The top 5 holiday let and vacation rentals websites to get more bookings and boost your profits in St Andrews

There are many different holiday let websites to market your holiday let properties in St Andrews on. There are also many different ways list on those holiday let websites. That said, channel marketing is the most effective strategy for attracting new guests and generating new bookings for your holiday let. We’ve created a list of the best holiday lets websites (and website families) to advertise your properties on.  This will give you the biggest reach and increase your profits and occupancy for your St Andrews holiday let properties.The following sites will give you access to more than enough traffic and visibility to build a consistent and sustainable source of bookings for your holiday let business in St Andrews. Of course, you can trust us at Short Stay St Andrews to do it all for you, hassle-free. Click here to see if our services would help you.

1. Airbnb.com

You can’t talk about holiday lets or vacation rentals in St Andrews without mentioning Airbnb. Airbnb is now a global phenomenon offering a network of local rental accommodation. Airbnb had over 100 million booked nights in 2017 and continues to expand with many new hosts signing up monthly, especially in St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife.

Why Use Airbnb to Market your Holiday Let in St Andrews?

• Listing your property is free and relatively easy with a user-friendly interface.
• Airbnb is adaptable to a number of different situations and as a host you are in full control of prices, availability and the house rules. You can set the check in and check out time, communicate with your guests easily and accept bookings instantly (if you wish to). You can also set your cancellation policy to be very strict or entirely flexble.
• When guests book your property on Airbnb, you are only charged 3% of the booking (less the cleaning fee) and funds are transferred directly the day after check in. Airbnb handles all payments for you, so no need to issue invoices or chase payments.
• To ensure trust and security on the platform, all Airbnb travellers must submit a profile photo and verify their phone & email. Hosts can also require an official ID.
• After the stay both the host and guests are asked to write a review about each other. Reviews are very helpful when deciding which apartment or holiday let to choose. See our Top 10 Tips to a 5 Star Review article for more information on making your St Andrews Airbnb stand out.
• The Airbnb ‘Host Guarantee’ provides up to £600,000 of coverage in case property damage occurs, for every listing. This is automatically applied to each listing meaning you don’t have to do anything to sign up. They also have 24/7 phone support.

Ask us how to get your property to the top of the St Andrews Airbnb listings at Short Stay St Andrews. We can use our channel management expertise to offer a full management service for properties in St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife. Give us a call, text or Whatsapp, send us a message or come visit it us. We are local. Call Jordan today on 07803926862.

2. Booking.com

Booking.com are the 800lb gorilla of the holiday lettings market and to have a successful presence, you will need to use Booking.com. They have their pros and cons, but let’s look firstly at the reasons why you should use Booking.com to market your holiday let property in St Andrews.

Why Use Booking.com to Market your Holiday Let in St Andrews?

• It is by far the most popular site used by travellers booking vacations or holidays in St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife with over 400 million monthly visitors globally. They’ve also recently become more adaptable to suit holiday let owners with flexible cancellation policies and payment collections.
• Listing your property on Booking.com is free and whilst not as easy as Airbnb to set up, is getting easier and more user-friendly.
• Booking.com is widely used for guests booking holidays in St Andrews. So to succeed in St Andrews, it’s likely you will need to have a presence on Booking.com. You can choose whether to use it all year or only for low season periods.

The Difficulties of using Booking.com for your St Andrews Holiday Lets

• All bookings are booked instantly according to your booking terms and conditions. So you won’t receive any communication from your guests beforehand.
• Booking.com is historically a hotel booking website and the majority of customers would have been on looking for a hotel in the first instance. This means they are slightly less used to the self-catering accommodation market in St Andrews. You must ensure guests receive all the required information in advance.
• You must collect payment from the guest yourself and have the facility to collect payment. This can be cumbersome if you only have a single holiday let property in St Andrews.
• Getting support or answers from Booking.com is sometimes a little tricky and time-consuming. Use the knowledge and expertise of Short Stay St Andrews to get the best service for your holiday let property.
• Booking.com’s fee is 15%, which compared to Airbnb is pretty high. But Booking.com don’t charge the customer a commission and it’s guest-friendly.

3. Homeaway/Expedia Family

The HomeAway family of holiday letting websites has recently been purchased by Expedia. They are heavily used by holiday let owners in St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife. You should almost certainly consider using at least one of their websites to list your holiday let property. HomeAway consists mainly of HomeAway, VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owners), Homelidays, VacationRentals.com as well as Expedia itself.

Why Use Homeaway and Expedia to Market your Holiday Let in St Andrews?

• HomeAway/Expedia has an estimated 40+ million travellers per month across 20 websites spanning 5 continents.
• You can choose to accept or decline any bookings.
• HomeAway/Expedia has a simple Pay-per-Booking system similar to Airbnb and Booking.com. That means you only pay for confirmed bookings. It’s also simple to de-activate your listings at any time.
• The HomeAway/Expedia family specialise in ‘whole property’ listings.
• Listings are simple to create and include a property headline, a detailed description, and up to 24 photos. They also have guest reviews, an interactive map, availability calendar and free SMS booking enquiry alerts.
• The mobile app and mobile hospitality manager allows you to manage your listings, guest communication and confirmed guest satisfaction.
• In addition to a standard listing on HomeAway.co.uk, your St Andrews advert is also published for free on over 20 other HomeAway and Expedia sites worldwide. These include Expedia.co.uk, HomeAway USA, VRBO, HomeAway Canada, Abritel (France), Fewo-Direkt (Germany), HomeAway Portugal, HomeAway India, HomeAway Spain, HomeAway Italy, HomeAway Netherlands, HomeAway Norway, HomeAway Austria, HomeAway Argentina, Alugue Temporada (Brazil), HomeAway Finland, HomeAway Denmark, HomeAway Sweden, HomeAway Mexico, HomeAway Australia & HomeAway Columbia.

4. Trip Advisor Family

You may know Trip Advisor more for its review platform for restaurants and venues. The powerful holiday let section of TripAdvisor has a powerful portfolio of easy to use vacation rental platforms. Why should you use the Trip Advisor family to market your holiday let property in St Andrews?

• TripAdvisor, Flipkey, HolidayLettings, HouseTrip and Niumba have a combined total of over 250 million annual visitors. This includes guests searching ratings for restaurants, attractions, venues etc..
• You can choose whether you want to accept or decline a booking.
• As a result, you won’t have to worry about setting up an individual account for each country you wish to target as your listing will be pushed to all the TripAdvisor country sites.
• It’s FREE to list your property with a very reasonable 3% commission per confirmed booking. Short Stay St Andrews can take the hassle out of creating a TripAdvisor profile for you. We offer a full profile listing and professional photography service.
• Trip Advisor offers a $10,000 ‘Peace of Mind’ guarantee and verified stay reviews therefor giving guests confidence to book.
• TripAdvisor handle all the payments for you, and deposits your income direct to your bank account.
• The mobile app helps keep track of all enquiries, bookings and guest communication on a smart phone.

5. The “Others”

There are virtually hundreds of holiday let platforms, each catering to a slightly different audience, with different commission structures, payment methods etc.. You should always have a solid system to protect against the dreaded “double booking”. Please read out article about how to avoid double bookings here. Below is a brief list of other platforms you should consider when setting up your various profile listings.

1. 9Flats – with up to 300,000 visits per month, primarily from Germany, you are sure to get some interest in your properties. It’s free to list on and don’t charge the owner any commissions whatsoever
2. Wimdu – owner by 9Flats, the “Airbnb clone” has over 2 million visitors per month to it’s platform. It’s also free to list and there are no commissions.

In summary

When it comes to advertising and promoting your holiday let, you really have two options. Firstly you can choose to undertake it all yourself, or you can sign up with a holiday letting agency who’ll take care of everything for you.

1. If you decide to go it alone, you’ll need to manage your listings to enjoy year-round bookings and a reliable income. You’ll have to ensure your property can be seen in as many places, by as many potential customers, as possible. This is where Short Stay St Andrews are strong. We have lots of knowledge of the market and know how to craft a sharp profile to have your property noticed, and ultimately booked.
2. We offer a full range of holiday let management and Airbnb services in St Andrews. This ranges from profile and listing setup, housekeeping, linen hire and 24/7 guest communications. Contact us to find out more or call Jordan on 07803926862. Our Airbnb Made Simple management will make letting your property hassle-free.