Coconut Cottage

The Challenge

Prior to engaging Vacaygency, our clients converted a studio from their primary residence into a short-term rental. The studio was well decorated, located in a desirable neighborhood just 2 blocks from the warm sand of North Miami Beach, and the surrounding rentals were successful and generating strong revenue in both high and low seasons. Despite all these positives, in three months as an active rental the unit was only booked 5 times – significantly fewer than competitors – and this was financially unsustainable for the owners.

Our Solution

Vacaygency conducted comprehensive market research to identify consumer personas that were most likely to book the studio, and to identify competitors, their amenities, and understand their market positioning and pricing strategy. Once understood, we were tasked with repositioning the studio to maximize its competitive stance in the market.

Marketing Initiatives

* Research: Determine health of the STR market in North Miami Beach and the greater Miami market to benchmark potential success and the studio’s revenue generation ability.

* Research: Identify direct STR competitors, and evaluate each relative to amenities, location, day rates, and other factors to access the relative competitiveness of the studio.

* Research: Built a set of consumer personas most likely to book the studio, and the emotional and rational triggers that would likely lead to booking the studio in general, and relative to direct competitors.

* Crafted a pricing strategy to align the studio with the market and competitors while balancing day rates and booking percentages with the owners’ financial goals.

* Created a completely new listing headline and compelling story-based description targeting emotional and rational triggers for the new consumer personas, and incorporating lifestyle selling points. The new listing replaced the existing one on Online Travel Agency website listings (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.), and the direct booking website.

* Sourced and added more than a dozen stock photos to highlight lifestyle and local entertainment opportunities, while building emotional connection with the viewer to differentiate the studio from competitors and increase conversion to bookings. Selected a hero shot to stand out from competitors in search returns, and to make the biggest emotional impact possible on readers of the listing.

Results

Bookings immediately increased and quickly surpassed 80% of available nights across a rolling 90-day window, and continued at this pace with spikes during holidays and high season.

OTA views increased, and the owners were able to increase day rates over time as popularity increased and OTA algorithms recognized their popularity and rewarded the listings with higher placement in the search return results.