Smashing your goals with Holiday Rental Software: Attract bookings - Videos

  • Episode 11
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  • Kelly Odor
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Attract bookings using videos with holiday rental software.

In this episode, discover how holiday rental software can help you attract bookings using your videos. 

In the Podcast Pointer, take a look at the Bookster Email Automations to help you manage your guests' needs.

For more information on how Bookster holiday rental software can help your business, check out https://www.booksterhq.com/

The important bits

● [00:00] - Intro 

● [01:25] - Attract bookings using video

● [09:36] - Podcast Pointer - Bookster Email Automation

Key takeaways

● Why should holiday rental owners use video to advertise their holiday homes? Let’s explore the key reasons.

1. Showcase your property’s best features 

2. Find more potential guests by showing a different type of content

3. Videos can boost your SEO, which is how you make your website be seen by more people on places like Google and Bing.

4. Videos can build trust and credibility

5. Highlight the local experience

6. Easy to share

7. Keep up with the competition

8. If your Holiday rental software provides your website, it may be able to use videos to boost your SEO and improve bookings, by adding property information on your property listing page, and adding other videos across your website. It may be able to include videos in your email marketing too, to attract new and repeat guests. 

● The Bookster Automated Emails are fixed emails that direct your guest to take action, whether it's to make a payment, pay a damage deposit, or view the property address. 

Next Episode

After the break for the summer, the next episode will be looking at how to prevent cancellations, as part of growing your business.

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Transcript

How can holiday rental software help you to attract bookings? Over time, guest expectations have evolved shaping what they look for when booking a holiday home.

Long gone are the days when a piece of paper in a shop window with a little description and a photo of a living room was sufficient to get bookings.

Guests want more, actually, guests need more.

Minute 1
One of the key functions of holiday rental software is to effectively share information about your vacation properties.

Did you know there are often tools built into hold a rental software that can help you attract bookings by showcasing your properties? That's what we're going to discuss today on smashing your goals with holiday rental software.

But before we get started, I'd like to share with you an article to help.

If you're not using hold rental software yet, or you're thinking of changing software for your holiday rental business on our website booksterhq.com hq.com, you can view the article called Questions to Ask during a Hold Rental Software Demo, or you can download it from here from the show notes.

But for now on with the show, welcome back to another episode where we help you smash your whole rental goals.

Minute 2
Today we're diving back into the world of advertising your properties to guests with a focus on official aspect videos.

In the fast-paced world of hold rentals, standing out is more important than ever, and video can be your secret weapon.

In episode one, we covered photography, so if you've not listened to that yet, then go back to that episode after this one.

So firstly, why should holy rental owners use video to advertise their holiday homes? Let's explore the key reasons.

The first is to showcase your property's best features.

A picture might be worth a thousand words and pictures are so important, but a video is worth a million video allows you to showcase your property's best beaches in a way that photos just simply can't.

You can give potential guests a real feel for the space,
Minute 3
showing them the flow of the rooms, the beauty of the outdoor spaces, and the charm of the neighborhood.

A well-produced video can highlight the unique aspects of your property and that can set it apart from the competition.

Another benefit is that you can find more potential guests by showing a different type of content.

And by content I mean video as opposed to a blog post as opposed to a photograph.

In today's digital age, video content is king.

Social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram and YouTube, they prioritize video content.

So that means that your videos are more likely to be seen and shared by a wider audience.

Videos are also more engaging than static images or text.

Capturing the viewer's attention and keeping them interested in what you have to show them for longer.

This increased engagement can lead
Minute 4
to more inquiries and more bookings.

Another reason is that videos can boost your S-E-O-S-E-O is simply how you make your website be seen by more people on places like Google or Bing search engines, that's Google or Bing love video content.

And we can see in the changes that Google's making, that they're giving even more importance to video rather than just photos and text.

Including videos on your website can improve your search engine rankings, and that means that there are more potential guests can find your property.

When you add your video to your website, you can give it a compelling title, you can give a detailed description, and by including important, what we'll call keywords, so important words like holiday home in East Yorkshire, you can increase the chances of your property appearing in the search results.

Minute 5
And this boost invisibility can really drive more traffic to your website and ultimately result in more bookings.

The next reason is that videos can build trust and credibility and trust is a crucial factor in the holiday rental industry.

And we spoke about trust in episode eight, so if you haven't checked that out, make a point to do this as it's more important now than ever.

In fact, in the news last week, there was a whole article dedicated to how halsy rental scams are on the increase people turning up at properties that don't exist and how to avoid that.

So it really is a hot topic.

Potential guests need to be sure that the property that they're booking is exactly as it's advertised.

It's not just a simple want, it's a need of reassurance that this property is the real deal.

Videos can help to provide a transparent and authentic view of your property, and that builds this trust with your audience.

Minute 6
By showing every corner of your home, you can reassure potential guests that there are no hidden surprises, which can increase their confidence in booking with you.

Another great part about videos is that it can really highlight the local experience.

So you can use a video to highlight nearby attractions or restaurants or activities.

I saw a great presentation last year from a property manager and he was showing how he had grown the number of people that were booking at his property simply by going out into the local area, talking with locals, talking with tourists, and videoing what you could do near and around his holiday rental.

And that was fascinating, but you don't need to be an Instagram genius or a TikTok whiz to be able to do that simply by taking videos and including them on your website and including them on places like YouTube or your Facebook, you have that opportunity
Minute 7
to do the same as he did.

So show your guests what makes your location special and why they should choose your rental over the others.

This added context can be a significant selling point for travelers who are looking for that complete experience.

One thing I love about videos is how easy they are to share.

And this ease of sharing increases the reach of your marketing efforts, helping you to attract more guests.

I mentioned the competition earlier, but it deserves recognition that the holiday rental market is so competitive.

Many holiday rental owners who are successful in their business are already using video to promote their properties.

And by incorporating video into your marketing strategy, you ensure you're not left behind and that your property remains competitive.

So how can holiday rental software
Minute 8
help you with your videos? While most software can use your videos to promote your business, and they can do it in a number of different ways, if that software provides your website, then they can include your videos about your properties for each of the listing pages where you advertise your property.

In some cases, they'll be able to put other videos of other places on your website too.

So in particular, if you have some kind of custom website, you could add videos of you and your team or your local area or even guest review videos, and you can put them in different places on your website by adding a title and a description with important words like I mentioned earlier, like Introduction to Oak Cottage, a three bedroom holiday home in Kent.

You'll be feeding into Google's algorithm too, and that's gonna help you rank better in Google for your video.

Your software may also have a built-in email marketing tool,
Minute 9
which allows you to add your videos to attract potential customers and encourage repeat business.

So using video to advertise your Haldy home is a smart and effective way to attract more guests and increase your bookings.

Investing in video content will require some effort and resources, but the potential returns in terms of increased bookings and guest satisfaction make it well worth it.

So grab your camera, start filming and watch your holiday rental business thrive.

Let's take a moment here.

I'd like to remind you that if you'd like to try out Bookster and the tools that we offer, you can register on booksterhq.com for free, and you can check out some of the great tools that will help you run your short let business.

Minute 10
Moving on back to the second part of the podcast podcast pointer.

Each session will look at one solution within BTA to help you overcome a problem.

Today, Leticia from our channel onboarding team has selected email automations.

These are automated emails that are sent to your guests at various times through the booking process.

We invested time and effort to plan these emails to be as they are.

They're fixed, they're short, and they explain very clearly to your guest what they need to do, such as make their payment or pay their damage deposit.

Your guests won't miss the most important action that they have to take because there isn't a lot of distracting content in the emails.

These emails are also sent to you, the property owner, so you stay informed and you can choose to send them to other people in your team such as your cleaners.

We're really happy with how these emails work
Minute 11
because we can see the high percentage of guests do what they need to do when they need to do it, and that in turn means you are not spending your time chasing guests for missing their payments or missing their damage deposits.

So that's a win for you too.

We'll be taking a break for the summer holidays, but when we return, we'll be looking at how to prevent cancellations.

So I hope you can join me then.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Smashing Your Goals with Haldy Rental Software.

If you liked the episode or you know someone in the haldy rental industry that would enjoy it, please leave a review on pod chaser.com, apple Podcasts or wherever you download and listen to your podcast.

If you've got any questions, please do get in touch.

You can contact us on our Facebook page, which is booksterhq or you can contact us through our website
Minute 12
and there's more information there.

And you can ask for a demo on how bookster can help you at booksterhq.com.

And remember, we believe that experiences matter.

So whenever you are choosing a software service, make sure you choose one that considers your needs and the needs of your team and your guests.

More Episodes of Smashing your goals with Holiday Rental Software

  • Episode 11 - Attract bookings using video and your holiday rental software - Text: "Attract bookings with holiday rental software" with "Video" in brackets and 'Episode 11' with a Bookster logo.

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