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During Colphon’s recent work on the new website for Charlestonian.com, we gained a ton of insight into the keys to optimizing short-term rental websites.
Sharing such wisdom is a priority for us in 2026, so let’s jump into our first Wednesday Website Wisdom piece of the year.
Before diving into our top takeaways, check out our previous editions of Wednesday Website Wisdom, which broke down the following:
There’s no need for any lengthy preamble here (and if you’re in an area like our beautiful home of Charleston, SC, vacation season never stops), so let’s get right into it.
We could write an entire post dedicated to this one piece of advice, which makes it a natural starting point.
Let’s start with why this is important.
Essentially, short-term rental websites that have their own direct websites and those that do not (instead relying on Airbnb or VRBO) are playing two different games — and there’s no doubt in our minds about which one is easier to win.
The biggest benefit of having your own direct booking website is that you no longer have to pay the fees that Airbnb and VRBO charge you to use their services. This not only eliminates a significant expense on your end, but it also lowers the cost for your customers.
If your own site takes care of the booking process itself (and don’t worry, we’ll offer tips on how to do this), you will now own all web traffic from your customers. From firsthand experience, we can assure you that this not only boosts ROI, but it also makes it easier to track that ROI.
Owning a direct booking website also brings a couple of other key benefits worth unpacking:
When everything is going well with your company’s listing on a third-party platform, this is easy to ignore or overlook, but there’s major risk with being dependent on the likes of Airbnb and VRBO. For one thing, there’s no guarantee that their algorithms will continue to give your properties favorable placement (and visibility).
There’s also no way to guarantee that you’ll never be deemed in violation of their policies, no matter how by-the-book your approach is. We’ve heard of countless examples of companies cruising along, then suddenly hitting a massive speed bump thanks to something outside of their own control. When you stop depending on unpredictable sites like Airbnb and VRBO, you’re infinitely less likely to be adversely impacted by something outside of your control.
There’s only so much you can do to customize your customer’s experience with your listings on another website. This might seem obvious, but it’s hard to overstate the impact of being able to do whatever you want, with no restrictions, on all of the following fronts:
When there are no restrictions on how you present your property, you will be able to feature copy that maximizes SEO (both on-page and organic), and you’ll also have the chance to take advantage of paid advertising to attract vacation rental searches to your own site instead of a third party’s, which can pay dividends.
Now that we’ve established all the reasons to create a direct booking website, one of our top recommendations is to make it simple and easy to navigate.
Challenge yourself to create a site that requires as few clicks as possible for visitors to complete a booking. It’s easier said than done to create a seamless interface, which is why we recommend hiring reputable designers and/or UX firms. Bringing in experts on this crucial aspect of your site is worth every penny they cost.
Once everything on your site is as quick and straightforward as possible, complete with simple payment gateways, your bookings (and revenue) will increase quickly.
There’s a key point to make before we dive into this one: it’s crucial to comply with platform regulations, so be sure to double-check the rulebook, cross every T and dot every I — and maybe even triple-check for good measure — before you go about this. Ensure emails are collected with consent and do not violate their policies (or the trust of your guests!).
None of the potential benefits from following this step are worth the trouble of a ban for violating Airbnb or VRBO policy.
With that out of the way, there are above-board ways to use your Airbnb and VRBO guests’ email addresses to your advantage. Reach out to them via a newsletter and/or email campaign to tell them about your latest offers and deals.
There are tons of great leads to take advantage of here, and if they’ve already enjoyed one of your rental properties in the past, they won’t think twice about booking with you again (and doing so through your website).
This is yet another way to control traffic and move that much closer to not being dependent on unpredictable third-party sites.
If we’ve piqued your curiosity on this topic, let us know — we’d love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have.
We’re proud to be a leader in the website and marketing space for this booming industry in Charleston, the Lowcountry, and all over the United States. Thanks for reading, and we look forward to hearing from you!
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