Awareness and good reputation are key drivers in the highly demanding and competitive environment of vacation rental business. Be present in many OTA’s and having the perfect advertising is important and helps for sure, but as it happens in every business, the branding is an essential element.
Many people don’t spend time creating and taking care of their business’s brand when we’re talking about vacation rentals. But today, we want to tell you why it’s important to take your time and build your brand aligned to your communication or the experience you want to offer at your accommodation.
Why is important to have a brand and work on it?
Getting a reputation in your business area, specially if it’s a highly competitive place, is basic to succeed. Work in your business brand will make people recognize it for its name, establish a loyalty relationship with your customers, stand out in front of your competitors and have a coherent communication strategy with your customers or people who’s looking for a place in your area and might be the next ones to come.
Your brand is not only your logo, the name or company colors. It’s true that working properly in these features will give you a huge advantage to start, you must ask some questions before:
- What kind of customers do I have, and which is the best way to communicate with them?
- What my competitors do to stand out or letting them know? What do they offer?
- How can I improve the guest experience, so they remember the experience?
- What kind of experience I want to offer in my business?
These questions are key elements to look at when you’re planning to make your brand growth and provide your business with a personality. This will contribute to get more positive reviews, because a well worked brand and with defined objectives will always be at customer’s mind. Nevertheless, you must remind that brand and customer experience, of which we have already told you about, must be managed together. That’s why is essential to offer an easy process management, maintain a clear and fluid communication with our customers, take care of the cleanings or present personalized experiences for guests.
Plus, you must have in mind that work in these aspects not only will give you awareness among your objective target audience, it also will ease your task in communication and marketing because a well-defined brand is easier to communicate. Your website design and its communicative tone will establish the base for your emails, social media profiles and the tone that you use in this channels. It’s highly probable that those are the first contact between your brand and new costumers, so they must appreciate a coherent communication.
Which features you should work on first?
- Study the market around your business: You must know and adapt to the environment where your business is placed. Be aware of the number of competitors you have, which are the main activities the tourists are looking for in your area, which experiences can you offer and what kind of touristic profile you want to have at your accommodation.
- Define your positioning, your personality and tone: Depending on which kind of tourists you want to attract, how your competitors act. You will have to establish a communicative and visual tone for your brand, and define your aesthetics for your website, social media, marketing materials…
- Choose your name, colors, logo, and typography: Every detail is essential and must be defined before start to work. It’s possible that you will shape them or change them through time, but it will be the base for your business and the elements that your customers will remember together with the experience you gave them.
Now that you know the basics for branding is time for you to think about which details of your vacation rental business can be improved or start working in your brand building if you have started recently in this business. And if you need help, remember that recently we established a partnership with weglobeyou, the main tourism marketing agency in Spain, so you can ask them for help if you need it.