Social Media Essentials for Short-Term Rentals
Learn about actionable strategies that will help take your social media game to the next level and stand out in a crowded market.
In this episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast, we welcome Marissa Schulze, a social media expert and the owner of Haymaker Marketing, a full-service vacation rental marketing agency that helps vacation rentals and boutique hotels look luxurious and irresistible online with storytelling-driven digital marketing solutions.
Marissa discusses the importance of social media marketing for STR hosts and shares practical strategies for building a strong media presence. From creating a database of photos and videos that feature your property to using storytelling techniques and leveraging influencer partnerships, the conversation covers a wide range of topics.
Press Play now to learn how to use social media to showcase your property’s unique appeal, reach your target audience, drive traffic to your direct booking website, and grow your STR business.
If you prefer to read the highlights, we’ve got a summary of the key takeaways below.
Why Social Media Marketing Is Crucial for STR Hosts
Marissa emphasizes that in today’s competitive market, building an independent social media presence is no longer optional for short-term rental businesses—it’s essential for success.
“You need another marketing funnel besides just depending on Airbnb and Vrbo,” Marissa points out. “Building multiple marketing funnels for your property is essential. Any business has to do it. It's not just Airbnb, vacation rentals, STRs—any business.”
Marissa thinks that social media is “a great place to slowly generate leads that eventually lead to bookings.” You should use social media to drive traffic to your direct booking website, helping you save on OTA fees and increase your revenue per booking.
How to Get Started
Marissa recommends starting with Instagram and Pinterest—her favorite channels. Her agency focuses on them because they give you two different platforms you need to reach your target audience and build meaningful connections with them.
“You just need to start posting the listing photos that you have. Listing photos don't work very well on social media, right? No one really cares about what your kitchen looks like. They do care about what it feels like to have a cup of coffee and walk out onto the porch. That is what they'll care about. But I would start with just getting those accounts and getting them started.”
Marissa also recommends hiring professionals to shoot video and photographs featuring your vacation rental property. This way, you’ll be able to “build a database of photos and videos of your property, so you actually have something to post” and won’t have to brainstorm content ideas yourself.
Tell the Story of Your Vacation Home
Don’t use social media to post guest reviews because they don’t work. Instead, use stories to elevate your content and create an emotional connection with potential guests.
“People care about guest reviews once they get to your platform, but nobody's going to be scrolling on Instagram at 8 pm being like, I wonder what this review is like,” Marissa notes. “What does work is storytelling. Who's your ideal guest? What should they be doing at this moment?”
Marissa underlines that when creating content, you should keep your target audience in mind. “Think about your guests, and then tell a story. If you're marketing to couples, then you should be thinking about wine. You should be thinking about cheese. You should be thinking about hot tubs. If you're thinking about Intergenerational, then you should be highlighting the toys, not just a photo of the toys. Get a kid in there… Show them doing the puzzle. Show the hands. Show a cup of coffee on the table to indicate that a parent is there. So that already creates an intergenerational feeling.”
Use Keywords in Social Media Posts
Keyword strategy is essential to help people find you and your posts when they search for vacation rentals on social media. “You need to find out what people are searching for in your location,” Marissa says. “And then you need to use those in your posts, in your captions, and then also in the video itself or the graphic itself. Keywords matter. It's how people are going to find you, unless you run adsor use influencers.”
Use CTAs
Marissa emphasizes that almost every social media post needs a call to action to encourage your audience to take your desired action or next step. “That's a way to get people to your website. And sometimes it's not, I don't think about it as sales. I think about it as a convenience. How can I get you to where you want to go faster?”
You can also ask your audience to sign up for your newsletter to build an email list, or to follow you to drive engagement and conversions.
Influencer Marketing
Marissa thinks collaboration with influencers can add value to vacation rentals as part of a broader strategy. Influencer marketing can help expand your reach and elevate your property’s online presence.
“You need other people to help highlight your property. And I think influencers do that really well because people are following influencers for reasons—travel ideas, sometimes, because of their style, their aesthetic—lots of reasons…There are dog-traveling influencers, fishing influencers, and influencers for empty nesters. It's endless.”
Listen to the full episode of the Hospitable Hosts podcast to learn about actionable strategies that will help take your social media game to the next level and stand out in a crowded market.
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Table of contents
Why Social Media Marketing Is Crucial for STR Hosts
How to Get Started
Tell the Story of Your Vacation Home
Use Keywords in Social Media Posts
Use CTAs
Influencer Marketing