*Written by our friends at Hospitable
Introduction
Looking for ways to increase revenue for your vacation rental business? The STR industry is extremely competitive and is constantly evolving, so it’s crucial to stay one step ahead of the competition using marketing and property management automation and focus on building relationships with your guests to get direct bookings.
While listing on major OTAs helps increase the visibility of your vacation rental properties, over-relying on them can slow down your growth. To build a successful vacation rental business, these distribution channels should only supplement your direct booking strategy.
This approach will allow you to save on high OTA fees that cut your profits, have more control over your business, and build your independent vacation rental brand. Then, you’ll be able to establish long-term relationships with your guests to encourage repeat bookings, get referrals, and boost your revenue.
Let’s look at the key components of an effective direct booking strategy and find out how to complement StayFi’s marketing tools with vacation rental software that offers advanced property management features to maximize your revenue.
Use WiFi Marketing to Collect Guest Data and Engage Them with Email & Text Marketing
We can’t imagine our life without the Internet, so the first thing travelers will be searching for once they arrive at your property is WiFi access. That gives you a unique opportunity to take advantage of WiFi marketing tools like StayFi to collect guest data, engage them with tailored messages and offers, upsell services and amenities, promote your property, and encourage direct bookings.
When guests book your property using third-party channels, it’s very challenging to collect their email addresses and phone numbers that can be used for marketing campaigns. StayFi can help you solve this problem and collect contact information from all your guests during their stay, not just the booker. You’ll be able to create your own branded WiFi splash page that your guests will use to log in to your vacation rental’s WiFi.
StayFi integrates with different property management software (PMS) and will import guest data from your PMS and WiFi into one CRM for guest marketing. You’ll be able to send personalized, automated email marketing messages and track the performance of your email campaigns. There are also built-in text marketing tools that can send automated guest welcome messages to give guests access to your digital guidebook and other resources, collect positive reviews that can significantly enhance your property’s reputation, and send marketing messages to past guests to drive bookings and revenue.
Accept Direct Bookings on Your Website
Creating a direct booking website is a major way to maximize revenue as you decide to sidestep OTA fees. Even if your guests find you and book your vacation rental property via an OTA the first time, they may research you off the platform next time. That’s why your business website should reflect your unique brand and provide a user-friendly booking experience when travelers access it on all types of devices.
Luckily, plenty of vacation rental property management systems come with built-in solutions that allow users with no technical skills to launch their own branded direct booking site easily, streamline the reservation process, and ensure a seamless experience for you and your guests. For example, Hospitable makes it easy to create a user-friendly direct booking website using professional, easy-to-customize website templates. If you already have a website for vacation rental business, you can just drop their booking widget into your existing setup.
You can also use your direct booking website to build an email list and use it in your automated email campaigns. For example, you can offer a discount code to visitors who sign up for your email newsletters. You can import your list to StayFi and send automated emails with different types of content, such as promotions for your loyalty program, special offers, holiday discounts, tips about local events, attractions, and activities, or exciting news about your vacation rental properties. This way, you can enhance guest engagement and brand recall and increase the possibility of repeat bookings in the future.
Automate Your Business to Improve Efficiency and Increase Revenue
Increasing your number of direct bookings will further diversify your channel distribution and give you a stronger chance of achieving high occupancy rates. But it will also increase your workload, so investing in vacation rental software with advanced features is important. It will allow you to automate your property management processes, improve guest experience, secure more bookings, and maximize revenue.
When it comes to selecting software tools with PMS features, there are many choices out there. Still, it’s always better to choose comprehensive all-in-one software solutions that will allow you to simplify the most important aspects of running a vacation rental business.
Automate guest communication with AI-powered messaging to provide all your guests with the necessary information at the right time during all stages of their journey. It’s a sure way to make your guests feel cared for and welcome and earn more positive reviews.
Ensure your software system offers channel manager features with instant calendar synchronization across all platforms. This way, you can control all your bookings from a single dashboard and be protected from double bookings.
Advanced vacation rental management solutions also offer integrations with top smart pricing tools to help you implement a dynamic pricing strategy for your direct booking website and other channels. They will allow you to optimize your vacation rental’s performance by automatically adjusting prices based on real-time market data. This way, you can ensure your rates are competitive and maximize your revenue.
StayFi vacation rental marketing tools can help you become independent of the big OTAs and increase direct bookings, which are essential for the long-term success of your vacation rental business. Vacation rental software with advanced PMS features will allow you to automate your business processes, enhance guest experience, maximize your income, and build your brand without increasing your daily workload.
