How We Mastered Direct Bookings for Short-Term Rentals in 2024

You are listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast, bringing you all the information you need for your short term rental to stand out from the crowd. I'm your host, Jenn Boyles. As an owner and manager myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate the hospitality industry. I'm here to help so you too can have direct booking success.

The Direct Booking Success Podcast has reached property managers, hosts and owners working hard to gain control of their bookings and achieve their goals. Knowing that these episodes are making a difference. Whether it's helping you create an irresistible marketing strategy, building stronger guest relationships, or even just giving you a bit of inspiration to keep going, it means the world to me. So, to you who have listened, subscribed, or even shared this podcast with a friend, thank you.

Let's dive in. The first episode that I'm going to be sharing with you is when I spoke with Lauren Madewell. She's the Operations Manager at Auntie Belham's Cabin Rentals in the Smoky Mountains. Lauren grabbed my attention with her hilarious and spot on phrase passive my assive, calling out the myth that running vacation rentals is some sort of easy, passive income. We covered so much in this episode.

Lauren shared how she's been a part of her family vacation rental business for over a decade and how they've evolved from primarily telephone bookings to a robust online presence. What really struck me though, was her concept of inside out hospitality. She's all about putting her employees first, treating them with kindness, respect and genuine care so they naturally pass that same energy onto guests. It's such a simple, brilliant approach to creating the kind of guest experience that people not only remember, but rave about.

Lauren also gave us a sneak peek into her creative marketing strategy, like using funny national awareness days in her social media posts to stand out. Trust me, you'll laugh just hearing her talk about the idea she's come up with. So if you haven't listened to this episode, check out episode 106, the Truth About Airbnb Income with Lauren Madewell. So here's a clip of Lauren explaining her inside-out hospitality philosophy from episode 106.

I just wanted to have the best customer service possible period. I wanted it to be felt through email, I wanted to be felt through text message. I want to be felt through every phone call. And then if a guest had a problem in their cabin, I wanted to exploit that as an opportunity to impress them with our service, with our kindness, our graciousness, and our patience. Like true when you're talking to us, it feels like family when you're far from home. I want you to feel comfortable and confident when you're here too. I want you to feel privileged by staying with us. We already had great customer service, but how was I going to take it to the next level? How was I going to basically make it so good that it branded us? I wanted our brand to be our personality, our personality to be our brand. And that there was probably no real amount of training with what I had in mind. Nobody else was quite training in this capacity. Can't fake it till you make it. You can't just keep buying pizzas and cupcakes. You can't just keep saying good job, team or here's gift cards. I actually, I did, I tried all of these things. They were gestures, they're good for a little while and then they fizzle out and it's not going to get through to the guest. So I realized that the only way to get that genuine next level of hospitality to the guests was to give it to my employees first. And if they have it, it is just literally going to radiate from them out into the guests. So rather than focusing my hospitality on the guests, which is what my first idea was, I decided to focus the hospitality inside. All of our employees want to be here, feel privileged to be here, actually enjoy being here. It's a bad day, they don't dread coming in, they don't have to be on their game, like on it 100% of the time. I want them to socialize. And then I took elements of home, like house plants, pets, living room, bookshelves, good lighting, things like those elements of home that we look forward to going home to. And I replicated them here in the office so that they were even surrounded by the comfort of home. And so inside out hospitality is, if you want your guests to feel a genuine next level hospitality, you've got to offer it to your own people first. And when they're cared for, they will care for others naturally. It will not be forced. Even when they have a bad day, they're just going to handle it that way naturally. Because what they learn over time is when you're handling things with patience and grace and giving people the benefit of the doubt, putting yourself in their shoes and remembering how far they are from home and how much they spent to get here. Like when that is that is ingrained within you. They realize how much easier the experience is 360 degrees when they're just offering hospitality no matter how outrageous the guest.

The next episode that I want to highlight is a topic that a lot of property managers face every year, and that is coming out of a busy season and staring at an empty calendar. But don't panic, because in this episode I've got you covered with actionable strategies to help fill those gaps and avoid that uneasy feeling creeping in. In episode 115, reviving your marketing after a busy STR season, I dove into what to do and what not to do when bookings are slow. Here's a clip that I think sums up the heart of this episode.

Don't discount. Don't just post empty dates on social media. Don't sit in Facebook groups jumping on any post of somebody wanting to stay in your area. Don't beg for bookings. Don't give away your nights for peanuts. If you're tempted to do any of those things, stop and listen. Those are not activities of a business that knows their worth. Those are activities of someone who has no idea what to do next and is just throwing mud at the wall, hoping some of it will stick. Instead, let's talk about what to do. Let's start with your past guests. Now, I'm going to hope you have an email list already started. I'm closing my eyes and I'm crossing my fingers and I hope that you've been emailing them regularly. If either or both of those things aren't true, don't worry. All you need to get started is a list of your previous guests, email addresses and some way of emailing them. Look at your previous guests as fans. They had a great stay. They left wonderful reviews. Perhaps they would like to return. If you haven't been emailing them, now is the time to start. You want to rekindle that relationship you had with them when they stayed, letting them know that you were there and how.

Now is the perfect time to book that return stay. Look at the events coming up in your area. Look at seasonal activities guests could do while staying there. Think about why they would want to come and then tell them about it. If you have already been emailing your previous guests regularly, then the holes in your calendar will be easier to fill. Email marketing is so powerful. Email marketing is probably the best form of marketing out there. You are sending an email to the right person. They're real. Those on your list have asked to hear from you. They want to hear from you. I like to think of it as being invited into their home through their inbox. Email is a great way that you can build a real relationship with your guests. And I'm not talking about sending sales emails. Okay, no one wants those. You probably delete them from your own inbox. So let's not put any more sleazy salesy stuff out there. Let's send emails with value that your guests want to read about.

In episode 94 of the Direct Booking Success Podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Damian Sheridan. He's the director of the Book Direct Show and Scale Rentals. Damian is a powerhouse in the direct booking world and it was fascinating to hear how he started over 20 years ago, before Airbnb and the OTAs dominated the scene renting out his first property in Spain.

What struck me most about our conversation was Damian's dedication to building a sense of community within the vacation rental industry. Whether it's through his Book Direct Shows, the scale rental events, or his passion for education, Damian focuses on connecting property managers, breaking down the isolation many feel and empowering everyone to succeed. We touched on the importance of collaboration in what can often feel like a lonely business and discussed strategies for reducing OTA reliance. Damian also shared a brilliant tactic for leveraging video reviews to drive bookings. These real unscripted guest testimonials are a game changer for building trust and improving conversions. Here's a standout moment from the episode where Damian explains the power of video reviews and how they can transform your bookings.

We all know the power of reviews for our reputation, be it on a platform or Google or on our own website. We know we need reviews, we need people to see how, how credible our properties and our businesses. But one thing that really takes it to the next level for me and for clients that I've worked with over the years is video reviews. And this might sound at first to be a bit difficult and something that might not be actionable, but it's really simple.

I think all businesses I think have for the most part are peak bookers. There are some people who will stay once or twice a year or will come back year upon year. People are really low hanging fruit in terms of the gold that they can provide you with a video review when they're in situ in your home or on your property. If you ask them they will do it as well. And it's very simple. Ask them for a 20, 30 second video of them in your property telling you in front of the camera on their phone how much a great time they're having and just give us a little bit of insight into the experience. And as I said, it needs to be really short, not professional at all. This is the thing actually. If anything, the worst kind of production it is, the more real it actually will look and the more genuine it will look as well. I had two Marbella of one, a woman, a man in apartments in Spain, just talking about how pleasurable their experience was.

One woman was holding the camera looking down at the beach from her balcony, embedded into a website, onto listing pages and onto a homepage of the website. And these people have come back to me to say that they have noticed a significant difference in the conversions on those pages because people are dreaming always when they come to your website, there's a reason they're there. And if they can feel and really get a flavour of your property and see themselves in there in a, in a better way than any simple text review can provide, this is gold. And I do this with my clients also. As a result of these talks, I've. I've seen and heard of property managers who've increased their booking by up to 25%.

Next is a solo episode where I tackled one of the most common pieces of marketing advice. Consistency is key. But in episode 107 I challenged this thinking. Because here's the thing, not all consistency is created equal. It's not just about showing up regularly, it's about showing up strategically. I shared why blindly following the just consistent mantra could be holding you back. So here's a snippet of what really resonated with listeners.

The problem with advice to just be consistent is that it can lead you to focus on quantity over quality. It can make you think that as long as you're doing something regularly, it's enough. But here's the hard truth. You can be consistently doing the wrong things and it won't get you anywhere. Think about it this way. If you're consistently running in the wrong direction, you're just getting further and further from your goal. The same goes for your marketing efforts. Consistency is important, yes, but it's not enough on its own.

Many short-term rental property managers fall into this trap. They hear that they have to be consistent, so they focus on churning out content without a clear strategy. They miss the mark on what really drives bookings and end up spinning their wheels without making any real progress. Consistency is important, but it's not the whole story. You need to be consistent with the right activities, understand your audience, use data to guide your strategy and commit to a plan that you can sustain over time. This is how you build momentum and drive more direct bookings for your short-term rental business.

In this last episode that I'm going to share with you today, I had the pleasure of welcoming back Bart Sobies of iBooked.Online all the way from Melbourne, Australia. Bart is a powerhouse when it comes to building successful book direct websites and strategies, and this conversation was packed with actionable tips that property managers can use to optimize their direct booking efforts for the year ahead.

Bart's expertise shines as he walks us through practical steps like reviewing and refining your website's first impressions, updating photos, and ensuring a streamlined booking process. One standout takeaway was his advice on keeping your website visually appealing and mobile responsive, because first impressions matter and your website is often the first point of contact with potential guests.

Another key highlight was Bart's focus on the importance of reviewing email strategies annually. He shared simple yet impactful ways to enhance guest communication, from pre state emails to full year campaigns, leveraging AI tools to save time and improve messaging. Bart also discussed the power of clear descriptions, thoughtful reviews and compelling offers to drive bookings.

So if you missed it the first time around, head back to episode 85 to listen to it in its entirety. In the meantime, here's a standout moment from that episode where Bart talks about the importance of streamlining the booking process.

One of the things that we talked about at the start of the episode was the idea that as someone that's not a professional in space, you might not know what you're looking for. And a really good example of this is mobile versus desktop. People will take this idea of looking at how their booking process works and they'll test it out on a desktop, they'll have a look, they'll send it to their friends, works great, perfect, but yet they haven't checked it out on mobile.

And it's not because they didn't want to. It's just they didn't know. They didn't know there's something that's important and maybe people do know and they're like, yeah, of course when Bart said check out the booking process, he meant check it on those two platforms.

But hold on a second, I didn't even mention that you should also check it out on a tablet. And it's like, oh, what, you got to check it out on a tablet as well? Yes, there will be roughly around 10% of people that are sitting there on the couch that will look at it on a tablet. So you want to check these things on those different platforms.

So with streamlining the booking process, the first thing you want to do every single year, if not a few times a year, is actually try to get all the way through to payment. Valuable to do every year to go through that process. If you can't do your friends, you know that sounds like extra work, but do it. Just go through it yourself. Just go through each of the steps and go, was this easy? Was this hard? Is it working? Isn't that what? Isn't it working what makes sense and what doesn't make sense? And then you'll find every single year, and every single year we do it, we find improvements.

This year has all been about learning, growing and taking bold steps towards achieving more control, more profit and more direct bookings for your short term rental business. From filling those off-peak calendar gaps to understanding the power of strategic consistency and hearing stories of transformation from industry experts and property managers just like you. I hope you found actionable tips, a fresh perspective, and even maybe a little inspiration to fuel your efforts going forward. As we step into a new year, let's take everything we've learned and turn it into action. Because as I always say, success with direct bookings isn't about doing the work, it's about doing the right work over time with purpose and strategy.

If this episode gave you a spark of motivation or a new idea to try, I'd love to hear about it. Send me a DM over on Instagram. You can find me @directbookingsuccess and let me know what you're taking away from this episode. Or let's chat about how I could help you take your marketing to the next level.

Stay consistent and strategic for your own direct booking success. Hey, thanks for listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast. For more information about this episode and others, head to the website directbookingsuccess.com podcast see you next time.