Having a clean, well maintained, stylish, and functional space in a great location would be some pretty solid ways to boost your annual rental revenue. (You can read our previous post on getting your property ready to rent) These are excellent things that can absolutely help boost your rental income, but read on for more ways you can be optimizing your rental income even if you are at max occupancy. Whether you have your property listed on AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.com, any other platforms these tips can absolutely help you boost your returns while still being budget-friendly.

Get professional photos

According to AirBnB.com “Listings with professional photos tend to earn 40% more, get booked 24% more often, and can charge a 26% higher nightly price. These numbers are based on a 2016 study of more than 100,000 global listings with and without professional photos.” The average photographer rates may vary in your area, but most of our AirBnB photography shoots start at $150 per property and the photos are yours to use as you choose. Can you imagine how much more money you could be making just by investing in professional photos?

The numbers on AirBnB.com make perfect sense as to why properties with professional photos perform far better then other properties in the same market. Have you seen an AirBnB listing with cell phone photos vs ones with a professional photographer that specializes in AirBnB properties? In the professional photos you can see the details of the home that look bright and inviting. Cell phones (even with the latest camera technology which can be quite impressive) just physically lack the ability to handle the various shades of light and shadow that come into a room. Cell phone interior photos will either appear way too dark, or overly bright with very odd colors through out because the phone is unable to compensate for the variety of lighting.

Professional photographers will often times take 3 to 9 shots of the same frame and merge these photos in high-end photo editing software such as Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to be able to produce an image with even lighting. You can see the images below for example:

Use dynamic pricing tools

If you are not using some sort of dynamic pricing tool you are absolutely leaving money on the table. Many of these tools operate by analyzing your local market competition, local vacancy rates, the supply and demand for vacation rentals in your area, and any events or holidays in the area that could allow you to increase your prices for those specific dates. These dynamic pricing tools often times update your pricing on a regular basis depending on the data analysis and what your highest and lowest pricing preferences are. Dynamic pricing can help your listing to strategically position your short-term rentals so that they get booked at the highest price possible at the right time.

For dates that are in the future in a competitive market the pricing tools will set your prices to be higher then the market. Your local competitors who have their prices too low will get booked out first. As the number of properties available in your area begin to get booked out early at dirt cheap prices you can now start attracting higher paying guests since the supply is starting to drop in the area. If your property is still vacant you can choose to start incrementally lowering your price as the vacant days begin to approach. The reverse is also true…so if there is too many vacancies in your area and your competitors are now over priced your dynamic pricing tool can now adjust your prices down so that you can attract guests before your competition.

The happiest medium is if you can find the right pricing structure so that you stay at 70% occupancy levels year-round. If you are constantly 100% occupied this means you are pricing your properties too low and you are leaving money on the table. If you are not up to 70% occupancy then you may want to consider lowering your prices or doing other listing improvements so that you can command higher prices. These listing improvements can include getting professional photos done (if you have not already), staging your property or updating your space so it can be more appealing to guests who are willing to pay more to stay at your property.

Leverage social media for extra exposure

We recommend creating social media accounts for your property. Posting regular updates, interesting events or local restaurants in the area, and fun property-specific photos that can showcase the vibe of your home and experiences in your property that guests would find fun or interesting. Anything that can make them imagine themselves staying at your property and having a great time. For example, do you have a firepit? Get some lifestyle photos of people making smores or hanging out with their friends and family. Have an awesome private deck with a great view? Put out some coffee cups and a book then take a pic in the morning light to highlight these awesome amenities. What about a gorgeous fireplace? Maybe turn it on and have some cozy blankets and a bottle of wine and glasses in a photo. TIP: You can hire a professional photographer (like us) to have on retainer if you need to schedule a couple of lifestyle shoots at various times in the year.

Anytime you are out and about in the area eating at a restaurant or checking out something that guests would also enjoy, take a couple of pics and share these experiences on your social media pages. Short-term rentals are about selling these travel experiences not just a property so make sure to highlight interesting things to do in the local area. You can see below these photos we took…every year the Town of Beech Mountain puts out these crazy clowns around town around Halloween/Fall so we got some pics to share on our social media accounts for our short-term rental we had in Beech Mountain, NC

You want to post consistently so you can start to build a solid social media following. You can check out our instagram account here for our AirBnB in Myrtle Beach, SC for example. Any new followers you get are potential guests and all of their friends on social media are also potential guests so this is pretty much free advertising. You would want to also include a link to where guests can book your property and make sure everything is shareable.

Get direct bookings through property-specific websites

All of the big-name platforms like AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.com, TripAdvisor etc. all charge some sort of fees to use their platforms. These fees often times go towards their operations which help hosts with marketing their listings, support, and back-end operations like payment processing, guest communications technology, etc. These platforms are excellent for gaining guest reservations and attention for your listing without having a whole lot of technical knowledge. In addition to using these platforms we highly suggest also creating a website for your properties. You can either create property-specific websites or if you have multiple properties you can also have a website with your specific properties. You can see an example we did for our short-term rental in Surfside Beach, SC

The goal of your property website is to drive guest reservations directly to your website. Many guests become repeat guests if they enjoy your property and they frequently visit your area. Marketing your website to these guests is an easy way to get repeat reservations without having to pay the extra fees on the short-term rental platforms. You can even offer discounts to guests since you don’t have to worry about platform fees. You can help promote your website by using SEO optimization techniques, building a solid user-friendly website to drive direct booking traffic, and leveraging social media. Need help with this? We have partners available to help get your website up and running.

Need some help with staging, designing, or starting your AirBnB business? Check-out our partners here. Ready to refresh or get some new photos for your AirBnB listing? Schedule a photoshoot with us.