Watch this event featuring a panel of Vrbo hosts who share insights on pricing strategies and innovative cleaning protocols to help drive more bookings.
Webinar: Host strategies to boost bookings
Top five takeaways
- The easiest way to increase holiday rental revenue is to optimise your pricing strategy. You can maximise revenue and work more efficiently by leveraging rental pricing software and tools. These tools, such as MarketMaker, remove the manual pricing work. MarketMaker uses real-time insights and helps you to understand your market better to reach your business goals. If you are intentional when setting your rates, you will be able to drive more bookings.
- 75% of travellers say that they’re more likely to book accommodation with a flexible cancellation policy. It is the second most important factor when planning for their next trip. Vrbo recommends that partners adopt a flexible cancellation policy to align with travellers' expectations and to protect holiday rental owners from last-minute cancellations. Being flexible helps you to appear in more searches and can increase bookings when travellers search by flexible cancellation policies. Adjust your cancellation policy and then make it front and centre on your listing to capture more bookings.
- There are new standards for keeping travellers safe when it comes to cleanliness. Enhanced cleaning and sanitisation protocols are more important now than ever. Travellers repeatedly ranked cleaning and sanitisation measures as a top consideration when booking their next trip.
Tip: Use a commercial cleaning service for linen management, state-of-the-art equipment for sanitisation and disinfecting and contactless check-in.
- Vrbo allows partners to show their commitment to guest safety by advertising cleanliness protocols on their listings. Sharing these protocols with travellers helps them to envision their trip safely and book with confidence. Plan ahead and exceed travellers' expectations by adding cleanliness photos, up-to-date content related to cleanliness and all cleanliness measures taken on your listings. Travellers want clear communication before they book on what cleanliness measures are taking place before their arrival and between stays.
- Be prepared and put your best foot forward in 2022. Use historical data to look for demand trends and patterns to inform your 2022 pricing strategies. Plan for the upcoming year by evaluating trends in your market to reach or even exceed your revenue goals.
Don’t be afraid to provide a tremendous amount of service. Whether you have one or 1,000 properties, it is incumbent upon on us to make sure that guests have a fantastic experience and want to come back... That’s something we all can aim to deliver.
– Ben Edwards, President, Weatherby Consulting, LLC
