Maximizing direct bookings is an ongoing pursuit. As a property management company, you want to create the best vacation rental website possible to drive more direct traffic, and therefore direct bookings.
While online travel agencies (OTAs) like Airbnb and Booking.com play a crucial role in your rental business, having a strong website of your own allows you to truly grab the attention and loyalty of your potential guests.
Your own direct bookings website gives you the ability to showcase your unique properties, tell your brand’s story, and establish a direct connection with your target audience. By creating a strong online presence, you can inspire trust, build relationships, and drive more direct bookings.
In this blog post, we’ll explain how you can create the best vacation rental website possible, explore the benefits of your own direct bookings website, and explain how to set one up. We’ll also take a look at some examples of the best vacation rental websites that we’ve seen, and explore how they serve as powerful marketing tools.
What is a vacation rental (or direct bookings) website?
In simple terms, a vacation rental website (also known as a direct bookings website) is a website created by hosts or management companies where guests can directly book their accommodations without going through an OTA.
It allows guests and property managers to interact directly, eliminating the need for a third party like Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo. The website provides all the same listing information that an OTA does, but gives property managers more control over the entire booking journey and stay.
A direct bookings website serves as a personalized platform, offering property managers the freedom to showcase their unique properties, highlight their brand identity, and communicate their value proposition effectively. By bypassing OTAs, property managers can build trust, foster guest loyalty, and create a more personalized booking experience, resulting in increased direct bookings and greater profitability.
The benefits of a vacation rental website
The best vacation rental websites offer many benefits for both property management companies and guests alike. Let’s explore some of them.
Complete Control
Direct bookings websites grants property managers full control over the entire booking process and eliminates any dependency on third-party OTAs. By managing the entire user journey from the second the guest enters the website to after they leave your property, you can ensure a seamless, consistent experience throughout.
By managing reservations directly, property managers can optimize their revenue streams and maximize profitability.
Avoid fees
OTAs charge a percentage of the booking cost for reservations booked through them as a commission. This can range anywhere from 4% to 30% per booking.
When guests book directly through your vacation rental website, you will avoid paying these fees. Getting guests to book directly is an excellent way to maximize your revenue generated from each booking.
Direct communication
A direct bookings website provides a platform for direct communication between guests and property managers. This direct interaction allows guests to ask questions, seek clarifications, and receive prompt responses from the property owners or managers. It creates a sense of trust and transparency, enhancing the overall guest experience.
Brand identity
Your direct bookings website is your place to show potential guests who you are and what you stand for. And building and promoting your brand identity is your number one tool to stand out amongst your competitors. With a dedicated website, you can showcase your unique selling points, highlight your commitment to quality and customer service, and establish a distinct online presence.
By showcasing your brand values, whether that be sustainability or supporting local communities, you can resonate with travelers who are aligned with your brand and begin cultivating guest loyalty.
Guest data
A vacation rental website allows you to collect valuable guest data and feedback. This information can be utilized to enhance the guest experience, tailor marketing strategies, and make data-driven decisions to continually improve their services.
You could ask your guests whether they prefer red or white wine, and then surprise them with a bottle in their room for when they arrive.
How to set up your own vacation rental website
Setting up your own vacation rental website is both expensive and time-consuming, but can be a rewarding endeavor that gives you full control over your property listings and bookings. Here are some essential steps to guide you in creating your own platform:
- Choose a domain name: Select a memorable and relevant domain name for your website, ideally incorporating your property management company’s name or a keyword related to your offerings.
- Web hosting and design: Find a reliable web hosting provider and select a design platform or content management system (CMS) that suits your needs. Platforms like WordPress or Squarespace offer user-friendly interfaces and customizable templates to help you create a visually appealing website.
- Property listings: Create detailed listings for each of your vacation rental properties, including captivating descriptions, high-quality photos, comprehensive amenity lists, and accurate pricing information.
- Booking engine: Implement a secure and user-friendly booking system that enables guests to check availability, make reservations, and process payments directly on your website. Integrating a trusted payment processing system ensures smooth and secure transactions. GuestyPay is a system designed with the specific needs of the hospitality industry in mind, so could be a good place to start.
- Policies and terms: Clearly outline your booking policies, cancellation terms, and any additional rules or regulations for guests to review and agree to during the booking process. Transparency and clarity are key in establishing trust with potential guests, and ensuring you’re covered in the event of property damage.
- Contact and support: Provide multiple contact options, such as email, phone, or live chat, so guests can easily reach out with inquiries or requests in a way that suits them.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimize your website so that it appears higher up on a Google search by incorporating relevant keywords, meta tags, and descriptions. This helps your website receive more traffic from potential customers.
If that all seems a little daunting, Guesty Websites is our in-house, no code, user-friendly website builder that allows you to do this entire process in just a matter of minutes. Guesty users can custom build their own websites on a budget – no designers or engineers needed.
Examples of best vacation rental websites
We’ve put together our pick of the best vacation rental websites out there right now. We’ll take you through them, and explain why we think each one is so great.
Casual Nomad
Casual Nomad is a boutique accommodations company that caters to the modern traveler – think Gen Z, digital nomads, etc.
Their website is beautifully designed with high-quality pictures and videos. This media also showcases their audience enjoying the properties and surrounding area, helping potential guests picture themselves there.
Everything from the slogan ‘Home without Boundaries’ in the middle, to the media, to the slick interface shows that Casual Nomad really understands their audience and what they are searching for; a tech-forward, modern experience. Small touches like ‘Superfast WiFi’ exemplify this perfectly.
The website also highlights the convenience of a fully digital check-in process and 24/7 hospitality concierge support, signaling their commitment to a smooth, modern guest experience.
Urban Finished
Urban Finished is a property management company that caters to business travelers in the New York City and Brooklyn area.
Their website emphasizes their properties’ excellent locations. This resonates strongly with their target audience, who are looking to stay in a prime location that is close to where they will be conducting their business.
They also have a listing page for each property. Each page has a dedicated image gallery, and also an exact location. This makes it crystal clear to the audience the style and location of the property, creating trust with the audience as there will be no surprises.
Capitalia Living
Capitalia Living is a luxury vacation rental company based in Mexico.
Their website highlights the importance of service to them by showcasing the company’s commitment to a comfortable, memorable, and personalized experience for guests.
They also have a bottom in the bottom corner with multiple ways that visitors can contact them, allowing them to choose the method that suits them best.
They advertise themselves as ‘luxury’ vacation rentals, and show stunning property shots on their homepage, backing up this claim. By showing ‘luxury’ shots such as of swimming pools and penthouses, they establish themselves as a luxury brand.
Misfit Homes
Misfit Homes is a vacation rental company based in Nashville, Tennessee.
We love their website because it perfectly combines two important components of digital marketing.
- Social proof – they utilize their 1000+ five-star reviews and 4.9 overall rating to show how happy previous guests have been with their service. Social proof is a great way to get people to trust your brand, and by showing images of the people that have stayed and what they said about it, Misfit Homes do this perfectly
- Highlighting premium services – self check-in, 24/7 support, guidebooks, and complimentary coffee and bath amenities are all very important to the luxury market of travelers. Putting them on the home page highlights their commitment to providing these luxury services, and indicates an understanding of their target audience’s needs.
Mitten Housing
Mitten Housing have vacation rentals in Michigan and Indianapolis, and offer anything from urban pads to cozy cabins.
Their website is well branded with a consistent color scheme. This creates a feeling that the owners have really put effort into the business, showing they care deeply about the service they are providing. And with a range striking, clear images of different styles of properties, they show that that they have different properties to suit different guests.
It is also user-friendly, thanks to a clear, easy-to-navigate layout that makes is simple for visitors to find essential information.
Conclusion
While OTAs will still be an integral part of your rental business, the best vacation rental websites are what will allow you to truly grab the attention and loyalty of potential guests.
We’ve explored what they are, how to set them up, and recalled some examples of the best vacation rental websites. From Casual Nomad’s modern appeal to Urban Finished’s emphasis on prime locations, Capitalia Living’s focus on luxury experiences to Misfit Homes’ effective use of social proof, and Mitten Housing’s well-branded and user-friendly approach, these websites serve as powerful marketing tools that attract and engage potential guests.
By harnessing the power of direct bookings through your own vacation rental website, you can elevate your business, stand out in a competitive market, and ensure long-term success and profitability. It’s time to invest in your own platform, create a strong online presence, and drive more direct bookings to grow your vacation rental business.
Need help? With Guesty’s Website Builder, you can build your own branded booking site in a matter of minutes.
Guesty’s talented marketing team is comprised of passionate professionals who share insightful industry knowledge and shape brand narratives. By bringing a diverse blend of expertise to the table, we are the visionary architects behind the Guesty brand and innovative campaigns that help people understand our product.
