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VRS123 – Pinterest For Vacation Rental Impact – with Nancy McAleer

Podcast

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Take three beautiful properties, a content-rich website and a passionate owner who understands the value of blogging and focused social media activity, and you have a recipe for vacation rental success.

As an executive with Canadian retail company, Jacob, Nancy McAleer had a high-powered job that ended with a ‘golden parachute’ offer when the company was approaching bankruptcy. Rather than taking on another corporate role, Nancy switched gears, and along with friends, purchased properties on Anna Maria Island in Florida, and the rest is history.

Armed with the marketing knowledge gained from her previous job and a strong eye for design and décor, Nancy has created the appealing accommodation that is being rewarded with plenty of reservations. The Wix-built website is a model of how a VR site should look, with a focus on the destination as well as powerfully presented images and text.

Alongside this, her social media strategy is designed to drive traffic to the site which now generates 20% of bookings.

In this episode we explore this strategy, with particular reference to Pinterest, the platform that drove 4,761 people to her website in 2015.

We talked about:

  • The power of beds and bedding – why being pillow-happy and slumber-worthy brings more guests
  • The importance of a website to drive traffic to and from social sharing platforms
  • Why Pinterest is such a good match for vacation rentals
  • Why personal and business boards accounts need to be separated
  • How to start off with Pinterest and create your first boards
  • Answering your guests questions with pins
  • The range of content to include on a Pinterest board
  • Keyword-rich descriptions and why they are important
  • What to include in a description and what to leave out
  • Working with bloggers – hint…they are power-Pinterest users

 

Links to items discussed:

Anna Maria Island Beach Life on Pinterest

Nancy’s Blog

Pinterest for Vacation Rentals on VRMB

Anna Maria Island Vacation Rentals

Wix

One Rooftop

MyVr

Piktochart

Canva

Where you can find Nancy:

http://www.annamariaislandhomerental.com

Website
@amibeachlife

Twitter
https://www.facebook.com/AnnaMariaIslandBeachLife/

Facebook
https://www.youtube.com/user/amihomerental

YouTube
https://www.pinterest.com/amihomerental/

Pinterest
https://www.instagram.com/annamariaislandbeachlife/

Instagram
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About the author

Heather Bayer

  • Heather, really enjoyed it.

  • Hi Heather,
    My WIX website is a Premium Level website! It gives me some extras that I really appreciate like more GB’s on my Blog, site booster app, hotel app, and most importantly instant support if I have difficulty. I like that the WIX editor is basically a drag and drop style, similar to my Mac computer. It’s super easy to use, which I love because I’m tweaking it almost every day. They also have a video course online fo free called WIXed, which teaches you all about creating your own website.

    I’ve been on the Word Press site to check it out and I would also recommend taking a course like Alan Egan’s to really unlock the full potential, because the learning curve is steeper.

  • Very much enjoyed that Heather & Nancy! SO informative and has inspired me to covert my personal pinterest page into a business one. I also use wix so it makes me happy to see what can really be done on that platform. Cheers & much appreciated. 😉

  • I was so inspired too, and am relaunching my Ontario Cottage Insider account

  • Thanks for your kudos Karen and Brian, it really has helped generate a lot of traffic for me, which also helps boost my website up in the Google rankings. Good Luck and Happy Pinning!

  • Heather, when you get active, be sure to follow and COMMENT on pins on this Style at Home Magazine ~ Cottage Board! It has over 415,000 followers!!!!
    If you comment you may pick up some new followers, who will always see your profile on the left of your comments

    https://www.pinterest.com/styleathome/cottage-style/

  • Thanks for tuning in Terry!

  • Debi

    Great podcast Heather and Nancy! I believe I need to trash my old Pinterest account and start all over; I learned so much! Nancy your website is amazing! I really like the videos of each home. Looking forward to meeting you both later this month.

  • Is anybody having trouble seeing this in the iTunes feed? – hopefully just me. Will investigate.

  • Bob, it didn’t come into my feed either, so I downloaded it from here. I thought it was my system that was messed up.

  • Thanks so much Debi! The website is a work in progress… always! I’ve been inspired by so many people in the VRMB Inner Circle, (including yourself), it may be a little unorthodox and flashy, but it really is a personification of the type of vacation experience I try to offer my guests. I think my Pinterest boards reflect that too.
    Can’t wait to meet you in person too!

  • Katie Watson

    Great post…this is interesting

  • NSCottageLife??

    I had same issue

  • michale1

    SO informative and has inspired me to covert my personal pinterest page into a business one.Thanks for sharing this blog its really help full

  • Hi All, I thought I would share my latest guest inquiry’s comments that I got today… she found me through Pinterest. Although I am already booked and couldn’t accommodate her, she gave me some great feedback without solicitation…. It’s a great lesson to work towards listing site independence.’

    This guest was using Pinterest as a Search Engine to find a vacation rental on Pinterest. It seems both the guests and the owners want the same thing. We just have to find a way to connect with our respective community/guests.

    “Hi Nancy,

    You’re doing a great job getting your property out on Pinterest!! I can understand why you’re booked. Thanks so much for the help. You sort of dominate Pinterest. I’m trying to stay away from VRBO as they have gotten expensive with fees for homeowners and vacationers, but it’s not always easy.

    Feel free to pass along my email to anyone on the north end with a pool and, hopefully, a view!

    Thank you so much for passing my information along! Best wishes!

    Thanks,

    Courtney”

  • Thanks michale! You can do it… it’s easy.

  • Thanks Katie

  • Judith Abraham

    Thank you so much for sharing all this information. My website was “professionally” created and it has such limited functionality now. Your website shows off the properties really well and the two videos, in particular, have very high production values. Compelling! I will look into WIX. I am cleaning one of my properties thoroughly from top to toe whilst living in it for a week, to test everything. I stumbled across Heather’s site so that I could listen to Podcasts whilst being productive 🙂 Much appreciated ladies!

  • Thanks Judith…. yes it’s always a work in progress. We are busy with some renovations at our third property and I’m waiting for to finalize them before I get my final video up and running. I’m really happy with them too.

    I love Heather’s Podcasts and Blabs too, I constantly learn from her. Never a dull moment in the world of vacation rentals!

  • Judith Abraham

    Hi Nancy, I am busy preparing one of my apartments by painstakingly going over it thoroughly and listening to Heather’s podcasts. Just stumbled over the Welcome Book podcast and the image you posted of the book you created showing the pool & spa instructions. Congratulations on your level of professionalism!

  • Thank you for the kind comments Judith.

  • Thanks Judith. The welcome book in a photo album format really kills 3 birds with one stone.

    1. It helps my guests understand how to use the TV/electronics/pool equipment and decreases the number of phone calls to me.
    2. It is used as a checklist for my cleaning and inspection staff to ensure theft has not occurred.
    3. It gives my guests emergency information for hospitals, fire extinguishers locations, evacuation routes in the event of hurricanes, and also VR niche information such as the nearest marina to gas up their boat, etc….

    Its super easy to do, but takes some coordinating after your professional photos are done in addition to photos you need to take yourself to cover all the subjects that are important to your VR.

    You’re doing it right by educating yourself as much as possible because the guests love it and will return year after year to a professionally run VR that puts them on the top of their priority list.

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