With more than 300 million active users, Instagram has grown from a strictly mobile photo sharing app into a pictorial social media epicenter. What began exclusively as an iPhone application in 2010 has now expanded to Android use and is steadily growing a strong web presence as well! Marketers across multiple industries are seizing the unique opportunities Instagram provides and are creating effective strategies to share their brand with the millions of users across the globe. Instagram is an ideal marketing platform for vacation rental companies because it gives you a chance, as a vacation rental marketer, to attract travel-minded individuals through beautiful, creative imagery delivered using a handful of specialized tools.  

Keep in mind:

• It’s not always about how many followers you have (although the more you have, the more likely it is that people will consider you an industry source) but it is about the type of followers you have. The more qualified, the better your chances are at nurturing them into customers and then into promoters of your vacation rental company.
• Photos that are representative of your company’s philosophy are key! Whether you are a company comprising private homes that takes pride in offering your guests authentic local experiences, or you are a 5-star luxury vacation rental company boasting your amenities and targeting potential guests who enjoy lavish living, your Instagram photos have the ability to reach your intended market situating yourself within the niche of prospects that will better lead you to converting them into customers.
• With that said, post photos that coincide with your vision. Quotes about inner peace and photos of local yoga studios will situate you in a different realm of Instagram searchers than will photos of extravagant bathrooms and fantastic facades. Here are a few vacation rental companies from across the country who are taking advantage of Instagram’s marketing opportunities and killing it with their accounts!  

1. Seaside Vacations – outerbanks 

With more than 10.7K followers to date, this Outer Banks vacation rental company is attracting hoards of attention! One great Instagram tactic they employ is the use of a unique hashtag! #iloveobx has caught on in waves and is the perfect choice to connect the countless number of Instagram users who vacation on the Outer Banks every year.

Coin a hashtag that is essential to your area, then start tagging all of your photos with it and encouraging others to do the same. Pretty soon you will not only have a collection of user-generated content to use, but also an infinite number of outstretching avenues that will lead users back to your account.

Seaside also features local spotlights, reposts from local organizations, and vibrant, colorful, attractive photos from the company’s own social media marketers as well as native and visiting photographers. They employ these attractive images to entice searchers to double tap, follow the links, and share them on their own social media accounts.

Another key takeaway from Seaside’s Instagram marketing is their username choice. “OUTERBANKS” is going to receive MUCH more traffic and inbound links than simply “SEASIDEVACATIONS.” Choose a name that people will be more likely to search for and click, like “Miami Sunsets” for your Miami Beach vacation rental company, for example. By following this company’s excellent example of Instagram marketing, you will more than likely find yourself with more followers, more engagement, and potentially more interested renters in the future. 

2. HomeAway Vacation Rentals – homeaway 

It’s no surprise that the vacation rental powerhouse, HomeAway, also has a rocking Instagram profile. It’s easy to recognize some of the things they are doing right that vacation rental companies can learn from to boost their own Instagram marketing campaigns.

By posting incredibly alluring photos of the nooks and crannies of some of their rentals, HomeAway baits their followers into wanting to see more about those specific rentals, allowing themselves one more chance for engagement per user view. Beauty is in the details, and HomeAway shows off the unique features of their properties successfully! 

Another useful tactic HomeAway uses is in their photo comments by directing users to the link in their profile. By doing this, HomeAway is using one more resource, one more outstretched hand to lead their followers directly to their website, increasing their chances of conversion.

3. Lucky Savannah – luckysavannah 

Lucky Savannah knows how to showcase some of the hidden pleasures of their town. With shots from coffee houses, local breakfast spots, retro cinemas, and farmers markets (to name a few), Lucky Savannah features local spots to help visitors dig into the provincial qualities of the area. Become a source of travel inspiration and guidance to your Instagram followers and they will be more likely to look to your company to book their next vacation.

4. Vacation Palm Springs – vacationpalmsprings 

Instagram’s compatibility with other photo and video apps provides users an even more dynamic, extended range of ways to showcase their vacation rentals. FLIPAGRAM, a complementary app for Instagram, can be downloaded for free on any mobile device and creates a way to put your favorite pictures together to produce videos set to your favorite music. Showcase all of the special aspects of a certain rental or a specific facet of your rental location for an interactive, fun, eye-catching video that will show Instagram perusers just what you’re working with!

Don’t just take our word for it…take a stab at some of these great Instagram marketing practices for your vacation rental company and find out for yourself the positive effects it can have on your engagement with your potential renters! For more tips, news and information, visit Paveya’s Inbound Marketing blog!