How to Boost Profit 20% by Getting a Holiday Rentals Website – Rather than Relying on AirBnb
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Way back in 2015 when a client asked me to develop a website to advertise their holiday rental homes, my first thoughts were that they were crazy!
When you can use Airbnb to fill your rentals year-round, why throw away money on your own site?
After some reflection I began to see the business!
I am going to show you why it makes economic sense, and why so many landlords create a website to market their holiday rentals, as well as advertising through platforms like Airbnb, Booking and HomeAway.
The advantages of your own property rental website
The reasons for running your own property website are both financial and political.
The financial advantages
Online booking platforms like Airbnb charge 15-20% per booking. So if you can channel would-be-guests through to your own website, you stand to make 15-20% extra on each rental.
For example, if your rental business makes £20,000 a year, that equates to an extra £4,000 a year – in most cases, easily covering any website costs.
The political advantages
If you’ve ever rented through Airbnb, you will know their cancellation policy favours guests. They can cancel a booking a week before and you wont see a penny. This can and does result in empty rentals due to last minute cancellations.
Taking bookings through your own website, you can set your own cancellation policy that avoids last minute cancellations.
Can I do it? … wont this pee off Airbnb?
There are no rules against running your own booking website, and more and more entrepreneurs are doing just that. It makes financial sense.
In fact, Airbnb are acutely aware of this: whenever you make contact with a customer or landlord, a short message states that it is better to remain within their booking system, and avoid direct contact through your personal email.
But again – there’s nothing stopping you from doing it.
The downside is missing out on the security offered by rental platforms through payment and damage insurance. Though if you ever do suffer damages it is difficult to reclaim anyway.
Tips for driving customers to your holiday letting website
As you cannot add a web address or phone number to your Airbnb listing, you need to give customers an alternate way to find you online (hint – use a unique name).
- The major vacation home letting websites dominate Google search, and that is where the market is. So register your lettings on at least one of Airbnb, Booking and Homeaway. If in doubt, just go for the biggest player in your country.
- Choose a unique name – this is key, and will allow clients to Google you and find your website of the same name. Thousands of landlords are now doing this.
- Complete your profile. Add beautiful pictures. Set competitive pricing inline with similar properties in the area. Collect genuine client reviews to attract customers to your listing.
- Get your holiday lettings website the domain name should be the exact name you chose in step 2.
That’s it!
Steps 1-3 get you the visibility, step 4 provides customers a way to Google you.
Tip – don’t be greedy. Remember that Airbnb is a great platform and they are giving you unprecedented access to the lettings market. Besides, curating a trusted, visited profile with lots of bookings and positive reviews on AirBnb is important and will encourage more people to stay with you.
See what we can do for you – Get a quote
We develop beautiful accommodation websites for apartment, B&B, villa and other holiday home rentals that boost your profit.
- Manage all of your holiday rental properties and the associated bookings from a single website.
- Make 15-20% extra profit
- Property availability calendar
- Mobile friendly, beautiful design, search friendly – your guests will love you!
- 2 weeks to set up!
