7 Tips on How to Promote Your Vacation Rental Business on Instagram

Social media is critical today, but not everyone thinks about Instagram. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms out there, with more than 800 million users worldwide and owned by Facebook. Not every business can use Instagram, but vacation rentals are rich with photo and video opportunities (try memes too!). You can leverage Instagram as a platform to visually display your vacation rentals to great success. With the right tools and mindset, you’ll be on your way to booking new guests in no time! Here are 7 helpful tips on how to promote your vacation rental business on Instagram.

Use Amazing Photos

The number 1 tip to keep in mind is that you need to use really good photos to make sure that you are displaying the rental as well as possible. Don’t use pictures that are blurry, crooked, or too dark. The best images are taken with natural light and adding fresh flowers, fruit, and other natural items in your scene. Play with surroundings; if the property is in front of the beach, try to include it in your image. Use the proper exposure so it looks real, but still “pops.” Above all else, tell a story and make it interesting. Social media is all about bringing value and stories are interesting and valuable and will generate followers.

Keep in mind that most of your social media posts should focus on giving clients what they want, not what you want. Avoid selling excessively, pushing specials or trying too hard to push them into booking, liking, or commenting. The perfect post is something interesting or of value, and has a great caption and a call to action. Call to actions are important and grow your audience, but don’t get pushy. Instagram has a high engagement rate, so using it to your advantage can pay off over time.

So, what can you post daily? Some ideas are images of the rental properties, local attractions, and nature, quick video conversations with your staff or happy clients and travelers, and even lists of places in the area you recommend. Memes are also great content with high engagement. The perfect posts don’t happen overnight; they take testing and a right amount of patience to be perfect for your audience and sales cycle.

Other Quick Tips:

• After you reach 10k followers on Instagram, you’re able to use the “Swipe Up” feature in Instagram Stories. This is when things can really start to take off!
• Creating a contest easily helps with marketing. You can email your past and current guests, let them know of the giveaway you have set up on Instagram. If they weren’t following you, they will be now. Add ‘follow us’ as one of the rules to be able to enter to win!
• Hashtags are crucial — pay attention to your local hashtags that consumers are using. Many more people will see your posts and follow you. Fake and purchased followers are not ideal, but they can happen — sometimes they are necessary to help you get past the 10,000 mark. As you evolve, your accounts focus more on your natural engagement rates than random followers and your sales volume will follow suit.
• TEST TEST TEST! If you are not getting enough likes on a particular style of post, you must rethink your strategy or discard that style altogether. If it doesn’t work, stop doing it — even if you LOVE it. If it works and you don’t like it, you still have to keep it up to be successful. Just follow the market and always be testing and comparing!
• Track the data, notice how many likes, comments, etc. you’re receiving and follow the upward trends.
• Your business thrives from bookings, and bookings happen because people like your area. What better way than to post any new deals, new restaurants, or attractions that have opened up in the area. Using any surrounding locations truly makes for a better post and adds more value. The more people know that you are the expert on your area, the more likely they will be to book with you when the time is right.

Check out our free social media lesson, then join Vacation Rental University to watch all of our social media lessons to learn more strategies on how you can best market your vacation rental property!