5-Step Marketing Blueprint For Your Short-Term Rental

Do you know what the most successful Airbnb’s have in common?

We don’t mean the ones that you see on TV or in magazines. We mean the real-life, everyday hosts who see consistent bookings and high ratings from their guests.

These are the ones that are booked all year round, without having to drop their prices or offer discounts, because they have mastered the art of hospitality.

Hotels have been doing it for years.

So good is their efficiency that they have been able to consolidate as a global industry while cramming travelers on top of each other in tiny rooms to maximize profit.

But Airbnb (and other short-term rental services) have provided the opportunity for everyday people to tap into this lucrative market.

And in the beginning, there was a golden age whereby everyone was able to make a killing just by listing their spare room or empty apartment on Airbnb.

But as more and more people figured out that they can end the 9-5 grind of traditional employment and become their own boss, the market has become saturated.

So how do you ensure that your listing is consistently booked? How do you set yourself apart from the thousands of similar offerings in the same area?

How do you join the ranks of The Master Superhost?

When surveying our audience, we asked what made the biggest difference in the success of their short term rental businesses, and the answer was clear:

Simple, but not easy...

A well-executed marketing strategy that extends beyond just creating a listing cuts through the noise and reminds your very best guests why they should choose you over the competition.

Without it, you might be able to get by for a while just riding on the novelty and excitement of being a part-time landlord.

But in the long run, if you want to consistently attract the right guests, increase your revenue, and establish yourself as a go-to destination for travelers...You'll need to put all of the pieces together in a well designed marketing strategy.

You could have the most beautiful, well-designed Airbnb in the world, but if you don’t know how to market it to get travelers to take action, your full potential will always be out of reach.

Sheila and I figured this out the hard way when we first started out as Airbnb hosts. We made the mistake of relying too much on the peak season, because that’s when people were travelling to our area more.

Bookings were filling up fast because of the events in our area, and building up our confidence that we were doing everything right.

But we weren't. It was an illusion...

Turns out, people weren’t booking our property because of our amazing hosting skills or beautiful space - they were booking because they didn't have any other choices because all the other Airbnbs were taken.

But as soon as peak season ended, so did our bookings. And it took us a while to figure out why.

Soon we discovered that it wasn’t just our listing that was the problem, but our entire market was slow; dying off to almost nothing during the off-season.

So who do you think were the ones able fill up their calendars, leaving the table scraps for everyone else?

The ones with the best marketing strategy!

Their calendars were always full and they rarely had to drop their prices or offer discounts (in our case, as low as $30/night!)

We eventually figured out some things, but not without trying just about everything under the sun first.

By the time we dialed in our marketing strategy, we were negative $10,000, in the hole. Our life savings gone in attempt at financial freedom with Airbnb.

In order to prevent this from happening to you, you need to make sure that your listing is as strong as it can be.

As hosts, we like to think that travelers click onto our listing, look at a few pictures, then make a reservation right away. But that's not how it actually works.

Instead, travelers are quickly scrolling around and tagging their favorites, opening up a bunch of browser tabs, and having discussions with their significant other about all of the different pros/cons each place has to offer.

Rarely is it ever a single aspect of your listing that "seals the deal."

We like to think of it as an ecosystem, with all the different parts working together to attract, convert, and retain guests.

Each system by itself is not enough. But when you put them all together, it becomes a force multiplier.

In other words, results emerge from the parts interacting with each other.

So in this guide, we’re going to show you our 5-step Marketing Blueprint that we used to get ourselves out of the deep end and into the deep pockets with better guests and more bookings at higher prices.

But it’s going to take some work on your part.

A successful marketing strategy requires you to put yourself in your guest’s shoes and think about what they want.

It’s not enough to just have a beautiful listing – although that definitely helps. It’s not enough to have a great design or a beautiful looking brand.

Again, that helps too...

But what it really comes down to is knowing your audience, creating a space that caters to their needs and wants, and promoting your listing in the right places.

Your potential guests are bombarded with choices, and it’s up to you to make sure that your listing stands out from the rest.

The following series explains the 5 steps we took to create a marketing plan for our Airbnb that pulled us out from a -$10,000 loss.

You don’t need to be a marketing expert or hire an expensive agency.

The good news is that you can do just about everything from the comfort of your own home, and the only tools you’ll need are a smartphone that can take pictures and a way to upload them to social media.

And we’re going to show you how.

So let's go over the first step in this process, which is putting together a Guest Avatar so that all of our pieces can easily fall into place.

It's the foundation upon which everything else gets built.

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- Benjamin & Sheila
Skyline STR