Have you prepared an apartment for short-term rental and want to start marketing activities to attract customers? Or maybe you have been renting an apartment for some time, but you don't have as many guests as you would like? Well, having an apartment and preparing it for short-term rental is just the first step. In such a highly competitive market, a number of marketing activities should be undertaken so that as many people as possible have a chance to see the offer. The better the marketing and the more satisfied visitors, the greater the chance of obtaining satisfactory profits.
Many people, when looking for accommodation for a vacation or business trip, start their search on well-known booking platforms such as Booking.com or AirBnb.com. When starting your adventure with short-term rental, at least at the beginning, it is worth publishing offers on such platforms. This will ensure easy access to your offer and monthly increase in the number of satisfied guests. Of course, it's worth having your own website with a booking engine, but first you need to get customers and get good reviews.
In order for customers to choose our apartment from among many others, it is necessary to properly prepare offers on Booking.com or AirBnb.com (of course, you must first register the apartment on these platforms):
The owner of the apartment with his own website with the possibility of booking has a chance to become independent of the platforms that charge even a commission of several percent for each booking. However, for customers to have a chance to book directly, they must first be able to access the site. To make this possible, marketing is very important. Therefore, your own website brings very large savings but also profits only after entering the market and after applying appropriate marketing activities.
The more internet traffic, the better for the apartment. Many people look for an apartment on Facebook or Instagram to get to know the offer better. Social networks are therefore a place where we can boast of many nice photos of the apartment. In addition, it's worth trying to establish relationships with your followers by posting interesting posts. This can be information about interesting events in the area or about a change of decor.
Pay great attention to messages from followers who may wish to book an overnight stay. It is absolutely necessary to reply to messages on an ongoing basis. A potential customer who will be ignored for 5-7 days will unfortunately find a different offer.
Having a group of followers on Facebook, you can offer them participation in a competition with prizes. Anyone who puts a competition post on their board and invites at least 3 friends to play will take part. The prize may be a discount on a stay in the apartment, a free night or a romantic dinner with champagne and candles in the room.
Creating a showcase for your apartment in Google My Business is a must. Many people looking for accommodation enter the phrase "Noclegi Ustka" or "Apartment Wrocław" in the search engine. The Google My Business card allows our service to appear when searching in Google and on Google maps. Thanks to this, customers have a chance to reach the direct side of the apartment and not only the booking platforms.
By the way, you can use the Google Ads advertising system. This allows you to display sponsored links, i.e. apartment ads, in the search results of the Google search engine.
When going on vacation, ordering some services or buying items, we usually check the opinion about the company. If bad opinions prevail, we rather give up services. Therefore, in the case of holiday apartments, it is very important to get good opinions. How can they be obtained?
Remember that you can refer to each opinion - not only positive, thanking you for it. First, think about whether the person issuing the negative opinion had grounds for making it or not.
It is commonly said that word of mouth is the best way to attract customers - and that's the truth. Satisfied customers will recommend our services to friends and family and will leave positive feedback on the Internet. When looking for accommodation, we are much more likely to use a place recommended by the family or a place that has only good reviews on Facebook, Google or booking platforms.
However, sometimes you have to encourage guests to recommend. A loyalty program is a good idea. You can offer a discount for the next stay or a free night for the 3rd stay, thanks to which people returning to the same place will not want to look for another accommodation. It is also worth offering your guests a discount for the next stay for a good opinion on the Internet or free accommodation for an effective recommendation.
Izabela Praska
Editor of Bookable.pl, HoReCa marketing specialist. Specialist in FooDeliver, OrderEngine and Bookable products.