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Vacation Rentals: Should you do Facebook Contests?

If you manage vacation rental property, you’re probably looking for a way to increase your client base and have your vacation rentals occupied more days out of the year. Fortunately, as a vacation rental manager, you can utilize the power of social media to help you accomplish this.

One great way to go about doing this is through hosting a Facebook contest. Here are some reasons why hosting a Facebook contest is a great idea to increase your vacation rental occupancy:

Vacation Rental Facebook contests

Low Cost

Say you hold a Facebook contest where you require fans to post and share a funny picture from a past vacation to win a free week in one your vacation rentals. This represents a relatively low cost for you, as you already own the property and will likely be able to supplement the loss of this income with income from other customers.

The value you will receive from hosting a Facebook contest will not heed you a direct ROI, but will more so increase your brand’s image and reputation, which can later correspond with an increased ROI.

Engagement

If you host a contest on your Facebook page, you will be engaging with your existing fan-base by providing them with an opportunity. In business, this is invaluable because your fans will think of you first when thinking about customer-oriented vacation rental businesses. When you host a contest on your Facebook page, you’re essentially humanizing your business and giving back to the clients on which you rely for revenue.

This is a great opportunity to personalize your social media engagement and have a chance to make long-lasting impressions. For example, if someone enters the contest, make sure to take the time to thank him or her for entering. Even if he or she doesn’t win, they will remember the fact that you took the time to personally interact with them. Depending on the type of audience you want to reach, you can offer then insight into related topics such as investment ideas and activities.

Exposure

When your fans start posting and sharing pictures in conjunction with your business on their personal social media pages, you will be reaching a far greater fan-base than just your own.

Even friends of that person will not only see that your business page exists, but will also see that you do fun things like give away weeklong stays. You very well could find that you’ll receive a large amount of “likes” after you post a contest, just because you’ll be exposed to so many new people.

SEO

If you host a contest on your Facebook page, you have a great opportunity to throw in some SEO if you link to a landing page or blog post. For example, if you are giving away a week-stay in your Pennsylvania cottage, you can have the contest post link to any page with information about the rental and the contest.

Publicity

When a fan finally wins your Facebook contest, you have a great publicity opportunity with them to try to connect with your other fans. Encourage the winner to send you a picture of him or herself in your vacation rental or a statement about how much they enjoy the property.

Once you have received this information or material, you can post it on your Facebook page congratulating them for winning. This will remind your other customers that you hold contests and pick tangible winners, and it will also serve as a reminder that your business exists.

This guest post was written by Courtney Gordner, a social media for businesses enthusiast who blogs for TalkViral.com.

If you are looking for a beautiful Vacation Rental Website fully integrated with a Reservation System and Channel Manager, Kigo can help! For more information contact one of our vacation rental software experts at [email protected] or on the phone (Europe) +34 512 702 104

Photo Credit: Sean MacEntee via Compfight cc

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