to your vacation rental activity.

A little preview of our presentation:

• Vacation Rental: the Old Way and the New Way

• What's remaining in your way from nicely steering your activity?

• Automation : let softwares work for you

• Streamline your everyday work with powerful workflows

• Ok everything goes, let’s have fun now!

• Connected devices, what to use for vacation rental?

• Happy customers, makes happy managers!

Participants will get a little surprise at the end of the presentation!

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get our pictures of the event in real time.

If you are to attend the event, feel free to get in touch with Sébastien or Romain directly on LinkedIn to get an appointment on site.

We can’t wait to share with you, will you be there?

It is now possible to distribute your properties beyond the 4 main stakeholders with which an official BookingSync partnership is available (Airbnb, Homeaway, TripAdvisor, Booking), thanks to one of our brand new partners via our App Center.

Three new partnerships were introduced this summer: Outswitch, BookingPal and RentalsUnited. Dependind on your rentals catalogue, you’ll be able to distribute them on the most relevant and effective portals in order to maximise your occupancy rate and profitability.

Outswitch

Advertising properties at the right price every night is key to achieving profit potential.  Outswitch is a sophisticated, yet easy to use, yield management platform tailored specifically for professional vacation rental managers, that optimizes prices and occupancy rates in order to maximize rental income. Successful managers are outperforming the competition and seeing between 20% to 40% increase in their revenues from using Outswitch. Beyond directly improving their bottom line, they're also growing their portfolios by attracting property owners with advanced smart pricing services.

Key features

• Pricing optimization relies on an intelligent algorithm that takes the time and guesswork out of pricing short-term rentals, automating price variations to match market demand, and reacting in real time to occupancy rates while giving full control to property managers to configure the parameters. Performance reports and color coded functions empower managers with real time insights and alerts to take smart actions.

• Outswitch is a complete yield manager that goes beyond price optimization to offer advanced strategies to maximize income. For example, the platform allows professional property managers  to control other equally important variables such as min stays to prioritize longer bookings and reduce costs significantly.

• Outswitch eliminates the need for manual entry by integrating with the best property management systems on the market to automatically import properties and bookings. It also connects with the major channels  (such as  Airbnb, Booking, Agoda, and TripAdvisor) to push optimized prices daily and automate calendars sync.

BookingPal

BookingPal is a cloud-based travel technology company providing the vacation rental and holiday letting industry with a global distribution platform that features real-time connectivity between the leading property management software systems and top consumer travel websites in the world like Expedia, HomeAway, Booking.com, AirBnB, etc.

Key features

The BookingPal platform offers Vacation Rental Managers and Property Owners superior revenue generating opportunities by utilizing proprietary products to optimize distribution capabilities such as:

• myOptimize: Scores the listing quality via its proprietary algorithm and provides key feedback to achieve optimal channel placement and conversion.

• myInquiry:  Provides Property Managers an option to have a virtual Front Desk wherein a qualified team of agents handle all guest reservation communications 24/7 within an hour.

• myBookingPay: Provides Property Managers an option of having BookingPal act as merchant of record in the event they are unable to process payments.

• myTravelAgent: Allows Travel Agents unprecedented access to exclusive Vacation Rental inventory.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Irvine, California, BookingPal seamlessly connects over 180,000 rentals located on 5 continents, from 10 different property management software systems to over 35 online global consumer travel websites and the travel agent industry.

RentalsUnited

Founded in 2013, Rentals United is a latest generation distribution platform for vacation rentals. Today, it allows 210,000 properties to sell more nights via 50+ niche and global websites. Rentals United allows property managers and owners to advertise on top selling websites worldwide, from OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia, to Vacation Rentals Websites like Airbnb and HomeAway, meta searches like Tripping.com, and wholesalers like Hotelbeds.

Property managers and owners often choose to use Rentals United through a connected Property Management System (PMS) like BookingSync: when a booking is made, availability is updated by Rentals United everywhere at once. When the property manager changes nightly prices in their PMS, those prices are changed everywhere at once too. Rentals United highly complex platform which is really easy to use and handles tons of data everyday, is now one of the leading channel managers in the vacation rental market.

Key features

• booking and revenue dashboard

• detailed information about how each channel works, help center with videos and how-to's

• account manager's help to set you up with 50+ channels to work with (niche and global)

If you don’t know Facebook Live yet, this article’s made for you!

The live video sharing feature was recently implemented by Facebook and is already a big hit among the users and brands using the biggest social network.

With more than 1.7 billion active users, it presents a huge potential! It’s now up to you to enjoy it, and develop your online brand.

Why choosing Facebook Live?

• It’s been proved that Facebook Live videos tend to involve users at a higher rate than pre-recorded videos: up to 10x more comments and 3x as much time spent watching your videos, compared to regular ones.

• A bigger impact. As Facebook’s algorithm processes Live videos differently, you’ll appear in priority in the users’ newsfeed and people liking your page will also receive a notification.

• A new way to share. Unlike pre-recorded videos, that may seem too formal or lack spontaneity, Live videos bring users closer to the one sharing them. As comments are posted live, it’s then possible to discuss and exchange together. That’s a real opportunity to strengthen your contacts’ trust towards your brand!

What should you share on Facebook Live?

• An event taking place close to your properties, or their region. A festival, a concert, fireworks… There are lots of examples and opportunities for you to share what happens in your region, and what makes it so attractive. Show your potential guests they won’t get bored if they choose to travel with you!

• Interview a team member. Show travelers what’s happening behind the scenes of your guestrooms, cottage or rentals. Again, this is a perfect way to gain trust amongst your potential guests.

• Feature a partner company’s or craftsperson's activity (vineyard, bakery, etc.). This is a good way to build your image and make yourself known, especially if the partner does the same with your vacation rentals.

• Share privileged moments highlighting your properties (swimming pool, sunset in your garden, encountering wild animals…), to be chosen depending on your rentals’ characteristics.

• Give an overview of your region’s tourist sites. A museum, sports activities, a landscape, give your travelers 1,000 reasons to choose you.

How do I access Facebook Live?

• Verify your page. Follow Facebook’s instructions and you should receive your confirmation within 24 hours.

• Ensure you have updated your Facebook app. As your goal is to share live videos, it can only be done with a mobile device (which means it’s not accessible from your computer). Once it is done, you’ll find the option by clicking on Publish on your page, and then Share Live video.

You’re now live!

To get the best feedback and audience, you should follow these simple, yet effective advice:

Even though people watching your video expect you to be spontaneous and open, you should still prepare a little bit ahead of time what you will say and show.

Let the users know about your upcoming video a few days ahead, with a reminder on the same day.

Ask questions, answer the people watching you and also, make sure the video is long enough to receive the biggest visibility possible.

Social networks keep evolving but if you know how to use them the right way, it will be positive to your business. Simple, quick and easy to use, networks are a true gold mine when it comes to free advertising on internet!

About the writers

This article has been written by Pierre and Gwen, from the Eldorado Immobilier blog. Former engineers and senior executives, they decided to become independent by developing their vacation rental activity. They open at least one new rental each year and have a + 100% occupancy rate (indeed sometimes, travelers leave earlier and the property is being rent a second time), which is pretty good!

They try out multiple techniques and share their results with their community of active owners.

Writing a listing for a short term rental website such as Abritel, Airbnb, Booking or TridAdvisor can be done by any owner who wants to rent its accommodation.

But once the listing has been written, only a few owners keep working on it… or even ask themselves if the listing’s description should be modified or developed, even after a few years, in this ever-growing industry.

However, do you know that bringing a few changes can impact deeply your listing’s number of views and click-through rate? This has a direct impact on your bookings!

Only a few details separate an owner who can rent its accommodation throughout the year and someone who only does during the high season. Their listing’s quality of writing has a big part to play in this.

As we intend to always question ourselves in order to rent more and not to rely on what we currently think we know, we decided we had to write down our listings’ statistics on an Excel sheet. The results were very surprising, but we’ll talk about it later.

Let’s start with the beginning.

You need to realize that your listing isn’t perfect

To illustrate this, let’s imagine that 1,000 potential customers read your property’s listing each month on Airbnb and that 100 of them click on its title, wanting to know more and to access its description.

Among those 100 visitors who are reading your vacation rental listing, let’s say you receive 10 requests, among which only 1 firm booking is made.

You conversion rate is of 1 for 1,000, which makes 0.1%.

This rate illustrates what most owners go through,which is rather low.

It could be easily multiplied by 10, and only thanks to your writing quality.

Start driving tests in order to choose which changes should be brought to your listing

Most of you owners, being overwhelmed with work, may think that regularly writing a new version of each listing is boring.

You may also add that as you chose to work with Airbnb or Abritel, you were hoping for an all-inclusive price - writing your listing once, and that’s all.

That’s what those marketplaces are for, and why you pay them.

If that’s what you think, you are just like the majority of holiday cottages, guestrooms and hotel managers.

Most of them highly underestimate the importance of their writing quality in order to get an effective and powerful text, which can catch the travelers’ attention.

This is why we see short and poorly written listings descriptions so often (are you feeling concerned?); they can even contain huge mistakes.

Let’s take, for example, this listing for a holiday cottage in France where the owner wrote: “listing’s title: countryside cottage, quiet, listing’s description: …” . When reading that, you may think that the owner doesn’t really care, and didn’t even take the time to proofread his ad before publishing it. He simply copied/pasted what he had previously written.

And that doesn’t make you want to book.

We wanted to illustrate our arguments and show that a great writing impacts the amount of conversions from visitors into vacation rental customers, so we set up a little experiment.

Step 1 - We worked on a simple text, using a more formal language, you can check it out here on this French listings website: LeBonCoin.

We chose to post on that famous French website as it delivers statistics that can be immediately checked and used.

Step 2 – Same ad but much more synthetic, using an everyday language. We wrote it in a few seconds only and used, let’s say… a different kind of grammar and syntax.

Step 3 –We published the two ads on a very short timeframe on the specialized website.

We used the same pictures for both, and wrote the same title. We even tested a cheaper version for the one with the shortest description.

The results speak for themselves.

Even though the number of views is higher for the listing with the shortest description, the received emails and click-through rates are much lower; this also works for the amount of bookings.

Concerning the ad with a better writing, we have 59 actions for 108 views, which make 55%.

On the second case, I guess we can assume that a lot of viewers got discouraged by the concise text - only 8 actions for a total of 166 views, which represent less than 5%.

That’s a huge difference; though, if you’re the second owner, you won’t necessarily question yourself as you still received bookings… And that’s an elementary mistake, as more bookings mean a possible increase in your price, or even opening a new cottage – knowing it will be booked.

Your property’s details are essential

This little experiment seems to illustrate and prove that taking great care of your ads’ writing is a must-do.

You’ll often find advice on how taking great pictures of your property or writing a great catchy title are important, those advice are justified and effective to receive an important number of views - but never underestimate the importance of the conversion rate.

The number of bookings received per day is the only indicator you must follow as it automatically translates into more bookings, so more profitability and a greater peace of mind for you.

If your ad’s text isn’t catchy and trustworthy enough, people will just go on with the next listing and that’ll be over for your property.

Grammar and syntax errors will only make it worse, as travelers may think you don’t pay enough attention to your holiday rental, so they have no interest in staying at your place.

As a conclusion

We can only encourage you to study your listing’s statistics.

What if you were to optimize all the parameters available? Get a better title, take better pictures, and work on your text a bit more seriously.

If 1,000 people see your ad, and let’s say 250 click on it, which could transform into 40 bookings; that makes a great difference, doesn’t it?

Your conversion rate was multiplied by 40 without any great effort.

That’s what we call the butterfly effect, and that’s magical!

We are pleased to announce that BookingSync and Airbnb are official partners!

In July, we implemented our vacation rental management software partnership with Airbnb, a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world,  that offers new Airbnb hosts an easier way to list their homes.

What are the benefits for you as a host?

To create a seamless experience, we developed an easier way to list your home. Our new partnership offers great features :

• Import bookings, guest and payment details.

• Synchronize your properties’ availability, prices, descriptions, pictures and amenities, among other options.

• Support instant booking for your listing

For clients with an existing Airbnb account, all account information (descriptions, prices, calendars, pictures, amenities, etc.) will need to be migrated to a new Airbnb account in order to benefit from the improvements of the certified integration. No worries, we’ll help you shift all your listings, bookings, comments and SuperHost status to the new account. As usual, we’ll be happy to assist you

We would love to hear from you! Please share your comments on this new partnership and how we can help you increase your Airbnb bookings.

BookingSync helps you « Save time and Book more.TM”

Whether you’re a professional or an individual working in the vacation rental field, your website is your property‘s window: so it is important -that’s an understatement! to adapt your Search Engine Optimisation -or SEO- strategy.

Google can potentially bring thousands or dozens of thousands of future customers on your website. But as you’re not the only vacation renter out there, how can you make the difference? How can you get ahead of them and attract more visitors on your site (meaning, more bookings)?

This is what SEO was made for: using several pre-established techniques aiming to improving your online visibility.

At BookingSync, we’ve chosen to offer our clients an optimized website, meeting today’s standards concerning SEO. Several aspects have been improved:

• Structured source code and reduced CSS code

• Integrated rich snippets and microformat

• Optimized pages loading time

But you also have a role to play if you want to get a better indexation; we give you here a few hints.

SEO basics applied to vacation rental

Define your SEO goals

Beforehand, select the aspects on which you wish to communicate, be found and make the difference: these will be your SEO goals.

Do you own villas in the Catalonian countryside? You SEO goal could then be “Catalonian villas rental”.

It is highly important to keep in mind that each page of you website can only have ONE SEO GOAL, and only one! On Google, you cannot rank a webpage using different requests, as its content must be as precise as possible and the most adapted to the goal.

For example, do you also offer concierge services? Create another page dedicated to that service on your website, explaining it in details, where you are available. Work on the concierge lexical field.

Your domain name

Should you choose a literal domain name, such as rentalinparis.com, or choosing your brand or name, as in BookingSync.com? Experience has shown that literal domain names don’t bring any valuable traffic from Google. It is advised to choose a domain containing your brand or name, as these are easier to remember and pronounce. And it should have a bigger effect on your potential customers!

The title tags

This is the result that appears when you type on a search engine, here circled in red.

This catchphrase will attract your potential customers, or not. It is intended for travelers looking for ideas for their next holidays, but also for Google’s crawler, that determines your indexing in the researches.

For example, speaking of vacation rental, it is advised to always write a title following this example:

Vacation rental [TYPE OF PROPERTY] [CITY]

This title is used by Google and helps it identify the content of the page it needs to index, it must be as close as your page’s content.

Note that those points can also be managed from BookingSync’s interface.

Page sections

Titles and subtitles add structure to your pages and texts, but also play a leading role in indexing. Google loves well-structured pages.

Several types of tags exist: <h1>, <h2> and <h3>.

Here for example, the h1 title is “Improving your visibility thanks to SEO”. H2 title is “SEO basics applied to vacation rental”. Think about your contents’ structure and what you will write inside them.

Content is KING!

We have gone from a web where a lot of content was written for Google (about 10 years ago), it was easy to manipulate Google's algorithm and position by giving it the content it wanted, to a richer web, participatory and above all : personalized.

So beyond thinking about making your content visible to the greatest number, it is more and more important to ask yourself the questions:

1. Is my content understandable to my target?

2. Is my content good for my goal? (Selling, triggering a booking, getting a first contact)

That is why we recently devoted many articles dedicated to the importance of the content:

• Why text matters for your vacation rental listing
• Storytelling for your vacation rental activity
• Delegating your vacation rental ads writing

These 3 blog posts serve the same purpose: content is key to your success!(We are talking about the text, but the photos and videos are equally important, we'll talk about it soon on the blog)

Through a vacation rental listing, the potential traveler should be able to plan, imagine how great the holidays they'll spend in the house will be.

The description of a vacation rental listing takes time to write and you need to have in mind that it's a "living content", you regularly have new opportunities to update your description:

• Renovation or installation of new equipments in the house

• When a question comes often on a listing, it's definitely time to integrate more information to it

• When opening new attractions or shops nearby

• When seasons change, it may be good to change some pictures of the environment.

The more your listing contains useful information for the traveler, the less they risk leaving your website to go find answers to their questions elsewhere.

For example, are there any shops / supermarkets nearby? If you do not specify it, they will open Google Maps to explore the surroundings.

Google is constantly changing its algorithm and focuses on web pages with rich and relevant content.

If you produce quality content and useful information for your customers, then it will necessarily appeal to Google too.

Other ways to influence your SEO

Description

Don’t forget to write a description (here circled in red) highlighting your properties on the search engines. The keywords it contains don’t have an influence by themselves but this is what travelers will see first, even before entering your website.

This can also be managed thanks to BookingSync’s interface.

You should indicate your rental’s strong points, its equipments, what will attract them right away when searching on Google.

Blog

Added to your website, starting a blog will also help you create more visibility. Write short articles, describe your properties, your region or city’s history, what can be visited, etc.

This will help show how well you know your region, but also attract users preparing their travel, looking for some advice. And who knows, they could also enjoy one of your properties!

Exchanging visibility with your partners

What’s better than word of mouth?

Ask your partners (tourism activities, private chauffeur, golf club…) to talk about you on their websites and professional pages, and to share links to your own site. You could also do the same for them!

Favor quality exchanges such as writing a dedicated blog article about their service, in which you’ll take time to explain why you chose that partner. It is much more efficient than simply sharing links.

It is also possible to exchange visibility through newsletters.

Social Media

Last but not least, share your rentals and blog posts on the most influential social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…) with your professional accounts and interact with stakeholders and potential travelers.

All these processes need to be repeated for every SEO goal you have defined.

Search engines’ indexing algorithms (mainly Google) are constantly modified; there is no magic formula that could make you appear on the results’ first page. Nonetheless, these few tricks should help you improve your visibility and help reach as many potential customers as possible.

Patience, diligence and communication are key to your online success!

With some of our previous posts, we explained how important the text describing your property, the pictures illustrating the ad and the storytelling are if you wish to get the best out of your business listings.

This is where the vacation rental’s midpoint is: how to attract travelers and how to make the difference.

A great listing’s key points :

• Use your property’s best “killer shot” for your thumbnail picture

• Choose a short and engaging title in order to create your own environment (avoid full caps, special offers in titles, etc.)

• In the 1st paragraph, start settling the atmosphere created in the title and make sure to add a unique selling proposition (such as “Best view in NYC”)

• Remember that you’re writing for the readers, not yourself. Adapt your text tone and style to the targeted audience!

• Reduce your text size to minimum sentences. Add subtitles, be simple and concise

If, despite the advice we previously shared with you, you still don’t know how to go about it the right way, or if you simply don’t have the time, this article is for you!

Just like with photos, and the startup Meero it is now possible to delegate your vacation rental ad’s writing thanks to GuestHook

What does GuestHook offer?

• Share your history and goals with their team and they will implement a content strategy targeting the desired travelers

• A professional text is as important as professional photos. A quality content allows you to make the difference in today’s expanding market

• A text that highlights your pictures and allows your guests to project themselves onto what they see

• The possibility to write descriptions, website copies, blogs and insider guides that captivate the atmosphere and image you would like to see associated with your property

• To make customer relations easier thanks to personalized and informative newsletters and inquiry emails

GuestHook works on analyzing and determining your vacation rental’s key points by targeting key words that will attract the right leads.

The text they write highlights your property, in order to sell a complete holiday experience.

Each description uses storytelling, making it easy to read while catching the customers’ attention.

GuestHook’s first goal is to develop your vacation rentals’ image, reflecting your client base. It also brings a more personal touch to your company, by building a trustworthy corporate identity.
As travelers only spend a few seconds reading ads, paying attention to every detail of your offers is crucial. Keep in mind that every element has its importance, do not underestimate any!

The proverb may say a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t make your listing’s text any less important. In this article, we’ll detail which key points could turn your text into a catchy listing and hold the potential customers back!

Internet is filled with pictures and ads, so catching the readers’ attention isn’t always an easy task. You’ll need to target your offer and make it powerful and precise at the same time. Know how to select which details you should insist on and which ones you can put aside.

For example, does your property have a private access to the beach but no AC?

Some details need to be highlighted in the description itself -private access to the beach- while others can be relegated to a position of secondary importance, such as Amenities -no AC.

Here are some points that could help you make the difference in the travelers’ eyes:

1° Know and analyze the other offers

Before to write your listing, start with reading what the other owners in the same geographical area have written.
Which details did they highlight? What do they insist on, which points do you notice the most?
Put yourself in the vacationer’s shoes and ask yourself why your property should be selected instead of another one.
However, be careful not to copy an already existing text! Google may not like it…

2° Appeal the users

Your property may be charming, but the users won’t know it unless you work on your text details. Get inspired by travel sites, build a story a vacationer is looking for:
“Discover a secret side of Paris”, “Explore the hidden Alps with your family”, etc. Do not (or rarely) shorten words; don’t forget you’re talking to private travelers, not professionals!

3° A catching title and a concise text

Along with the pictures, the title is the first thing a visitor will see when reading your listing. Paying attention to it is a must-do: always prefer a title such as
“Spacious loft in the historical center, stunning view”
Rather than
“Large apartment in city”
Furthermore, filling in the blank fields available on the vacation rental websites will help reduce your text so that you can focus on what really matters. Be concise; target the information you think is interesting and practical without losing the reader after too many paragraphs!

4° Proofreading and updating

When you’re done writing, ask your relatives to proofread the listing. Looking at things from an outside perspective is always positive and who knows, they could bring new ideas to your text!
Now, the listing may be online but it’s not over yet. Update your pictures and the activities that are available depending on the seasons (skiing and snow during winter, hiking and sun during summer, for example).

5° Adjust your listing to the travelers’ questions

When renting your property for the first time, you may have not had the occasion to face the travelers’ questions yet. You could often hear the same questions being asked again, which means important information is missing to your text. Your listing isn’t written in stone; it must be living and gaining information as you go along with the bookings.

Update your listing and save time!

What about you, which tips would you like to share with us?

As summer is coming, the BookingSync team is growing and is welcoming a new expert, in order to develop its communication and user product experience. Sebastien Grosjean CEO of BookingSync introduces you Romain through a few questions:

Hello Romain, can you introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Romain Giacalone. I have been working in SEO; for 5 years, I was in charge of the SEO and Social Media department forRueDuCommerce(an e-commerce leader in France), which then lead me to create my own company specialized in digital communication and marketing : Docteur Folimage, at the beginning of the year 2013.

Since the last 3 years, I have worked for a certain number of clients especially in the tourism field such as the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Airbnb, Toocamp, Rendezvouscheznous.

Awesome! And in addition to your professional experience, you’re also an Airbnb host, aren’t you?

Indeed I am, since discovering Airbnb in 2012, my partner and I decided to open a B&B. More than 4 years later, we’ve had guests from 25 different nationalities at home. That’s an amazing experience.

In 2014, we won the Host Awards contest as we were nominated “Top Host Airbnb France”, rewarding our hospitality.

Let’s talk about your current events

I’ve written a book named “Les conseils d’un Top Host Airbnb pour mieux louer” (“Words of advice from a Top Host Airbnb for a better rental”), which is available in bookshops since April 28th, 2016. In this book, I address all the aspects of seasonal renting and have gathered many pieces of advice helping the seasonal renters fully profiting from Airbnb for their activity. I talk about:

• My expertise on communication and marketing, sharing ideas on how to develop your own communication strategy, your image and how to retain customers

• My expertise as an Airbnb host, explaining step-by-step how to use the platform, the traps you should avoid and what can be maximized

Moreover, you can discover the book and download a free extract (only available in french)

Let’s get to the heart of it, what will your position be at BookingSync and why did you join us?

I’ve discovered BookingSync primarily as a user, and got to know the team which is very open and customer centered. I really appreciated that.

At BookingSync, I am in charge of the Marketing and Happiness Strategy, which includes several missions:  

• Develop the BookingSync image, especially in France

• Create partnerships with innovating services, aiming to help our clients saving time and renting more (such as with the startup Meero, for example)

• Helping improve the user experience

I cannot wait to exchange more with the BookingSync customers, and to help them develop their activity.

Published on April 28th, 2016, Les conseils d’un Top Host Airbnb pour mieux louer  (Advice from an Airbnb Top Host for a better rental) is a must-have for every vacation renter as Romain Giacalone, the author, explains every aspect of the vacation rental from the renter’s point of view whether they’re working with Airbnb or not.

It is, for now, only available in French.

By reading the title, you may be wondering what a “Top Host” Airbnb is. A Top Host is a host who received a national Airbnb award (Top Host Awards) rewarding their involvement in the Airbnb community and towards the travelers.

Before being a Top Host, Romain Giacalone was first elected Superhost – but what’s the difference ?

To become a Superhost, you need to follow several criteria :

• To have hosted travelers on at least 10 different occasions during the past year

• Answering to at least 90% of the travelers’ requests in less than 24 hours

• Receiving at least 80% of 5-star ratings

• Never cancel a booking !

With this experience as an awarded host, Romain then decided to start writing a book that could help future or existing hosts in the vacation rental sector.

Eager to share his advice, Romain addresses a great variety of subjects in his book, such as:

• The communication between the hosts and the travelers is a primary issue! For every automatic message sent by the platform, an additional private message is also sent. This way, communication is personalized and the hosts can better target the vacationers’ expectations

• Local recommendation. To a traveler, you’re much more than a simple host! They wish to know your tips, your habits… in order to live a true experience, just like the one you’re living daily

• The importance of pictures, which are a real showcase for your property, as much as the importance of the order in which you arrange them

• The emergence of business travelers in the sector, whose expectations differ from vacationers

• The Airbnb algorithm that manages the ads and their order of appearance in your researches – don’t underestimate this variable if you wish to improve your visibility

• The necessity to adapt yourself to new technologies. Don’t settle for simple emails or calls but start using Facebook, Instagram, Line, WhatsApp, etc. as new ways of communication and tools to make your rentals popular !

You’ll find a free extract of this book on the official website here, in French: http://www.livreairbnb.com/

You can buy the book (paper or Kindle) on Amazon : po.st/livre-airbnb and on Archambault : http://po.st/nTO01z

Les conseils d’un Top Host Airbnb pour mieux louer is the ideal tool if you wish to go into vacation rental in depth or start your own business – or if you’re simply curious to know more on the subject!

Storytelling: how to pull the travelers in

As a vacation rental professional, you might consider the writing of the rental listing as just another step of the renting process.

Yet, focusing on that step is very important. Ask yourself this question:

“If I had to talk about that apartment or house to a friend, what would I tell them to make them want to spend their holidays there?”

Just like your friend, the user who will read your listing needs to dream and be appealed. Taking some holidays and budgeting for it needs some preparation, to spend some good time and live something different than the everyday life.

Is it a nice duplex apartment, downtown, with a terrace?

It may have character, a view, direct access to nearby typical shops… This property will interest customers who are looking for a city trip, as they could take an aperitif there or enjoy the terrace while eating

You’ll need to start building your catchphrase from the highlighted words. This will be the first sentence to be read by the potential customer:

Amazing duplex with patio, downtown Aix-en-Provence. Live the Provence experience during a week, at the heart of the “1,000 fountains city”. Drink a coffee and eat a croissant on a typical street, in the shade of a plane tree. During the day, walk the streets discovering Cézanne’s trail, and when the night comes, enjoy an aperitif on the patio while contemplating the sun going down on the city roofs.

When reading this kind of listing, a foreign traveler knows they will experience a true stay in Provence. Thanks to this apartment, they will live typical moments of life in Provence.

Peter Mayle: a year in Provence

Do you know Peter Mayle ? Peter Mayle, a British former executive in the advertisement sector, fell in love with Provence and settled in Ménerbes, where he wrote his bestseller: A Year in Provence. The book was then translated into 17 languages; but past being a bookshops hit, it really transformed local tourism, particularly in Ménerbes.

How come?

Because the readers were pulled in, they got to dream in Provence during 245 pages. They put themselves in Peter Mayle’s shoes:

• Sipping some rosé wine while listening to the singing of the cicadas
• Watching a pétanque match and hearing chats worthy of a Marcel Pagnol movie
• And many more moments of a typical Provence life

This example works for any destination; every region of the world, every city has its own specifics.

Think about the clichés, about what people ask the most and turn them into attractive features to rent your property and above all: give them the opportunity to live an experience.

In a few hours only, the Euro 2016 will be officially launched and there’s not much chance you haven’t heard about it before. This is a major international soccer event and whether you’re into it or not, you won’t get away from it!

Then, seize the occasion and show your travelers how much you care for them. They’ll surely remember it!

We’ve collected some ideas for you that they could appreciate, at a lesser cost.

1. Make sure the TV is working! It’s crucial! Imagine facing a breakdown right in the middle of a penalty or a free kick… Offer the travelers a broadcast calendar so that they won’t miss a second of it. Here, you can find a detailed list of the TV channels broadcasting the matches, depending on the country

2. If you cannot freely access the TV matches, buy a 2-month subscription! For example, you can subscribe to BeIn Sports for only 26€ for the whole competition. This investment will be much welcomed and will get you good rates

3. Put some beers in the fridge! You could also prepare a special fan kit if some of your vacationers are great soccer fans. Who doesn’t enjoy a cold beer? (Remember to always drink responsibly!)

4. Home delivery! Leave a few brochures of restaurants or fast foods that can deliver to your property: pizza, sushis, burgers...

5. But not everybody enjoys soccer. For the ones who’re not into it, why not negotiate with a local spa for a special relaxing moment? You could also create a list of alternative activities that are available in your city at that moment.

Furthermore, you may be lucky enough to enjoy the Euro in your city! Matches will be held in 10 French cities: Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Marseille, Lille, Lens, Saint-Denis and Lyon. They’re just as many opportunities for you to make the difference thanks to your property!

The Euro 2016 is, just like any other major event, a true opportunity to catch. Don’t miss it and make your guests happy !

Ember is a javascript framework developed in open source which allows to develop ambitious applications. For example in BookingSync we use Ember to allow our users to have a smooth and efficient experience.
But Ember is also used in many companies like Apple, Netflix, Nest, Zendesk ...
Freelance developers or employees, worldwide, give their time to enable this framework to exist and for the second consecutive year, we decided to thank the Ember Data staff for this investment.

Why Ember Thalassa ?

Sunday 22 May, the Ember Data core team, will be welcomed by Sebastien (founder of BookingSync) on the island of Lefkada in Greece. 2 superb villas are reserved for the occasion.
"It's a thank you for their work, their investment and their generosity, to spend so much time developing open source tools used widely across the world."
This type of sponsorship corresponds to the values of BookingSync : Ember Data Team gives his time and helps us through their developments. Propose this framework as open source allows many young entrepreneurs to start easily in their business.

Ember Thalassa: where, when, how ?

The program for Ember Data team : 1 week in a dream setting in Greece, 2 luxurious villas surrounded by olive trees, panoramic view of the sea.
"This is an opportunity for them to spend one week in an idyllic setting in Greece, on the Lefkada island , where we provide them with 2 pool villas. After a successful first experience in 2015, it was found that in addition to rest and have fun in the end they find themselves in an environment that fosters creativity and can trade more efficiently. "
"The first official stable version of Ember Data was launched last year, during the first edition of the event Ember Thalassa."

We will share some good moments of the week on our social networks, stay tuned on Facebook & Twitter.

The young startup Meero was created in early 2014 for a purpose: making indoor photography accessible to all.

We recently dedicated an article to the importance of photos for your vacation rental activity, in which we share tips and tricks for successful photos of the property you are renting on short-term. Today we want to go one step further by presenting the service startup Meero, with a bonus discount for your first photo shoot.

The services of a professional photographer are usually made on quotes, depending on the area of the property to photograph, the number of parts, not including travel and retouching.

Meero is simple :

• Order your photo shoot
• Meero selects an available photographer who comes to the shoot
• 24 hours after the shooting, you have access to your photos!

All photographers selected by Meero, meet a predefined specification, ensuring an optimal and consistency in your photos and catalog of goods.

How much does it cost ?

Meero to decided to establish a single price, light and affordable, regardless of the size of the property: 75 euros HT for 12 photos.

After the photo shoot :

You can select 12 photos included in your package and download high definition

If other photos interest you, you can download (each additional photo uploaded is billed individually)

BookingSync & Meero partnership

We have established a partnership with the company Meero, allowing BookingSync customers to benefit from a discount on their first photo shoot Meero controlled.
Benefit from your first session and 65 euros HT instead of 75 euros HT

Choose the photos that illustrate your vacation rental is absolutely essential to trigger reservations.

Moreover, stunning photography draws attention, which will entice the vacationer to see your ad, ask rental informations and why not book directly.
Quality photos are a really important asset to highlight your apartment or house for rent, and will ensure a real gain of traffic to your ad.

Preparing your home for the photo shoot

When preparing your home for a photo shoot, we must first remember that you have to give the vacationer want to live there, the time for a few days or weeks.
This requires that the vacationer can feel at home in the house or apartment, even before he set foot there.

Here are some simple steps to follow:

• This requires that the premises are clean (of course)
• Prefer a bright day, sunny and avoid maximum artificial light
• Also make sure that the parts of the house are the most "neutral" possible not too personal (but also that they are what type of vacationer who is your target heart looks for)
• Make sure that the parts are the least loaded as possible,

The photo shoot

Nowadays, expert cameras are becoming very affordable and smartphones realize for some excellent photos.
Pay attention however, framing, composition and choosing the right lenses (wide angle) to showcase your property, are still reserved for professional photographers.
   
Airbnb offers free photo shoot by a professional, do not hesitate to enjoy this service available in most countries and cities worldwide where Airbnb is present.
But photographs taken by a Airbnb photographer, remain their property, you will not be able to use them on other platforms.
Other alternatives available to you, finding a local photographer or eg using the startup Meero, which allows you to get 12 professionnal photos for 75 euros HT.

The order of the pictures in your ad

Which photos show first when you make a portfolio of your house or apartment?

1. First, consider providing a full view of the house (or the living room to an apartment), its best angle. This photo should capture the look of the holiday to make him watch other photographs.
2. You can then offer a view from the residence, to show future guests all the fun they will have to live.
3. Continue with a photo of the main living room of the house: this is where tourists spend most of their time, so this is a place of importance to them.
4. Remember the pictures of the bedrooms and shower rooms: clean parts reassure holidaymakers future, they appreciate being able to see firsthand the quality of hygiene of these parts.
5. Complete with all the extra amenities of your home or apartment (swimming pool, billiards, veranda ...)

Do not be stingy in terms of pictures, most platforms allow you to propose several dozen for each dwelling.

We advise you to present each piece of the housing, so that the traveler has a complete vision. You may even consider for large properties, to add to your photo gallery a house plan to better realize the distribution of parts.
A study by FlipKey found that travelers are 83% more likely to contact the housing advertisements that contain more than 20 photos.

With experience, do you have other tips to share for successful vacation rental photos?
The beautiful photos in this article are from the Villa Gregory, our client LuxVacation.com

Vacation Rental Success Summit will be April 30 to May 1st, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario.