If you own a vacation rental property, listing it on Vrbo can help you reach a wider audience, but it’s a highly competitive marketplace. So, how can you make your Vrbo listing stand out and increase your occupancy rate?
One of the effective ways to draw attention to your STR property and attract potential guests is by offering different discounts. This useful tactic can help you get more bookings, so you should definitely include it in your marketing strategy.
For example, you can offer a nightly discount to travelers who want to stay an entire week or a more significant discount for guests who wish to book a monthly stay. But there is also an offering that will improve your Vrbo listing’s appeal and directly contribute to a good cause.
It’s a Vrbo military discount that you can offer to active-duty military personnel and veterans to show appreciation and express gratitude for their service.
Vrbo Military Discount: Why Should You Offer It to Your Guests?
A military discount is a special offer or reduction of the initial price provided to active duty military personnel, veterans, and sometimes their families. Many US businesses offer military discounts to military personnel to show appreciation for their service to the country.
Vrbo doesn’t offer a military discount because it’s a platform where people list their vacation rentals, and Vrbo just takes a commission on each booking. And since Vrbo doesn’t own short-term rental properties listed on the platform, hosts can determine their pricing strategy and set nightly rates, cleaning fees, or fees for extra guests.
Hosts can also give discounts to make their listings more attractive to travelers and stand out from their competitors, setting the rate they feel comfortable with. For example, you can offer discounts for last-minute bookings, longer stays, or special occasions. That can help you win more bookings and, potentially, make more money.
While managing your Vrbo rental can be time-consuming when you have a lot of guests, you can solve this problem if you automate your hosting routine using vacation rental software like Hospitable.
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Why should you care about military discounts? One of the obvious reasons is that military members deserve it because of the sacrifices they make. A discounted rate on accommodation when they are on vacation can significantly reduce their travel expenses and ease their stress. And it’s also a great way for US hosts to show gratitude to military personnel for their services in protecting our rights and freedoms.
Offering a Vrbo military discount will also help enhance your competitiveness. This act of goodwill can make your listing more attractive to a specific group and present you as a considerate host. It will allow you to support our service members and veterans, promoting a positive image for your vacation rental business.
That can result in beneficial reviews and recommendations and help increase overall bookings from the broad network of military members, veterans, and members of their families. So, offering a military discount is a strategic business decision that can potentially help increase your total revenue.
But remember that you should focus on providing a memorable experience for your military guests and ensure perfect communication with them via messages during all the stages of their journey. It’s important to be proactive in your conversations with guests and answer their questions quickly to make them feel cared for.
That’s why automating guest messaging using vacation rental software like Hospitable makes sense. Our tool uses AI that recognizes questions on 20+ common topics and has the ChatGPT integration that can help you reply to all your guests quickly and effectively.
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How Hosts Can Offer Military Discounts on Vrbo
Vrbo doesn’t handle military discounts, so hosts are responsible for giving discounts to service members and veterans. If you’d like to include military discounts in your nightly rates, you need to provide the information about your offering in the listing description.
It’s essential to clearly state what you offer to ensure no confusion. Besides, many Vrbo hosts provide military discounts to travelers who ask for them, and the percentage typically ranges from 5% to 15% off the total price, excluding taxes. You can choose this approach too.
You may also want to verify the military status of guests who wish to use the discount. You can ask your potential guests to provide proof of military service, for example, a military ID or veteran’s ID.
Remember that the Vrbo platform doesn’t have a built-in feature that would allow hosts to offer military discounts. Instead, hosts have to manually adjust their rental rates for military guests if they want to give them a Vrbo military discount, which adds an extra layer of administrative work.
You need to edit the quote you send to the inquirer to give a military discount or any other discount applied specifically to the potential guest. For example, if you charge $100 for a night in your vacation home and offer a 10% military discount, you give them the quote of $90 a night after you’ve found out that your potential guest is a service member.
Bottom Line
Offering Vrbo military discounts for active duty service members, veterans, and their families is a great way to show appreciation for their services. It will help you make your Vrbo listing more attractive to members of the military community and the people who support them, gain a new customer base, and potentially increase your revenue.
You may also want to check out our blog article to learn more about offering military discounts on Airbnb.
