← Win With Paid Ads
Win With Paid Ads
#106: How You Can Get Direct Bookings for Your Short-Term Rental Without Airbnb or VRBO
00:25:22
Loading summary
Transcript10 lines
- [00:00]
A
Welcome to the Win with Paid Ads podcast for small business owners, entrepreneurs and really anyone who has anything you want.
- [00:07]
B
More people to find.
- [00:08]
A
Whether you're starting from ground zero or scaling an eight figure business, you are.
- [00:13]
B
Exactly who this podcast was created for.
- [00:15]
A
Because you being the best kept secret helps no one.
- [00:18]
B
Right?
- [00:18]
A
That's why in every episode I'll show you how you can use paid ads to hit your goals 10 times sooner. It's time you finally learn how to win with paid ads. You or someone on your team can do this.
- [00:30]
B
I'll show you how to score and.
- [00:32]
A
Be known by more. Let's get started.
- [00:34]
B
If you own a short term rental, maybe on Airbnb or vrbo or you plan to, and you have this feeling where you're like, gosh, I just hope the Airbnb and VRBO send me some clients. Great news. This episode is for you. It's gonna really help you change how you think about how you can get people to find your listing. Especially if you're considering like maybe an individual property that you plan to expand or if you want multiple listings, or maybe you are just straight up tired of paying the nearly 20% fee to Airbnb. This is for you. You're going to love this. And this is coming from a place of not just theory, but experience of having our own properties that we're advertising. And I have had so many different clients that have been able to get someone at the very first time, from schools to organizations to properties, whatever it may be, simply being able to capture that information. Like let me give you a perfect example. One of my clients when I worked in the advertising agency was Thumbtack. Thumbtack is a home service provider company where all these local business owners pay into basically being able to have access to lead. And all they're really doing is taking a cut off of the lead because they don't know how to advertise directly to be able to capture 100% of that revenue. It's the same thing with any of my photographers or wedding venues or caterers when they're advertising on the knot or wedding wire. Yes, they're getting the lead. Yes, they're paying a good cut to those other people, third party providers, because they don't know how to actually bring those paid advertising skills in house so that they can actually retain 100% of that profit because all those other properties are advertising too. Like they're spending so much, you could own that and you could take substantially more of that. And here's the other thing. When someone refers Your property, your Airbnb or someone shares on social media and you get bookings. None of that is going to cost the fee. It's like, yeah, you might pay money for the ad, and yes, that person finds you, but then they share and there's this ripple effect that is just intangible because you're getting all these other pieces that actually add up and save you a bunch of revenue without having to pay those fees. So if you have a property, this is for you, and you're going to love this. Now, don't forget, if you really want to win with paid ads, the best thing you can do is click the link below this video or this podcast and join me live. Join hundreds of entrepreneurs just like you live for five days, where we dig deep into the messaging that converts the setting, like, where you can set your ads, the targeting who you get your ad in front of, testing how you improve and then profiting, how you scale and increase your profit of your ads. So often people come to me and one of the reasons that they're hesitant to jump in is they're like, I'm already getting results on ads, and it's like, I'm already able to bake a cake. But arguably, an expert baker could probably do it better. It's like, do you really think that expertise and skill and time is not a thing? Do you really think mastery is not a thing? If you believe that in your craft, it is the very same thing with advertising. It's a skill. And the good news is true. Just like any skill, that skill is transferable, especially with the right person to guide you that way. I'd love to be that person for you. So click the link below. Now let's jump into today. So advertising a property is no different than advertising a business. And it's kind of like if the offer isn't good, if the experience isn't dialed in, if the funnel isn't set up, it's not the ads that are gonna come in to save you, it's the offer. So when you think about before I even tell you to advertise your Airbnb or vrbo, if you. If you have an outdated cookie cutter, nothing's unique about it. The sheets are from 1980, the lamp kind of flickers on the back, the switch is broken, that latch doesn't work so well. The curb appeal, probably. Let's not advertise it. Let's actually get the thing that we want to advertise at the level of quality that you want for your brand, and then let's advertise. Now, I'm not saying that it can't work. What I am saying is you're going to exponentially increase your likelihood that your ads perform better. So when the property and the experience is so good, because some of the best advertising you'll do is other people sharing for you. So make sure that just like, just like if you don't have a property, maybe you just have a business right now you don't have an Airbnb and you're thinking, how can I get my ads to perform better? Make the thing that you're selling better, make the experience better, make the funnel better, make the messaging better, all those things you can do. And that's why we actually created the challenge, that's why we do what we do. But you have got to have something that's good before you send ads to it or ads will make you mad, not glad. And I don't want that for you. I want your ads to perform well. And so really making sure that you understand that paid ads do not fix broken experiences. Okay? They amplify what's already there. So that is how I want you to think about paid advertising. All right, so let's start at the beginning. This is the pre work that most people don't do. So when you, before you even advertise your property, there's a few things you need to do. You need to get a Google business profile, a GBP Google Business profile. You need a business phone number, you need a website, you need a logo, you need some branding, you need some specificity, like what is it specifically that allows you to stand out? This matters because you want to build brand trust. And Google is also going to use proximity and relevancy and authority and recency and quality of reviews to actually show you organically too. And that's why this actually, the Google Business profile not only supports you through paid advertising, it also supports you through organic discovery. Because with paid advertising, when you link your Google Business Profile with your ad account, it's able to connect your phone number, your location, the reviews, all those things. And honestly, your reviews will do more selling than your, your ad copy ever will. That's why one of my best of all of my clients, if I could say there's one thing that is the case. No matter if you sell software, tractors, services, products, whatever it is, the thing that is for certain the commonality when it comes to performance is how testimonials and reviews perform. You've got to prioritize those. So you need your website, you need branding, you need a logo. And so being able to have that clean website, that clear brand identity, a consistent logo colors, and making sure that your website is designed mobile first, that matters so much because it all ties back to ads. Ads are where the traffic is created. Like ads will send the traffic to your website. Your website will convert that traffic to a buyer. So that is why, like when I think about ads, there's so much that happens before and after. Like the before is your funnel. It's that flow, it's that brand credibility, it's that trust. The after is what happens when they begin the process. Is it smooth, is it clear? Are they able to take action easily? So those are the things that you need before Google business phone number, website branding, logo consistency. Then of course, you need to make the actual property really good. So I will tell you, I did not plan on buying this property in 2025 and spending six figures on landscaping and new hot tubs and extending the deck and fixing some doors and completely doing new furniture and new design. I did not plan on that. That has been very hard. And it's one of those things where, you know, I'm used to like short challenges, like with ads. It's like I'll run ads and then it takes maybe like a week or 30 days to get that return back, right? Cause I like, I run ads to a thing, then we have a process and then they buy. It's very challenging for me to go. Months of paying a mortgage and there being zero revenue coming in. And then on top of that being like, oh wait, we need to buy this. Oh, the TV needs a sound bar. Oh, this is broke. Oh no, the washer and dryer. We need a new one. I'm like, how many more things could we pay for for this property? And if you own one, you've probably been there and you're like, oh my gosh, the expenses are never ending. So here's the thing, it is a long term play. And just like this piece of property is an asset that can pay back over and over and over again, so too is the skill of paid advertising. That's a software installed in your brain that can pay back over and over and over again. It just so happens that typically you're able to get your return on advertising a little bit quicker than you're able to get your return on a property. Especially when you have a lot of improvements you're making. The funny part about this property is like, I remember Kyle and I like showed up at the building and we were like, oh, it's turnkey. Like, there's already furniture here. We were like, yeah, we'll buy it with the furniture. And we're like, this is amazing. We'll be able to get this on the market in 30 days. Let's go. And that. We got it live in the last week of December. And. And that was like having our first initial stays, which, of course, many of you have already done. Like, do you have those initial stays? And you're like, hey, I just want you to give me feedback on the property. Like, is there anything you would change? And so we did that. But just make the place incredible and, like, be okay. Spending all that time, energy and money actually anticipating that it will work out and the math will math out on the other side of it. You have to have that belief. I would have a mental breakdown if I was like, great, we've paid a mortgage for six months. There is nothing coming in. I have to believe that every bit of detail and time, energy, money and intention and attention to what we've done in this property is going to pay off. And it will. And that's why I'm going to link to it below. So if you want to get a taste of, like, what we have created, which is so special. Yes, we got a barrel sauna. Yes, we have a fire pit. Yes, we have a hot tub. Yes, we have a gym room. You know, we actually. I swear I'll get right back. I have to tell you this. I did a poll on Instagram and I said in an Airbnb that you're going to stay with your spouse, a small group of friends, or maybe one other couple. If that were the case, what would you care about most? And it was like an extra bedroom that you might not need, but, like an extra bedroom, a gym room or something else. And I honestly can't remember, but people chose the gym room. Like, people wanted to be able to go and stay and have a room or a place where they could, like, get some weights lifted, because that's one of the things that most people do at an Airbnb. And it's why I won't stay. It's why I like to stay at a place where there's a workout room or at least a trail or something. And so the cabin is, like, tucked up on this hill. Now. Could you hike the hill? Yes, you'd get one hike. Heck of a workout. I also just like to be able to do weights or. If you're like me, I have my, like, workout program I want on the screen and we were like, what if we make mirrors and a mat and have weights and have the TV and have just like a little gym room and it has like little towels and it has all these different things and it has like little mini fridge so you can like drink it. Like it's so perfect. And so Instagram and Facebook actually said they'd prefer a gym room. So we created that. So it is a three bedroom that we converted to basically a two bedroom with a gym room. And it's like utter privacy with this barrel sauna. You do yoga out on the little area with the barrel sauna. Fire pit is so nice. All the furniture in there is new. Everything is there is actually new and beautiful and you will absolutely love it. And so that is on really taking all the time, energy and money to make the thing good so that when people stay it's referable, they want to buy again, they want to leave a good review. So if you have that and you're like, yep, check, check, check. We have some things that differentiate our property. We're ready. Then you're ready for some advertising. So the best advertising for your property is going to be experience based and testimonial driven. People trust other people more than platforms and so what converts is a real guest experience. So I remember maybe I'm just scarred from this, but I've stayed at a couple places and I've worked so hard to get great video content or like tag them and share on stories. And I'm like, it is such a mess that some of the places don't re share that extra exposure and validation. And so I just don't want you to take for granted someone else's audience and someone else's experience. And those reviews, like if it were me and someone tagged me at my property, I would reach out to them and be like, hey Susie, I just want to say thank you so much. That's great content. I would actually like to share with you. I'd be happy to pay like this amount if you want to do a couple more posts and I'd love to give you a discount code if you want to rebook. And then if you want to share with your audience, I'd be happy to do this. Like if someone is willing to share your property, take advantage of it and say how can we expand this? Like they already did the work to do it. How can we like amplify that real guest experiences, photos with emotion stories. I mean imagine if someone shared on stories. Like they must like the place if you reached out to them and or like your social media team, like responded and said, hey, thank you for sharing. Would you be opposed to actually sharing a like 15 second just review of your experience? And we'd be happy to XYZ make it so worth their time. And they're like, yeah, I love this place. Right? So be willing to create content for your ads that are about stories that have emotion and just allow people to want to experience a thing. Like, be there. Help them feel and see what they experience when they go there. Next is free. And discounted stays for feedback are smart, not desperate. I think sometimes we're like, no, I refused. You know, I'm paying for the cleaning, I'm paying for all this. Yeah, you really are. And being able to create something that's exponentially better than everything else that is out there is the very reason you will have a higher occupancy rate than the next property down the street. So I remember when I first started my program, anything that I've done, I'm like, can I get your feedback? Can I get feedback? How low can I make this price just to get feedback so that I can get better? And it has paid off exponentially. Early feedback is an investment, not a loss. Just know that you've already invested so much in this property, you get the feedback. In fact, I'm actually really excited. We are going to Bolt Farm very soon and we got an opportunity because we love Seth and Tori. And they were like, and we're in the mastermind. And they were like, hey, would you be willing to give, like, stay in this newer unit and give some feedback? And I'm like, are you kidding me? I will send you a list. And it's not like, the way I think about it is I'm like, I need someone to tell me the things that not everybody will tell me. And so I've already had two people actually stay in 2025 and they're like, man number one, I loved this, this and this. Here's the few things, like, I didn't. I haven't taken a shower there. I didn't realize that when you walk out of the shower, the hook is on the other side of the wall. And that's extremely inconvenient. I didn't know that until someone experiences it, you gotta. You don't know what you're missing. I do recommend you stay in your place for at least one night because that also brings so many things to light too. So the reason that discounted stays are helpful is it's honest insights, it's social Proof it's content for ads and it helps you get clarity on your messaging, hearing how they're talking about your property. So you're actually buying clarity before you scale. And yes, you're paying for it, but you're going to pay for everything in life and being able to pay for something that can pay you back and definitely is so worth it. Next is we. I know I already kind of share this, but we invested so heavily before we ever ran ads. We just didn't skimp on anything. And what I find is so many business owners get so emotionally told from financially dishing out thing after thing after thing after thing for their property, but it's the same thing for their business. Someone will be like, oh, I bought the best camera. Yep. I bought the best lighting. Yep. I bought the best website. Yep. I bought the best. You know, this. And then they're like, but I don't want to advertise. I don't want to spend on that. It's like, when are we going to realize that this is a crucial ingredient? It's like trying to make a cake without flour. It's like, you have to have that. It's like, yes, I know you have eggs and you have milk and you have oil and you have salt, but you literally need the flour. Like. Like, why it's not a cake without it. You can't have a business if people don't know that you exist. It's like you do all this work and then there's nobody there and there's crickets in your Airbnb property. Like, well, it looks pretty. It's like, yeah, people. You want that experience to be shared. People have to find the dang thing. So know ahead of time that, yes, you're going to pay for the fence, yes, you're going to pay for the staining. Yes, you're going to pay for the hot tub. Yes, you're going to pay for the front door. Yes, you're going to pay for the new trucks instead of the old hardwood. And you're going to pay for the ads or you're going to pay Airbnb and VRBO to. You get to pick. And that's on paying a lot up front for it to pay off in the long term and not leaving the last thing that can ultimately get people to your door that you've worked so hard to make. Incredible. So next is branding. Photography and videography is not optional. So stock photos do not sell the stays. Emotion does. And you can't fake Emotion. I guess you probably could, but like you, when you, you can almost tell as humans, like authentic emotion. And so professional videos matter because the ads, the video content, and even just the editing that a professional editor is going to have on some of that content is how it's going to stand out. And someone's going to be like, oh my God, babe, babe, did you see this place? We have to go there. Like, that's what you want. You want them to be like, oh my God, how can I make this work? I don't want them to think, oh, I need to plan a vacation, I hope I find one. I want them to be like, I was not planning a vacation until this showed up. Like, that's the feeling you want, right? So that's what you're in control of creating when you have professional videography and photography. So, you know, just as a backstory, I went with my videographer when the place was an actual absolute tornado. I was like, let's go up there now. The landscaping had not been started, the deck had not been extended, the furniture had not been updated. I was like, let's get videos of it being like really messy. Let's not clean anything. Let's just be like, hey, here's where we were. Because I wanted to show the before and the after because anything can be turned around with the right expertise. And so I wanted to like show the story, especially now that I can like do the after video. And it's like, hey, six months later. A lot of work, time and energy and money went into this and here's why we did that. So that's a must with your property. And you know, another videography thing, I feel like people really miss out on their property is when someone books having an immediate video that's like, hey, it's so great to meet you. We're so excited to welcome you into our property. There's a few things I want to share with you that are ahead at our property that really make it stand out. And so then that's where you could like let them know, don't forget you have this, this and this. So you might want to pack this, this and this. And then you could say, we actually do have an opportunity to really elevate your stay. So if you're interested in having fresh chef made meals, if you want a massage inside the house, if you would like a romance package or you're celebrating something, we'd love to have some rose petals. Like, how can we elevate your experience? You have not, because you ask, not increase your average nightly rate by ultimately Actually having order bumps and upsells and experiences that allow the, the people that want to pay for quality and a better experience to be able to do that. And so being able to have videography that not only confirms their stay and actually offers them a way to elevate their stay, but also one of my favorite things that someone did for us that we do at our properties is before they show up, we're like, hey, we're so excited that you're gonna check in in about a week. I just wanna walk you through a few things inside the property that you may have questions on. Here's how you use the barrel sauna. Here's how you do the TV and the sound. Here's the, you know, Bose speaker. Don't worry about packing a speaker. We got it. Here's how to use this. Here's the coffee maker. We have three different types of coffee. Let me show you how to make each one. How cool would you. Would it be to actually know that you can actually utilize the things? Have you ever, like, seen something? You're like, I don't know how to work this. So you don't. And you miss the opportunity to experience it. That's what you could proactively do when you have great videography about the experience before they even get there. Like, how to use it, which. And all those things. So here are the reasons that I feel like Airbnb and VRBO keep you stuck. So here's the real cost. There's host fees, there's guest fees, there's payment processing, and there's platform discrepancy. So you're ultimately paying about 20% on fees. That's an ad budget, by the way. Like, you could just take the. You're gonna pay it one way or the other, but with Airbnb, you will get. You'll pay that 20 over and over and over. And for every person that that person shares your Airbnb about, you'll pay it again. Whereas when you advertise directly, you'll take that 20% you'll pay. You might even pay 30% to acquire the customer. And then when they refer someone, you pay zero. When they come again, you pay zero. You're getting all that budget advertised directly to you. The math maths out when you advertise directly. So instead of paying the platforms forever, just build a booking engine and an advertising machine once. So last few things for you. Here's why booking direct is such an asset. A booking is nice, but an email address is gold. And there's so many different platforms you can actually use as your customer relationship manager and booking. What we've chosen to use is Hospitable. I will share a link below so you can check out Hospitable, but one of the reasons I like Hospital over Logify, as it stands right now, is Lodify is a competitor, has some great features. Hospitable gives you the email address of the person so that you can hello, Advertising. Download your list of people who've stayed and do a lookalike audience on Meta and say, hey, Meta. Find people that look, act and behave like the people that already booked my property. That is such an asset. And that when you have that email list, you can retarget them and be like, hey, come back and do your stay. That email is freaking gold. So being able to have that and own that inhospitable, which you don't have an Airbnb and vrbo is great. And I know, yes, some of you are like, well, you could use Stay Fi. You could use one of these tools. Yes, you could pay additional. Yes, you could pay additional and have an additional process and have an additional way to get those emails to try to make it happen. But how cool would it be if it's all in one platform? That's what Hospitable does. That's what we use. So with direct bookings, you get first party data, you get repeat stays, you have email access for nurturing, you have lookalike audience opportunity, and there's no platform dependency. And you want to know my favorite thing? There's nobody else, like, on the website. When it's your website, they're not like, ooh, adhd. And they're like, ooh, squirrel. Look, there's this other one that has a pool. Ooh, honey, look at this one. When they're on your website, they're looking at one thing and it's you. And they're falling more in love with every picture and review that they see. And they're not distracted by all the other people around them. That's why direct booking your property is such an asset. So let's talk about the tech and the tracking. Of course, as the advertiser, I have to tell you, I love Hospitable because it had a place where I can integrate my Google Pixel and my metapixel, which is amazing because if you can't track it, you can't scale it. And I want you to be able to track so that you can be able to find more people, optimize towards the sales so that you can have your ad platforms actually perform really well. So there's booking, attribution, conversion, tracking, the email capture. And so I will link it below because I just love how intuitive this is when it comes to advertising your property directly. It allows everything to be in one place, which is amazing. And the other thing I know I talked about how it's such an asset to be able to collect the email address for your property. But the real win is because it's not just one stay, it's the second, third and fourth day that you're capturing. So you spent money on the ad, they went to your website, they booked directly, and now when it's time to have that other event, when it's time to have like a Black Friday sale, you have their address, their email and you can get in contact with them. So you get to announce openings, you get to announce off season offers, you get to have referral incentives. There's no algorithm required once you have that asset internally in your business. So yes, we run ads and so the stack that we're actually starting with for our property is Google Ads, YouTube ads, and Facebook and Instagram ads. We may add TikTok ads and I may do a Spotify ad in. The Spotify ad I might do might be just local for people right there around Blue Ridge. That's what we were thinking because we want to capture intent and build demand and retarget the people that are interested and on the fence. And by using Google, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and maybe a touch of Spotify, we're going to be able to do that so beautifully. The last few things, when you think about messaging your property that converts it is the payoff over the process. Escape, privacy, connection, rest, experience, transformation, transformation, seclusion, reconnection, all of those are what people are ultimately buying. They're not buying the. There's a Keurig that's great. As long as there's coffee, like we're okay. They're really buying. What do they get and how do they feel when they work out of that, walk out of that property? You know, people work so hard and with their time, energy and money to be able to like invest in something and actually be like, I am so glad I spent money on that. How can I do it again? That is the experience that you want to create and it's so possible. And it's possible even more so when you have great advertising that communicates all of this so beautifully. So Airbnb is a tool. Vrbo is a tool. Neither are a business, a brand, a list a system and demand that you can control. Now, that's a business. That's the opportunity to advertise your property directly. So if you're going to own the property, own the demand, own the traffic, own the data, that's what's possible when you don't use Airbnb and VRBO and actually advertise it directly. So I hope that was really helpful. Now, something that you might want to do after listening to this episode is think about the content that you want to create. And so one of the best things that you could do for your property is actually batch content and do the ads, do the videos that I was just referring to all at once. And in fact, what we call that is a batch day, which is why we're actually going to have an episode on the next one that is all about how we do batch days, how I think about them, how I used to do them, the struggles I used to have, and how I'm able to get so much content out in one day and really maximize a day to get everything knocked out. So I'm going to talk all about the secrets and the strategies that I've learned on the next episode. In the meantime, click the link below, register for the Win with Paid Ads challenge. Go advertise your name, make it rain, and I'll see you soon.