While it’s no secret that many vacation rental businesses advertise their properties on listing sites like Airbnb to maximize the booking and renting potential, there is no better way than starting your own vacation rental website. As the vacation rental market is projected to reach $194 billion by 2021, business owners have to consider the aspects that will help them to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Even with a single property, a list of tasks that needs to be coordinated to make the business profitable is daunting. Today’s vacation rental websites powered by technology can streamline the booking and management of one or multiple properties. Here are some of the reasons why vacation rental business owners must consider building an outstanding website.

Use of Vacation Rental Website for Business Owners

Receive direct bookings

The main reason why you want to have your own vacation rental website is to receive direct bookings directly. Setting up your vacation rental website also means there is no extra third-party fee like host or transaction fee. Research also reveals that over 65% of guests prefer to book directly from a vacation rental website rather than using third-party websites.
With your own website, you will also benefit from reaching a different user base that wants to find their rental home privately. Guests love the convenience of being able to book vacation rentals directly, especially when there are no hidden fees.

Become listing independent

If you take accommodation rental platforms like Airbnb, there are now more hosts than ever. Not just third-party sites have become more powerful, they charge high commissions from both travelers and property owners alike. Setting up your vacation rental website is the first step in taking back this control that you are losing to third-party sites and taking your business into your terms. Having your own website supports your marketing efforts where you can approach your potential customers you could never reach before. With a vacation rental website in place, you can easily stand out from the competition and run your business the best way possible.

Enjoy control and freedom over your business

There is no denying that having your rental properties listed on third party websites impose limitations over certain aspects. You won’t have 100% control over the things you want to publish unless you have a vacation rental website of your own. Want to add more images on the homepage? You can make it happen on your website. Everything is on you, and in your control. No matter what you put on your website, there are no restrictions that limit your decisions.

Centralize your properties

If you list your vacation rental properties on multiple channels, it can be difficult to manage the bookings across different platforms. It will increase the risk of double bookings as well. A vacation rental website will serve as a great solution to avoid the confusion that could happen when your properties are listed in different places. Synchronize your external calendars, control all incoming booking requests from one single inbox, check minute details of each booking like amount, payment status, etc.
A dedicated channel manager in your platform will handle all the trouble of organizing your listings. You just have to synchronize your availability calendar with your vacation rental software and sit back and watch as your listings are automatically updated.

Automate tedious tasks

When you run a vacation rental business, there would be many business tasks that are repetitive. Automating these tasks helps in increasing efficiency and thereby improving productivity. This is yet another use of vacation rental websites and it is easy to integrate automation tools to support the business operations. These tasks greatly involve both management and sales processes like communication with potential customers, marketing to customers, requesting unpaid amounts and confirming paid amounts, etc. Autoresponders and canned responses to inquiry emails save a significant amount of time and makes running a vacation rental business an effortless job.

Display your skills

A vacation rental website is the best platform to showcase your assets. For example, you can collate all your positive guest reviews from other sites to create a testimonial page on your website. You can collect digital badges that are online certificates of your accomplishment. The more badges you have, the more users will trust your website, and the more bookings you will receive. Use your vacation rental website to display your expertise.

Build credibility

In the digital world, we live in, every reputable business has a website of its own. If it doesn’t, it falls behind the fierce competition in the industry. Yes, you can also advertise your vacation rental business on other platforms, but what if potential customers come looking for your business website and come up short? It might even dissuade them from making bookings with you. That is exactly why you need a vacation rental website.
For guests who want to avoid the booking fee will also search for a better deal- that’s when having a website becomes more significant. Just think of your vacation rental website as your business card. If someone is interested in checking out your properties, do you really want to send them a third-party listing? The answer would be no and that’s why a business website is essential for any vacation rental business looking to build online credibility.

Improve branding

Having an online presence is the first point towards building a solid brand presence for your vacation rental business. If you want the whole world to know about your business, you must have a branded platform of your own. The use of a vacation rental website extends beyond that. Building your vacation rental brand involves establishing consistency across your website and any external listings by referring your business to its brand name to support your marketing efforts. On third-party listing sites, your business is just a commodity, one among thousands of listings. However, a vacation rental website will help your business stand out from the competition and help your guests in identifying your brand as something more than just another vacation rental business.

It’s easy to accomplish

The main thing that refrains business owners from creating a vacation rental website is the efforts and costs involved behind it. Yes, building a vacation rental website for your business from scratch is an elaborate and time-consuming process that involves a lot of money as well, However, besides the elaborate ways, there are some easy ways out there. White label solutions allow you to create your own vacation rental website and accept online bookings effortlessly and cost-effectively. These solutions are 100% customizable so you can adapt each aspect to fit your business needs and goals. Creating your own stunning hospitality website allows you to synchronize your site with any external channels to manage reservations from a centralized system. Plus, you can easily integrate your website with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Conclusion

Having a professional vacation rental website can enhance your business. Not only does it offer the control to market your business the way you want it, but it also helps diversify your booking channels. Vacation rental websites can help businesses to expand their reach, take more bookings, save time and manage everything from a centralized platform, and integrate with external applications. A carefully structured business website can help you have all the tools in place to grow your business to new levels.
If you ever thought of owning a vacation rental website for your business then check out our Airbnb clone script to get your vacation rental website.