In today's digital age, having a dedicated website for your vacation rental isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential. Think of it as your online real estate, a place where potential guests can find you, get to know your property and ultimately decide to book their stay with you. It's about standing out in a sea of listings and giving your vacation rental its own unique voice and space on the internet.
A dedicated website does wonders for enhancing visibility. It acts as your property's digital storefront, open 24/7, showcasing the best of what you have to offer. Through strategic SEO practices, your site can attract more eyeballs, drawing in guests who are searching for the perfect place to stay on their next vacation. It's about making your property visible to those who are actively looking, guiding them straight to your doorstep, so to speak.
While leveraging Airbnb and other Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) is beneficial for enhancing your property's visibility, it's not the be-all and end-all for your vacation rental business. Having your own website can significantly increase your profits and give you greater control over your bookings. Here’s how:
While OTAs play a crucial role in marketing your vacation rental, they shouldn't monopolize your strategy. Creating your own website not only saves you money on commissions but also grants you autonomy over the guest experience, offering a dual strategy for success in a competitive market. This approach not only improves profitability but also strengthens your brand identity, making your vacation rental more memorable and appealing to guests.
When diving into the website world for your vacation rental, kick things off by setting clear goals. What do you want your website to do for you? More direct bookings, flaunting your gorgeous properties, or maybe a mix of both? Putting down your goals on paper gives your site direction and purpose.
To get your vacation rental site noticed on Google, SEO is key. Don't worry if you're not a pro—tools like SEMrush can help you find the right keywords to get your site climbing the search ranks. Just sprinkle those keywords into your content, and help your site climb up Google search results.
At least 48% of people in the US say that they are comfortable booking an entire holiday on their phone. And that’s a big number. If your website is not responsive to the multiple devices at your customer’s disposal, you may be losing out on their business.
If your website loads slowly, you're gonna lose guests faster than you can say "welcome." Your website must load within 2 seconds and every extra second costs you, with a mere one-second delay slashing conversions by 7%. Want to speed things up? Google’s PageSpeed Insights is your go-to to pinpoint the slowdowns and get your site zipping along.
Reliable hosting is your website's foundation, keeping it accessible round the clock. Plus, securing your site with HTTPS isn’t just about protecting data, it tells your guests, "Hey, you can trust us." It’s like the digital version of locking the front door at night.
There’s more than one way to build your vacation rental website:
Want a website that's both good-looking and easy to use, without needing a bunch of pages or complex menus with a direct booking system that syncs up seamlessly with Hostaway? Check out Hostaway's website builder. It's super user-friendly with zero tech skills required. You get responsive designs that work on any device, tons of cool templates, and it's fully customizable. You can even add an online store. And the best part? It's completely free for Hostaway users.
Building a website isn't rocket science anymore. It's way easier now with all those drag-and-drop builders out there. You just grab a template, plop in your content and photos, and voilà – you've got a website. Whether you're looking for something tailored for vacation rentals like Boostly or want to go with a general all-rounder like Squarespace, setting up your site is a breeze.
If you can afford the higher budget and feel like nothing short of a professionally designed, 100% customized website experience will do for your vacation rental, you can always hire a professional to build your vacation rental website for you. This will allow you to showcase your brand to its fullest as everything is created from scratch though it may cost you an arm and a leg depending on who you hire.
Google Vacation Rentals (GVR) offers an unparalleled opportunity to showcase your vacation rental to a massive audience directly through Google. By featuring your property on GVR, you tap into a vast pool of potential guests, bypassing the usual high commission fees of traditional booking sites. Hostaway emerges as a key player in this scenario, being one of the select platforms capable of seamlessly connecting your rental to GVR.