Financial Advisor · Saint Paul, MN · Member since 2016 · 190 posts · 143 votes
Hey all, I'd really like to work on a comprehensive marketing plan for our STR. I think we've done about as much as we can to rank well in the Airbnb & VRBO sites specifically. I'm thinking of total overall marketing.
Like having the name of our place be something that's easily searchable in google. an @tag in our listing to show how to find us on social media, linking in our direct booking site etc.
Does anyone have good examples, blog posts or people I should talk to about how to best put all of these puzzle pieces together?
Sure but what’s it gonna cost you, time and money? Like @Leslie Anne Morris said you need a “large budget” and serious time commitment. Plus when you take a direct booking you have a payment processing fee (typically at least 2-3%), no aircover, no guest screening measures, no tax collection and remittance, etc. Or you can just let Airbnb do all of that for you for 3%.
I can see where it makes sense if you have a property that’s so amazing that it’s going to market itself, or like Leslie explained maybe if you have a bunch of properties that are all very marketable.
We've created a large marketing budget focused on just this! I have 9 cabins in the Smoky Mountains that I own personally, and it is hard competing with thousands of other cabins. I do google ads, social media, bring out travel influencers and have a ton of backlinks that are starting to form. It is tough and it takes time and dedication. I've been pretty focused since I have recently become licensed and am now a property manager for others as well. My cabins are all google-able and that has been awesome to watch grow. I try to give them all unique names and have created a brand under which they all are under which has helped a ton. Folks seem to learn the name and google it and then direct book which has been exactly my goal. It is a big undertaking and probably not worth it unless you are looking to scale.
The purpose of this is to eventually rank in Google for people searching for activities in the area. If we can get this to rank well (which I believe based on past experience we can), this alone should bring people to our direct booking site.
@Dave Stokley, I partially agree & see your point. This will likely never replace airbnb & vrbo. But, the point is to build an extra leg of security. Plus, if any marketing efforts bring 1 extra booking per year, that can be hundreds if not thousands of dollars for us. I'm not looking to go crazy, but like most other things. Once you setup the initial framework of something, the maintenance is usually pretty easy. And with time, it should only help our listing...
Sure but what’s it gonna cost you, time and money? Like @Leslie Anne Morris said you need a “large budget” and serious time commitment. Plus when you take a direct booking you have a payment processing fee (typically at least 2-3%), no aircover, no guest screening measures, no tax collection and remittance, etc. Or you can just let Airbnb do all of that for you for 3%.
I can see where it makes sense if you have a property that’s so amazing that it’s going to market itself, or like Leslie explained maybe if you have a bunch of properties that are all very marketable.
The purpose of this is to eventually rank in Google for people searching for activities in the area. If we can get this to rank well (which I believe based on past experience we can), this alone should bring people to our direct booking site.
@Dave Stokley, I partially agree & see your point. This will likely never replace airbnb & vrbo. But, the point is to build an extra leg of security. Plus, if any marketing efforts bring 1 extra booking per year, that can be hundreds if not thousands of dollars for us. I'm not looking to go crazy, but like most other things. Once you setup the initial framework of something, the maintenance is usually pretty easy. And with time, it should only help our listing...
Yes great idea with that. You may be able to get some organic growth with that website too. I am doing something similar in multiple spots. The key will also be to find a collection method for guests info and retarget for direct booking. I use Ownerrez and have a programmed discount code that we provide via email later. The guests rebook and always forget the code LOL. But they rebook! The emails are gathered with Ownerrez also and then we send out correspondence via Mail Chimp I believe. I have a team now, so to @Dave Stokley's point it is a large money game. Do what you can with the time and budget you have. There are folks who have been in this game a lot longer than airbnb has been around and they only direct booking, so it is possible to do. It is just a grind, and becomes like a second job. Which leads me back to my point I always like to make is be a passive investor and hire an amazing property manager! (maybe not for you, but I try to educate my clients on the difference here, and how when they buy a vacation home to self manage they are creating a job for themselves.)
Hey @Daniel Murphy, SEO is no joke. There are literally hundreds of thousands of data points that drive even the simplest searches. It is so sophisticated now that I am not sure there is any one strategy that can help.
Here are some resourced to get you started on the basics -