In order to make your Florida vacation rental a success, you must actively market your property in the off-season. There will be many weeks where your vacation rental will be empty, but you can reduce these weeks by persevering with high-quality off peak marketing techniques.
We have highlighted numerous ways that we have used to fill those empty weeks:
Method One: Offer discounts for stays of two or more weeks. The discount can be based on a sliding scale such as; 5% for 2 weeks, 7.5% for 3 weeks, and so on. A slight discount can make the difference when a potential guest is comparing two or more properties.
Method Two: Offer last minute specials. For example: “Make your reservation within 72 hours of arrival and save 15%!” or “Special offer this week only!” This attracts the impulse vacationers looking for a quick get-away.
Method Three: During gaps in your bookings offer shorter rental periods such as two and three day weekends and mid-week rentals.
Method Four: Offer lower weekly rates to encourage longer rentals and discounted rates for stays of two or more weeks. This makes the price for attractive for the renter and it provides more bookings during the empty weeks.
Method Five:
Offer ‘themed’ rental packages by mirroring the events in the Disney area. For example, Thanksgiving, New Years, 4th of July, etc. Spend time advertising your villa around these events. Such as ‘Experience the Disney Christmas and stay in our exclusive villa’, etc
Method Six: We found offering complimentary items works particularly well in the off-season. Offer items such as (cost effective) tickets to local attractions, complimentary welcome basket (fruits, wine, or food staples for the first breakfast are all good choices), giftcards, etc. Use your imagination!
Method Seven: Send out periodic messages (via mail and/or email) to past renters letting them know about upcoming specials, new additions and upgrades. If they refer a renter offer incentives such items as a free night, discount off advertised rates or a giftcard for each referred renter.
Method Eight: Research how the local tourist board are promoting in the off peak season. Find out which groups or geographical location e.g. Toronto, UK, Ireland, etc they are focusing on and follow their strategies.
Method Nine: Market your property to snowbirds. ‘Snowbirds’ are people who migrate from the midwest, northern states and Canada to escape their snowy winters. They will stay in a property usually between three to six months. They are a great source of revenue for a number of months.
Time, patience and effort is required to successfully market your Florida vacation villa during the off peak season. But if you are persistent you will reap the rewards and generate a greater level of income from your Florida vacation villa.