How to Boost Your Income from Your Vacation Rental

Tips for Active Revenue Management for Vacation Rental owners in the post-Covid recovery period

More than Just Lowering Prices

There is a lot of uncertainty right now and property managers and owners are going to have to evolve their strategy to stay competitive when markets begin to bounce back.

Dynamic pricing is only one component of revenue management. It should also include the following:

• Channel management
• Marketing
• Forecasting

Now is a good time to focus on your vacation rental business and look at how and where you advertise your home. 

Plus, you can use this quiet time before the markets reopen to look at the ways you can make your home more appealing for guests.  Stay ahead of the competition.  Maybe offer a late check out or – for the road tripper – a complimentary early check in. 

Will you welcome pets?  Most road trips involve families taking their beloved pets.  Accepting them could open up a whole new market segment for your home.

Forecasting for your Florida vacation home

Anticipating future demands and forecasting trends is another key skill that property owners need to develop. 

A good place to start is looking at publicly available information and statistics from local and international tourism boards.  AirDNA and Transparent provide market insights, historical data and benchmarking tools, so you can forecast low and high demand.

Tip! Record your own data to help you analyse and anticipate future booking behaviour

Expand your Distribution

Are you only selling on one channel? There are lots of channels open to homeowners these days: your own website, AirBnB, VRBO, etc.

Now is the time for owners to look to expand your presence and attract more guests to book your home.

Rather than depend on low prices to get your occupancy levels up, you can use these new channels to find completely new audiences for you to sell to. 

Have you thought about business travellers?  Contacting conference centres to see what events may be running in the future when things are back to normal?  Reach out to large companies, airlines, tour operators as they may have stranded staff that need accommodation.  Get creative and think outside the box!

Increased marketing efforts will drive more traffic to your website or listing.  Expanding your online presence, whether it be via social media or new listing sites, is an easy way to increase your potential pool of guests.

Tip! Be mindful to review commission and fees on the different distribution channels, as these can vary.  Work out the net rates that you would see after the booking.

Remember that lowering your prices to be more competitive is something that can be easily matched by your competitors.  Worse – ultimately it can lead to a nasty price war!

Yes, be competitive with rates.  But, to be successful, you will need to look for more ways you can widen your home’s appeal to guests.