Best platform to advertise my short term rental
Member since 2020 · 2 posts · 1 vote
Hello, my husband and I live in Northwest Austin near 183 and McNeil. We have an acre of land with a main house and a beautiful guest house. For personal reasons I've had to quit my job and I am looking to supplement my income with out guest house. (We own 3 other properties but not in Austin). My perfect tenant would be a corporate relocation or a professional seeking a home instead of a hotel for a minimum of 30 days. The house has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, private drive, gated private property, it's own yard, fully furnished. Any ideas on how to attract the tenant that I am seeking. I see a lot of advertising website but all seem a little sketchy besides Airbnb and Vrbo/HomeAway.
I love this strategy! My wife and I do the same with a detached apartment on our property. When you are just starting out its important to know that over 70% of all short term rental guests search and book with Airbnb. The other 30% or less comes from sites like VRBO, Trivago, Booking.com, etc.
Many will preach that its best to be across all these sites in order to attract all of the potential guests looking. I disagree, however. I think that if you target everyone you will miss a lot of people.
In Short Term Rentals (STRs) pictures and reviews are the most important aspects that cause guests too book. GET PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS. It's worth it. After that build up your reviews.
The best way to build your reviews is focus on one platform to get the most guests and thus the most reviews on that platform. And it makes the most sense to start with the largest. So start with Airbnb only, build up your reviews and become a SuperHost. Once you reach this point you will start to see more bookings and higher revenue. At that point it would make sense to list across all the platforms as the Airbnb will be optimized and you can then slowly do the same across the other platforms. #SuperHostTip.
I love this strategy! My wife and I do the same with a detached apartment on our property. When you are just starting out its important to know that over 70% of all short term rental guests search and book with Airbnb. The other 30% or less comes from sites like VRBO, Trivago, Booking.com, etc.
Many will preach that its best to be across all these sites in order to attract all of the potential guests looking. I disagree, however. I think that if you target everyone you will miss a lot of people.
In Short Term Rentals (STRs) pictures and reviews are the most important aspects that cause guests too book. GET PROFESSIONAL PHOTOS. It's worth it. After that build up your reviews.
The best way to build your reviews is focus on one platform to get the most guests and thus the most reviews on that platform. And it makes the most sense to start with the largest. So start with Airbnb only, build up your reviews and become a SuperHost. Once you reach this point you will start to see more bookings and higher revenue. At that point it would make sense to list across all the platforms as the Airbnb will be optimized and you can then slowly do the same across the other platforms. #SuperHostTip.
Thank you! Great advice! Do you have a minimum night stay?
Hey @Blake Dailey I coach people on how to get extended stay bookings for their furnished rentals. Here's a case study of how I helped someone attract monthly stays without using Airbnb. Every city has its own set of best practices for attracting the growing mobile workforce.
What works in Provo might not be best for Panama City, but you get the idea. You need to study your market and pick it apart so you can beat out your competition. The extra effort will help you stay filled when others are frustrated by vacancies.
Help this helps! Click HERE to watch
Thanks @Al Williamson I'll definitely check it out. I'm working on putting some Air Force folks in there over the winter months to keep vacancies filled. Long term guests kept me performing well through the covid outbreak so it's shifting focus of mine, especially in low season.
@Sharon Tillman. Hello try
Furnishedfinders.com. they promote 30+ day short term rentals to traveling heath care workers. Good luck
@Account Closed
We have medium-term furnished rentals in Denver and Colorado Springs, and we find three sites work best for us here in this market:
We've found -- and our buyer clients who do this have found -- that these sites give us all the leads we need to fill our spot. Not sure about Austin, but it feels like a similar market to Denver, so I'd guess they'd work there too. Good luck!
We did OK with AirBNB for the few months we tried it. Before I sold the home, I was considering trying Evolve (evolvevationrental.com) Friends of ours tried Evolve and it worked well for them. Evolve takes something like 12% but they send a pro photographer to take glamor shots of the rental, list with 10 or so sites including Airbnb, do all communication with the guests, manage pricing and discounts to maximize return and minimize scattered short term stays, provide a no-questions asked insurance coverage and arrange for cleaners (if desired). Evolve is somewhat like a short term rental property manager. I'm not a paid employee of Evolve and just repeating what my friend and the salesperson told me. If you end up listing your place yourself with AirBNB, be sure to sign up for Wheelhouse or AirDNA or one of the the other STR pricing programs. most have free trials. If you let AirBNB set the price automatically, you'll lose out on at least 1/2 of your potential profit and work a lot harder. The basic gist of the pricing strategies is to look at historical pricing and demand for hotels and STR's in your area and raise prices for higher demand times. The other idea is to raise single or double night prices for rentals out more than 1 month (but provide enough of a discount for multi-night stays so that your place is competitive) Then as you get closer, lower prices for the short term stays to fill in around the "islands" The idea is to reduce the chances of someone reserving your place for 1 or two nights in the middle of a peak time because that would block someone else who wants to stay for 2 or 3 weeks during the same time. The goal is to fill up the calendar with 2 week plus guests first and then fill in the "holes" with shorter stays later. You'll find that the optimum is somewhere between maximum price and maximum occupancy. There are several biggerpockets podcasts that cover STR's much better than I have. And probably some forum posts. A few hours of reading would be good to get you started. But don't over-research because many of the finer points won't sink in until you have hosted guests for a month or two. The nice thing about STR's is that if you hate it, you can block out all future rentals (and even cancel reservations if you really want to burn the bridge) sell the furniture, and be done with it much easier than evicting a bad tenant. I have another friend who is building homes specifically to rent as STR's. And he said he averages 3X more cashflow than a comparable rental with a 1-year lease.
Focus on the 20%, great insight @Blake Dailey