Ah, the end of peak season, what a relief! If you’ve had a successful high season, you’ll be ready for a break when things slow down. Take a moment to enjoy being less busy, then get ready to get to work because there’s plenty to do to make sure the bookings keep rolling in.
The slow season is a great time to get some perspective on your Airbnb business, to get clarity on your goals and how you’re going to achieve them and to take steps that will help you become even more successful in the coming year.
Here are my tips for what to do when things slow down for success in your vacation rental business.
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Tip 1: When things slow down, take a good look at your listings.
You should be updating your listings often, but it can be easy to set it and forget it when you’re busy with the day-to-day demands of your business. The slow season is the perfect time for fine-tuning your listings because it may take a little more work to get rented when there’s less demand.
Write descriptions that paint a picture.
When potential guests read your descriptions, can they easily imagine how they will feel when they stay at your place? Get beyond the bare facts and take the time to write descriptions that will appeal directly to your ideal guests.
Go over your reviews, guest book, emails, and comments from past guests to see what they liked about your place. Have you mentioned those things in your description? Consider what sets your vacation rental apart from the competition and play those qualities up.
Fine-tune your rates to reflect demand.
Take a look at your competitors to see how your rates measure up. In a very slow season, chances are they’ve cut rates, so make sure your prices aren’t much higher (or lower) than the rest of the pack.
The slow season is also an excellent time to try a dynamic pricing tool like AirDna or Pricelabs to see if they will work for you. Airbnb has its own smart pricing – just be sure you agree with the suggested rates before committing.
Get a little more lenient with the rules.
When the competition is more fierce, your minimum stays, extra guest charges, or strict cancellation policy might be the factor that has a potential guest booking elsewhere. Review your policies to see areas where you could be a little more flexible, especially if your competitors have already made those changes.
Remember, however, that it’s your business, and you don’t have to do anything that feels too risky.
Maximize your holiday weekends.
Look at the calendar for the next six months (or a year) and ensure you’ve set minimum nights and appropriate rates for long weekends, special events, and holidays. There’s nothing worse than realizing after the fact that you could have charged more for an event that you didn’t know about until it’s too late.
Make sure your listing photos are on point.
This is one we talk about a lot here, and it’s because your photos are your most valuable marketing assets. Compare your photos with your competitors on your phone, tablet, and desktop to ensure they’re eye-catching and attractive. If you’re not sure, ask for an honest opinion. If it’s time for new photos, check out our tips for taking them yourself or hiring a pro.
If your vacation rental is in a place that actually has seasons, make sure you have photos of how charming your place looks in the off-season. Showing your rental all decked out in autumn or winter decor might be just the cozy vibe your guests are looking for. Be sure to take photos for social media while you’re at it.
Explore new listing platforms.
Your rental should be on as many platforms as you can handle. Your business should exist independently of Airbnb or VRBO, even if you don’t have a website yet. That means those sites are merely advertisers, and you should advertise in as many places as possible. Just make sure you understand the cost of listing on a site before committing.
If your bookings have really slowed down, research alternative types of bookings, like mid-term stays, on a site like Furnished Finder. You can also explore opening up your place for events, photo shoots, or meetings on sites like Peerspace or Giggster if you’re in a location that would attract bookings. Just be sure to research insurance requirements since your current policy is unlikely to cover commercial activity.
Tip 2: Get in touch with former and future guests.
Drop them a note (with permission).
If you haven’t been collecting email addresses from your guests, now is the time to start. Your returning guests are your very best guests. They know you and your rental, and they liked it – don’t let them forget about you!
You must have permission to email your guests, however, so be sure to give them a chance to opt-in to your list. You can use a service like Mailchimp and include a link in your booking emails that invites them to join your inner circle. You could also have a QR code at your rental for guests to sign up for exclusive offers.
Once you have your list, make sure you’re sending good stuff. It doesn’t always have to be a discount; you can share interesting things happening in your location, improvements you’re making, or holiday best wishes. Just keep in touch to stay top of mind.
Give them something special.
Of course, everyone likes a discount. Consider a “friends and family” discount if they refer someone, a returning guest rate, or a last-minute special. Having a good guest return is well worth the discount.
Make the most of social media.
If your rental’s social media presence has stalled while you’ve been busy, take advantage of the slow season by batching content and scheduling it to post automatically. Use your brand identity to create templates with an app like Canva, so that you have stuff to post even if you can’t be there to take photos.
In addition to photos, you can post review snippets, FAQs, local events, flash sales, and more. More and more guests are looking for rentals on social media, so be sure they can find you.
Tip 3: Take advantage of the slow season to get your vacation rental back in tip-top shape.
Inspect your vacation rental and write it all down.
At the end of a busy season, your property can get as tired as you are. Visit your rental and make note of anything that’s worn, dirty, or broken. Pay special attention to outdoor furniture and equipment, ceilings, and baseboards.
Schedule repairs where needed, and consider having carpets and upholstery professionally cleaned and paint touched up. Now is also a good time to do what you can to protect your vacation rental furniture, so take a look at tabletops that might need protective glass or upholstery that could be treated with stain protection.
Schedule deep cleaning and routine maintenance.
In addition to the repairs you can see, be sure to change filters that need to be changed, have HVAC systems inspected and serviced, replace bulbs and batteries, oil hinges, and generally take care of anything that could cause guests to complain once you get busy again.
If you’re slow, your housekeepers probably are, too, so they may appreciate extra pay for deep cleaning. Brainstorm with them and make a list of deep cleaning tasks together.
It’s also a good time to sort through your sheets and towels and replace any torn or stained.
Update your style with low-cost accessories.
Now is the perfect time to freshen up your decor with new throw pillows, blankets, rugs, accessories, or art, especially if you’re preparing for a change of season. These are a cost-effective way to incorporate trends into your decor, and they’re fun to shop for, too. Check out this article for more cheap ways to freshen up your decor.
Tip 4: Take advantage of the slow season now to plan for a busy future.
Explore your marketing options
As we touched on before, if your rental isn’t on social media, it should be. Explore and see what search terms work for your area and style of rentals, and be sure to include those in your captions. If you can post videos of your property and area, even better.
Don’t forget to check out your local tourism board. They can be a great place to advertise and a good way to research other businesses you may want to recommend to your guests.
Do you have a website for your vacation rental? A website is essential if you want to take direct bookings (and you should). Some property management software includes a website with a subscription, which can be an easy way to start. Personally, I like to keep my website separate so that if I decide to use different software, it won’t affect my site.
Your website can be very simple to start. If you don’t do anything else, you can brainstorm ideas for a website name and make sure the URL is available. Most are cheap and worth buying so someone else doesn’t grab it while you’re getting ready.
Freshen up your branding.
Have you established a brand identity for your rental? That is, do you have a name, logo, and color palette? If not, now is the time to figure it all out. Don’t worry if you’re not a designer; there are custom and semi-custom options out there that look great and don’t cost an arm and a leg. Here’s a post we wrote with some of our favorites.
Set up direct booking.
Booking directly is one of the best ways to make your vacation rental more profitable. Nobody likes fees, and the listing sites have complete control over the fees they charge. The easiest way to take direct bookings is to use management software (I like OwnerRez, but there are others). You can also send invoices payable online with an app like Quickbooks. Still, rental software offers the added benefit of making sure your calendar is always synched, automating emails, and many other things.
There can be a learning curve when you learn new software, so take advantage of the slow season to do some software trials to see if any of them will work for you.
Tip 5: Use the slow season to ensure you’re getting what you need from your Airbnb business.
Enjoy your own property.
The slow season can be a great time to relax at your own vacation rental, especially if you’re already there making lists and such. It seems silly to remind owners to enjoy their property, but it’s easy to go into work mode at your rental, especially when you’ve been in business for a few years. Invite friends and family to join you to put you in a vacation mindset and experience your short-term rental as your guests do. Chances are, you’ll find more energy to do the things you need to do when you’re reminded of how special your vacation rental is.
Check in with yourself.
When you started your vacation rental business, you had an idea of what you wanted to get out of it. Maybe it was merely a revenue stream, maybe it was the challenge of a fixer-upper, or maybe it was the chance to own a property you’ve always dreamed of.
Have your goals changed? Have you drifted away from what interested you in the first place? Take some time to reflect on how you’re spending your time with your business. Are you doing too much of what you don’t want to do and not enough of what you do? Are there ways to change that?
For me, it was the admin tasks that were sucking the joy out of my vacation rental experience. I was taking direct bookings, but I was doing it without software. That meant I had to remember to update spreadsheets, send invoices and emails, schedule reminders, and update calendars. Doing a lot of little tasks consistently is not one of my strengths, and despite my checklists and calendar reminders, I always felt like I was forgetting something. Still, I felt silly using management software for only one property. When I finally broke down and tried it, I felt like a dummy for not doing it much sooner and wondered why I ever questioned it.
The beauty of having a vacation rental is that you’re the boss, so take the time during your slow season to do more of what you like to do in your business and less of what you don’t.
