10 Not-So-Obvious Ways to Promote Your Airbnb Listing

If you are looking for possibilities to promote your Airbnb listing, there are many creative ways to reach your target guests outside of the Airbnb platform.

From boosting the social media presence of your vacation rentals with Facebook advertising to managing Search Engine Optimization and specific Airbnb SEO, promoting your listing in clever ways will result in more bookings for your vacation rental.

Airbnb vacation rental guests respond to pictures on your Facebook page and other social media platforms – it’s how the majority of people spend a substantial amount of their time (browsing social media platforms).

Here are 10 not-so-obvious but very effective ways to promote your Airbnb listing property and additional vacation rentals.

1. Create a Story to Promote Your Airbnb Listing on Social Media

What makes an Airbnb listing interesting? The fact that there is a story behind it. Your vacation rental property listing needs a social media presence.

Share beautiful photos of the interiors of your listing on your social media pages. You can even combine these photos with photos from other places nearby to create a guide to your neighborhood. Follow up with photos of local establishments that you love and write a bit about each one.

While you don’t have to go as far as creating a blog for your Airbnb listing, you should make it into a story. Use your social media story as a way to draw in guests that are looking for a specific experience.

“Customize content for each persona. Knowing your target audience allows you to design listing description and special offers to draw their interest. For each piece of content, whether it’s an update on Facebook, a post on Instagram or other content, think about the persona you are targeting.”

— Heather and Mike Bayer, Vacation Rental Formula

2. Work With a Journalist, Lifestyle Blogger or Social Media Influencers

This might be a bit tricky, but it is one strategy you should absolutely consider as part of your long-term vacation rental property growth strategy. Lifestyle bloggers who have tons of followers on social media, as well as, journalists can bring you some serious publicity with potential guests.

The easiest way to attract attention to your Airbnb listings is to offer to allow them to stay at your property for free so that they can post about it and review it. Try contacting them directly and explaining your offer.

They are more than likely willing to do this as long as your Airbnb listing has a good amount of reviews. Also, it would help if you’ve already established yourself as a Superhost on Airbnb.

3. Create a Unique URL to Promote Your Airbnb Listing

If you have a unique angle that you can use to promote your Airbnb listing, such as its location or architecture, consider a unique URL. It makes tracking the traffic to your Airbnb listing less complicated and it is also easier for guests to remember.

While you might have considered a vanity URL, take the extra step and just purchase a domain that redirects to your Airbnb listing. This only takes a few minutes and now you have an easy-to-remember .com domain that you can share with potential guests.

4. Join Vacation Rental Forums

When you join vacation rental forums, you’ll get to interact with other hosts of Airbnb listings about a variety of issues related to hosting on Airbnb. While this helps grow your business by teaching you how to manage it more effectively, you can also benefit from a bit of word-of-mouth advertising to promote your Airbnb listing.

By staying active in the community, your fellow Airbnb hosts will likely look out for you and send some business your way. So work on building up your credibility so that other hosts know that they can trust you enough to send you referrals.

5. Get Listed With Vacation Rental/Tourism Websites in Your Area

Like hotels and hostels, make sure that your Airbnb properties are listed with tourism websites in your area. These are trusted resources for out-of-town visitors. As a result, getting listed with these organizations is sure to boost your bookings and reach a much broader audience. Use the backlink counter to get a vast list of relevant tourism websites in your area. For this purpose, select hotels and hostels’ websites to check their backlink profile and see where they are listed.

6. Create Business Cards and Flyers

If you primarily use the internet to promote your Airbnb listing business, don’t overlook offline methods of advertising. Create business cards and flyers to leave at a few local business locations in your area that tourists frequent, such as restaurants and local events.

If you travel often, make sure that you share your business cards with people who you meet and personally invite them to stay at your Airbnb property if they plan to visit your area. By meeting with you in person, potential guests will make a deeper connection that will easily help you to outdo the competition on Airbnb.

7. Create Special Offers for Your Guests

It’s always worth it to appeal to your guests by creating special offers. After guests stay at your property, let them know that you’re offering a 10% discount on their next stay if they invite their friends or colleagues to stay. You can also create a discount for repeat bookings and returning guests or offer them extra perks if they plan to stay again. Some hosts have had success in the past with offering discounts to potential guests in line with local events to attract guests and bookings.

Airbnb has its own referral program to attract new guests so there is no reason why you can’t do the same. In fact, referral programs are one of the most effective ways of bringing in new business in any industry.

You can also reward positive reviews with a discount code. This is a good tactic for building a repeat bookings network and earning more money in the process. More guests through the door means more income for your business.

8. Submit Photos of Your Property to Design Blogs

Interior design and real estate blogs are always looking for fresh content and photos. If your property features some great design, this is a great strategy to get some extra exposure for your property. The location of your property isn’t even important.

What will make the difference is that the sites link back to your Airbnb listing, which will boost your search engine rankings and earn you more rankings. The more enticing the photos, the better to attract guests!

Search for smaller real estate companies that have blogs as they are likely to be more receptive to your proposition. However, before you make your pitch figure how why they would want to feature your property in the first place.

Is your property a stellar example of eco-friendly design or does your property have a unique period architecture? If you can find the right angle, you might just find your property getting published on dozens of blogs.

When you search for creative ways to promote your Airbnb listing, you should be aware that the exposure you receive is often far more effective than paid advertising. If you manage to make your property go viral, it often results in a ton of bookings. Just make sure that you’re prepared to deal with the extra traffic when it arrives.

9. Produce a Virtual Tour of Your Vacation Rentals

Virtual tours are very popular features in the vacation rental business space nowadays. They’re easier to create than you might think. Offering a virtual tour of your listing allows potential guests to ascertain whether the space is worth their valuable time or not.

Giving the guests the option to tour your vacation rental listing for free before they decide to book is a great way of promoting your listing and showing the full scope of your property to interested parties.

10. Create Experience Packages

Savvy hosts will have tapped into the experience market a long time ago. It makes money on the side and allows hosts to advertise their listings and services at the same time. Developing a package that offers both accommodation and a signature experience is a great way to promote your listing property.

Marketing your listing as a package deal will make interested guests even more interested! Use a direct booking website to your advantage and post your experience pairing on Facebook too for added exposure.

Tap into the likes of your target guests and design something that keeps the theme of your listing at the forefront. For example, if you own a modern city apartment, offer your guests a fine-dining tour of the city’s best foodie spots.

Make the Property Management of Your Airbnb Listings Even Easier with iGMS

Managing a vacation rental business is complicated and can even be frustrating at times. In this complete guide to promoting your listing and reaching your target market, we hope to have highlighted some quick and easy steps to making your business go from strength to strength.

If you’re looking to scale back the management time of your short-term rentals, then a service like iGMS is ideal. From check-in information to property offers and what to put in your welcome pack, iGMS streamlines your management process with the following features:

• Managing multiple accounts and listings on the top OTAs from a single interface
• Synchronizing property reservations across multiple platforms to eliminate the risk of double bookings
• Organizing messages into a single feed with a unified inbox
• Improving communication with automated templates and triggered messaging
• Coordinating cleaning tasks with live tracking to completion
• Creating your own direct booking website for your property

In Conclusion

Creating a pleasant stay for your guests is only half the battle – you first need to get them through the door! Start promoting your other properties using the above methods and you’ll see more bookings, increased profit, occupancy, and other benefits.

Bonus Tip: Explore influencer marketing to boost attention on your property and business via social media. Make use of Facebook for your business too!