So you’ve listed your outdoor accommodation with Stays – awesome! Glamping and other unique short-term rentals are surging in popularity all over the world.
People are hungry to restore their connection with nature and hosts like you are making it possible. But listing your Stay is just the first step. Your next mission is to get your listing kicking on all cylinders, and we’re here to help.
Let’s break out all the key steps you want to take now to get our Outdoorsy community noticing your listing.
Photo Check
We wrote up this article with top tips for taking the best listing photos. Dig into that for all the details.
The TLDR is that you generally want to have 20+ high res photos that help people imagine themselves in your space. Take excellent photos on a good weather day and in a well-lit space.
Capture key areas like the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, hangout areas, and the outdoor features that make your place lovely.
Pictures are possibly the biggest thing that’ll sell your listing — that’s why it’s vital to get this right.
How’s Your Listing Description?
Guests want to know everything they’ll be experiencing in your space. It’s also important to hook them early because online attention spans are so short.
This is where your listing description comes in. Here’s a post we wrote on writing a killer listing description for RV rentals — the same fundamentals apply here.
Here are some key takeaways:
–Make your listing title all it can be — Your listing title is the hook that draws people in to read further. What is one big, really cool thing about your Stay that you can highlight here? Single it out in your title to keep people looking.
–Highlight key activities near you — Are you near a national park or other popular outdoor attraction? Be sure to play it up in your listing description.
–Describe all amenities in detail — Is the bathroom private or shared? What’s the kitchen set up like? Are s’more supplies on tap? What special and fun things can guests look forward to?
Take the time you need to fully describe these sorts of things because they’ll be very important to guests.
–Talk about your area — What makes your location better than others in your region? Guests looking to stay in your neck of the woods will want to know why they should stay in your part of town over the others.
Amenities List
The amenities you offer at your Stay will be promoted via a checklist of sorts that guests will be looking over. You’ve probably seen this before on other short-term rental sites where it breaks out whether things like air conditioning, private bathrooms, linens, and more are offered in a stay.
Nothing can upset a guest experience more than an amenity that’s expected but not really offered. That’s why it’s crucial to take time to make sure you accurately and fully describe what your stay does and does not have.
Marketing Check
We have millions of folks hitting our site every year in search of a deeper connection with nature. And we want to get that Outdoorsy audience to your door.
We’re really good at the heavy lifting involved with getting your listing in the right places. Once it’s in front of the right eyeballs, it’ll be up to you to hook them in with a solid listing.
Give your whole listing another pass with a marketer’s eye — are the photos, title, and description all syncing together? Are you using key terms in your writing that people might be searching for (e.g. glamping near Glacier National Park)? Are you competitively priced for what you’re offering? Do you have dates available during the high booking seasons?
By asking questions like these, you’ll optimize your listing to get guests to your door.
Pricing Strategies
The first step with pricing is to check other similar accommodations in your area to ensure your base price is neither too high nor too low.
From there, there are a few other strategies you should consider:
–Dynamic pricing — Big event coming to your area? Prices for all accommodations will likely jump for that timeframe. Be sure to adjust your prices well ahead of time for dates like these so you don’t miss out on revenue.
–Off-season pricing — Most areas have a slower season of some kind. During that time, supply will be higher than demand. You can give yourself an edge if you competitively adjust your pricing well ahead of time to make yourself one of the more attractive options.
–Discounts for longer stays — If you have a stay type that people might tend to book for longer stays, it can sometimes be a good option to offer a small discount for stays of five days or more. This’ll incentivize guests to book longer and usually helps save you money with fewer turnovers.
Calendar Checking and Syncing
Few things will drag you down more than a guest booking dates you can’t actually deliver on. That’s why it’s vital to double, triple, and quadruple-check your Stays availability calendar to make sure you can deliver on all the dates you have open.
It’s also important from a marketing standpoint to open up as many date ranges as possible.
If you have your Stay listed on multiple platforms, be sure to sync the calendars together so you don’t get the dreaded double booking. We currently support calendar syncs with Airbnb, RVShare, and Hipcamp.
Hospitality Check
If this is a new stay for you, it’s important to take stock of the sort of experience you want to provide.
Will guests be able to call you when needed or is messaging better?
Will you or someone be on site for any guest needs that might come up?
Do you want to have automated locks, a self-check-in process, and a self-serve amenity cabinet? Or do you want to offer guests a more hands-on check-in experience?
What special things might you offer like free firewood, s’more supplies, discounts on area activities, etc.?
Visualize the experience you want people to have at your stay and bake it into your process for every guest arrival.
Review Building
Online reviews are a key factor in guest decision-making. That’s why it’s key to your success that you be proactive in creating a five-star experience.
Note that ‘five-star’ in this case doesn’t mean the Ritz Carlton. In the context of short-term rentals, five-star reviews mean that guests receive exactly what was promised and a bit more.
Check in with your guest once or twice during their stay to make sure everything is what they expected. Provide nice little surprises and extra touches along the way.
From there, the biggest next step is to ask for a review. Outdoorsy has a system in place that’ll encourage both parties to review each other, and it also helps greatly if you ask the guest in person and via a follow-up message to please leave you a review.
Check out this article we put together on all the things you can do to get solid reviews.
We’re stoked to have you on board with Stays. People need connection with nature and we’re offering that in a new and fun way. Thanks for joining us on this journey to get more glamping going on. The tips above will help your outdoor accommodation be all it can be.
