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Sometimes, vacation is about more than just getting away. Maybe your guests are attending a festival, planning a celebration, or catching a rare natural phenomenon (eclipse, anyone?).
To cash in on this specialized market, your vacation rental property description needs to do a little more work than usual.
Every special occasion is different, but knowing your audience and nailing down the right timing is key. In this blog post, we’ll consider those two strategies and how to use them to book guests traveling for everything from film festivals to family reunions.
Live in an area that hosts a whole slew of vacation-worthy events (think Austin: home of SXSW, City Limits, Trail of Lights, and more)? Make mention of those happenings as a list within your vacation rental property description.
Not only does it save you the hassle of swapping copy as different events approach, it also takes guesswork out of the equation. Some folks might book for annual events a year in advance, while others plan their trips just a few months ahead of time.
Using straightforward copy, you can target these guests year round. For example: “Our rental is the perfect home base for Austin’s most exciting events, including SXSW, Trail of Lights, and more, and places you within walking distance of popular festival venues.”
On the flip side, if you’ve been in the game for awhile, you know when attendees reach out to you for accommodations. If you’ve noticed in previous years that those heading to town for a July event often book in May, consider mentioning it in your headline in May until you secure that booking.
Pro tip: Develop a guest persona that focuses around attendees of a certain event to create content that grabs their attention.
Solar eclipses! Visits from the pope! There are all sorts of strange and rare reasons that your rental might suddenly be in demand. Use them to your advantage in your vacation rental property description.
If your property is within a prime location for these rare happenings, you’ll likely have no trouble getting booked. But if you want to get booked early or justify a price increase, consider adding a mention of the event to your headline, plus a short blurb in the beginning of your property description.
An intro blurb is also a great place to convince guests to book longer stays around short events.
Here’s another example: “Pack your NASA glasses! Tucked just outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, our cabin is a prime viewing site for this summer’s eclipse and will enjoy over a minute of totality. Spend one afternoon checking out this once-in-a-lifetime event, and the rest of your stay hiking some of the south’s most scenic trails.”
Pro tip: Have a rental that’s located a bit of a distance from a rare happening? You can still mention it in your vacation rental property description. Tourists coming for an uncommon event are willing to travel a bit further than they typically would. Just be honest about the exact distance to prevent bad reviews.
By choice or by legislation, many vacation rentals are not suitable for events or celebrations.
If yours is, make it loud and clear in your vacation rental property description by mentioning it in your headline and early on in your listing copy.
But it’s not as simple as stating the facts: in order to really sell a special event booking, you need to make an emotional appeal.
If a family’s booking for a reunion that only takes place once every five years, they want to know they’re staying somewhere truly special. Likewise, a bride-to-be needs to know the spot she stays at is worthy of her day.
Using day-in-the-life style language and emotionally charged words, you can sell the experience of your rental—not just its bed and bath count. Here’s an example:
“Not only does our lakefront retreat have enough bedrooms to comfortably sleep the entire extended family, it also has enough amenities to keep all of the troops entertained. Let the kiddies splash around in the pool’s shallow end while the teenagers catch some sun on the beach. Spend afternoons castling a line off the dock or taking the scenery with a glass of wine in a living area with floor-to-ceiling windows.”
Pro tip: Be clear about what celebrations are permitted at your rental. If you want to host family reunions but not post-prom bashes, be sure to mention your rules outright.
Need a helping hand gearing your vacation rental property descriptions towards special events? At Guest Hook, we’ll consider your property, destination, and happenings to write a listing that drives guests towards booking. Reach out to us today.
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