If you already have your own vacation rental website, then you just need one last addition: creating a blog. Why is it important? Original content is one of the fundamental pieces to improve your organic search engine rankings. Additionally, a professional blog will also bring many other advantages and will help you reach more potential customers.
Attract future guests with quality content
Take a look around you: most companies have a corporate blog to show a more informative and relaxed side. The reality is that, in addition to fulfilling an informative function for the user, blog posts help to improve the organic positioning (SEO) of the website. Content creation has become a fundamental part of online development that you too, as a host, can take advantage of.
4 reasons to create your own blog about vacation rentals
As we do at Smoobu, blog articles (like this one) allow us to share information related to the vacation rental industry, news for hosts and, and any interesting news that we consider helpful for our hosts.
Travelers, on the other hand, have become increasingly demanding and the competition on booking platforms is voracious with the multitude of listings and offers available for booking. Precisely for this reason, connecting with the traveler is a key step in securing a booking. Offering a professional, interesting, transparent and helpful blog will make it much easier to pique the interest of travelers.
1. You’ll be able to better showcase the benefits of your vacation rental
Although social networks are essential, a simple Instagram story or a Facebook post does not allow you to expand much on a particular topic. For this very reason, a blog is a good opportunity to go a step further. You will have enough space to go deeper into a topic in your own words, which will also generate a special closeness with readers. By illustrating adding pictures to your blog, you will be able to better show what makes your vacation rental special.
A picture gallery fits perfectly with the mentioned content, and users will be able to see in more detail on the furnishings, the extra services and the atmosphere of the place.
2. Talk about your experience as a host in first person
Your personal blog can also become a reference for other vacation rental hosts who are starting out in the industry. Share your experience, story and also frustrations or problems that have been part of your experience and that can be useful to others.
Whether you have a vacation rental on the beach, in the mountains, in the city or in the countryside, future guests will be looking for things to do during their stay, and may ask you as a local, even from domestic travelers who may be more familiar with the region but want an expert opinion. Blog content will also be a good starting point for promoting your community culturally and touristically, as well as extra services or cross-selling.
What better promotion than positive comments from past guests? Tell the story of your guests and encourage them to share their experience on social networks, so that it serves as an example for future guests and helps you reach more people.
How to create a blog for your website?
A blog will be a perfect complement to your vacation rental website, which you can also easily build with Smoobu. There are also other ways to create a blog for free, on free platforms such as WordPress, which also allows many customization options and free themes for the design template.
The reality is that you don’t need much more, just imagination and desire to create interesting, different and current content that makes the difference with your competitors.
4 strategies to grow your vacation rental blog
1. Combine the blog with other marketing tools
To further enhance the content of your blog and get the publications to increase in visits and reach more guests, one option is to share the news through an email marketing tool. Newsletters or periodic emails will help you to keep in touch with previous guests, inform them first hand about news and promotions in the accommodation and redirect more traffic to your booking website, where you will not have to pay commissions.
Blog posts will provide you with original and regular content to share on social networks, while making more people aware of your blog.
3. Publish regularly
Posting content on a regular basis, for example once a week, will make your blog grow faster. In addition, recent posts will always provide a better image to guests.
4. Put yourself in the user’s shoes
At the end of the day, your content should respond to the doubts, questions and needs of your readers, whether they are guests or other hosts.
More content suggestions for your blog
- Humanize your business: show the ins and outs of your work as a host and the people who collaborate to make it grow. This more human side of the business will allow you to better connect with users and offer a friendlier face.
- What’s new in your rental: did you renovate the house, is there an interesting personal story behind the changes? Show guests the before and after of the property, explaining in detail why you decided to make the changes and the results so far.
- The passage of time: the views in the different seasons and climates of the house will allow visitors to get an idea of what their visit will be like on a specific date of the year. Snow, green hillsides, the music festivals held each year or the city’s festivals… they will be able to imagine their experience much more easily while learning more details about the area.
- Challenges achieved: did you overcome an obstacle in your business that you thought you would never overcome? Maybe a celebrity visited you? Did you achieve a personal record as a host? Share it!
- Present a cultural plan: the best bars and restaurants in the area, museums, interesting walks, nature activities, what souvenirs to buy, even books and novels set in your city. If you like cooking, don’t hesitate to share a typical or family recipe.
As you can see, there are many ways and topics to share in your own vacation rental blog, which will be a mirror of your business and will allow you to promote it in a more creative and personal way.
