New Short Term Holiday Rental Venture! Where To Start?

So you've purchased a property or have an existing property that you'd like to set up as a holiday rental investment. Where do you start?Welcome In is a fabulous resource for owner/ managers of holiday rentals in Australia. I've been there, done that!... and have some great tips and advice to assist you on this journey.This blog will cover many topics of interest and if I haven't answered your questions in these articles then maybe you'd like to consider engaging our services to tailor a coaching package to get you on track?How are you going to market your holiday rental accommodation? Will you brand the property with it's own quirky name? Our first venture was called The Rocks (Perth Hills). It was actually inscribed on a boulder out the front of the property when we purchased it - no brainer!Do you have an idea of your target market or are you not particularly fussed about who stays in your short term rental? If you are very clear about what types of people you'd like staying in your holiday rental make a note of it. They become your target market segment.Have you made a list of the features of the property? Put the top five at the top of your list. This needs to be captured when marketing your short term rental venture.Do you have a budget for marketing? I'm guessing not really. Why not start with a Facebook page. Facebook is a brilliant resource for owner/ managers of holiday rentals. You can upload high quality images, some property information and your contact details. This is really all you need to start.If you have a brand name for the property maybe spend a little money on developing a logo for marketing purposes. This should be added to your Facebook business page. I can help you source a logo, build your Facebook page...even develop a website for you if you want to head down this path in the future.Best not to spend too much to begin with. You need to test the market and make sure there is a demand for your type of accommodation.I would recommend some online advertising with booking portals such as Air BnB, HomeAway, Stayz, Short Term Accommodation.com.au etc. Just start with one first. You either pay for an advertisement with no commission (you'd need to have your own website though as the ad will link to this) or you pay nothing and the booking portal takes a commission off your booking revenue generated through that site.Ideally you want to focus on becoming sustainable. Put some money aside to buy a domain (web address - reasonable inexpensive), hosting and build a basic website. Eventually you might be able to afford your own booking system which would be embedded into your website. Traffic would then be directed from Google direct to your own property website.Have you thought about insuring your property? Best to be making contact with your insurer and find out more details. There are only a few companies that offer short term accommodation insurance as it can be high risk if not well regulated.Who is going to clean your property? the linen? maintenance? You? If so, you're brave. It's a lot of work. Part time job for a well occupied holiday rental. Think about the increase in power and water usage too. All this needs to be factored into to setting your fees. I can assist you with market research to set your nightly tariff.Will you meet and greet your guests? If not, how will you get the keys to them? Sometimes engaging a professional contract manager specialising in short term accommodation management can save you time and money in the long run. Again, factor this into your fees. You need to cover your costs.Contract/ professional/agent holiday rental managers are a wealth of information. They should step you through this process.If you want to do this on your own then maybe I can assist you on this journey. I really do have a great insight into the short term holiday rental in Australia. I'm aware of the Holiday Rental Industry Code of Conduct, accreditation opportunities and much more. I have myfinger on the pulse of this niche industry.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

Are You Aware of Holiday Rental Industry News & Trends?

All good business operators take the time to keep up to date with industry news and trends. The national Australian Holiday Rental Industry Association (HRIA) drafts an e-newsletter each season to keep you well informed.Welcome In is a member and we encourage all stakeholders, including owner managers of holiday rentals in Australia, to connect."The Holiday Rental Industry Association is a professional member based industry organisation with the following objectives:

• raise awareness of the holiday rental industry;

• make representations to Government at Local, State and Federal levels;

• liaise with key stakeholders; and

• implement an industry Code of Conduct."

The most recent news item: NSW Parliamentary Committee To Consider Short Term Rentals is worth a read.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

Use Your Property As Currency To Boost Your Bookings

You have something that most people desire - a holiday. Exchange your accommodation for services to boost your bookings or to lower outgoings and increase your return on investment.Have you been told your photos could be improved? That you should create a brand or personality for your property and look at cleaning up your online property profiles? Why not offer your holiday rental accommodation as payment to call in the professionals from this niche holiday rental industry.You will find most people behind the business will consider an exchange of products or services so consider a barter approach if it will save you money.Consider exchanging your accommodation for other services to manage and maintain your holiday rental too. Maybe your caretaker will be happy to receive free access to your property a few weeks a year in exchange for their service. Maybe you could pay the lady who supplies your luxury soaps with a week accommodation a year to pass on to her loved ones to visit from interstate. Think outside the box.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

Fakebook or Realbook - if you want real bookings don't be fake on Facebook

Seriously don't waste your time trying to talk up your holiday rental. Take a few hours, half a morning even, to sit down and think about what experience you are offering to prospective holiday rental guests. It's not about your state-of-the-art branding or professional photography. That might help to sell your product but what will you do when your guests arrive and are less than impressed with what is really on offer as opposed to the illusion you are building with creative writing and fancy fonts.A friend of ours refers to Facebook as Fakebook and sometimes I do have to question the content I post on my own profile. It may be appealing to me but is it really what my friends want to see or care about. They want to know I'm ok, the kids are ok, that we're happy and healthy. Share a few funnies. Do they really want to know how exceedingly happy I was when I purchased my new shoes - I'd say probably not for the large majority in my network.Look we're all guilty of it in our personal lives but if you really want to grab the attention of your prospective holiday rental guest then think about what your property offers and what they're searching for.Keep content as real as possible. Is it really peaceful listening to the ocean while enjoying an outdoor bath on the balcony? Yes - then tell the story with an image. It doesn't have to be an image that is captured through trial and error with a 100 snaps to choose from. Just pick a time of day with good light, a great subject and make sure the image is clear, quite well composed and real!Once you have that image place a watermark of your logo (if you have a brand for your holiday rental) over the top discretely in a corner and add a real comment like would you like to unwind in the outdoor tub while soaking up the sound and view of the ocean? You might want to add a hashtag. If so choose one or two consistent tags. Don't list 20. It screams marketing not relaxing holiday experience. Make sure you hyperlink your image to your online property profile.By asking a question you are inviting your audience to engage with your post.Spend a small amount to boost this post. It's original and real content and the picture will be engaging. All you need is a couple of likes and a few comments and you will be surprised with the organic reach.Be very careful with push sales unless you are offering your community of followers a great deal. They will find useful information on local events and attractions more appealing. Give them something for nothing when managing your holiday rental Facebook page.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

Are You Promoting Your Holiday Rental Or Yourself?

Why spend time marketing your holiday rental to yourself. It's not you who you need to convince. There are many Australian and international visitors who want to get to know your holiday rental experience too.Be careful not to build your content based on your own wants and desires. It is important that all promotional content (and that includes social media for business pages) relates back to the brand (your holiday rental experience),  product (holiday rentals - regional tourism) and your target market.You may like certain tourism experiences but try to remember that your prospective holiday rental guests will have varying behaviours and expectations. Some may like to find out about the local community farmers market, others may prefer golf. Some may want to know what type of toilet paper you use. Others will want to know whether your pool is fenced.Try to publish holiday rental marketing content that is relevant to a number of target markets or segments. Mix it up.Most importantly try not to personalise content unless you wish to highlight what you love about your holiday rental. For example, post a picture of you reading a book in your hammock on the front deck. Talk about how you love that space, how it makes you feel. Instead of I love drag racing and pink and red polka dot underwear!You don't need to convince yourself that your holiday rental is awesome and this is not about you  - it's about your awesome holiday rental.Please by all means build a personality for yourself as the manager of the property though. It makes guests feel like they are at home. Just don't let this overshadow the core offering - your awesome holiday rental and tourism region.I had a look at a holiday rental Facebook page in the Northern Territory. There was a scantily clad women in the image and the owner was talking up the local skimpy session. I mean if your target market is predominantly men, or women, who enjoy these types of leisure activities then go for it. Just think about who you might be turning away though.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

Google: Gobbledy Gook or Great?

I know! the two words - Digital and Marketing - is enough to throw your head in a spin. Do you duck for cover or change the subject when someone asks if you have a Google + page? For those who understand how powerful Google is, and know how to work it, they think Google = Great. For many others Google = Gobbledy Gook!I've spent, and continue to spend time, researching the Google offering and how it can expose holiday rentals direct to prospective guests. I think the majority of us holiday rental owner managers have enjoyed the exposure on large booking portals. What Google can offer is a direct path to those prospective guests...and it really is not that difficult to at least give it a go.Google My Business is a new application that allows you to register in one place. It "connects you directly with customers, whether they're looking for you on Search, Maps or Google +" (source: Google). I dare you to take the plunge and register!Did you know that Google Adwords offer $100 vouchers to try before you buy. There really is no reason not to give it a go - and it can all be powered through Google My Business. If you have a holiday rental in a reasonably non-competitive market then you may not need to pay for an Adwords campaign at all. It's all about supply and demand of holiday rentals in your area and more specifically the type of holiday rental you offer.Take the time to build a Google + page. It's similar to Facebook in that you can share content that will get picked up in a Google Search. I can put the name of a holiday rental I set up locally on Google and key words in the G+ posts are picked up in the results.Learning the full capabilities of Google for holiday rental management is a work in progress for me. I am rather close to promoting a cost effective and simple management solution for holiday rentals using Google in its entirety. When you're managing a small portfolio of holiday rentals I believe this system is adequate to offer a semi automated online booking experience and remote user friendly management platform.I can help you set up your holiday rental on Google if it's still in the too hard basket. Or maybe you have a friend who can assist you. You really have to exist in the Googleshpere to be found. This is where your prospective holiday rental guests are searching for you.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia. 

Kids Art Competition & Holiday Rental Promotional Idea

Here's an activity idea for the kids and a way to promote your holiday rental.

Kids Art Competition

You'll Need:- string- pegs- hooks (permanent or temporary)- kids desk and chairs- pencils, textas and other art supplies - get creative with it and store in little boxes or in a cupboard with draws nearby- paper (why not recycle)First of all think about a lovely little play space or nook for your holiday rental. Think about a space that is far enough away for parents to have "me time" but close enough to hear if there are any major catastrophes - bound to happen if your guests are travelling with littlies.Tell guests that you have an art competition for all guests staying in your holiday rental. Encourage children to create a masterpiece and hang it on the wall, take a picture of it and promote on their social media (and show them how to tag and share on your social media pages).Make sure you clearly display the rules of the competition and how you intend to draw the winner and what the prize is. Be sure to ask for permission to use the images to market your property and give them recognition when you post them to your social media page.Think about some theme topics. Maybe you'd like them to draw the house or their favourite activity in or around the house and neighbourhood, what their favourite holiday moment was and so forth.Remember that these play spaces are gold to parents travelling with children. Be sure to take a fabulous picture, with happy children playing in the space (even better) and post it on your online profiles. This, along with safety gates, bed rails, games rooms and closed in play areas, could convert enquiries to bookings.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

How To Attract Holiday Rental Guests Like Children To Soft Serve Ice Cream?

It really isn’t rocket science. You have a product that will be appealing to certain markets. You, as the sender, wish to send a message to prospective guests (the receiver). You need to understand what they like, how they behave, what their interests are and build your online profile to draw them in.If Mr Whippy wants to sell ice cream he can drive in the neighbourhood with a very loud recognizable jingle in the summer time. Usually late afternoon on weekends or school holidays when parents are tearing their hair out keeping the kids amused. Sometimes he lurks in the carpark of the local beach or park. Mr Whippy is always there in the right place at the right time.He chooses a jingle that children recognise. They hear it, they want it, they SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM! Same for the truck. They see it, it attracts their attention, THEY SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM! - it has pretty pictures painted on it and a gigantic ice cream!Most importantly Mr Whippy sells a product that children love. Sure they love the song, the van and the excitement of the acquisition but realistically they are after the ice cream. Who knows, maybe the same process could be tested selling fruit or, as someone suggested recently, a French champagne van selling bubbles to ladies in the hood!Unfortunately most of you are in a very competitive market. Unlike the ice cream van that randomly pops up about town, with very little - if any - competition. The good news is there are booking portals that collectively market holiday rentals to many demographics. They are great at selling a generic product – the holiday rental experience. It’s then over to you to decide what type of holiday rental you are offering, who will be interested in experiencing it and make these features stand out in the first one or two paragraphs and visually through the images you choose to sell the experience.Once you’ve identified who your target audience/s is speak to them like they're in the room with you. Write in the 2nd person. Make it a conversation. Be honest about what you have on offer.If you have the time and resources to build a brand/logo around the interests of your target audience I highly recommend you do this. It builds a personality for your property. A real experience for the prospective guest to invest in and talk about, post stay, amongst their peers.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

Holiday Rental Digital Marketing & Booking User Experience (UX) Audit

Audit September 2016

We'll spend time looking over your short term rental website, Facebook or other social media pages, digital promotional material and the presentation and functionality of each. We'll then search for accommodation in your location and report on the property identification and booking experience.A report with recommendations will be completed and forwarded for your review.This audit is intended as a first impressions experience of how your short term rental is marketed online, the way your property presents and the experience for prospective guests from property identification, enquiry through to converted booking.Our interest is organic and lean digital marketing communications. We have first hand experience with owning and managing a portfolio of short term rentals. Natalie also holds a Bachelor of Business in Leisure Management and years of experience working within the grass roots community based tourism space in Australia.To book your audit please contact Natalie. In return, we hope you will assist us to shape and continually improve this product offering to the niche short term accommodation industry.The consultation is $200. Additional services can be tailored for our clients however please be assured there is no obligation to engage our services beyond the audit.We hope you'll visit and like our Facebook page.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

How Do Your Guests Find Out What's On In Your Region?

Do you supply a what's on or tourism guide in your guest book? On your holiday rental website? Facebook or other social media pages? How do your holiday rental guests find out what to do when they're visiting Australia?We've partnered with an exciting new What's On Guide for Traveller's. www.triplify.com. Australian festivals, events and more.Find out how we can embed a What's On Guide on your website and how to promote it to your short term rental guests.We are also trialing a new product called the Australian Holiday Rental Directory currently on trial in Mandurah, Western Australia. We distribute a guest pack to each guest with a bar code/ link to an online directory of tourism experiences in that region. This trial commenced mid 2016. If you'd like to find about more visit our Guest Experience page on this site.This online directory makes the tourism folder full of tattered out of date tourism brochures obsolete. It also allows you to create a revenue stream to offset the cost of your welcome packs. We're in the early days of developing these guest experience products however we are always happy for others to join our trial.With or without the use of guest packs you can still tap into the Australian Holiday Rental Directory by linking to it from your website, Facebook or other social media pages. Those who provide a link from their site and in their guest emails can enjoy a percentage of advertising fees. Again make contact and ask me for more detail. Much easier to chat about it.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.

The True Value of Guest Feedback

How do you gather feedback from your holiday rental guests? In this article Welcome In explores the value of guest feedback and how you can go about receiving it.Guest Book (hard copy)You can purchase a hard copy guest book for your holiday rental. These are relatively inexpensive and can be found in newsagency’s or online. We recommend you think about the quality of the book and how it reflects on your properties personality. Don't just have it available in your property. Choose a location that is seen immediately by guests, place a vase with flowers and a nice pen next to it. Encourage them to provide the feedback when you speak to them or in your booking confirmation.Guest Book (digital)You could either build this into your own website (if you have one), use your Facebook page and/or make use of the booking portal guest feedback platforms. Again allude your holiday rental guests to this opportunity to provide feedback on their stay.DirectIf you're really focused on providing a quality service you may consider visiting the guests as they check out. Be careful though as many guests appreciate privacy and will prefer to be contacted in advance if this is what you plan to do. There is a fine line between great customer service and overkill. Other ways to gather guest feedback include a quick telephone conversation, written letter with short evaluation check list or an email post stay. Within this communication you could also direct them to a digital opportunity to provide feedback.Remember if you are surveying your guests for feedback make sure the questionnaire is short with tick boxes. Remember some guests will have language limitations so you may have to think about the best way to seek feedback from them.Why not attach an incentive to providing feedback? A complimentary something or discount off their next stay.So we've gathered guest feedback. Here's some tips on how to use this most valuable information.To Shape Your BusinessFeedback, positive or negative, is gold in terms of managing a holiday rental. It allows you to ask your guests what they thought about their experience. It allows you to shape the service that you offer from the paintings on the wall, to the type of toilet paper you choose and the way in which you interact with you guests to enhance their experience. One guest of ours told us that the palm tree frond was scratching on the tin roof in the main room. This is a small problem that can easily be fixed and that would've driven me crazy so we were so glad the guest brought it to our attention. Interrupted sleep can make or break a holiday. Another example was that our bins were overflowing. We tried to manage it by emptying them more regularly however it become too time intensive so we bought another bin off the local government. Problem solved. Guest and caretaker frustration resolved.To Promote Your PropertyPositive guest feedback is priceless. As soon as you receive it, copy it over to a feedback document. You do not have to quote the guest names but it's a good idea to date it as it demonstrates how often you receive feedback and how popular your property is. Copy these quotes to your website, Facebook page and within any online profiles on booking portals. As mentioned above many booking portals allow for digital guest comments so be sure to encourage your guests to use this technology. Provide these quotes within your promotional material. Within your promotional flyer, on the back of your business card, in the footer of all your communications. Show these guest comments off with pride.Consider providing a hard copy guest book in your property. Guests are very receptive and instinctively enjoy sharing positive experiences. I always take the time to provide feedback when I stay in holiday homes. If you do provide a hard copy guest book why not provide a history about the property and a little story about the owners on the inside cover and leave a few business cards or some other merchandise gift for them to take away. It's a subtle way to demonstrate that personal touch and your way of thanking them for taking the time to provide this feedback.Lastly if you have Facebook, Google +, TripAdvisor or other review pages set up consider asking your holiday rental guests post stay if they would kindly take a few moments to provide a review or testimonial.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia. 

An Easy Way To Get Some Holiday Rental Booking Action!

You're either well aware of what a call-to-action is or you are way behind and only just realising how effective Facebook and social media marketing is. If you're falling into the latter group then read on.Call-To-Action (CTA): "an instruction to the audience to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as "call now", "find out more" or "visit a store today". " (Wikipedia)On Facebook your call-to-action is located in the bottom right hand corner of the cover photo, near Like and Message. If you do not have a call-to-action button active on your holiday rental Facebook page then this space will be blank and you are likely to have an annoying message asking you to set up a call-to-action.My advice is, go for it. Take the plunge. You may surprise yourself how capable you are of doing this. It is simply a few steps of following the prompts to set up the call-to-action, choosing your preferred method of contact (from a prospective guest) and presto!Think about the best way a prospective holiday rental guest can contact you. If you like to have a real life conversation then you would choose Call Now. If you prefer to receive a message through Facebook then you would choose Message. If you would like to drive the prospective guest to your website then you would choose Contact Us. Maybe you just want them to see a video of the property then you would choose Watch Video which would connect with a You Tube video.I don't want to get too technical but I encourage you to do this, or ask someone to do it for you. This is a very prominent button that allows you to prescribe how your prospective guests behaves on your site. You want to engage their interest within seconds of them reaching your page. I feel the cover image, profile pic, heading and call-to-action are crucial. About Us and page content also very important - but I'll cover that later.If you are a visual person then ask me to send you a free tutorial.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.