After talking with many owners and answering a lot of questions, we have realized that many of you are not sure what to write about or how to get started on an idea for writing your submission. So we thought it will be a great idea to give you some examples to get you thinking and make it a little easier to get started. Example #1 How I Use Twitter to Promote my Rental Property With so many different social media platforms available to supplement a vacation rental marketing strategy, it’s tough to know which one is best. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what works for them t but how do you know what to spend time on. After all, if you tried to be expert at Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google + and YouTube from the get-go, it would get pretty overwhelming. What you use really depends on where you are starting from. If you like one platfrom over another, then it makes a lot of sense to stick with that one. I am a Twitter user and want to share how that has boosted my bottom line with my rental business. My goal with Twitter was to build a following of people who were in the travel and tourism industry rather than going for a broader base of potential rental guests. I figured that if I could get travel bloggers and writers talking about my location and style of accommodation, the traffic to my listing would follow. I set out to find a bunch of people to follow then started engaging with them – reading their tweets, and commenting or retweeting their content. I found very quickly that this type of networking was really effective at organic marketing. Here’s a few results from doing this: Interview with a national news programme about rental scams Segment on CBC Radio (Canada’s national radio station) on how guests should prepare for a rental vacation Requests from several celebrities (cannot name names but you would recognise them) for information on my properties. An invitation to guest post on a blog Getting active on Twitter wasn’t too time consuming although it took a few months and some work to get results, but if you go into it with the mindset that it’s all about networking, sharing and engaging, rather than a method of promoting your property you may find it’s a great way of indirect marketing. Heather Bayer has owned seven vacation rental properties in Ontario, Canada over the past ten years and currently has two active riverfront rental cottages. She is a tad obsessed with Twitter and can be found at www.twitter.com/cottageguru. She has written a Vacation Rental Owners Guide to Twitter that helps to explain how Twitter can be used as an effective marketing tool. Example #2 Turning on the music made all the difference Years ago, when I bought my first Ontario cottage and began renting it out, I knew zilch about it. Really, Nothing. I had stayed in vacation rentals in the UK and knew what I didn’t like – lumpy beds, blunt knives and old copies of National Geographic and Reader’s Digest, to name a few, but having spent my early years camping in wet tents in Scotland I was more tolerant than most. It was just nice to have a solid roof and an indoor toilet. So, when I started renting my own place it didn’t occur to me to create much more of a welcome than making sure the place was clean and tidy and all the light bulbs worked. Then, one day I was invited to look at the vacation home of a friend. She had a couple of properties and was very successful with a lot of repeat guests and I was intrigued to see how she did it. When she opened the door to the cottage, the very first thing I noticed was classical music playing. The place smelled lovely – not the artificial plug-in type – more of a fresh aroma, but the primary impression was made by the music and it was one that had a lasting impact on me. Since that time, along with all the other stuff I’ve learned about creating a first impression, the simple tactic of having that music on was one that has stuck the most and it is one I have always used. It is often commented on in reviews like these: This simple tip cost nothing and can make all the difference to a family arriving after a long journey, or in bad weather. Heather Bayer owns Osprey Cottage in Havelock, Ontario, Canada. She has been renting Osprey Cottage for 7 years and has recently purchased a 2nd cottage to prepare for rental. Hopefully this has given you a bit more of an idea of what to write. Please take a look at the submission page to see how to input your submission and also the Submission FAQ page for answers to the commonly asked questions. If you still feel uncomfortable with writing an article you can contact us to arrange an online skype interview and we can record the conversation and have it transcribed. Good luck and happy writing.
