Are you looking for more direct bookings? Do you want to make sure that people are able to talk about your wonderful place and allow their friends and family to easily find it online? Then you need an identity. A brand. A simple way for people to say “google this and you will find them…”
Just picture the following scenario between two friends:
Alice: “Hi Bob, how did your vacation to Sicily go?”
Bob: “Oh - it was amazing. We stayed at a really nice place!”
Alice: “Excellent - we were actually thinking of going to Sicily as well. Maybe we should try the same place - where can I find it?”
Bob: “Yeah, that would be a great idea - uhm - it was on one of those booking sites… hmm.. I am going to have to look that up.. I’ll get back to you!”
Now consider this:
Alice: “Excellent - we were actually thinking of going to Sicily as well. Maybe we should try the same place - where can I find it?”
Bob: “Yeah, that would be a great idea - the place is called Sipario su Modica. Google it - they have a site and they left us a card with a discount coupon for friends!”
Which vacation rental would you rather be?
Luckily it is easy to define your vacation rental's identity. Here is our very simple guide.
Step 1 - Pick a name
Pick a memorable and ideally “Google Unique” name. You need something that is easy for people to remember and that no other places are named. So “Sunset villa”, “Seaside Villa” and “Mountain Lodge” are all out of the question! Something with a little twist like “Squirrel Outpost” can work well or something that ties it to a hobby of yours. My mum is a mosaic artist so she called her place “Villa Mosaica”.
Step 2 - Create a website and have it rank for that name
Make sure your site will have you rank first for your place. My wife and I have a vacation rental in Modica called “Sipario Su Modica” - a Google search brings that up as the first result after the ads. Here at Roomify we have optimization for the vacation rental name baked into our Casa site building tool. We also offer a handy built-in SEO Checklist module that provides an easy guide to follow on how to best improve your listing.
Step 3 - Use that name everywhere else as well
Use that name everywhere else. Make sure that you have:
- A listing on Google Business with the name - and a link to your site.
- Claimed ownership of your Tripadvisor listing (or through your Flipkey listing) and given it that name.
- Setup a Facebook Page with (yes, you guessed it) that name.
Step 4 - Print it!
Print cards and place them in your rental with your name and website. I know we are a website company but printed material still works! It costs next to nothing to have postcards done with moo.com and you can have them available at your place with your website and name there. Our eCommerce system can support special discounts and coupons so why not take advantage of it!
There you have it. An ID for your vacation rental is the first step to more online bookings. This post is Part 2 of our series How to Increase Bookings by Improving Your Vacation Rental’s Online Presence.