Earn money with real estate. Create a website for a vacation rental: Here’s how it works
October 22, 2024, 2:44 p.m
Anyone who owns a holiday home and wants to earn money with it must make the offer known. This works with the help of a separate website for the holiday apartment. We show what is important when creating a website.
Holiday accommodations used to be advertised through newspaper advertisements, but today the business is generally digital. Sure, there is the option of listing the apartment or house on special holiday apartment portals for a fee – but the cheaper and more independent option is a separate website for the holiday apartment. Good news in advance: Today, no one has to be a programmer to create a homepage, as website builders from hosting providers help with this and are easy to use even for non-technical people. If you then cleverly tag the homepage, you will use Google and other internet search engines to attract people who are ready for a vacation, who may then book the vacation property and put money into their household budget. Without any commission or service fees for an intermediary vacation rental portal such as Airbnb or other providers. We show what is important when creating a website.
Which website builders are recommended?
To have your own website, you first need a hosting provider – i.e. a tech service provider that provides storage space on a web server. Hosting providers such as Strato, Jimdo & Co. often also offer a website builder that can be used to bring the website online. Stiftung Warentest compared 16 website builder providers at the beginning of the year. A conclusion from the test experts: “With good preparation, a first version of the page is online surprisingly quickly. And: The start is often even free,” says the Warentest report from February 2024.
Thanks to ready-made design templates, modular websites look professional and fulfill all the necessary functions to rank well on Google & Co. (i.e. get good positions in the search results). The many plugins, some of which are even available free of charge for website builders, are also practical. The test winners were Wix and Jimdo, each with a grade of good (2.1). “Wix has more functions and is somewhat more user-friendly than Jimdo, but misses a better grade due to deficiencies in the data protection declaration and terms and conditions,” says Stiftung Warentest.
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For stable website traffic: Make Google & Co. happy
No matter how beautiful your website is, if no one can find it, it’s no use. And the competition on the internet is fierce: According to Statista, there are currently around 1.1 billion websites worldwide (as of 2024). Search engines such as Google or Bing ensure that individual websites can ideally be found using certain keywords. Anyone who launches a new website should first think about what message their website should send to the world. Only then is it clear which package of search terms the page should be optimized for. A holiday apartment website needs different content than a new fitness studio in Berlin – even if both websites have the same goal: attract customers.
Google & Co. need a certain keywording in order to display the websites high up in the search results. But there is also the option of booking placements in search engines – similar to advertisements. Internet beginners get basic knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing in books or online courses.
The following content is suitable for holiday properties:
- Information about the holiday resort – on the one hand about the equipment of the apartment, on the other hand about the location.
- What attractions are there in the region?
- Which restaurants and museums are recommended?
- Are there special events taking place that attract people (e.g. festivals or large fairs)?
- How do families with children best spend their time? Are there any exciting excursion tips?
- What travel options are there? Are there airports or major train stations and highways nearby?
Texts in which the place name or important sights of the region appear frequently are important – especially in headings, subheadings and in the captions. Google also rates self-taken photos positively because they are unique and authentic content that not every website has.
It also makes sense to have a social media presence for the holiday apartment, such as Instagram and Facebook. Travel guides and, of course, personal experiences can be used as sources of information. The same applies here: the more personal and exclusive, the better.
Crucially, include contact or booking options
Those who want to travel can find the website? That’s nice – but it’s best that you be able to book the house or apartment directly. Special plugins are available for this, which are sometimes already included in website builders or can be booked if necessary: Calendar plugins are a way to display availability for the holiday property. This means the website visitor can see at a glance: When is the house or apartment already rented and when is it not. The booking can then be made either via a personal request via email or via another plugin with a digital payment option.
Contact options should be available (email address or integrated email form on the website) so that interested parties can ask questions about the holiday property.
Also important: secure the legal side
Many people don’t think about this, but there are legal requirements associated with publishing a website. This needs to be checked and the relevant legal texts integrated. Every website operator has a certain obligation to provide information, for which there are legal requirements. Anyone who does not adhere to the currently valid requirements can expect a warning and a hefty fine at any time. Conveniently, hosting providers like Jimdo provide packages with reliable legal texts – “from the GDPR to the cancellation policy,” says Jimdo. It is not absolutely necessary to go to a lawyer, but Stiftung Warentest recommends it to online shop operators.
- An imprint with the name, legal form of the company, address, contact details, VAT identification number and address of the professional supervisory authority.
- The data protection declaration with information on the collection, use and transfer of customer data, SSL certificate and an option for users to object.
- The general terms and conditions and a disclaimer.
- A domain registration check for possible violations of trademark law.
Creating a holiday apartment website: makes sense or not?
It’s definitely worth putting a website online for your holiday home, especially in the age of social media. Because the costs are comparatively low, just like the dependence on commercial holiday home portals, whose fees can change at any time. Internet trends are fast-moving, but the personal Internet address remains as long as the money flows to the hosting provider. If you want to position yourself online with a holiday apartment website, you don’t need much – and above all, not a lot of previous knowledge. Getting started has never been easier than now.
