Starting a holiday rental blog
Do you want to increase the online presence of your holiday rental business? Follow these handy tips to set up your very own blog.
October 2024
Weblogs, or blogs, have been a popular source of online content for decades now and are still going strong. A holiday rental blog is a great way to engage with potential customers. Do it right, and you’ll be able to show off your brand’s unique selling points, share photos and make connections with new customers. Here’s the lowdown on entering the blogosphere.
How to start a holiday rental blog
The question of how to start a blog is key here. To get the ball rolling, it helps if you have your own holiday rental website already. After all, your blog will be used to advertise your holiday home. It should link to your booking page, along with any other essential pages that you would like potential customers to visit.
The good news is that you don’t need to be a techie to start your own blog. Platforms like WordPress do the hard work for you, taking care of all the coding behind the scenes. All you need to do is choose a template and start adding content to your holiday rental blog. Most platforms offer both free and premium services. When you first create a holiday blog, you might want to go with the free option. After all, until you get it up and running, you won’t know how much you’ll use it. If you want to upgrade later on, you can always come back and do so.
That all-important content
Now you’ve got your blog set up, and here comes the hard part! To keep people coming back, you’ll want to create some compelling content. Although your blog is designed as a form of holiday home marketing, you don’t want it to look too much like an advertisement, as that can deter potential guests.
Think about the tone of voice you want to use for your blog, which will vary depending on the kind of customers you’re targeting. Are you going to be casual and jokey, or formal and sophisticated? Will you focus on family-friendly holiday ideas or romantic getaways? Having a consistent voice in your holiday house blog is essential.
If you’re not a great writer, don’t worry. You can always engage a professional copywriter to create content for you. It helps if you have a clear idea of what you want, including the tone and the topics.
Don’t neglect the visual side of things, either. Although blogs are all about the words, it’s the photos that will lure people in and keep them coming back. Many blogs use stock photos, so to make yours stand out, use real pictures of your property.
Content ideas for a holiday rental blog
No, it’s definitely not as simple as just writing “rent my holiday home” and expecting people to start booking! Here are some content ideas for a holiday blog to get the ball rolling — but remember, the more creative the better:
- Information about the local area. This could include a restaurant guide or ideas for days out at nearby attractions. Again, think about your target audience. Are you going to encourage your guests to hit the nearest theme park or the local fine dining restaurant?
- Seasonal information. This is a great way to encourage guests to come throughout the year. Write blog posts about things to do in your area in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and make sure they’re illustrated with seasonally appropriate photos.
- Guides to local festivals or celebrations. For example, if you want people to rent your holiday flat in Edinburgh, you might want to write blog posts about Hogmanay and the Edinburgh Festival.
- Posts that are aimed at your specific target market. This means, for instance, a page like “10 things to do in London with kids” or “5 dog-friendly pubs in Cornwall”. These are a great way of ensuring that the guests you want to target will read your blog.
Remember, don’t make your blog posts seem like you’re giving customers the hard sell. Friendly information guides are a lot more effective than blog posts that look like advertisements.
How to manage your holiday rental blog
There are so many websites out there nowadays, so how can you make yours stand out? You might want to familiarise yourself with the concept of SEO or search engine optimisation. Research the keywords that are important to your holiday rental business and make sure they’re present in your blog posts. This will help get your page to the top of the search engine rankings. Be warned, though: the Google algorithm is surprisingly sophisticated. A list of keywords without high-quality content in between will not have the desired effect.
One of the best marketing techniques for holiday rentals is to use social media. Set up profiles on Facebook and Instagram for your property and regularly link your blog posts. Encourage people to leave comments, and make sure you engage with them. This will help you build a friendly rapport with potential customers. Comments on social media are often easier to respond to and control than comments on the blog itself. It’s also true that most people don’t read blog comments, but they do read what’s written on their favourite social networks, so try to use this to your advantage. Remember to maintain the same tone when you’re writing on your rental’s Facebook page as you do when you’re on the blog — this is a good way of developing a cohesive brand.
Make sure your blog has a clean, user-friendly format. In just one click, people should be able to get from your blog posts to your booking page — or to the online holiday rental portal that you use. The more time people spend navigating your website, the less likely they are to actually book a stay with you.
Finally, how often should you update your blog? More than once a week is probably too much, while less than once a month is too little. It can be helpful to plan posts in advance, and even set them up in advance to automatically post on a schedule. That way you can create content when you have free time, and you’ll have something ready to go at times when you’re just too busy to post.
When managed correctly, a holiday rental blog can be an incredibly effective marketing technique. Yes, it takes a bit of work, but you should soon see compensation in the form of guests.