Getting started with marketing a holiday let

Where should I advertise my holiday let?

Using a channel manager or similar, like Travelnest, can help you get exposure and increased visibility on your property across many of the best booking sites. Rather than having several logins, manage over 30 listings from one account. At Travelnest we make advertising holiday homes easy for hosts, with a dedicated team of experts to help you get set up for success with fully optimised listings. With Travelnest you can advertise on Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia and many more top channels; whilst managing all bookings and listings from one place.

Make your property listing stand out

We recently conducted a survey to find out what encourages guests to click on a property listing first. Taking 73% of the vote, good photos was the most popular answer. Having great photos establishes trust with guests and sets a high standard for your property. We recommend investing in professional photos which capture your properties best angles, aiming for at least 30 high quality shots. Having a unique listing headline to match is also vital for catching guests at first glance! Guests are used to searching through thousands of listings, so having something eye-catching and utilising your unique selling points in the most prominent space on a listing is key. Getting guests to click on a listing is the first step to getting booked. Although pricing came second in the survey, it’s still important to have competitive pricing to match the quality of your listing and property, especially as many guests choose to filter by pricing. The booking channels use unique algorithms – the more clicks a property gets, the more the algorithm believes a property is eye-catching. Equally the more bookings a property gets in the early days the better, the algorithm is likely to increase in turn providing more bookings.

Get prepared for your guests

Once you have secured bookings it’s time to get your property ready to welcome its first guests! Check out our preparing for last minute stays guide which can help new owners prepare for guests, especially if you receive bookings quick! Some of our owners get booked within a few days of going live – so make sure you are prepared to welcome guests. Our customer Jill at Chatham Log Cabins was pleased to see a fully booked calendar within her first month of using Travelnest! Don’t forget we are on hand to help with any booking queries too. Whether it’s organising a smooth check in, or pre-heating your property, the small things make a big difference!

Get good guest reviews

Positive guest experience = positive reviews! Having great guest reviews is a key way to attract future bookings, and build a strong reputation for your property as well as repeat business. Reading Tripadvisor reviews has become a popular way for guests to choose accommodation, with 81% of travellers saying they always read reviews before booking accommodation. With Travelnest, you can advertise on TripAdvisor in addition to many other channels, and get your property reviewed for maximum visibility – so remember to ask your guests for reviews once they have stayed! To build up a bank of bookings and reviews, consider using promotions as a way of boosting bookings and attracting new guests to your listing. Once owners who use Booking.com receive more than 2 good reviews, eligible hosts can use the Genius programme. Genius is a marketing programme which has proven to boost owner revenue by 40% and search result views by 70%, proving how valuable good reviews are.