The Secret Of A Great Vacation Rental Website (and getting one for free)...

The Secret Of A Great Vacation Rental Website (and getting one for free)...

Who likes Netflix?

We all do don’t we?

Yes, we do.

There’s something for everyone.

If you have Netflix the chances are that you have binge-watched House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, Making A Murderer, Narcos, Bojack Horseman or The Crown.

There’s a huge range of programming from drama to stand up, documentaries to animation, music to modern classics and much more besides.

No matter what tickles your fancy or piques your interest there’s something for you. They cater for all tastes.

So imagine this…

Imagine that Netflix does away with this diversity and they decide to only show programs to do with houses and real estate.

You know the sort of thing... Homes Under The Hammer, Property In The Sun, Changing Rooms, Escape To The Country, Property Brothers and so on.

Their ratings would take a hit. Because this smaller focus would be less appealing to the viewing public at large.

Those that like adventure programmes would be forced to go elsewhere to feed their adventurous needs. 

The foodies out there would be off with the remote looking for Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown on channels unknown.

Those that like travel programmes would have to venture to other stations in order to find what they wanted to watch.

In short, it would be a pretty stupid thing to do. Netflix would bomb.

Why am I telling you this?

I’m painting this dull (by comparison) Netflix property channel because that’s what vacation rental homeowners transmit on a daily basis. 

Photos of houses, inside and out, descriptions of homes, villas and condos, lists of kitchen appliances and the sizes of televisions and beds. The classic, ’Book now for Easter at just $xxxx,xx’, ' Due to cancellation...', etc, etc, etc.

People go on vacation (not vacation rental) and they are looking for adventure. They are looking for recommendations of where to eat and drink. They are going to travel.

Just as Netflix caters to these varied tastes, successful vacation rental owners are catering to the tastes of their guests as opposed to throwing together a self-serving, past it’s sell by date, dish of 'property pie'.

I recently created a website for Steve Elsey, a vacation rental owning client of mine. https://vacationadirondacks.com


Steve has been getting great traffic to the new site and has been receiving a steady stream of bookings since his site went live in June.

He's even bought the house next door because he's already fully booked for next year.

Other owners have been asking how Steve gets his traffic and how he has been getting bookings so soon after going live.

The answer is simple - Steve's site is like Netflix - We have made a site that caters for site visitors. We have made a site that showcases The Adirondacks (where Steve's property is located).

We have made a site that focuses on hiking, fishing, water-sports, winter sports and wildlife. We have included over an hours worth of video on these subjects.

It works because it's not a property channel

Have a look around. It's glaringly obvious why this site works.

Get a site like Steve's for FREE

Here at Vacation Soup we are giving away destination based websites, like Steve's, that promote the reasons that people visit a location in the first place (and it’s not because of your property). These websites are guest-centric and they drive traffic and they convert at a better rate than property only websites - In exactly the same way that Netflix has higher viewing figures and more raving fans because it caters to a diverse audience with a variety of content.

Stop the conceited, property only nonsense. It’s costing you bookings.

It’s costing you a ton of bookings.

Get a free website from VacationSoup.Com and become the Netflix of your marketplace. 

Patrick Destain

Senior Optical Design Engineer at Corning Incorporated

6y

Too many words

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Jaye Clements

vp at TTL Automation Corp

6y

great idea... we do market our Vacation Rental in Fl with area attractions on our blog! pm me how this would work for us at sarasotavacation@earthlink.net Thanks!

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Egan Alan

Head of Marketing at HiChee.com | Vacation Rental Marketing Professional | Keynote Speaker | Author |

6y

He's already one of the most expensive places (and he's not on Airbnb, he's getting these bookings directly) but I hear what you're saying Ian - It's certainly worth considering.

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Ian McHenry

Algo-driven SaaS Investor, Co-founder of Beyond Pricing

6y

If he's fully booked for all next year, he’s got to raise his prices! Time to get him on Beyond Pricing :). https://blog.beyondpricing.com/fully-booked

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