The most important time of year for a vacation rental business when a large chunk of annual profits can be made is vacation peak seasons.
When the annual increase in flow of vacation goers begins your vacation rental business needs to be prepared and running as efficiently as possible. The vacation rental peak season can be a stressful and hectic time for owners of vacation rental businesses and property managers alike so we have compiled a list of helpful tips that will help you make the most out of your next vacation rental peak season.
To improve performance during vacation rental peak season, vacation rental property managers must look for ways to increase efficiency while still advertising all properties and managing the increasing flow of bookings.
We are here to help you grow as a vacation rental business. To help you do just that during peak season we have compiled a bunch of successful strategies. These are strategies used by the vacation property management pros and can be found below.
WHEN IS PEAK VACATION RENTAL SEASON?
Peak seasons are different depending on many factors of your vacation rental properties. The country, region, season, popular local activities, and more. It is imperative to know exactly when your peak season is and the driving factors behind the peak season in order to exploit the massive influx of bookings.
For example, if you own a vacation ski lodge next to a popular ski resort in British Columbia, Canada your peak season would be the winter months and would correspond with traffic at the ski resort. On the other hand, if you own a property next to a beach in Cape Cod your peak season would be directly related to the summer season as there are more vacation goers during that time.
WHAT ABOUT SPECIAL EVENTS & HOLIDAYS?
Miniature peak seasons can occur during events such as large conferences, local festivals, holidays, and more related short term driving factors. Be sure to put those in your calendar to take advantage of those times. Setting your vacation rentals apart from the rest can be as easy as appealing to vacation goers coming for those special events and holidays.
Strategies used for large peak seasons can also be used for these mini peak season as well. Keep your local mini peak seasons in mind and utilize these strategies to gain from those as well.
WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A PEAK SEASON?
If your listings are located in a tourist hub like Barcelona for example then there are no high and low tourism seasons the flow of bookings stays consistent throughout the year.
Staying competitive in a tourist hub has its own challenges requiring you to constantly be creative and fresh to differentiate from competitors. Creating a dynamic marketing strategy based off what types of people come at certain points in the year is a good place to start. This can be done by tracking where people are coming from at different times of the year.
Looking through customer records may help you make better and more informed decisions on where to target at certain times of the year. For example, Europeans tend to book vacations at different times of the year then Australians do. Keep demographics in mind when creating a marketing strategy.
VACATION RENTAL PEAK SEASON PREPARATION
In order to make the most out of your peak season preparation is going to be needed.
PREPARE PROPERTY & LISTINGS
Your property needs to really stick out from every competitor during the peak season since you won’t be the only vacation rental owner in your area looking to capitalize on the peak season.
When trying to differentiate from competitors a good place to start is to see what the other vacation rental listings are doing in preparation for the peak season. A little competitive research can go a long way when thinking of new ways to be different.
You may find that you need to take new photos, give some special offers, or buy some small extras for the property. Any improvements you do in preparation for vacation rental peak season will go a long way.
If your guests are coming for a specific activity, why not offer a coupon to that activity as an incentive to sign up? This could be the driving factor behind why a guest booked with you rather than a competitor.
All properties should be available for rent the whole peak season. This means that it is imperative that no projects are done throughout the whole peak season. Shutting a property down for a couple days during vacation rental peak season can cost a lot of money and can even drag on longer if any delays come up (which they do).
Try to do projects in the slow vacation rental season and when there are no special events or holidays so no money will be needlessly lost.
LEVERAGE YOUR PLATFORM
Use the platform that you have built over your vacation rental property management career to your advantage. During the time leading up to your local peak season take the opportunity to contact past guests to remind them of your awesome vacation rental listings and offer incentives for them to book.
If a past guest is not planning on travelling there is a good chance they know someone that is planning to book a vacation rental listing. Leveraging past vacation guests either for referrals or for return visits is a powerful tool that you only have access to.
You can reach out to past guests by sending out a newsletter or if you want to be more personalized and get better results reaching out to past guests via a nice email is always a good idea.
INCREASING EFFICIENCY
In order to gain as much as possible from the peak season a vacation rental property manager must be as efficient with their resources as possible. This is where automating tasks and updating processes can make a big impact.
GETTING MORE BOOKINGS
A great way to get as many bookings as possible during peak season is by getting a vacation rental channel manager. A vacation rental channel manager can put all of your listings on multiple channels at once which opens your vacation properties up to new audiences. Vacation rental channel manager’s are proven to get more vacation rental bookings and in some cases can boost reservations by 80%.
If you are interested in testing out a channel manager for free, BookingAutomation offers a free trial. Click here to try.
A powerful vacation rental channel manager has API/XML access to 40+ vacation rental websites including Airbnb, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor. API/XML access is a strong connection that allows for the exchange of information both ways between each platform. In short, that means that your all listings can seamlessly be put on all the main vacation rental booking websites at the same time without having to worry about overbooking.
AUTOMATING TASKS
Automating vacation rental property management tasks is key in performing efficiently in the peak vacation season. There are plenty of different ways tasks that can be automated.
Some tasks that can be automated include sending out automated messages to commonly asked questions, room assignment to cleaners, and updating your booking calendar. Many activities that are done as a vacation rental property manager can be completely automated so you can focus on growing your business.
All of these tasks can be automated at the same time on a vacation property management software (PMS). A vacation PMS can serve as a control center for everything related to your vacation rental property management business. You can learn more about a vacation PMS here.
Automating guest welcoming tasks can also be a huge time saver. Buying a Google Home or an Alexa to welcome your guest can be a really nice touch. Buying a smart lock to exchange the key is also a big time saver as well.
With this information we hope that you will make the most out of your upcoming vacation rental peak season.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would just like to chat! We are always interested to see what you have to say.
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