How to Choose the Right Vacation Home Names

Scrolling through OTAs like Airbnb or Vrbo, it does not take long to come across unique names for your vacation rental properties.

While a poor and unimaginative name may not leave an impression on guests, a great one can do far more for your business than you realize. While it may be tempting to use an online house name generator, a house name is a very important thing, and leaving it to an online service cannot possibly capture the essence of your property.

Plus, generators can’t come up with puns like ‘Sea la Vie‘. Potential guests only have a few glimpses of your holiday home listing before they have to decide whether to send a booking request or not.

Thinking about naming your own vacation rental home? Now is a great time to do so. Before diving into what your rental name could be, let’s first take a closer look at the benefits of giving your vacation rental home a name.

Should I Give My Vacation Rental a Name?

Yes, you should! Giving your vacation rental property a name can bring many benefits to your short-term rental business. Here are just a few of the ways it could help you out:

Helps your listing stand out

The vacation rental industry is experiencing a boom as more property owners are seeing the value of renting out their properties. With this boom also comes high vacation rental densities — in other words, more competition among hosts.

Using an inviting and unique name for your vacation home is a fantastic way to stand out from the competition and make an impression on travelers browsing rental properties in your location. Some hosts elect to use words in other languages to inject some extra culture into their listing page.

Easily searchable

When word-of-mouth spreads and new travelers want to find your vacation rentals online, it’s way easier for them to search for a unique name like “Beach Blessing” or “Endless Summer” than to search for general terms like “beach house in California”.

This way, potential guests can be brought straight to your listing instead of finding countless other beach houses in the same area.

Builds a brand

As you provide an exceptional guest experience and vacation rental offering, guests will begin to associate your reputation with your vacation rental name.

This is an effective way to build a long-lasting brand that will allow you to grow and scale your business at a faster rate.

After establishing a memorable name and beginning to build your brand, managing your property’s details and bookings can become the next challenge. This is where iGMS comes in.

Our vacation rental software automates operations, helping you manage multiple listings on major OTAs, coordinate guest communications with ease, and avoid double bookings. With iGMS, streamline your vacation rental management so you can focus on enhancing guest experiences and growing your brand.

Learn more about how iGMS can transform your property management.

How Do I Choose My Vacation Rental Property Name?

Now that we’ve taken a look at the advantages of having a name for your vacation rental, the next step is to know how to choose a suitable name for your rental property.

Here are some of the main points to keep in mind when coming up with vacation home name ideas:

1. Know Your Brand

Before choosing a name, you need to have a clear understanding of your brand. What message do you want to convey? What do you want your vacation rental to be known for?

Once you have an idea of your brand, it will be much easier to decide on a name.

For example, if you want to create a brand based on relaxation and escape, your name could use words like hideaway, retreat, paradise, peaceful, and tranquil.

2. Think of what you would like to communicate

Your vacation rental undoubtedly has many features that you may want to highlight in its name. However, it is far more effective to focus on one or two features instead to avoid overly complex names.

For example, if you own a beach house with sea views that also has a pool and different types of family activities in the area, trying to cram all these features into your name will be confusing to the reader and will not leave a good impression.

Instead, picking one or two features to communicate in your name will get the job done easily. You may also like the idea of including a family name to communicate that you are a family-run business. Including your family name would communicate these values and your priorities well.

Lake homes are particularly popular with families and including fun things in your house names is a fast way to make guests feel welcome. Including details of how romantic your property is great for attracting couples to your romantic getaway.

3. See what is out there

While it is not a good idea to copy another rental property’s name, there’s no harm in looking around for inspiration.

Your own great name may come to you while browsing through the names of properties similar to yours.

4. Use unique words and phrases

The main idea behind choosing a vacation home name is to make it eye-catching and memorable. The best way to get this right is to use unique words and phrases that will stick in the minds of those who read it.

For this reason, instead of using simple, everyday words like “beautiful” or “relaxing”, you could use “jaw-dropping” or “tranquil” instead. The words convey similar meanings, but using ones that are not used often makes it more unique.

5. Keep it short and simple

As mentioned earlier, complicated names are not great for your vacation rental. Neither are names that are too long.

When it comes to a name that will boost brand recognition and, ultimately earn you more bookings, short and simple is the way to go. Aim for a name that is two to four words long to reach the proper sweet spot.

6. Have your target audience in mind

Whether you have a lake house or an apartment in the city, your property name still needs to cater to your desired guest.

The language you would use when targeting a family-friendly audience will be different from what you would use if you’re targeting a business professional. Likewise, the property name you would use to target honeymooners will differ from what you’d use to attract backpackers.

7. Use alliteration or quirky words to make it catchy

Using humor in your vacation home name is another great way to make your property memorable. Two smart ways to achieve this are through using alliteration or quirky words.

For example, funny beach house names like “Sea La Vie” or “Flip Flop Inn” is creative and memorable. Similarly using words with alliteration like “Dune Delight” will make it a catchy name.

You could also try experimenting with other literary devices to come up with a fun name. You could try rhyming words, like “Fun in the Sun” or even describe your property using geographic terms, like “Portland’s Paradise” or “The Hollywood Hideaway”.

However, it’s best practice to avoid acronyms in your chosen name, as it can get complicated to explain what they mean.

I Have My Vacation Home Name – What Now?

Once you mix and match ideas until the catchy words sound like your perfect name for your vacation rental, it’s time to start spreading the news.

Your next step is to start updating your OTA listings and direct bookings website with your chosen vacation home name to start promoting it.

If you use a welcome book or provide a welcome basket with branded merchandise like soap or snacks, you can also update these to include your vacation name. You may also want to think about creating or updating your vacation rental logo too.

This may all seem like a lot to do at once just for a vacation home name, but most of these tasks can be streamlined with vacation rental automation software.

iGMS, for example, enables you to update the details of your vacation rental across multiple OTAs and your direct booking website, all from one convenient platform. This means you can use iGMS to update your vacation rental name across all leading OTAs and your website at the same time.

iGMS enables you to:

• Manage multiple accounts and listings on the major vacation rental sites
• Organize your messages and emails into a single feed and using automated templates and triggered messaging to improve guest communication
• Avoid double bookings with our channel manager
• Automate the process of guest reviews
• Create a website for direct bookings
• Track your business performance on an analytics Dashboard
• Manage direct bookings using a direct booking management toolkit, and more.

Vacation Home Name Inspiration

While your vacation property name must be unique, it doesn’t hurt to look around for inspiration. Think of the most creative name that you can! However, try to avoid cliches like ‘fun in the sun’ or names that could be construed as marketing materials.

From beach house names to lake house names, and everything in between, here is the ultimate list of name ideas to mix and match and inspire your own name choice.

Beach house names

Build yourself a few beach house names from the inspiration ideas below:

1. The Surfer’s Beach House
2. Beach Bliss
3. The Beach Bungalow
4. Ocean Eyes
5. Endless Summer Beach Escape
6. Shells and Bells Beach Cottage
7. See the Sea Hideaway
8. Turtle’s Cove Beach House
9. Anchor’s Rest Beach House
10. Seaside’s Summer
11. Paradise at the Shoreline
12. Surfer’s Pitstop
13. Wind and Waves Beach House
14. Seagull’s Shore
15. Sea, Shells, and Seagulls Retreat
16. Water’s Edge Bungalow
17. Ocean Views Beach House
18. Sea View and Sunset
19. Toes in the Sand Beach House Bungalow
20. Sea Captain’s Cabin
21. Ahoy Matey Beach Escape
22. Pirate’s Beach Hideaway
23. Pirate’s Treasure
24. A Pirate’s Hideout
25. Summer in the Sun Beach Paradise
26. Davey Jones’ Locker
27. Poseidon’s Cove
28. The Nautical Nook
29. Sunsoaked Seaside
30. Wind in your Sails Retreat
31. Seaside Sunrise
32. The Captain’s Compass
33. The Sea Shore’s Rest
34. Bachelor’s Beach House
35. The Sand Castle
36.  The Bay Watchers
37. Mimosa on the Shore
38. The Blue Dolphin
39. Aloha, Good Bay
40. Tiki Treasure
41. Beach House Cabana

Cabin, cottage, & lake house names

Build your cabin, cottage, or lake house name from the inspiration below:

1. The Cozy Cabin
2. Eagle’s Lodge
3. The Burrow
4. The Lakeside Haven
5. The Lake’s Edge
6. At The Water’s Edge
7. Oak Cottage
8. Hillside Cottage
9. The Logg Cabin
10. The Lookout Cottage
11. Slow and Steady Cottage
12. Little Cub’s Cabin
13. The Last Resort
14. Dockside Retreat
15. Lakeside Haven
16. Fireside Lodge
17. Country Escape
18. Rocky Road Retreat
19. Hilltop Cabins
20. Cliffside Hideaway
21. Lakeview Cottage
22. Twilight Cottage
23. Starry Night Cottage
24. Starry Eyes Lake House

Luxury vacation home names

Build your luxury getaway name from the inspiration below:

1. Luxe Retreat
2. Horse & Chariot
3. The Throne Room
4. Homestead Villa
5. Spa Resort
6. Penthouse Paradise
7. Villa in the Clouds
8. Sunset Villa
9. Sunrise Estate
10. Mountain Manor
11. Manor Magnifico
12. Finer Things Retreat
13. Casa de Suenos
14. Ridgeworth Manor
15. Midas Manor
16. Utopia
17. Waterhouse Estate
18. The High-Rise

Nature-themed names

Build a nature-themed name from the inspiration below:

1. The Mountain Lodge
2. The Hiker’s Trail
3. Orchid’s Cove
4. Woodlands Cabin
5. Mountain Trail Inn
6. The Forest Cottage
7. Deer’s Footprints
8. Trotter’s Trail
9. Aloe Ridge Guesthouse
10. Lavender Hills
11. The Rose Sanctuary
12. Sunflower Sunsets
13. Nature’s Nook
14. The Bear Claw
15. The Great Escape
16. Firefly Cabin
17. Daisy’s Den
18. Falcon’s Perch
19. Eagle’s Eye
20. Sparrow’s Wings
21. The Flower Bed Inn

City-themed names

Build a city-themed name from the inspiration below:

1. Concrete Jungle
2. City Living
3. The Skyscraper
4. The City’s Edge
5. The Lookout Point
6. City Slicker Apartments
7. On-The-Go Rentals
8. Early Riser Apartments
9. The Hustler’s Hub
10. Business Breakaway
11. Cosmopolis
12. The Urban Getaway
13. Downtown Downtime
14. Inner City Rentals
15. Urban Sprawl
16. City Escape

In Conclusion

Finding the right house names for your rental properties is no easy task. You need to aim for the most creative house names you can think of while being sure to include logistical details at the same time! Happy writing!

About the Author
Callan Riddles is the Content and Social Media Specialist at iGMS. Callan has a passion for finding new ways to help vacation rental businesses thrive. In her free time, she loves to travel, read, and experience all the new things that life has to offer.