With more than 200 million active users, Instagram hovers just below Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn in numbers, but with user participation at 57%, it comes in second among the five major social media sites, topped only by Facebook. The accessibility of the predominately-mobile application provides a constant stream of communication among users, allowing for more chances of engagement.  

The visually-driven platform is ideal for Vacation Rental Companies to share intriguing photos of their properties and amenities, but what really attracts users are photos, slideshows and videos that share with them an experience, idea, or information instead. The following are 3 Vacation Rental Companies who are taking advantage of Instagram’s impressive reach by rocking their own accounts in creative ways:  

FlipKey Vacation Rentals (flipkey_vacation), TripAdvisor’s vacation rental venture, is doing an impressive job of posting alluring photos from all over the world, promoting interest in their global rental locations. With their use of multiple hashtags in every post, FlipKey is stretching as many arms out as they can to attract customers. Connecting through hashtags is essential, as it provides a way to link to thousands of people with the same specific interest. The company is also using their uploaded photos as links connecting back to their own blog posts, which contain fun, informative and relevant information to the places in which their vacation rentals are located. Below is an example of how FlipKey uses an appealing photo, hashtags, and a link back to their blog to gain attention through Instagram.

Couchsurfing (couchsurfing), a company which connects people with places to stay all over the world, has put a new spin on vacation rentals and is maximizing their Instagram reach in an astronomical way. Following only 47 people and posting only 164 posts in 18 months, Couchsurfing has more than 13,600 followers, proving that quality over quantity is what works when it comes to Instagram. Users do not want their single scrolling feed to be bombarded by 10 of your mediocre photos; they instead hope for that one creative, eye-catching, thought-provoking photo to warrant their following. Couchsurfing has succeeded in this as almost every photo they upload to Instagram reflects a bigger story, meaning or idea. Those are the posts that get you noticed. The following is an Instagram photo of the Couchsurfing team’s bucket list, which gained more than 500 likes. The idea gets users thinking about travel, which, as a Vacation Rental Company, is essentially the first step.  

Beach Properties of Hilton Head (hiltonheadvacation) has the right idea when it comes to audience interaction. Although they are a much smaller company than the other two in this list, they are doing a great job with their Instagram, especially in an industry where not many companies of its size are participating. What stands out with this company’s account is their use of hashtags to locate other users’ photos of Hilton Head Island, where they are located, and repost them as their “Island Insty of The Day.” They make sure to tag the original photographer, and in doing so, they are effortlessly gaining the attention of the people who are already interested in the area to begin with. People are happy when they see their photo reposted and are likely to share it with their friends. The following is an example of how Beach Properties of Hilton Head uses hashtags to engage a wider audience through photo reposts.  

Think outside of the box, get creative and use some of these ideas to take advantage of the unlimited ways in which your vacation rental company can get connected to potential customers through Instagram.