For those who celebrate, Easter is just around the corner and, like every year, tourists from all over the world will decide to use this vacation to celebrate the arrival of Spring and treat themselves to a nice outdoor holiday. This is an important period for owners of vacation rentals. Easter, Summer, and Christmas are peak season periods in Europe and many other parts of the world. This means that hosts are most likely to receive bookings for their holiday homes for higher prices than they would in the low season.
To make the most of these holidays and optimize your income, we have prepared 6 tips that will help you make your property more attractive to guests. Turn your holiday rental into the perfect destination for the Easter holidays and don’t let this opportunity pass you by!
Open the doors to your vacation rental
It is to be expected that short-term vacation rental owners will be busy managing a large number of guests and bookings during the Easter holidays.
If you advertise your holiday rentals on different booking platforms, such as Airbnb and Booking.com, make sure you avoid double bookings! These can occur when guests book one of your properties on one portal and, before you can manually update the calendar/availability for the same rental on the other portals, you receive a second booking for the same dates. This is something you should try to avoid!
There are two ways to ensure that double bookings do not occur:
- Stay on top of things and be ready to synchronize your calendars in real time.
- Use a Channel Manager like Smoobu to automatically synchronize and update your availability in real time.
Make your vacation rental attractive for the Easter holidays: 6 tips
That said, what actions can you take to boost your bookings during the Easter period? Here are 6 tips for you.
1. Update your listings and website
Your listings on the various booking portals are extremely important for the success of your holiday home. The title and the primary image of your holiday rental should catch the attention of potential guests looking for their ideal holiday destination. Only by dedicating care and attention to your listing will you be able to stand out from the competition.
A tip that applies to all seasons is to update the images of your holiday property to match the current season. Which photos best depict the season and the activities your guests will engage in during their holiday? If you want your rental to be particularly inviting for the holidays make sure that the images give an idea of spring and upcoming festivities. You could add some details of the house with Easter decorations to make the idea hit home even more. The listing description should also be adjusted accordingly.Finally, do not forget also to update the photos and content of your direct booking website: all your information must be consistent.
2. Adjust your vacation rental prices
During peak season, when demand for holiday homes is highest, the price per night of vacation rentals usually increases. This means more revenue for the owners and managers of these rentals.
But how can you calculate the price of your holiday home correctly, without having a deep knowledge of the market? If you choose a price that is too low, you might miss out on an opportunity for additional income. If, on the other hand, you choose prices that are too high, your potential guests will decide to book your competitors’ properties.
Using Smoobu, you can decide to entrust the price of your holiday accommodation to integrations such as PriceLabs, Smartpricing and Wheelhouse, which study the market and adjust prices accordingly for you.
3. Offer an ‘Easter holidays’ promotion
If competition in the area of your holiday home is fierce, or if you find yourself with no bookings a few weeks before the Easter holidays, you might decide to offer a discount to your potential guests. A discount of 5% or 10% on the total price could secure you a booking. You can create a promotional code (e.g. Easter23) that guests can use on your direct booking website. How? In Smoobu, click Settings -> Booking System -> Discount Code.
In addition, the major booking portals often allow you to offer a discount for your holiday home listings. On the Booking.com extranet, for example, there is a section dedicated to promotions. As for Airbnb, you can add discounts via Smoobu. From your Smoobu account go to:
- Settings -> Booking Portals -> Additional Price Settings (on the Airbnb line) -> Seasonal Rules to add a promotion during the Easter holidays (remember to use the negative sign for discounts).
- Settings -> Booking Portals -> Additional Price Settings (on the Airbnb line) -> Price -> Default pricing rules for last-minute discount.
If you already have bookings for the Easter holidays, you can decide to offer special promotions to your guests, such as chocolate eggs for the children or an Easter dove. Add your promotions to the Guest Guide or inform your guests by email. This way, you can ensure positive reviews at the end of your stay.
4. Partner with local service producers
Stand out from the competition…what better way to attract guests than to offer them additional benefits?
By partnering with local producers and artisans, you can offer your guests unique discounts:
- Chocolate eggs at low prices
- Handmade toys for children
- Discounts on candies, cookies and other traditional pastries at the village fair
- Exclusive tickets to an Easter concert
- Special offers for restaurants with Easter menus in the area
- Easter decorations your guests can take home as vacation memories
5. Create a marketing campaign for your property
To make your holiday home more visible in the run-up to the Easter holidays, you can decide to create an ad-hoc marketing campaign. Create an email to send to your former contacts on Smoobu and, if you use social media for your holiday property, share posts.
You can use pictures taken for the occasion (e.g. showing the house with Easter decorations) and share your promo code. This may take some time and effort but the results are guaranteed!
Besides making your home attractive for the Easter holidays, you can also focus on the local area. Most cities and villages offer events for Easter. Whether it’s a religious procession, a fair, or a restaurant with a dedicated Easter menu, your potential guests will be more than happy to receive recommendations.
You can share this information on your social accounts, in your email marketing, in the description of your listings on booking platforms and on your website, and in your digital guest guide.
Easter at your holiday home: at a glance
The Easter holidays are an opportunity for holiday home owners. By following our tips, you will be able to attract more guests and bookings. To recap:
- Update your listings and your website by showing photos that best depict an Easter stay at your holiday property.
- Remember to change your prices according to the market, either manually or via one of the dynamic pricing integrations offered by Smoobu.
- Offer a promotion on rental prices or possible Easter-themed services.
- Be present on social media and/or email your past guests about possible discounts and themed promotions.
- Share planned Easter holiday events in the location of your holiday homes.
Finally, if you want to avoid any stress in managing your vacation rental for the high (and low) season, consider a managed channel like Smoobu. Make your holiday rental business professional, save time, and optimize revenue.
