How to boost your lisitings on Vrbo
Vrbo is widely recognized as one of the leading platforms for connecting property owners with travelers seeking vacation rentals.
But with the vacation rental space becoming increasingly competitive, simply listing your property on Vrbo isn’t enough anymore. If you want to stand out, your listing needs to rise above the noise.
We’ve put together 10 actionable tips to help you elevate your Vrbo listing.
1. Enable Instant Booking
Instant booking to let guests reserve your rental without delays. Vrbo reports that listings with this feature tend to rank higher in search results. Combine that with the fact that 90% of travelers prefer the convenience of booking instantly online, and it becomes an easy decision.
Instant booking is the default for Beds24 because it performs best. Beds24 will updated update your availability in real-time so you do not need to worry about receiving double bookings.
2. Use Flexible Cancellation Policies
Vrbo’s “Relaxed” or “Moderate” cancellation policies boost bookings because they are flexible for guests and offer a full 100% refund. This also means they will appear in search results where the traveler has filtered to only see properties with a full refund policy
Flexible policies drive 26% more bookings, 53% higher revenue, and 39% better conversion than Strict, building guest confidence and increasing your success.
If you elect to create a custom cancellation policy for your properties, be sure the option has a full 100% refund option and does not include a cancellation fee, which removes the full refund option automatically.
3. Add all applicable Amenities & Features to every property
Having the right amenities will ensure your listing is not excluded from filtered searches.
- Having at least 50 amenities will give you higher visibility.
- Review the list below for the most searched property features and house rules on Vrbo and be sure to select these in Beds24 when applicable
- Specify all aplicable location types (beach, mountain, etc.) for each property. It will also be synched with Vrbo as part of the supported amenities.
Most searched Property Features and House Rules:
Location Type: Beachfront, Oceanfront, Waterfront
Property Type: House
Features & House Rules: Pets allowed, Pool, Private Pool, Hot tub, 4+ stars, Beach, Kitchen, Free cancellation, Air conditioning, Internet / Wifi, Outdoor spaces
4. Ensure your Property is Bookable
You should have at least 18 months in advance availability which means you always set your prices for at least 18 month in advance and remove all retrictions.
5. Optimize your Pricing
Travellers want price transparency. Higher fees negatively impact overall stay satisfaction. Inconsistent pricing drives confusion and anxiety resulting in distrust of host’s brand. Keep your fees lower than your base rent and include a concise description of why they are being added to the rental amount.
Offering discounts can be the dealmaker, especially when adding new listings to your account and longer stay bookings.
6. Optimize your Pictures
Travellers spend around 70% of the time looking at the photos.
Having at least 30 photos will give you higher visibility. The first 6 photos can be seen in the search results without clicking on the property itself so ensure that you set your pictures in the right order and remember to add photo captions as well.
7. Ensure a good visibility
Use a catchy title and have accurate and craft a compelling title and write clear, accurate, and enticing descriptions that highlight the best features of your listing descriptions which showcase your listings clearly.
Listings are distributed to all Vrbo points of sale. If you can make your listing description available in a couple of different languages for better display.
Specify bed options and occupancy, and bath details. These details give a quick and visual distribution of the property.
8. Manage Reviews
Most travelers rely on reviews before booking and since top-rated properties appear first it’s crucial to encourage every guest to leave a review after their stay. The more positive feedback you collect, the closer you’ll get to that prized five-star status.
You can manage your reviews conveniently from Beds24 so be sure to also respond to your reviews and rate your guests.
Tip: If you have direct reviews Beds24 can send them to Vrbo.
9. Optimize Communication
Communicating with guests on time can help clear doubts and convert inquiries into successful bookings and will help you collect good reviews.
Beds24’s direct integration with Vrbo’s messaging system enables you to automate routine guest communications and also send custom messages directly from the booking within Beds24 when required.
10. Become a Vrbo Premier Host
Listings that attained Premier Host status saw an almost 75% increase in year-over-year net booking value. All top-performing hosts on Vrbo have the opportunity to join the Premier Host program. Being named a Premier Host on Vrbo comes with several benefits.
Find out more on how to become a premier host on Vrbo.