How to Target International Holiday Travelers to your Airbnb

The market for international travel is as diversified as it can get. With most countries finally opening up to tourism post the all-consuming pandemic that had us all shut-in for the longest period, more and more people are considering foreign travel for their next holiday.
Being stuck indoors for more than a year vacationers look for different experiences and an overall change in the scene when looking at overseas travel. So, if your property can give travelers an authentic local feel or an experience that is unique to your country or area, this one is right up your sleeve.

How do you Market your Property or Homestay to Vacationers Abroad?

If you are contemplating letting your property, out to customers from abroad consider the following:

• How do I market the local experience to vacationers overseas?
• What changes can I make to the amenities offered via Airbnb to international guests?
• What changes can I do to my service?
• Should I hire new (multilingual) staff?
• What changes can I make to the images uploaded in Airbnb?
• How can I use my property’s social media handles to interest these clients?
• How can I retarget old customers who visited my property previously?

Discussions around the points above should get you thinking about how best to present your property to international travelers. In this post, we discuss the different options property owners and managers have in this regard.

Marketing the Local Experience to Vacationers Overseas

First, consider the local experience you want to promote, is it a site or an experience or perhaps the local shopping scene?

If you are looking to promote local sightseeing, consider including the distance from your property to various destinations. Try to include images of past clients (with permission) or yourself in these destinations to make the trip sound more appealing.

If you want to sell the experience of your property, talk widely about it in your description and sell it as a story, an experience of a lifetime. Perhaps your property is a luxury treehouse, or maybe it is surrounded by lush greenery or mountains, perhaps you have a private stream running through your Airbnb. Draw out a story of an experience and sell that story.

If it is the local shopping scene you are keen on marketing, promote your proximity to local malls and marketplaces. Post a few pictures of strictly local finds so for example if you are based in Mexico, maracas, and sombreros would make colorful inclusions to your Airbnb page.

Targeting International Guests through Amenities

Since guests could be completely new to the area and the country, arm your staff with route maps and recommendations of local experiences such as restaurants, malls, sights to see, etc.

If you don’t have it already, consider including a hairdryer, mini-fridge, air conditioning, and heater among other amenities in the room. Installing multiple ports and having universal adapters go a long way as vacationers tend to have a minimum of three devices on them.

Since guests may pack light, having a washer and dryer for laundry or access to a local laundry service so they can do their laundry without paying a premium will travelers in your direction. Kitchen access is a must in case they want to eat in instead of going out every day. Consider offering refreshments on arrival if you know they are after a long flight, or perhaps, a local snack (home-made adds more value) to have on the way when guests leave your property.

Another cool addition to your amenities would be to use pictures for instructions and directions around the house. So that those who cannot read the native tongue will understand anyway. Additionally, if you have your house rules printed on the premises consider having copies of the same in multiple languages.

For every amenity, you add mention it on your Airbnb page so that guests know what they are in for. It might even give you a competitive edge over properties around you with similar price ranges.

Align your Service to Match International Guests

If you have advertised a truly local experience, consider greeting your guests as per traditional customs. Or you might surprise guests with a greeting from their culture. However, because everyone is just coming out of a pandemic, note that some guests may not be open to hand-shakes or hugs just yet.

Apply the same principle of greeting and inclusion of local culture when addressing mails to international clients before and after their trip.

Consider leaving trinkets of local souvenirs around to bring about that authentic feel and spark interest. If you are available on-site, consider talking to the guests about their culture if they are open to conversations or have employed a chief of staff to do so as most people love enlightening others about their culture.

Keep all staff well aware of the special needs of international clients, especially sightseeing and shopping, and arm them with route maps and other pieces of information that could potentially help guests.

Hiring Staff to Fit the Needs of Overseas Customers

It is not a must to change your staff line if you are happy with them. However, if you or your staff speak multiple languages and can converse with guests in their native language it could be an additional plus. You can even consider learning the language if the bulk of your international guests come from a country or region that speaks it.

Another interesting addition to your staff could be a part-time or full-time guide to show guests around. You can even tie-up with local tour guides if your property is close to areas that can potentially interest tourists.

Pictures to Upload on Airbnb when Targeting International Clients

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so post pictures of the property, or those of happy clients experiencing the story you are selling. Especially if you are selling the local shopping or tourist sites that include some cool pictures of the locations as well. When uploading pictures on Airbnb, remember that images must be of high resolution and at least 1024 x 683px.

Using your Vacation Rental’s Social Media Handles to Interest Foreign Clients

If you haven't already, then link your property’s social media handle to your Airbnb page and use it to convince international clients to visit your property. Concentrate more on the comfort and benefits of choosing your short-term rental over others in the vicinity. While addressing the proximity of outdoor activities include the additional amenities that you offer. If you or members of your staff speak multiple languages make sure that is known too. This way through your social media handles you make it impossible for guests to pick another rental.

Retargeting international guests who visited you in the past.

Send in an occasional greeting to your portfolio of old customers if they left their details behind. Inform them of improvements you’ve made to the property and events happening in your vicinity that might interest them so that they will not consider a different property when in the vicinity.

In Conclusion

It takes a lot of work to have foreign clients visit your holiday rental but it is such a wide and important market that you can’t afford to ignore it. To add to it, overseas clients tend to stay longer than locals and may fill up quite a bit of your weekdays as well. If you have to invest in your property and marketing to attract the foreign travel market, remember that a little bit can go a long way over time.

If you feel like all this targeting and planning is taking up a lot of your time, consider partnering up with Hostaway and let us take some of the weight off running your holiday rental. Our services include calendars that integrate multiple booking engines, tie-ups with pricing software partners who can take the weight of pricing plans from your shoulders, a unified inbox that allows you to respond to messages from multiple platforms in one place. These are a few of our many services. Have any queries? Contact us or request a free demo.