According to a study conducted by Hubspot, more than 90% of businesses confirmed that using real estate technology and social media marketing was essential for their business. Around 80% of them claimed that their efforts considerably increased traffic to their websites.

When it comes to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram engagement is very useful, so knowing how to use these tools to your advantage can help boost your vacation rental bookings.

1. Have separate accounts

If your personal Instagram profile is filled with family photos and other personal pics, create a separate account for your holiday rental. Same goes for Twitter and Facebook: you should create pages for your rental properties that guests can interact with, without interfering with your personal life. Additionally, a Facebook business page can also be managed by someone else, such as by a property management company.

2. Post useful things

Sharing information and photos of your rental units is good, but your followers will get bored of seeing the same things over and over again. To keep your followers engaged, add a mix of interesting things that your current and future guests can actually use.

You could provide recommendations and tips on the local area. Your guests will be happy to see that you want them to have a good time, and your social media pages will become more popular.

3. Promote an experience rather than a place

When you are sharing professional videos and photos of your rental units, try conveying a nice experience rather than just showcasing a place. Imagine a standard real estate picture of the unit that shows how spacious and nicely decorated it is. Now, take it up a notch: imagine it’s winter, so you post pictures of your living room filled with holiday decorations, a tray of delicious hot beverages placed conveniently on the coffee table.

You want to show guests what their experience staying in your property will be like. Promoting amazing experiences is essential to being successful and receiving bookings.

4. Encourage guests to check into your proeperty on Facebook and tag it in their photos.

You can offer to take a photo of them if you notice that they are sharing a special moment, and encourage them to check into or to tag your place on social platforms.

Ensure you only ask once and that you don't come off as forceful. Let them know that you enjoy being mentioned in your guests’ social media posts and that it’s perfectly fine if they want to take photos inside the unit and post them on their pages.

Your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest handles should be included on all guest books and flyers so your guests can find them. Doing these simple things will greatly improve your online presence and you’ll soon realise that you have more accommodation requests than before.

5.  Encourage satisfied guests to review your property

It is very important to have as many positive reviews as possible on platforms like Airbnb or TripAdvisor. Additionally, you can also encourage your guests to leave reviews on Google Maps and on your Facebook page. This will be very beneficial, especially if you don’t mind taking bookings from many different sources.

6.  Don’t forget to use hashtags and location tagging

Reaching an audience who does not know that you exist is impossible. The solution to that, however, is by using hashtags and location tags. For Instance, when you post a photo of your vacation property, you should always include your location in the description and add some landmark hashtags.

On Twitter, you can check what hashtags are trending and use some of them in your Tweets. Being popular on these channels is important for Airbnb managers, especially if the competition is fierce and if there are a lot of Airbnb rental properties in your area.

7. Try to be genuine

Nothing beats honesty and showing some personality is very important. Whether it’s an Instagram photo of your guests taking silly photos or saying something funny on Twitter every once in a while, being yourself online will make your potential guests trust you more. So if you want your audiences to engage with you, you must not be afraid to reach out, share with them, and always respond to their feedback.

Technology is a great asset for Airbnb managers and used right, it can improve your occupancy rates considerably. Make sure you embrace social media and other technological innovations such as property maintenanceols like Bricks + Agent. By using a cloud-based property maintenance platform, you can manage Airbnb properties more efficiently and save a lot of time, money, and effort.

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