How to Write a Captivating Vacation Rental Listing
Crafting the perfect vacation rental listing can be challenging, especially if you’re targeting different kinds of clientele. However, it’s important to make a good first impression on potential guests by taking the time to highlight your vacation rental’s best features.
Modern travelers typically prefer creative, informative, and well-written content in listing descriptions. This helps them understand what your property offers and helps you immediately establish a relationship of trust with potential guests.
Whether you’re targeting your Airbnb to business travelers or retirees, there are a few key steps to follow that will help you generate more inquiries on their rentals.
Identify Your Audience
Before you start highlighting everything you find useful and attractive in your rental, you want to identify your ideal guest(s) and write a listing description that speaks to them. Although you should be thorough in your description, you don’t want to overwhelm the reader, and so you will most likely have to pick and choose what amenities to call attention to.
The features you highlight, as well as the language you use to describe them, will depend on who your target audience is. Single millennials, young families, and retired couples are seeking different accommodations. Your main goal is to use vocabulary that will convince your ideal guest to book your place.
Establish a Warm & Welcoming Tone
Airbnb advises its hosts to ‘write how they talk.’ The idea behind this suggestion is to establish a tone that feels warm and welcoming, as opposed to formal. Ideally, your property listing description strikes the perfect balance between sounding professional and friendly.
Think of your listing description as the first point of communication between you and your guest. It’s important you let your hospitality shine through. This gives users a sneak peak into the kind of experience that’s waiting for them at your vacation rental
Use Descriptive Imagery
Amateur hosts often fall into the trap of listing off all the amenities their property has to offer. This is usually not a good idea for two reasons: First, because not all amenities will entice your target audience to book and second, because it makes it more difficult to incorporate descriptive imagery into your listing.
To help guests envision themselves on your property you almost have to take them on a journey with you through the property. This can be done via storytelling which is supported by descriptive imagery and active verbs.
Don’t be intimidated by the literary terms! You don’t have to be a writing expert to achieve this—you just have to know your target audience as well as you know your property.
Keep it Short & Sweet
The vast majority of Americans use their mobile devices to research vacation options, meaning that hosts should be writing their listing descriptions bearing this in mind. It’s best to write short, succinct sentences that readers can quickly skim.
It’s also best to organize your vacation rental listing into easy-to-digest chunks. Even if your Airbnb listing is long, readers are more likely to take in important information when separated by an appropriate amount of white space.
You may even consider using subtitles to separate important sections, as seen on blogs and articles online. This has a positive effect on search engine rankings both on and off booking platforms.
Know Which Keywords to Use
While we are on the topic of search engines, let’s discuss the importance of keywords in your listing description. Hosts should come up with a list of keywords that will attract their target audience and weave them into their Airbnb listings.
Not only does this help potential guests understand your property’s amenities better, but it also helps booking platforms categorize your stay as well. Airbnb recently came out with a new way of displaying its vacation rentals where guests can search based not just on location, but on categories such as design and topography.
Hosts can maximize their chances of appearing under one or more of Airbnb’s new 50+ categories by featuring keywords such as:
City views
Stainless steel appliances
High ceilings
Island vibes
X-minutes away from the beach
Camping grounds
X-minutes away from national parks
Breakfast included
Whatever sets your short-term rental apart should be considered for your keyword list. Check out Airbnb’s new way to search to generate unique keywords for your listing description.
Answer Their Questions Before They Ask
What better way to reassure potential guests than by anticipating their needs and answering questions they’ve yet to ask. If you’re having trouble coming up with unique selling propositions to highlight, use the remaining space to answer common guest questions such as:
Are pets allowed on your property?
Are they allowed to party? If so, what do they need to be aware of (noise level, condo rules, house rules for parties, etc.)
Do you have any public transportation near your property? How far is it from the nearest train station or bus stop?
What bed sizes do you have in your rooms? (This allows guests to estimate how many people can fit in a room).
Are there grocery stores nearby so they can cook at home? Is the kitchen off-limits?
Include a Clear Call to Action
Most vacation rental descriptions don’t include a call to action. But, if you want to increase your chances of hearing directly from potential guests, it’s a good idea to include a few words towards the end prompting guests to submit an inquiry. Experiment with the following calls to action:
“You won’t find any other place like this!”
“Our calendar fills up fast so be sure to request to book right away to guarantee your stay.”
“We’d love to host you and your loved ones. Shoot us a quick message with any questions you may have.”
Need help writing your vacation rental listing?
Following the advice mentioned above will help you enhance your rental property descriptions, but it can be difficult if writing isn’t your strong suit. At MB Experiences we handle all of your needs as a host, which includes writing compelling vacation rental listings that keep your Airbnb or Vrbo property booked year-round!
Call or email us today to learn more about our vacation rental management services. We look forward to hearing from you.
