Building a blog is an inseparable part of a vacation rental’s digital marketing campaigns. However, writing quality blog posts sounds like a lot of work for a busy vacation rental manager. If you have ever given it a try, you must know that writing a blog worth reading is easier said than done and choosing an appealing topic for your target audience is even more complicated. As the first step is always the hardest, we have tried to put together a list of vacation rental blog post ideas to help you come up with what to write about and start your short-term rental blogging journey.
But before going through the list of our suggested vacation rental blog post ideas, let’s see why a vacation rental manager should bother writing, editing, and publishing weekly content on their blog and spending their precious time blogging when they have a pile of other jobs to do? Answering this question can help you take blogging more seriously.
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Why Should I Start a Vacation Rental Blog?
Many vacation rental managers and property owners are fed up with losing a considerable percentage of their revenue to online booking giants like Airbnb. They wish to stand on their own feet and steal some market shares away from OTAs.
Some accommodation providers think having a website with a booking engine is all they need to receive direct bookings. This sounds like quite a smart solution, but having a website is not enough. How should a website gain visibility and get seen by prospective guests? Here are some magic effects a blog can have on your business growth.
1. Driving More Direct Booking Website Traffic
Nothing can increase your search engine ranking and drive traffic into your website like quality content published on a regular basis.
Based on a recent study by HubSpot, 44% of online shoppers begin by using a search engine. Your potential guests most probably don’t know about you. They start planning a trip by googling a query of what they have in mind. Therefore, in order for potential guests to find you, your website needs to be ranked in search engines, especially on Google. Posting regular, relevant content on your vacation rental blog will help your website get higher visibility.
2. Turning Visitors to Leads
An engaging blog stuffed with good vacation rental blog post ideas will turn the traffic coming to your website to conversions. The more attractive your blog content, the more interested your visitors will be in interacting with you. It will form a community around your vacation rental business and make your users frequently check your blog, and trust you. As a result, your brand will be their utmost priority when they are looking for accommodation for their holidays and business travels depending, of course, on your target market.
3. Turning Lookers Into Bookers
Your blog has the magical power to tickle your readers’ travel bug and make them plan a trip even if they have not intended to. You can make people long for and dream about your property by an expertly written description of your place and destination.
Many travelogues start with this sentence: ‘It all started when I was sitting at my office cubicle reading a blog post about…, and soon I found myself on the road.’
4. Making Content for Your Social Media
To have a successful marketing strategy, you must utilise all the tools at your disposal in a way that they highlight and complement each other. Sharing the link to your informative blog posts on your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts will lead your users to read your blog and produce fresh content for your social media.
5. Developing Better Relationships With Your Guests
Build trust by generously sharing what you know or have collected by doing research with your online visitors and be a good source of information for them. Your visitors like to interact with you and learn things from your blog.
Your blog gives you a voice and creates a personality for your vacation rental business. You can share your opinions and thoughts on specific topics.
Vacation Rental Blog Post Ideas for Your Direct Booking Website
About Travel in General
A good starting point is to focus on the world of travel. Writing helpful and informative travel blog posts is an ideal way to get connected to travel enthusiasts. Provide people with some travel experience by writing how-tos, walkthroughs, tutorials, lists and tips and hacks articles. People will appreciate it if you teach them how to plan and budget their trip or give them some advice on the free things they can do while travelling. Some of the popular blog post headlines in this category are:
- Top tips and tricks for packing before a trip
- How to save money in your travel piggy bank
- The ultimate guide to travel with empty hands
- The pros and cons of travelling alone
- The best ways to find cheap flights and last minute deals
- A step by step guide to making an itinerary
- # tips to choose the best hotel, hostel, etc. for your trip
- An ultimate guide to couch surfing
- How to eat cheap while on a trip
- # smart ways to split travel expenses with friends
Frequently sharing your favourite TV shows, books you have recently read, and documentaries about travel is another effective way to communicate with your audience. You can also recommend podcasts for listening while on long flights or road trips.
Your Vacation Rental’s Highlights
Write a blog post about one of your vacation rental features that you are most proud of and want to show off to the people who might be interested in your property. You can talk about one of your unique amenities or a piece of your decoration that is special to you. You might also highlight the super-fast internet connection and a quiet place to get some work done in your property for business guests.
Compare your vacation rental to a hotel and tell people why vacation rentals are overtaking hotels as a better place to spend their vacation. Give them reasons why they should stay at your property rather than a hotel or hostel.
As another vacation rental blog post idea, you may also find it appealing to tell your guests how your short-term rental contributes to saving the environment. Write a post and explain all your efforts to make your rental go green like using smart energy-saving rental home solutions. Tell your guests how your vacation rental supports the local community and business owners.
Your Potential Guests’ Questions
Think like your target audience and try to answer the questions your readers might have. Put yourself in your potential guests’ shoes and try to find out all the enquiries they like to ask about your property and its location. You can check on travel forums to gain some insights into what people ask.
Local Tips
Sell your destination together with your vacation rental by telling why people should visit your area and introducing cool places nearby. Write informative but fun blog posts about things they can do in your vicinity and help them plan for a trip to your rental. Give them some information about:
- The tourist attractions near you
- Local seasonal events (announcements or reviews)
- Local sporting events
- Ski, hiking and biking trails
- Things to do on a rainy day
- The best activities for kids
- Shopping spots and local markets
- The most beautiful places in your city to take photos
- Horse riding and fishing spots
- Local favourite bars & restaurants
The Local Culture
One of the most worthwhile travel experiences is exploring new cultures and diving deep into the lives of people in different parts of the world. However, many vacationers might be afraid of asking questions or making mistakes. Be as open as possible and give your readers some first-hand experience of your culture.
Write about the local recipes and make them simple for your visitors not to be afraid to try them. You can also explain the locals’ special idioms and words to help your visitors have a more comfortable journey. Suggest some family fun activities nearby for them to immerse deeper into the local culture.
You can write pages on local music, cuisine, history, traditions, customs, traditional sports and games and the nightlife to keep your visitors entertained and teach them something.
Your Vacation Rentals History or the Story of Your Career
Create a personal connection with your audience by recounting them the stories behind places and people. Write a blog post and tell the story of how your property became a vacation home, how you ended up as a vacation rental manager and the reasons why you love hosting guests.
Let your readers get familiar with you and your rental before they meet you. This helps them create a bond with you and build trust.
Testimonials and Previous Guests’ Travelogues
You don’t have to produce all of the content for your vacation rental blog by yourself. Sometimes you can ask your guests who have enjoyed staying at your home to write a short testimonial or travel story and share their experiences with your future guests. Many people will be more than happy to do it for you after a memorable stay at your property to show their appreciation.
You can share some photos of your recent guests having fun at your rental with engaging photo captions or record short videos of your past guests’ testimonials. Sharing your classic guestbook pages or making a digital copy of it for your property and encouraging your guests to leave notes in it is also another way to collect positive comments that build trust and create appeal.
You don’t have to be a great writer or a content marketing expert to start blogging for your vacation rental website. Forget about all of your failures and frustration in your writing courses. Get down to writing, and don’t expect yourself to be perfect. It just takes time and a bit of effort to make a good blogger.
Just bear in mind that blogging is not a task and it should never be one. Enjoy sharing your passion with your audience. Don’t just do it because you’re seeking more traffic to your website.
Come up with vacation rental blog post ideas and topics that interest you. Writing will get a lot easier for you if you feel a personal connection with the topic. Your readers can easily tell your lack of enthusiasm in a subject by reading your posts.
Before starting to write, try to review who you are writing for and who your audience is. You write for people who will book your home and show how your vacation rental fits into their perfect vacation plan.
If your beach house is popular with families, kids or people who enjoy relaxing by the sea, don’t waste your time writing articles for youngsters with a taste of adventure and hiking and biking enthusiasts. Just because it is a subject you know and like to write about, it doesn’t mean your specific audience like it.
