• News
    • VRM Intel News
    • Latest News
    • Sponsor News
  • COVID-19
  • Marketing
  • Tech
  • OTAs
  • Customer Service
  • Regs
  • Housekeeping
  • More
    • Education
      • Calendar of Events
      • Videos & Whitepapers
    • VRM Intel Live!
    • Reports Login
    • VRM Intel Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Authors
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
VRM Intel
  • News
    • Timing is Everything: The Impact of Seasonality on COVID Recovery for Southeast Destinations
    • Meredith Oskenholt-Meredith Lodging-Bend Oregon
      The Principles That Have Guided Meredith Lodging through the Global Pandemic, Raging Forest Fires and Personal Family Challenges
    • VRM Intel_Christmas-in-New-Orleans
      That’s the Ticket! Register Now to Enjoy Big Savings and Convenient Payment Plans for the 2021 Vacation Rental Women’s Summit in New Orleans
    • Inhabit IQ Gets “Significant Investment” from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division
    • Airbnb Goes Public. CEO Brian Chesky: “Travel is never going to look like it did in January”
    • VRM Intel News
    • Latest News
    • Sponsor News
  • COVID-19
    • Paycheck-Protection-Program-for-VR-industry
      Latest Round of Paycheck Protection Program Includes Up to $2 Million Loans for Some Vacation Rental Business Owners
    • Timing is Everything: The Impact of Seasonality on COVID Recovery for Southeast Destinations
    • Meredith Oskenholt-Meredith Lodging-Bend Oregon
      The Principles That Have Guided Meredith Lodging through the Global Pandemic, Raging Forest Fires and Personal Family Challenges
    • Airbnb Goes Public. CEO Brian Chesky: “Travel is never going to look like it did in January”
    • Short-Term Rental Industry Giants Grapple with Building Brand Loyalty, Democratization, Regulations, and More at Skift’s 2020 STR Summit
  • Marketing
    • Timing is Everything: The Impact of Seasonality on COVID Recovery for Southeast Destinations
    • Learn How You Can Unleash Your ‘Limitless Female Energy’ During VRM’s Thought Leadership Series Featuring Author/Speaker Amber Hurdle
    • How to Use Website Traffic to Gauge Demand for Your Market
    • Elements of a Property Detail Page: How They Can Make or Break Your Bookings
    • VRMIntel_Fall2020_Fast Paced Revenue Management
      Fast-Paced Revenue Management: The 10-Minute, $10,000 Mistake
  • Tech
    • Inhabit IQ Gets “Significant Investment” from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division
    • 2021 Social Media Game Changer
      Are You Ready to Ride the Wave to Becoming a 2021 Social Media Game Changer?
    • NDAs & Confidentiality Agreements: What to Include and When to Enforce
    • Selling Your Business? Know Your Tech Stuff!
    • Dynamic Pricing: To Adjust Rates or Not to Adjust Rates
  • OTAs
    • Airbnb Goes Public. CEO Brian Chesky: “Travel is never going to look like it did in January”
    • 6 Takeaways from Vrbo’s 2021 Consumer Travel Trend Report
    • Barron’s: Airbnb Set to Price December 9 and Trade December 10
    • Booking.com Affirms Commitment to Quality with Minimum Cleanliness Score Requirement
    • Airbnb is Finally Going Public: Takeaways for Property Managers from IPO Filing
  • Customer Service
    • Meredith Oskenholt-Meredith Lodging-Bend Oregon
      The Principles That Have Guided Meredith Lodging through the Global Pandemic, Raging Forest Fires and Personal Family Challenges
    • Dynamic Pricing: To Adjust Rates or Not to Adjust Rates
    • Repurposing Space: Broadening Your Vacation Rental’s Appeal
    • Booking.com Affirms Commitment to Quality with Minimum Cleanliness Score Requirement
    • New Customers Bring New Demands: Evolving to Meet the Needs of New Customer Avatars
  • Regs
    • Barron’s: Airbnb Set to Price December 9 and Trade December 10
    • Strategic Forecasting Beyond 2021: Are Vacation Rental Managers Changing Fast Enough?
    • Alabama’s tourism economy benefits from Florida Governor DeSantis’ shutdown of vacation rentals
    • Airbnb reaches out to city officials to influence “transitional travel reopening plans”
    • Jeff Paglialonga on FL Vacation Rental COVID-related ban: “We need your support to rectify what I believe is to be the illegal taking of property from Florida vacation rental owners.”
  • Housekeeping
    • Booking.com Affirms Commitment to Quality with Minimum Cleanliness Score Requirement
    • Q&A with Breezeway founder Jeremy Gall about company’s $8 million funding round and more
    • Gatlinburg-based Cabins For YOU acquires Chalet Village and is looking for more. Q&A with owner and founder Greg Plimpton
    • What is the cost of Airbnb’s recommended 24- to 72-hour “buffer” time between stays?
    • The Professional Vacation Rental Manager’s Crisis Playbook
  • More
    • Education
      • Calendar of Events
      • Videos & Whitepapers
    • VRM Intel Live!
    • Reports Login
    • VRM Intel Magazine
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
    • Authors
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • RSS

Vacation Rental Marketing

How to Increase Your Bookings with Portals

How to Increase Your Bookings with Portals
mm
VRM Intel Staff
April 29, 2013

If you have a successful vacation rental agency or you’re a hard working vacation rental owner, you might wonder if your own vacation rental website and marketing efforts will be enough on their own to deliver the bookings that you strive for. Large-scale Online Travel Agencies (OTA) and vacation rental listing portal sites are an excellent way of driving more traffic volume to your properties and getting more bookings, all the while saving a lot of time and money in the marketing process, too.

 

Portals Have Large Marketing Budgets

One great advantage of portals is that they have huge marketing budgets, which mean they can bid on expensive short-tail keywords through Google Adwords, spend thousands on user experience and optimization and have huge sales teams to convert more bookings for your vacation rentals. They are a vital part of the online ecosystem; if you’re a medium-sized agency in Paris, for example, broad search phrases like “holiday in Paris” is going to prove very expensive, but if you list with Booking.com, for example, you can appear for this phrase through your listings with them.

It’s also worth looking at indirect competitors. Take the hotel industry; brands like the Accor group still advertise their hotels on Booking.com and hotels.com, even though they possess huge marketing teams with large budgets. This is because they see the value of reaching new markets and bringing in customers that they have no other means to reach; many portals also have huge, loyal user bases.

Build Your Referral List

Portals are also useful to expand your database. If you get inquiries from sites like HolidayLettings and HomeAway, you can use these email addresses to market-to again in the future with new deals and your best prices. Portals like these make an excellent way for agencies and owners to expand their database rapidly and effortlessly.

Portals Can Be Cost-Effective

Portals can also prove very cost-effective. Sites like HouseTrip and Only Apartments are actually free to list, they just add a small commission on to your existing prices and keep the difference, meaning that you take 100% of the booking value and don’t lose any commission. So not only do they expand your marketing reach and bring more bookings, they are also very cost effective, and in some cases completely free of charge.

As these sites get larger and larger, consumer behavior is also changing. Sites like Booking.com have become the site for hotel searches, with users searching for that site specifically before going on to book. Equally, TripAdvisor is also in a similar position of being a ‘one-stop-shop’ for reviews, a vital touch-point in the buying process. So as consumers become more habitual in their buying behavior online, it’s important to get visibility on as many sites as possible, and portals are the optimum choice to do just that.

The above points are just some of the reasons why listing and advertising on portal sites are a good idea; they are a cost effective way to reach new customers and explore new markets, while expanding your own marketing database and maximizing your online visibility. They can save you time, money and effort, while bringing a wealth of new bookings and customers.

Guest post by Anthony Dodd, Channel Relationship Manager at Kigo Vacation Rental Software.

Related Itemsbookingsholidayincreaseotaportalvacation rental
Click to add a comment

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Vacation Rental Marketing
April 29, 2013
mm
VRM Intel Staff

Related Itemsbookingsholidayincreaseotaportalvacation rental

More in Vacation Rental Marketing

Timing is Everything: The Impact of Seasonality on COVID Recovery for Southeast Destinations

Melanie BrownJanuary 18, 2021
Read More

Learn How You Can Unleash Your ‘Limitless Female Energy’ During VRM’s Thought Leadership Series Featuring Author/Speaker Amber Hurdle

Zandra WolfgramDecember 16, 2020
Read More

How to Use Website Traffic to Gauge Demand for Your Market

Justin JonesDecember 11, 2020
Read More

Elements of a Property Detail Page: How They Can Make or Break Your Bookings

Chris JohnsonDecember 10, 2020
Read More
VRMIntel_Fall2020_Fast Paced Revenue Management

Fast-Paced Revenue Management: The 10-Minute, $10,000 Mistake

Heather RicherDecember 9, 2020
Read More

6 Takeaways from Vrbo’s 2021 Consumer Travel Trend Report

Zandra WolfgramDecember 8, 2020
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Sponsor News

  • Inhabit IQ Gets “Significant Investment” from Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division
    Latest NewsDecember 18, 2020
  • You Are Your Best Revenue Manager
    Revenue ManagementNovember 30, 2020
  • How Email Helped Save Vacation Rental Companies During the COVID-19 Pandemic
    AdvertisementNovember 21, 2020
  • Booking.com Affirms Commitment to Quality with Minimum Cleanliness Score Requirement
    Customer Service for Vacation Rental ProfessionalsNovember 18, 2020
VRM Intel
Calendar of Events
Videos & Whitepapers
VRMintel Magazine
Subscribe
Advertise
About Us
Authors
Contact Us

Recent News

  • Paycheck-Protection-Program-for-VR-industry
    Latest Round of Paycheck Protection Program Includes Up to $2 Million Loans for Some Vacation Rental Business Owners
    BlogJanuary 20, 2021
  • Timing is Everything: The Impact of Seasonality on COVID Recovery for Southeast Destinations
    BlogJanuary 18, 2021
  • Meredith Oskenholt-Meredith Lodging-Bend Oregon
    The Principles That Have Guided Meredith Lodging through the Global Pandemic, Raging Forest Fires and Personal Family Challenges
    BlogJanuary 12, 2021
  • VRM Intel_Christmas-in-New-Orleans
    That’s the Ticket! Register Now to Enjoy Big Savings and Convenient Payment Plans for the 2021 Vacation Rental Women’s Summit in New Orleans
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersJanuary 8, 2021

View Current Issue

VRMintel Copyright © 2016-17 | Click HERE to Subscribe | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Copyright | Jobs | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Part One: A Look Back at How the Marketing and Competitive Landscape Has Changed for Vacation Rental Managers
Trent Blizzard shows how to turbocharge your reviews with “rich snippets”
We use cookies and similar technologies to recognize repeat visits, as well as to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and analyze traffic. By clicking "I Accept" you consent to the use of cookies unless you have disabled them.Accept