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!