Newsletter Performance Tips

Performance Tips

Customer Segmentation

A targeted marketing plan helps you capitalize on information you already know about your customers, such as their origins and segmentations. Our channel partners feature marketing and promotional tools specifically designed to help you increase your revenue based on that information. Let’s review a couple right now.

Booking Window

Source: VRM Intel

In regards to a customer’s booking window, how far in advance they book your rental can determine your rate and length of stay factors. Those who book further out in advance pay higher rates and stay for more nights.

So, how can you attract an audience who is willing to book further in advance? The best way is to utilize the promotional tools provided by our channel partners, including:

Booking.com – Early Booker Deal sets an amount of days in advance that someone can book. Set any number of days and provide a discount of your choosing. You may pick blackout dates and even target members.

Expedia – Book Early and Save rewards travelers planning their vacation in advance with a generous discount, all while building your base occupancy. This campaign’s promotional discount’s minimum is 20%.

Find out more about each travel channel’s promotions here.

Booking Channel

You can also discover which listing sites are most productive for your properties, then build off those segmentations with campaigns created by each site. Campaigns are designed to attract travelers and are promoted through each travel channel’s listing rankings. You can utilize these campaigns to boost a low customer base on a particular listing site, or to maximize your performance on your best channels.

Click here to view all available promotions for each of our partner travel channels.

Below, you can learn more about another one of our favorite types of promotion: Packages!

Packages

In recent years, online travel sites have made it a point to ramp up the number and variety of travel packages they offer. Each channel’s suite of bundle options might include packages like flight + accommodation; flight + car; hotel + car; or even flight + accommodation + car.

Packages are extremely appealing to travelers, so they pack quite a bit of power. Vacation rental managers who don’t tap into the very real potential of packages may lose out on a significant amount of unrealized revenue.

That’s especially true for properties located in destinations that rely heavily on air transport and international travelers. In certain markets, if you do not participate in package marketing, your properties might not even be seen by travelers.

Let’s check out the data.

A recent study conducted by Expedia revealed that package buyers booked, on average, one month earlier than standalone reservations (which are not bundled in a package). Standalone bookings are also 260% more likely to cancel their reservation than package consumers.

“Package bookings offer many benefits to property managers and travelers, and to get the most value from packages, property managers should know their top origins markets, both domestically and abroad,” says Melissa Maher, SVP of Marketing & Industry Engagement at Expedia. She added that hotels should offer “origin-specific” deals and promotions, monitor exchange rates in their top source markets, and know the key booking and travel periods for different international markets.

Interested in increasing your production by offering special package rates? VacayHome Connect’s Client Success Managers will guide you on optimizing your offerings on Expedia and attract more vacation package travelers.