The Booking Experience

Accept Online Bookings & Payments
Convenience is the name of the game anymore. As technology continues to advance, it’s become easier than ever before for consumers to get what they want when they want it. The majority of travelers who look at your property listing will want to have the ability to book and pay for the rental immediately, much like they would with a hotel. The booking and payment process should be as simple and quick as possible. If your vacation rental listing doesn’t have this capability, the process could take up a significant amount of a guest’s time. This can be off-putting to guests who are more than likely interested in getting their vacation details squared away in a short amount of time. Taking the time to enable online bookings and accept online payments for your rental will make your property a lot more accessible to an increased number of potential guests.
Show an Accurate Calendar

Respond to Inquiries Quickly
If you’ve been ignoring guest inquiries that come in through HomeAway, your property ranking will suffer for it. As mentioned, the user experience is incredibly important. So if it becomes obvious that you rarely respond to inquiries or take a very long time to do it, this signals to the listing sites that you aren’t providing a great booking experience. Make guest inquiries a priority to give your property a better chance at a higher ranking.
Have an Eye-Catching Headline

Post Beautiful Photographs
As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” You’ll want to make sure that your property photos are well done and accurately represent the property. This may mean that you’ll need to hire a professional photographer. Most vacation owners find that this expense is one that’s well worth it. Guests are more inclined to click on listings that show off great photos. You’ll also want to ensure that these photos do a nice job of showing off all the different aspects of your vacation home or condo. If your guests arrive to find that your listing photos didn’t accurately convey your property, you’ll likely hear about it in your property reviews.
Write an Accurate Listing

Validate Your Address
While some vacation rental owners are wary of providing their property’s address to listing sites, having a verified address will boost your results ranking. Listing sites will only provide your address to guests who are confirmed. So while your listing will show a map with a pin representing your property’s location, they will not show the actual address. A validated address will also help to ensure that your vacation home or condo is showing up in the right set of listings to those guests who are interested in staying in your area. So, if you haven’t yet provided HomeAway with a correct and verified address for your property, now’s the time to do so.
Activate Quotable Rates
Guests can search through property listings by location and availability dates, but they can also search by rates. When you activate quotable rates on your HomeAway listing, this will ensure that your property shows up for those guests who are searching by their desired rates. Having quotable rates improves your listing score and subsequently your results ranking as it provides guests with an extra element of convenience as they look for the perfect vacation property.
Get Reviews & Keep Getting Them

Focus on Your Guests
The long and short of optimizing your HomeAway listing is to focus on your guests’ needs, wants, and preferences. Make sure it’s always up to date, accurate, and with items enabled like quotable rates and online booking capability and make sure you always get back to your guests quickly. The better time a guest has with their booking experience, the higher your property will be ranked, and the better search ranking means that you’ll get more bookings.
If you have questions about getting your Breckenridge vacation property on the major listing sites, feel free to give us a call at (970) 528-9700. Our team can help you maximize your vacation rental revenue.
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