Why Isn't My Vacation Rental Making Money?

Starting a new business venture is exciting. If you are in the vacation rental business, you may have already bought a property or prepped a spare room or home.

You’ve filled out all the paperwork and insurance. Hired a cleaning staff and repair men. Created and shared listings on the popular rental sites, and your doors are finally open for business.

Now, you are sitting back, waiting for the bookings to come in, but what happens when they don’t? It takes funds for rental property upkeep, taxes, and other responsibilities. If it’s not making money, it could mean you’re losing money.

You may be scratching your head as to why you haven’t attracted as many guests as you thought you would. At BookingTeam.com, we work with property managers and owners every day to launch and grow their vacation rentals. At times, hosts come to us with this exact dilemma. If your vacation rental isn’t generating the kind of profit you were expecting, or need to not only stay afloat but be a profitable success, here are a few reasons why and what you can do to turn things around.

1. Your listings need work.

Well-crafted and high-performing listings have a few key things in common. For one, they have thorough and detailed descriptions. These include information on amenities, activities, the surrounding area, and house rules. They have at least seven or more high-quality photos of the vacation rental. The hosts have a great response rate and time as well as an up-to-date calendar.

If your property isn’t meeting your expectations, then your listing description may not be clear or complete enough. Your images may be of poor quality or you may need more professional photos to attract guests and showcase your property’s best features.

2. The rates are wrong.

It is extremely important to make sure you set the best pricing for your vacation rental properties. Your nightly rate should change based on a number of factors, including season, room availability and more. If your rates are too low, people will think it is too good to be true and won’t book. You’ll also never make a profit. If they are too high, no one will book. They will search for other more appropriately priced lodging options.

To make sure that your properties always have optimal pricing, at BookingTeam.com we use PriceLabs. The pricing technology automatically sets that best rates for the market, time and revenue generation.

3. You don’t have enough reviews.

Your first guests are critical. They set the bar for what future guests can expect, so their opinions matter even more. Getting them to leave reviews on your vacation rental listing will help attract other guests, which will be critical to your business survival. Ask them to review your property at checkout or send them a reminder email after they have checked out.

4. Consider location.

Location is important in any business, but it is even more so for the vacation rental industry. Many bookings are influenced by travel and tourism, so if your vacation properties aren’t located in a place that attracts travelers, you are going to struggle to make money. However, there are exceptions. If you have a truly unique property, location doesn’t matter as much. For instance, some of the top performing vacation rentals in the world are unusual structures like tree houses, castles and odd-shaped cabins in remote locations.

Running a vacation rental business has its challenges, and it is often more of a time-commitment than many hosts first realize, but that doesn’t mean it can be a profitable venture. Optimize your vacation rentals to meet their full revenue potential by partnering with the booking experts at BookingTeam.com.