13 Tips for Vacation Home Rental Owners

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to what makes a vacation rental successful. However, leading vacation rental operators tend to follow tried-and-true vacation rental advice focusing on creating positive guest experiences and an enticing online impression. These 13 vacation rental tips for owners can put you well on your way to vacation rental success.

1. Treat Your Vacation Rental as a?Business, Not a Hobby

When it comes to vacation rental advice, this tip is key: Always keep in mind that your vacation rental is a business—and that business is shaped by the decisions you make. When you approach your Airbnb or Vrbo properties with a business mindset, you’ll begin to better understand your product, your market, and your competition. You’ll discover your ideal customers and how to reach them, and you’ll aim for clear goals and create effective strategies for how to reach them.

Successful businesses are data-driven, and you should be, too, with goals that are specific and measurable. You’ll need relevant data in order to see what’s working and what’s not to make decisions on next steps. For example, by uploading your listings into the?My Properties ?interface in AirDNA’s MarketMinder, you’ll unlock need-to-know metrics that can help you competitively price and manage your properties.?

2. Take Great?Vacation Rental Photos?

A picture is worth a thousand words, as well as several thousands of dollars if you?take good Airbnb photos . The more (representative) photos you have, the higher your occupancy rate. But be sure to?include 20-40 verified photos. Guests want to know that their experience matches the listing. Give them peace of mind by including verified photos, and see your effort pay off with?higher occupancy rates .?

Don’t sweat it if you’re unconfident in your photography skills. There are plenty of online resources that teach you how to take excellent photos with your smartphone. But, if you’d rather?hire a professional Airbnb photographer , the short-term rental giant makes it easy to do.?

See how your listing ranks

3. Implement?Instant Book?on Airbnb for Better Occupancy Rates

In our fast-paced world, people expect instantaneous buys and bookings; they don’t want to wait for you to accept their reservation request. Do your guests (and your occupancy rate) a favor by implementing Instant Book.?

By giving your guests the option to book immediately, you’re not only guaranteeing their spot, but boosting your ranking on Airbnb’s Search Engine Results Page. This means that your listing will pop up ahead of others, letting guests lay eyes on your property before others. If you have stellar photos, you’re among the top listings,?and?guests can book instantly, you can anticipate a 4.1%–5.7% increase in your occupancy rates.?

See my occupancy rate stats

4. Choose the Right?Cancelation Policy?

No two Airbnb hosts will agree on which cancellation policy is best; cancellation policies are split somewhat evenly among hosts. Whatever you decide, be strategic.?Strict cancellation policies often make more sense for hosts with nicer properties. These hosts can usually afford to lose a few bookings here and there.?

On the other hand, hosts with more modest properties generally benefit from a flexible policy that allows guests to cancel up to the day before their stay.?

How strict are my neighbors' policies?

5. Get Good?Airbnb Reviews: Focus on Guest Satisfaction

Every new vacation rental host wants to know how to get good reviews. The answer’s simple, really:?be a good host and offer a great experience. That’s easier said than done sometimes, but overall, it’s a proven approach. And it pays off; your Airbnb business is based on positive reviews, so better reviews bring in more guests.

If you have a single property and can be pretty hands-on, ensuring guests have everything they need is pretty easy. It’s when you?scale your Airbnb count ?that it becomes harder to keep an eye on guest satisfaction.?In fact, the data shows that non-professional (read: hosts with only one or two properties) perform better than hosts with a dozen (or dozens of) properties.?

If you are looking to scale your vacation rental operations, or even thinking about hiring a property manager for your sole property, be sure to?choose a top-rated Airbnb property manager ?to ensure your guests have a great stay—and leave a positive review to let potential guests know.?

See competitors based on reviews

6. Learn How to Set a?Cleaning Fee?That Doesn’t Deter Guests

This vacation home rental tip is one of the most polarizing topics among hosts.?

Should you set a steep fee in case you have inconsiderate guests? Or should you lower your Airbnb cleaning fee to attract potential guests? It all depends, really; there’s no blanket answer here.?

However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t multiple?correct?answers. As a host, you have to do what’s right for you and your goals. If you find that guests are booking other comparable properties in your area, take a hard look at your cleaning fee.

AirDNA data shows that cleaning fees need to align with the property size — there’s no reason to have a steep fee for a small property.?

7. Leverage?Dynamic Pricing

No host optimizes their revenue, occupancy rate, ADR, or guest satisfaction by setting their pricing and never updating it. To truly boost your property’s performance, you need to leverage dynamic pricing.?

This approach lets you adjust your nightly rate to match supply and demand in your area. If there’s an event in your area a few months down the road, up your price to capitalize on increased demand. If it’s the slow season, adjust accordingly there, too.?

If it sounds like a lot of work, don’t worry.?AirDNA’s Smart Rates integration with Futurestay ?does the heavy lifting for you. With Smart Rates, you don’t even need to learn how to change weekend pricing on your Airbnb listing, let alone keep up with weekday vs. weekend Airbnb rates. It’s pricing, simplified.?

Besides taking stress off your plate, dynamic Airbnb pricing can increase revenue, and help you outperform other properties in your market. For Airbnb hosts, pricing has never been easier. Do yourself a favor and skip the slog of manually updating your nightly rates, and watch your revenue increase. Just be sure to keep an eye on pacing and future data so you know what’s on the horizon in terms of booking activity.

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