The competition in the vacation rental market is becoming more furious each passing day. More hosts are entering the market and guests now have loads of options to choose from. During such circumstances how do you ensure that you retain your business?

The best strategy is to utilize all such vacation rental platforms to market your business. What better website then Tripadvisor where you have access to loads of other websites and resources. This platform is also one of the biggest in the world and it’s a must to be on this. So, this article will give an in-depth guide on how to list a vacation rental on Tripadvisor and why this platform is suitable for your needs.

For other Tips on renting out your Vacation Rental, check out this article here.

Why TripAdvisor?

Being the largest online community, TripAdvisor has earned its credibility through high-quality service. Associating yourself with such a platform means a lot of traffic for your vacation rental. By listing your property on TripAdvisor, you automatically are listed on other websites such as Flipkey, HolidayLettings, Housetrip, etc.

• No listing fee and nominal commission

The best thing for any business, starting or established, is some sort of cost relief. Guess what? With TripAdvisor, you don’t have to pay any annual charges or subscription fee to have access to its resources. There is no fee for listing your property and you just have to pay a nominal commission of 3% upon each paid booking.

• Simple and easy owner tools

To help you maximize the value from the platform, TripAdvisor provides its user with several tools. The mobile application gives you accessibility to control your profile and collect payments on the go. Uploading unlimited photos allows hosts to properly market what they have to offer. TripAdvisor also provides verified guest reviews to improve your service or market your quality. Tools like these help to improve the ease with which you operate.

• Secure Payments and bookings

Through the TripAdvisor platform, you can secure payments easily without any hassle. Guests can make bookings or contact you privately. The Book Now feature allows us to promptly send booking requests to hosts.

• Other Perks

TripAdvisor also offers other different perks to its users. With this platform, there is no commitment meaning you have complete control over your marketing campaign. It also offers other perks such as a certificate of excellence for your amazing services. This gives you access to TripAdvisor’s marketing kit and other benefits. All these perks can help generate revenue for your business.

Listing on TripAdvisor:

Now that it has been established that TripAdvisor has a lot of benefits to offer, let's see the method of how one can list on the platform.

• Register with TripAdvisor:

As already discussed, TripAdvisor is the largest online traveling community. But to gain any of the above-mentioned benefits, you should first register with the website. So, go to the website now and register yourself for free.

• Completing your vacation rental listing information:

Adding all available and accurate information is pivotal to success on TripAdvisor. You need to make your content unique and special so that it attracts guests. Once you log in to your account, use the Profile tab to see a list of information required. Fill in this space to get started.

This includes information like name, location, amenities, etc. Adding unique details such as different social clubs or activities can help spark interest in your rental. You could also add details such as new features added to the property or a different tourist attraction built in the locality. This provides an additional incentive for the guests to visit your property.

A lot of time and thought needs to be spent on how to effectively communicate your message to the guests. Some of the ways are to keep everything short and simple. Relying on storytelling is a better approach than just plainly stating the facts. Connect with your audience by using simple vocabulary and providing solutions to their problems. There are tons of other tips on how to write an effective listing which you should include in your writeup.

• Uploading high-resolution pictures

The importance of this step cannot be emphasized enough. Since this is the first thing that guests lay their eyes upon, pictures need to be perfect. For this reason, it is crucial to have a high-resolution picture when using TripAdvisor. The best thing currently about TripAdvisor is that it has no limit on the number of pictures you want to upload. This gives you the creative freedom to even speak through your pictures.

Highlighting unique and stand out features of your house is important. Through your collection of pictures, you should support the narrative presented in the write-up and present your audience.

There is then one picture which has the sole responsibility of being your principal photos. This image is going to be displayed when people search for properties using TripAdvisor. For this reason, this photo has to be very attractive since it is solely responsible for attracting customers to your page. Be sure to follow TripAdvisor resolution and pixel guidelines for uploading pictures.

• Asking guests to leave a review:

Guests reviews are a critical part of your TripAdvisor profile. Since the website algorithm favours rentals with the most positive reviews, you should pay special attention here. This way your business and revenues would increase.

So, to get reviews, you can plan a few different strategies. The first one could be a reminder at the checkout. By giving your guests a farewell card and a request to give reviews, you are bound to leave a positive impact. Another way could be to send an automated message to your customers a few days after they moved out. This way they can help you give a detailed review and help your business rankings.

Acknowledging these reviews are also important since they show how responsive and customer-oriented you are. This means that every review- whether positive or negative- should be acknowledged. Negative reviews are an opportunity for you to even make a better impression. Rather than being angry and blaming the guest, you should explain why something unfavorable happened and how you dealt with it once and for all. This can impact your profile positively.

Conclusion about Listing on Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is a great way to advertise your vacation rental, but of course you do not want to be fully dependent on them. They offer a great platform, but their product, service and exposure are not in your hands. You do not have direct control over that.

So do not forget to check out you local rental agency that is probably already connected to the bigger platforms. That way you can benefit from their own strong brand (and repeat guests!) and still have all the advantages of the Big Boys. This will increase your Independence and Choices.

Or, if you have a lot of vacation properties to rent out, you might even want to consider starting your own vacation rental company!

Hashtags are super relevant as they are online tools that aid social media marketing and help you get organized. As a property owner, it’s important to understand where the industry is going as a whole to know the best vacation rental Hashtags to use. To me it is incredible that some villa rental companies still have not found the power of using hashtags. The use of hashtags helped us increase our Instagram following to over 30.000!

Here are curated list of the most compatible Hashtags you can use for vacation rentals. #holiday, #homeaway, #rentalproperty #vacationrentals, #vacationrental, #vacationhomes, #familyvacation, #holidayrentals, #airbnbrental, #airbnbhomes, #vacationmode, #vacationrentalsbyowners, #vacationlife, #beautifulhomes, #traveladventure, #travelandleisure, #airbnbexperience, #traveldestination, #weliketotravel, #superhost, #travellife, #dreamvacation, #vacationtime, #takemehere, #vacationtrip, #vacationrentaltips

What Are Vacation Rentals?

Vacation rentals are fully furnished properties available to rent on a short term basis for self-catering holidays. Homeowners around the world, from the rural countryside to big cities, rent their homes, villas, cabins, cottages, apartments, to travelers looking to live comfortably for a short stay.  Therefore, guests live in the property as if it were their home for a period of time.  

Why Use Hashtags For Vacation Rentals?

Social media outlets (like Facebook and Instagram) and online classifieds may be some of the best sites to market a vacation rental. As such, many property owners create social media accounts for their vacation rentals business. But, the property listed might be invisible. That is, it might require a thorough search before your potential customers see your property. This is the reason you should use appropriate hashtags for marketing your vacation rentals. If you don’t, you are missing out a lot. 

If you are looking for other ways to advertise your Vacation Rental, check out this article here.

We utilize a lot of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, for vacation rental marketing. But from experience, hashtags eliminate the issue of monitoring your listing on these sites. This would probably be your most advantageous option. So, if you want to go ahead with this option, chances are you get more search permutation. Most likely, you’ll get easily connected to your potential customers either by search or recommendation from the social media platform.

When a social media account has a lot of traffic, then it provides exceptional benefits to any website linked to it. When used strategically in contents, it influences your website ranking and conversion. Hashtags on social media can also boost your SEO game when your potential customers are searching for vacation rentals. It adds more value to your SEO campaign when used properly. With hashtags, you can drive long term, steady referral traffic back to your vacation rentals website.

As a business owner, you can’t ignore hashtags because it is an essential factor when it comes to communication on social media. After you’ve taken advantage of all marketing and promotion possibilities, you need to maximize your exposure online. Use meaningful hashtags that will aid your marketing strategy on your vacation rental unit.  

How To Use Hashtags For Vacation Rentals?

Every vacation rentals have a niche. For some property owners, it’s a cabin that brings the inspiration for being in the wood. For others, it’s a well-furnished modern apartment that looks like a dream home. Whatever makes your home unique gives you an idea of hashtags to use when posting images of your vacation rentals. 

There are hashtags commonly used by other property owners in the industry. But it’s pointless to use hashtags that are not connected to the image. Hashtags is a big deal in social media marketing. When used strategically in contents, it influences your website ranking and conversion. You will rent out more!

Here are a few categories of common hashtags:

Brand and campaign-specific: You can customize hashtag for your own vacation rental business to market your brand. It may be used as your signature tag as well. As for campaign hashtags, you can specify your marketing campaign. If you have your vacation rentals listed on Airbnb, HomeAway, or VRBO, you can use hashtags that carry the name of the sites. Hashtags like #airbnb, #airbnbvacation, #homeaway or #VRBO.

Trending hashtags: These are popular hashtags that are currently trending right now. You must have heard people talk about “what is trending now.” You can follow how people interact with those hashtags by tracking the number of likes and comments. Also, pay more attention to the context of the discussion, which is the word that appears the most frequently next to the hashtag you track.  

Location hashtags: Nowadays, people are able to browse stories by their location.  It shows off the massive amount of photos and videos being shared around the world about different places. And with this, guests searching for vacation rentals can easily see the ones that are within the location of their choice. You can use the names of provinces, cities, or even qualities associated with the place. Some of these hashtags could be in this form; #Sanfrancisco, #centralpark, #Mountain, #desert, #valley, and #Beachview

Popular hashtags: If you want more views of your post, use popular hashtags.  You may think of a smart way to work them into your social media marketing. Here is a curated list of popular hashtags #travel, #beauty, #beach, #nature, #fun, #photography, #lol, #home, #holiday, #life, #Throwbackthursday, #lifestyle and so on

Generic hashtags: Niche hashtags that relate to travel and hospitality industry can get your post in front of those who are interested in vacation rentals. Some of the generic hashtags are #traveling, #travelers, #explorer, #travelinspiration, #beautifuldestination, #tours, and #holiday. 

Content hashtags: Content hashtags are not branded hashtags neither are they highly popular. They are simply common hashtags that are related to your post content. Some of these hashtags are #vacationrentals, #vacationrental, #rentalproperties, and so on. 

Travel activities hashtags: It makes more sense if you can win your potential gue through what they love doing. Most times, people look forward to outdoor activities or things to do for fun when they travel. This is a good opportunity to entice them to your vacation rental home in the wood, around the mountain, beach, and shopping mall. Etc. You may use words like, #swimming, #adventure, #skiing, #surfing, #shopping, #diving, #yoga, #skating and so on.

Keyword hashtags: If you want to find top hashtags for your business, you can use keywords in vacation rental listings; social media profile bio, youtube videos, and websites. You can use accommodation keywords, travel keywords, holiday keywords, and home keyword. Some of these keywords are #vacationrentalowner, #vacationhome, #vacationinspiration, #vacationproperty, #vacationrentalphotography, #vacationguest, #vacationcabin, #vacationapartment.

Hotel hashtags: The idea is to tap into the conversation about hotels since both are options most travelers consider. A smart way to incorporate vacation rentals hashtag is to compare it to a hotel stay. Something like, “As you have gotten a #hotelinspiration, #vacationrental might be your best bet.”All you need is to be creative with your caption and hashtags. Some other hashtags you can include are #besthotels, #fivestarhotel, #luxuryhotel, #beachviewhotel, #Rockviewhotel, #hotelparadise, #hotelhideaway, #hotelroom, #hotelbeauty, #hotelidea, #beautifulhotel, #uniquehotels and so on.

Hashtag Best Practices

A hashtag is a unique identity given to conversations. It groups similar conversations into the same category. So, when you follow a hashtag, you’ll discover all the discussions under it are related to a particular topic. Users create hashtags by placing the sign (#), usually in front of a word or unspaced phase. A hashtag can be of any length, but the shorter it is, the better. 

People often broadcast information that isn’t related to a particular hashtag. The purpose is to leverage on the progress of that hashtag. So, hashtags are vital if you want to get a hoard of traffic on your post and also to your social media account.

Conclusion

A simple hashtag can build the brand, generate excitement, and also promote the launch of a vacation rental. Though it’s easy to create a hashtag, it’s more important to use relevant ones. This is when you can generate relevant traffic and get your post right before your potential customers.

Do you want to reach over 1 Billion Instagram users to promote your Vacation Rental? Good idea! With our company we have had Instagram in our marketing mix for ages. Here is how we got started, how we went from 0 to over 30.000 followers and what we learned along the way.

Launched in 2010, Instagram has been a sharing platform, and every brand is beginning to establish its presence on this site. Instagram is built around photos and videos, which makes it a perfect marketing tool for vacation rentals business. 

To create an Instagram account:

• Download an Instagram app from play store or Google play. 
• Sign up a business account and add your business profile to let others know what you have to offer.
• Begin posting content
• Invite as many people as you can to like your Instagram page. 

Why use Instagram for vacation rental business?

When Instagram first started, it was just a platform for people to share personal pictures and typically check their feed every day. Now, it has become an essential social media marketing platform for brands and marketers.  More often, businesses ask why they need to create Instagram. The answer is right here.

Instagram is a very simple but creative app. The visualization power it provides, you may not find it anywhere on social media.We already know that for renting out your vacation home, stunning, scroll-stopping pictures are crucial! It is a platform wherein you can market your vacation rental products the way you like. Whether you have a small cottage for rent or several modern apartments, Instagram is open for all. And best of all: It´s basic use is Free!

Instagram has been of great help to the travel and hospitality industry. 

Most travellers plan their vacation with Instagram. Once they ascertain where they are going, they quickly check to see if they can get any idea on fun activity or a place to lodge.

With hundreds of millions of active monthly users, Instagram is the best app to get your vacation rental noticed. It allows you to engage your audience, leaving users with a deep sense of community. It is also a cool place to connect with your socially engaged customers. 

Marketing in Facebook it is easier to add a link to every post and Facebooks seems more and more for ´old people´ (me included).

These are a few tips on how to create Instagram for vacation rental business.

Download The Instagram App

If this is your first time using Instagram, to start with, download the app. Instagram is available on play store in smartphones, tablets, and computers. The app was made to fit into mobile devices, and most times, posting activities are carried out on mobile phones. On the other hand, you can visit the Instagram website through google chrome if it works better for you. However, some mobile devices require special plug-ins, so let’s focus on the mobile app for the purpose of this guide. 

Create An Account

This is an essential part of your marketing plans. The first thing a user will see is your account, and you must ensure it leaves a lasting impression. After you’ve downloaded the app, launch it, and create an account in one of the two ways.

1. Sign up with your full name, phone number, e-mail address, and then enter a username with a password.
2. If you are a Facebook user, you can create an account by logging in with the same information and link it to your Instagram account.

You can open an Instagram account for your business without having a personal account as you need for Facebook.

You can choose to use a commercial name that refers to your property of your website. Be creative!

And don´t forget to add your website or the page where you advertise your property in the profile. This is the only place you can add a link for free.

Create A Profile For Maximum Engagement

Creating a profile that increases the chance of converting a mere visitor to follower is the first step. Profile creation consists of 3 parts, your 

1. Profile picture, 
2. Username 
3. Description. 

This is a good chance to flaunt your brand. If your brand has a logo, you may use it as your profile picture or, preferably, one of your attractive properties. Of course, your username should be your brand name or something that depicts your business. As for the description, write something that’s short yet intriguing and give out information about your business. 

When you create an account, you’ll begin with a personal profile by default. Then, you may switch to a business account and connect it to a Facebook business page. Click the profile icon and scroll down, and then you’ll see “switch to business profile.” This makes it easier to add content on the 2 platforms in 1 action. Easy, right!

Complete The Profile Setup 

To complete your profile, you need to enter all the necessary information. Some info may automatically fill by itself if you have them on your Facebook page. Once you are done filling all the required spaces, “click done.” A new graph icon will show above on the Instagram app, which is your insight page. It is a feature that enables you to monitor all promotions and engagement stats. 

Once you have entered the proper information and signed up, a confirmation code will be sent to ascertain if the details you submitted are correct. Once your account is confirmed, you have become a part of the moving train of Instagram users. Welcome to Instagram! Time to get your property fully booked.

Post Quality And Creative Photos And Videos 

As this app is a visual platform (which is great for vacation rentals), you need to be creative with your photos and videos. Take your time to create a cohesive grid on Instagram. Make use of unique filters to enhance the images.

With good shots, you could set the mood, and give your photos that extra edge. Take pictures of the available rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, interior décor, and other attractive amenities from a creative camera angle. Some of these photos are necessary for your Instagram feed so, share visually pleasing pictures. 

If you can, record a couple of videos because videos are more effective on Instagram. The good news is most smartphones have an excellent in-built camera to make jaw-dropping videos from strategic angles. Also, be guided appropriately by holidays, seasons, and popular events. Leverage on this moment and stage your home for seasonal photos.

Most importantly, ensure to caption your photo or video well. When we’re talking about business, you need to add a short and crisp caption to give your audience first-hand info about your business.

 Invite Contacts To Follow Your Vacation Rental

Once your profile is set, ensure to make your audience a part of your Insta world. For a business to grow, the first thing is to reach out to our targeted audience. Most business has mapping target audience as their marketing strategy, and Instagram is no different. When mapping your audience, some crucial factors to consider are location and interests. Your competitor has followers, so you can check them out to make your audience mapping easier. 

Interact With Other Instagram Users

It’s vital to engage and interact with your followers on Instagram in a few ways, we saw a sharp increase in follower when we started to do this:

• Like: You can like photos as many as you can. You’ll see a heart-shaped button then, click it 
• Comment: Next to the like button is the comment button. Click it, and the tab will take you to the comment page on the photo. Write your comment and press the ‘post’ button to publish your comment. You can easily identify and meet users interested in travel, business trip, vacations, and tourism from the comment session. 
• Tag: Just like twitter, you can use @ symbol to tag other users in your post. If you are able to get handles of travellers or those that seem to be interested in vacation rentals, you can tag them. Once they are tagged, they can tap to see the content and other people that are tagged. You can also tag your former guests!
• Direct message: Here, you can send a private instant message to other users. It is a means to easily answer questions and take online bookings, even on Instagram. You can start a productive conversation, and exchange phone numbers with your potential customer who is attracted to your photos and videos.
• Hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to help you find content on Instagram. Using a lot of trending or content hashtags might earn you a lot of likes from other users. But, it probably won’t increase your following all that much. The interaction you get might not be from people who are interested in your vacation rental unit. It means you need to understand how hashtags work. It’s also smart to create a custom hashtag for your vacation rental business. It can motivate your guests to share your photos with their friends or fellow travellers. Note that Instagram allows a maximum of 30 tags in a post. If there was 1 thing that I see other marketeers do wrong or don´t do at all, it is the use of hashtags. Increase your reach, use hashtags!
• Instagram stories: Instagram allows users to share posts directly to their stories. With this feature, you can easily interact with your followers and show them the available property you have for rent. These will only be shown for 24 hours, but they have a prominent position in the newsfeed.
• Advertise: You can advertise in 3 ways on Instagram. It could either be through photo ads, video ads, or carousel ads. They are all regular posts, but they enable sponsored labels above contents. 

Optimize Your Instagram Account

After setting up an account, you can go back to edit your profile. Select a profile name that accurately represents your brand. Use your business as your username or choose a username that can be easily recognized with your brand. Write an engaging biography to tell your story.

It will help showcase your brand to prospective customers. When you post contents, use appropriate hashtags to reach out to a wider audience. Boost your post and get good engagement. Overall, add the link of your website to your Instagram bio and drive traffic instantly.

Final Words

It is not difficult to create an Instagram account for your vacation rental business. However, it’s not only the creation that matters but how you manage it. For your brand to market successfully on Instagram, you need to ramp up your following. Most importantly, post great content that resonates with your vacation rental business consistently. 

You do need to realise that your posts are not shown to your whole audience all the time. You will have a better chance at that with Instagram (Facebook) advertising. You do not own this audience (even though you have connected them to your page). Instagram just lets you access them, and only fully when you pay. If and when Instagram changes their algorithm (as they have done before), you will need to adapt to another strategy.

That is why I would advise to build your email list, which is something you do own and can use even long after Instagram changes its rules.

One Marketing Channel is None, make sure you diversify the ways you can attract guests. Read more about that here.

Related topic: Set up your Free Facebook page for your Vacation Rental