Are you feeling overshadowed by the giants of the vacation rental industry? You're not alone. Many property managers believe they can't compete with Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo. But here's the truth: you can outshine them by adopting their best marketing tactics.

In this episode, we're joined by Uvika Wahi from Rental Scale-Up to uncover powerful insights on leveraging the advertising strategies of these industry leaders to boost your direct bookings.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Understand how Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO are spending their marketing budgets and why. 
• Learn how to craft compelling narratives that resonate with your ideal guests, just like the industry giants do. 
• Discover techniques to create marketing messages that speak to your guests’ desires and fears. 
• Uncover strategies to use guest feedback as a powerful marketing tool, inspired by Airbnb’s “Guest Favourite” Label. 
• Get actionable tips on how to apply these high-level strategies without breaking the bank. 

“What you think is the strength of your property may not be the thing that your guests care about the most. So this is about highlighting what your guests care about and using that to attract future guests.” - Uvika Wahi

About Uvika Wahi

Uvika is the editor at Rental Scale-Up, a leading source of short-term rental news and insights. She analyzes industry trends, contextualizes them with the help of a network of short-term rental operators, and advocates for sustainability within the short-term rental industry and beyond.

Connect with Uvika and Rental Scale-Up

Uvika’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uwahi/

Rental Scale-Up’s Website: https://www.rentalscaleup.com/

Get a weekly dose of STR marketing learnings through Rental Scale-Up’s newsletter; it’s a must read every week! Subscribe: https://www.rentalscaleup.com/newsletter/

Other Resources Uvika Mentioned in the Podcast

Check out these two properties with amazing storytelling strategies: 

Skol Apartments: https://www.skolapartmentsmarbella.com/

Casal dei Fichi: https://www.casaldeifichi.com/

Whether you're just starting out or looking to elevate your direct booking strategy, this episode provides valuable insights to help your short-term rental business thrive in a competitive landscape.

Ready to level up your marketing game? Tune in to learn how to apply big brand tactics on a small business budget and watch your direct bookings soar.

The key moments on this episode are:

00:00:00 Competing with Vacation Rental Giants: Leveraging Their Marketing Tactics

00:01:04 Meet Uvika Wahi: Insights from Rental Scale Up

00:03:51 Analyzing Big Brand Marketing Strategies

00:06:00 Television vs. Digital Advertising in Vacation Rentals

00:08:59 Emotional Storytelling in Vacation Rental Marketing

00:15:16 Developing a Unique Brand Identity

00:21:50 Leveraging Guest Reviews for Marketing

00:26:34 Key Takeaways and Closing Thoughts

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Show notes are available at: https://directbookingsuccess.com/podcast/

Join Jenn for a 90-minute LIVE & EXCLUSIVE Masterclass for FREE! 

More Bookings with Less Effort

Learn how to: 

• Cut through the noise to streamline your marketing efforts
• Make it easier to attract and convert guests without feeling overwhelmed
• Use two simple effective strategies that will lead to more direct bookings with less stress
• Use an all-in-one marketing platform to do the heavy lifting for you

Mark your calendar! 

Thursday, November 14th, 2024

11 am PST | 2 pm EST | 7 pm GMT

Secure your spot today: https://bookdirectpro.com/nextmasterclass

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Work with Jenn to maintain consistency in your marketing and boost your direct bookings without spending so much money on it: https://directbookingsuccess.com/apply/

The ULTIMATE all-in-one marketing platform for short term rental is finally here! Check it out: https://bookdirectpro.com/

FREE GUIDE: 10 Ways to Drive Guests to your Website instead of Airbnb: https://directbookingsuccess.com/10-ways-to-drive-guests-to-your-website-instead-of-airbnb/

Follow Jenn on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directbookingsuccess

Join Jenn’s free Facebook group – the Marketing Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/strmarketinghub

Are you feeling overshadowed by the giants in our vacation rental space? You're not alone. Many property managers believe they can't compete with Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO. But the truth is you can outshine them by boring their best marketing tactics. In this episode, we'll share powerful insights on how to leverage the advertising strategies of these industry leaders to boost your direct bookings. Stay tuned.

You are listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast bringing you all the information you need for your short term rental to stand out from the crowd. I'm your host, Jenn Boyles. As an owner and manager myself, I know how hard it can be to navigate the hospitality industry. I'm here to help so you too can have direct booking success.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Direct Booking Success Podcast. I'm Jenn Boyles, your host and today I have Uvika Wahi with me. Now, she is from Rental Scale-Up and Uvika was one of the speakers at the 2024 Direct Booking Success Summit. Her presentation was so insightful that I thought it would be wonderful to have her on the podcast to share more about it. Uvika, so lovely to see you.

Thank you. Jenn, thank you for having me on your podcast. I have been an avid listener, as is just like everybody else in the industry for years now and I'm so, so happy to finally be here and speak. That's really an honor. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. You're so sweet. I've had your cohort here. I've had Thibault Masson on of course, with Rentals Scale-Up. So I'm so glad that you're here today. So tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.

Sure. I am the editor of Rental Scale-Up. Rental Scale-Up is a short term rental news platform. So we basically publish everything there is to know in terms of what's going on in the industry. Travel trends, et cetera, which markets to keep an eye on. What are the big three doing, what are smaller players doing, all that. But it's not just about publishing the news. What we do differently and what we are known for is our. The context that we add, the additional analysis in terms of, okay, this is the news, but what does this mean for you as a professional property manager and what do you need to do next, if anything?

Yeah, no, your newsletter. I just told you this before we hit record. Your newsletter is amazing. I know, it just landed in my inbox before we came live today and I'm like, I don't have time to read it. But it is an amazing newsletter to sign up for because you're right, we do add that context. It's like, what does this mean for you? Which is really important for us to digest what is happening in the industry and the wider worldwide industry. It's not just the States, it's not just the UK, it's not just Europe, it's worldwide. So where can we go? It's rentalscaleup.com is that right?

That's a search. Yes. Rentalscaleup.com and that's where you'll find us.

Great. Great. It is amazing. So you did this presentation at the 2024 Direct Booking Success Summit, October 2024, and it was amazing because I loved again, your take on things and putting things in perspective and giving us the context. So can you give us a little recap of your presentation? Sure.

And thank you again for having me at this year's summit as a speaker. Last year, I was presenting alongside Thibault, who has laid such a great foundation for what rental scale up is and what we do. And everything you read in the newsletter is a consequence of his vision and his mentoring. And it's because of that guidance that I was able to do this presentation. My background is in marketing. I have been in marketing for nearing a decade now, and most of it has been online. So it's really interesting for me to see how even the biggest brands are using digital formats and are actually basically funding all their marketing budgets online, which is quite a shift. Obviously works really well for me because my background is digital. So I thought it would be interesting for me to share what I have observed in terms of what the big brands are doing, specifically Airbnb, booking.com, vRBO, and what are they doing with their huge budgets? Where is this budget going, these big budget commercials that they release, why they're releasing them, who are they talking to and are they accomplishing what they set out to do? Obviously, that was the first part of it. But like I said, whatever we do, we do it in service of professional managers. So the idea was to steal what you can as a professional manager who perhaps is building your own direct booking business, which is everyone's goal now, what you can steal from what they're doing without having to spend the big bucks that they're spending. And that's pretty much what my presentation was about.

Yeah. So when you think about it, Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, when they put out an ad, when they put out their marketing, they're trying to get bookings through those platforms and whatever initiative they're doing. So it's exactly the same as we are trying to do. Even though we label it direct bookings, we're still trying to get bookings. And so are they. So in sense, they're trying to get their own direct bookings. So it's great. So my first question is, are these big three, are they spending most of their money on television ads?

Well, it depends on which brand you're talking about. For example, Airbnb is not really spending its money on marketing budget on television ads so much at this time. This might change in the near future. Airbnb does heavily spend on YouTube ads and it tailors them to different markets, depending on which market it's trying to sort of grow its supply and also which markets it's targeting. For example, recently you would see that if you go to Airbnb's YouTube, you'd see new commercials that are in Japanese or they were a few weeks ago in South Korean, because these are the two markets where domestic tourism is huge. And that's the slice that Airbnb wants, wants and that informs its strategy. Booking.com on the other hand, and verbal even invest more heavily still in TV commercials, but that also changes the message and sort of the entire theme of their commercials. For example, VRBO released the commercial, the most recent, called Relax Host Free Stays. That's what the name was. And it was a campaign featuring the Alabama University football coach Nick Saban, and who's also an ESPN analyst. It was featuring him as a nightmare host who's Terry rising guests who's just trying to check in with their kid, doesn't want them to have showers longer than five minutes because that's part of the rules.

The best part was the kids aren't even allowed in the house.

Yes. I don't know what your kid is doing here. He wasn't supposed to be here. And that's the commercial. It's really funny and it uses celebrity really wisely because maybe Nick Saban may not be known to people world over, but he's a really popular sports major, especially in university football. And the commercial was released in anticipation of the American football season. So a lot of people would be watching this on TV and see this commercial. So it made sense to make this choice specifically. And obviously a little humor goes a long way, which Verbo utilized really well and in the process took potshots at Airbnb, as it tends to do in all its commercials.

Pretty much, yeah. No, I Love it. And even though, because I didn't know who he was, because I'm in Canada, I don't follow college football or that kind of thing, so I have no idea. But the strategy is interesting behind it as he is in that world. And they're releasing it to be shown during that time of year when everyone's watching football. But we can't put out an ad. I don't have that budget. I don't know about anybody else, but we don't have that ad, that budget. But what I think it's interesting is that we can think strategically like they do, but we can also borrow the messaging vrbo talking about not having the host with you so that you can have the whole property. That is something that we can say, isn't it?

Exactly. Yes, you're absolutely right. Both Airbnb and VRBO, in fact, this sort of common ground we will see between all three brands. They're not really talking about a list of amenities or the list of properties because nobody cares. The guests don't care how big your property is. The guests care about what story you're telling them. So on one hand, VRBO is sort of playing into fears, which is, okay, you may not get privacy in case you want it, book with us so you can have it, which is playing into this fear around not having privacy and maybe having being intruded upon from hosts, et cetera. On the other hand, Airbnb is telling a different story, but it's still speaking to emotion, just a different emotion. Airbnb tends to tap into more warmth and sense of camaraderie and family and making memories, which is a different tactic. But again, it doesn't talk about the abilities that Airbnb's platform has or Virgo's platform has. It talks about what these abilities can do for the guest, which is if you have to take away pretty much only one thing from what the brands are doing, it's this, nobody cares about what your amenities are, what your properties look like. Everybody wants to know the story that they can live in when they come to your property.

Yeah, it's like that kind of thing. It's putting yourself in your ideal guest's shoes. I have to tell you, I have a guilty pleasure. I listen to this podcast called Smartless. It's really not something that you would think I'd listen to. It's three men and they're absolutely hilarious. Like, I find myself, like, I'll be out for a walk listening to them and laughing out Loud. And people are like, walking away from me as I'm laughing. But right now, they have an ad for Airbnb that opens their show. Don't know how much longer it's going to be, but the first time I heard it, it was them speaking and it was them talking about that when they go away, you know, sometimes a hotel isn't what they need and, you know, an air. And then when they said Airbnb, I went, what? Hang on a second. What is this? Because at the beginning, I didn't even realize it was a commercial, an ad, until they got into it. Now when I hear it, I hit skip twice, you know, and don't have to listen to it because it drives me mad. So I'm like, why is this great podcast, you know, advertising Airbnb? But that aside, you know, again, it's that story of that personal touch of how you can live that life and what that would look like. So it's also creating an emotional connection. Isn't it true?

Yes. And it's also a clever way of using marketing because you did listen to the commercial at least once before hitting skip. Unlike most YouTube ads, it's an ad and you skip right away without even giving it a second. So it did work once, at least, which is useful. They got some return on their marketing spend right there. But yeah, so what Airbnb has done is just like VRBO, take part, take spot shots at Airbnb. Airbnb has been positioning itself against a different type of competition, which is hotels, because Airbnb asks themselves, what is the reason that people choose a vacation rental or short term rental over a hotel, and then talk about exactly those reasons in their commercials. So if you go to a hotel, if you're going with your friends, and if you're, for example, they have a commercial called Girls Trip in which a group of girlfriends are at a hotel and it's fine until they're in the room, but as soon as it's time to go out in the evening, all of them are sort of crammed into one bathroom. And obviously there's just a deluge of hairdryers and makeup brushes and it's overflowing and it's just a mess and chaos. And it is a very real scenario that you would experience as a group of girls traveling together. Now, we also know that group travel is where the money is. Larger groups and family travel is where the money is. So it also makes sense to want to speak to the people who can bring you a larger share of revenue versus speaking to solo travelers who may travel a lot. But again, that's not where the big bucks are. So in Girls trip, then the scene cuts to the girls being in an Airbnb instead and they're having a great time because they all have their own private bathrooms, which they would not have had in a hotel. It's really important to know that something that Airbnb really plays up so you can choose an Airbnb over a hotel the next time. Another clever thing about this particular commercial is that when the commercial cuts to them being in an Airbnb, they are by the pool, which we know is one of the most desired amenities in short term rentals. Even on Airbnb platform, Amazing pools is one of the highest performing categories. So it's again, very cleverly and subtly played into there without making it overtly about the pool. But you know, if it's about travel, they probably want a pool there. So that's woven into this messaging as well. And finally, it also serves to kind of really play into this idea of there's hotels and there's Airbnb and making Airbnb synonymous with short term rentals. So they're not saying, hey, don't go to a hotel, come to a short term rental. They're saying, no, get an Airbnb, which goes a long way. And again, establishing Airbnbs, just this, this dynamic of Airbnb kind of represents the industry. Instead of, you know, multiple players, people will just say, I'm going to get an Airbnb. So quite a lot of different strategies are incorporated neatly packaged in one ad.

Yeah. And Airbnb has been amazing at building their brand because they want people to be staying at an Airbnb. Not a hotel, not a short term rental, not a vacation rental, not an STR, not a holiday let not a holiday rental. Like, we've got so many names, so we have to remember, I think as smaller players that we want them to stay in a. And just insert your brand name.

Yep, yep. Airbnb has had a lot of time and a lot of things have gone their way for them to accomplish that. But it is definitely a. And then branding yourself, well, it is really easy to be very functional about your content and just to walk it back a little bit. When I talk about all these tactics that Airbnb verbal and booking are taking, I'm not talking about releasing your own commercial or you need to create an ad. I'm talking about your existing messaging, whatever content you're already pushing out, whatever that is in terms of your social media messaging, or if you're writing blogs, or even the way you're listening, things are described across platforms on your own website, it's all that messaging. So you don't need to write a commercial. But yes. So Airbnb is really going online in terms of establishing Airbnb as the noun and the verb and all of that that Brancheski is really fond of saying. It's a verb, it's not just a noun. While it might seem like a tall order for a smaller business, it does help you. It can help to kind of emulate that. What, in whatever way you can. Again, it goes back to the story that you're telling, making sure that there is a uniform identity of your brand and you know what that identity is. Unless you know what that is, you will not be able to convey it. And once you know it, the next step is, are you talking about that identity now? A lot of the times there are things that we do, there are steps we've taken we just forgot to talk about.

And what are those things? What should we be highlighting? Like, we're a smaller brand and of course, yes, we're not going to run a TV commercial, but there are so many other vehicles that we could use. And so I totally get your point. It's that messaging, it's what you say. And instead of saying the amenities and giving a list and saying, yeah, we've got four bedrooms, how can you flip it?

I think the first step is obviously knowing your ideal guest, right? Do you know not just who's coming to your market to stay, who needs an accommodation in the market generally, but also who you want staying with you. Right? For example, we talked about Airbnb talking to families with kids, and that's what Burbo did too, by the way. So do you know who that's going to be and who it is that you want staying in your property? That's number one. And then you have to try to think about the likes this person lives in and meet them there. It's not enough to say, for example, our property is pet friendly. Talk about the story if you are traveling with a pet. Actually, we love pets and we welcome them here and this is what they can do while they're here. There's a backyard. Imagine your dog frolicking in this backyard. Don't just say that you have a backyard. Basically, don't just talk about whether we have reliable Wi Fi or there's a great view or this is a great location. There's a ton of Restaurants talk about. Maybe here's what you can do when you are here. You check in, maybe you are hungry for lunch already. This is a taverna that you can go to, have a local traditional meal, and it's the best meal ever that you can have. Try this specific dish if you want. So you're telling a story. You're already telling them what their day could look like as they arrive, number one. And number two, you're also showing your expertise of the area, your local expertise, which people really price. They really value that from their hosts or wherever they're staying. It adds that level of personalization that, for example, hotels cannot offer. Just because that's not the nature of a hotel, that's not the positioning. I think some of the people who are doing this really well, for example, is one person I can think of is Daniela, and she runs Skol Apartments, you must know a known person in the industry. And she runs Skol Apartments in Marbella. And she really pivoted during the pandemic in terms of what messaging she was putting out there. She's really utilized social media quite well, and she's made sure that her messaging is really, really personal. You can see her face a lot. She speaks to people. She speaks to her guests. Existing, returning, new and returning both. And she found out that a lot of people, a lot of guests who were staying with her were digital nomads, because this was the time when everybody decided that if they were going to be logged in, they were going to be locked in elsewhere, somewhere with a nicer view. So they had moved and they wanted sort of like slightly longer term, short stays. So they wanted to stay somewhere for a month, but obviously they were still working because they were remote workers and they needed somewhere that had reliable wifi. And obviously having the sea right there and having a beautiful view from your balcony was just a great bonus. So she started talking about all the things that digital nomads cared about in her messaging. She would take pictures, for example, by the window where she would put a desk there. And she's actually working on her laptop by the window at this desk and basically projecting. This is what your life could look like if you were at school apartments right now and the sun is shining in December, you can see the water. It looks really appealing. And in just one image, she has conveyed, hey, this is, I'm talking to you, the digital nomad. Come and stay here and your life could change. Similarly, another person who tells the story really well, I think, is Bob Garner. He's a huge advocate for Sustainability in the industry. He has been for a while, and he leads my example. So he runs Casal dei Fich in Italy, and he has incorporated sustainable practices in all his properties ever since he began, pretty much. And more recently, he's been driving the advocacy in the industry. But what's interesting is that when he shares his experience in terms of why sustainability works for him and how it has worked for him, he tells the story of what he's trying to do, how he involves his guests in the sustainability journey as well. And that has kind of allowed him to get like a. I think it's 90% returning guests. That's what he is. It's a huge number. I cannot remember at the moment, but because of his ability to show what a sustainability journey could look like without adding this burden, it's just making you part of something bigger, something that you can feel good about doing. He's been able to convert so many guests into returning guests, but obviously, one thing you have to think of as well, in terms of returning guests is how are you rewarding them for returning, which is another discussion altogether. But, yeah, this is a couple of examples of really good use of storytelling to establish a brand that people remember and people know and they can identify with as well.

Yeah. No. And both of them are doing so well in their respective spaces. And I'll put links to them. Their socials in the show notes, so you can. If you're listening and you're thinking, I want to go check them out, go check them out. And I've had both of them on the podcast. I'll put links to their podcast episodes so you can go and check out and hear more about what they do. Um, so another thing that you talked about in your presentation was the new guest favorite label on Airbnb that emphasized, you know, high ratings and guest satisfaction. How can we do that on our end, being a smaller player, and use our guest to sort of help us build that trust out there that we're really doing what we say we are?

Great question. I think. Well, I don't need to really reinforce how reviews are important. I think all of your listeners already know that quite well, so they don't need me to tell them, because it is the biggest stress signal you can send to someone who's never stayed with you. Right. First in. First the pictures are appealing to them and your description is appealing. Yes. But then they want to know what they are in for. And I think people trust other people's opinions the most in this context. If someone stayed with you before, Airbnb obviously has introduced guest favorites as a recognition of this trust signal. They know that people want to know what others are saying about your property because you could say whatever you want and no one could stop you, right? So they want vetted information that they can trust, like a review. And which is why guest favorites kind of even have taken precedence over super host status. For example, on the website on Airbnb platform, you will see a guest favorite highlighted even more prominently than you would see a superhost status. Which tells you a lot about how much Airbnb values reviews as a metric, right? I think guest favorites are definitely one of the easiest things to emulate for property managers everywhere. Not in the same way. You don't have to build a function into your website that promotes guest favorites, but already you have something to talk about. For example, wherever you're doing your marketing, you can talk about it. These are some reviews that we think you need to know, you need to read. If you're sending a newsletter you can talk about. These are the most touching, most heartwarming reviews we've received for these particular properties. You don't even have to talk about the properties as such. You can just talk about the reviews and that can lead them to the properties after the fact. Obviously, you could just post screenshots. I've seen a lot of hosts do this. Managers do this. Just post screenshots of their reviews. Great. That's like, okay, basic hygiene. You got it. Great. What can you do next? I think a great way to utilize guest reviews is to basically use ChatGPT. You plug all your guest reviews that are positive in there and you ask ChatGPT to analyze what are the most appealing aspects of my property to my guests based on these reviews. And once it gives you a list you already know, that's what should be in your sort of section or like your overarching messaging. Because you can talk about what people already appreciate about humanity. And it may not be the same thing as what you think it is. What you think is the strength of your property may not be the thing that your guests care about the most. So this is about highlighting what your guests care about and using that to attract future guests. So that's one of the ways that you could utilize it. Obviously, the more you analyze what people are saying, what reviews, you can go a lot further than that. You can make changes to your listing, but I know not many people have time for it. Resources for it or the effort that it requires is a lot. The business of the operations of property management is monumental day to day work. So I will not suggest that, but just use the tools at your disposal, see what people like and tell others this is what people like about us. Yeah. And try to update that routinely if you can.

Yeah, no, I think that's great. So what I've really gotten from you today and from your presentation is that looking at the messaging those big three are using and look at what we can say about our own properties and our own experiences that we give guests and about using the guests, the reviews in a way that will help us maybe not choosing the review. That said, Yeah, great stay. You know, choosing a review that's got a bit of more emotion and talks about what the kids loved or they, hey, we went to that restaurant you suggested and we loved it. Best meal of our life, you know. Those are gold, aren't they?

Absolutely, yes. And again, here's verification of your expertise by someone else, which matters so much more to someone who's totally new to your business.

Thank you so much, Yuvika. This has been amazing. Your presentation was amazing. Thank you for being involved in the summit. We're going to put those links that you mentioned in the show notes and for everyone listening, go and sign up to the Rentals Scale-Up newsletter, rentalscaleup.com we'll put that link in the show notes too. You won't regret it. It's a weekly newsletter and it will tell you about what's happening in the global landscape. Not just that, but also the context and what it means to you. So thank you so much for coming on today.

Thank you. I really appreciate being here. And yes, please sign up to the newsletter. It's totally free. First of all, it's great for people who don't have the time to read entire articles. I know not everybody can do that week on week, so if you just want a glimpse at the most important bits you need to know, I think a newsletter is a great way to stay on top of that.

I agree. It's one of my big reads each week. So thank you so much.

Thank you. That's great to hear and thank you so much for having me on. Jen, it was a pleasure.

A huge thank you to Uvika for coming on the podcast. Now don't forget to sign up for the rental scale up newsletter. You won't regret it. And if you enjoyed this episode, please let me know. Leave a rating and a review on your podcast app or on YouTube. I would love to hear from you next on the Direct Booking Success Podcast. Ever wondered what separates successful hosts from the rest. It's not just the property, it's knowing exactly who's booking. Join us as we dive into why driving traffic to your website just isn't enough to boost bookings, and how being laser focused on your ideal guest can be a real game changer. You'll learn how to turn browsers into bookers, with insights on guest profiling, targeted marketing, and creating experiences that guests can't resist. Don't miss this episode if you're ready to go beyond generic marketing and start converting the right traffic into loyal returning guests. Until then, go out and take action for your own direct booking success.

Hey, thanks for listening to the Direct Booking Success Podcast. For more information about this episode and others, head to the website directbookingsuccess.com/podcast see you next time.