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As I work for a vacation home rental company, a video marketing firm as well
as rent out my family's Martha's Vineyard vacation home, naturally I am
interested in how all these things cross paths. Of course when my Mom told me
that in 2010 we're going to rent the Vineyard home ourselves - since local
rental companies only brought us 1 booking last summer (ouch!) - I came
up with all of my GENIUS ideas! I said "okay Ma, we're going to
build a website, post on craigslist, sign up for VRBO and HomeAway, take
pictures, create Facebook and Twitter profiles, and take videos put them on
online!!!" and my Ma said "okay - go do it!". I of course got
massively excited, bought the domain, installed wordpress and then realized
that I don't know how to build a static wordpress site. I have a bunch of
friends that can, but they all cost money. I looked into VRBO, HomeAway and a
few other sites like them and realized - they all cost a bunch of money too. So
therein lies the question, what is the minimum amount we can spend to get
maximum occupancy.
What's your maximum occupancy?
For my family - it's all of the weeks
between Memorial Day and Labor Day. We rent our home from $1,000-$1,600 / wk,
Sat - Sat.
For my company - it's 365 days a
year for all 6 our properties.
What marketing initiatives do we choose?
To do everything would be impossible, so which ones do you choose. You have
to find your winning combination. In my experience, these are the tools you can
choose from.
Website, Craigslist postings, Video marketing, Home rental websites (like
VRBO), find a booking company, Social Media platforms, find a management
company or knock on doors around the neighborhood and ask people to rent your
home.
For my Family - I just created a
fancy html Craigslist posting, and put it up every 2 or 3 days. In 3 weeks we’ve
booked 5 weeks – almost half the summer. We’re still going to build a website
so that we can have client testimonials, but we’re not going to invest in
annual listings on sites like VRBO or HomeAway. I know that these sites are
great and that they often work well, but for the small window time that we’re
renting, I don’t think we need them. Lucky me, I get to spend 1 week at the
house this June (my first time back in 5 years!) where I am going to photograph
and video tape the property. We’re going to use the photos and footage to
create a HD property tour, branded with my contact info, which I will put on
our website and distribute across all major online video networking sites. I am
going to optimize the video for search for terms like “Edgartown Vacation
Rental” which is searched an average of 210 times per month on Google,
globally. I will be able to achieve front page Google results organically for
that search term within 90 days. Luckily for my Ma, I can do most everything
for my family, so our total spend will be about $3,000 including my travel. But
the website and online video placement is permanent, so as long as I continue
with the free craigslist postings – I am confident that we’ll book out every
summer until my parents decide to retire and live on-island for the summers.
For my Company – we’re still
figuring out how we can book the entire year for all of our properties. The
hardest properties are those in Breckenridge during the summer months. What’s
the winning combination of marketing we need to utilize? I suspect that once
our Social Media efforts start paying off, we have created and deployed videos
for each home combined with our email campaign and targeted vacation packages
will be the winner. We may not book 365 days a year, but my boss will hopefully
settle for 340 :o)
For You – I’m sure your marketing
and exposure needs meet someplace in the middle. However, keep in mind that
your machine has to run on its own too. If you’re booking your home out year
round, you may have to use vacation websites, video marketing, craigslist and
social media. But once you determine you maximum occupancy, you will be able to
pick and choose your own marketing initiatives that will eventually work for
you. The best advice I can give you is – make the internet work for you!
I am able to offer all of the above services. I can also help you customize
your own marketing strategy. If you would like to contact me, please email robert.c.choate@gmail.com
Posted
03-30-2010 5:40 PM
by
Robby Choate