Antonio Bortolotti (above) has had a thriving holiday rental property in Sardinia for six years.
His colourful one-bed villa in the rural village of Teulada has been such a success he now makes a living out of running seminars and workshops advising owners, through HomeAway.com. Here he shares some secrets...
1. Develop a unique, inspiring brand - give your target audience a clear, distinguished image among your competitors.
2. Foster massive online presence - to be found and noticed; advertise on multiple listing sites, build social media channels, design your own striking website.
3. Use collective buying channels - to run promotions, sell off -season weeks while drawing massive flows of traffic to your site, attract loads of prospective guests and generate direct enquiries.
4. Blow your prospective guests away - with unexpected, great content in your first reply and stand out from the crowd while making a striking first impression.
5. Install a free chat tool on your site to engage with visitors, provide direct, immediate access to you, respond to questions regarding your property and increase conversion rate by 25 per cent.
6. Reveal a surprise gift (e.g. complimentary bottle of wine) or unexpected feature (e.g. surprise picnic basket not mentioned anywhere) - when collecting balance payments to gain your guests' likes well before they arrive (and lower complaints in case of unexpected issues).
7. Offer consistent discount (20 per cent) to returning guests and extend it to referred customers to leverage the power of word of mouth.
Statistically, returning guests do not count for an important part of your bookings, but the deal alone will encourage them to act as ambassadors of your home.
8. Maximize enquiry to conversion rate - through outstanding communication techniques from A to Z and show off five-star services by exceeding expectations.
9. Exploit the full potential of reviews - to establish your property's ironclad reputation for success, build trust and lower barriers; minimize chances to get public negative comments by collecting previous private feedback.
To learn more about HOW to develop these tactics and apply these tips successfully read our dedicated rental guides here >>
