Marketing cabin rentals online, whether it’s an entire campground or single unit, requires a well-designed website that you can drive interested prospects to and convert bookings on the spot. When your website works as your booking tool it removes a lot of manual work from the equation.
There is no need for the consumer to call in and have to make a reservation over the phone when you have a seamless online booking system. This also frees up your staff and limits the manpower required to manage reservations and bookings for your cabin or portfolio of rental cabins.
With the correct website optimizations in place, you create an asset that works 24/7 and allows you to run your marketing campaigns around the clock. It doesn’t matter what time of the day someone visits your website – with the proper set up they can book cabins at their leisure.
To help you convert more of your visitors into bookings, let’s review some website optimization tips that will drive a higher ROI for your cabin marketing campaigns.
Create and Design with a Mobile-First Approach
Everything about your cabin website needs to be done with mobile devices in mind. From the navigation to the ease of booking, it all needs to be flawless on a small screen. A large number of all online traffic comes from mobile, and with social media being such an effective cabin marketing traffic source it makes that ratio of mobile vs desktop traffic even higher than average.
To drive bookings, it’s a good idea to have a booking calendar at the very top of each page that also has a floating call-to-action that follows the visitor as they scroll down. A simple “Book Now” CTA will attract clicks when the user is ready to commit.
Everything should be built with the least amount of steps required as a priority. If someone has to jump through hoops to book your cabin you will experience a high rate of abandonment, which will cause you to lose bookings because of a poor user experience.
From checking availability to confirming dates and completing the payment, make it simple. If a potential customer can select dates and be on the payment page with a single click it will greatly improve your conversion rate.
Implement an Online Booking System
There is no excuse for not allowing potential guests to book their cabins directly on your website. While years ago it was a significant financial investment to have a custom booking system built and integrated with your website and backend office software, today there are many affordable options.
With many booking scripts and clones that mirror platforms like Travelocity and Hotels.com, we can create a professional system that provides your visitors with a simple to use solution they are familiar with, and one that makes your job of cabin reservations and availability easily manageable.
While there are plug-and-play options available to handle your online cabin bookings it requires a little technical and coding knowledge to make it match the look and feel of your website and to tie the backend into your current software. This is something we can help you with if needed.
Use High-Quality Images as CTA Magnets
To convert more of your website traffic into cabin bookings, you need to incorporate high-quality images of your rental units and the surrounding area. Remember, most people are looking to book a cabin to escape and relax, so use visual stimulation to sell the dream and get visitors to picture themselves at your cabin.
This is where professional images will help you and pay off – they are well worth the investment. While iPhone cameras are decent and anyone can buy a nice digital camera, there is something to be said about pictures taken by a professional who understands angles and lighting.
Think like a realtor in this situation – they could take the pictures of the home being listed, but they would be doing it a disservice. Low-quality images will directly reflect on your cabin and can make it appear to be cheap or not as glorious as the description claims.
Budget for a professional photo shoot and be sure to get images at sunrise, during the day, and at sunset as well. This gives you a full range of visual content to use on your website that will touch every selling point. Also, this gives you ample content to share on social media as well, which is another cabin marketing strategy that can help drive bookings.
Leverage FOMO Urgency Signals to Convert More Bookings
If you study the top hotel booking websites you will see that they leverage FOMO, or fear of missing out, to drive their conversion rates through the roof. Some things they implement include:
- Displaying inventory levels when supply is low for a particular day. Banner tags with “Only 1 more room left at this price” use FOMO to get the visitor to commit to the booking before leaving as they don’t want to miss out on the final room.
- Discounted rates are shown with a countdown timer highlighting when the special rate will disappear.
- Flashing “low inventory rates in this location” to create a sense of urgency, suggesting the visitor book now and not risk coming back to rooms being sold out.
These are all cases of classic FOMO marketing, and while effective, it’s important to only use legitimate data. Otherwise, your cabin marketing could be deemed to be misrepresented. If you only have 1 carbon available for a specific date, highlight it. If you are running a special that expires in 24 hours use a countdown timer to draw attention to it.
Use Exit-Intent Popups to Offer Conversion-Saving Discounts and Offers
When you realize that every visitor that lands on your website have a cost associated with it, whether directly as a cost-per-click or indirectly as part of your SEO or social media marketing effort, you begin to prioritize converting the highest possible percentage of visitors into bookings.
If someone leaves your website without booking a cabin there is a low probability of them returning later. They will often look elsewhere or find an irresistible offer on another website and book through them.
Create last-ditch offers that are designed to reduce abandonment and increase bookings. Some examples: a free night stay with 3 or more nights booked, upgraded amenities, food or drink vouchers, etc.
Split-test multiple offers and constantly tweak them to improve your capture rate. Every time you can convert an abandoning visitor you not only secure an extra booking, but it drives down your cabin marketing’s acquisition cost, which in the end is responsible for a higher ROI.
Final Thoughts
Many websites can be edited and tweaked to meet the optimization suggestions above, whereas some will require a complete redesign from the ground up. An outdated website or one built on an inferior platform is best scrapped and built fresh using the latest technology stacks and best practices.
Our team of web designers and conversion rate optimization experts can integrate your preferred booking software into your website, creating a business asset that will work around the clock to take bookings and allow guests to manage their cabin reservations.
To learn more about our cabin marketing services, including website design and optimization, please give us a call or visit our contact page to speak with our team. We will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about marketing your cabin online, as well as provide you with a complimentary website audit to identify areas of improvement that will help you generate more bookings.
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