Finally you have your vacation rental ready to launch. The major hurdle of getting it ready has been jumped. You may have a couple of bookings but you suddenly realise that it just won't sell itself. Here is our experience. I hope it helps even just a little bit.
When launching our vacation rental on to the market we were lucky enough to be mentioned in a related article by a national newspaper followed by a double page spread in a national Sunday paper. This was achieved by networking our friends and family for any contacts they had and then by bugging them until they followed up on it. At this point, on advice from an excellent PR person, we had to come up with an idea for the article that wasn't just self promotion. It must have a bullet i.e. subject matter of interest to that journalist's audience. Your press releases must be along these lines. Base them around 'overcoming adversity' or 'new and interesting events in your area' or 'financing the build in this financial environment'.
Open a Facebook Page, get on twitter, start a blog, join a vacation rental website and of course Trip Advisor. Good reviews are gold dust. And I for one always check out places I intend to visit. Create a beautiful website with as many photos as you can load on there. A good photo speaks a thousand words. But more importantly make it easy to navigate. I recently came across a website where you could only view their home page, yet by trawling a search engine it was evident they had other pages on there. Follow up on every lead you get.
Send out promotional offers to your existing mailing list. Don't swamp them, a notice every three months is sufficient. You can do this in the guise of a Christmas Card or similar. We have now launched a number of added value vacations to ours, activity breaks including cookery classes, triathlon training weekends and sailing weekends. A great excuse to send another email to the guests we have already had. Make sure you mention any offers you may have going.
Most countries have some sort of free press release website. You can submit a press release with them or trawl the net and submit them with one in every country. Also most areas have promotional bodies and support services for new businesses in that area. Register with them and ask for help. Be bold. Shout from the tree tops. Because there are lots of us out there, but only the squeeky wheel gets oiled.