9 Steps to Turning Your Properties Into Luxury Short Term Rentals

From a family looking for their standout summer vacation to a high-profile individual seeking solitude, luxury short term rentals are about more than finding a bed for the night. Here, lifestyle meets indulgence, offering something out-of-the-ordinary for those looking to take their next trip to a new level.

Creating a vacation villa to meet these standards isn’t always easy, but for the chance to make your mark on the luxury travel industry, it’s well worth the effort. Those touches that go the extra mile will earn you a higher price tag, too, so you know the work you put in now will pay off in the future. 

If you’re considering turning your home into a luxury retreat, get started with these expert tips.

1. Identify Your USP

Dream exotic rentals need a unique selling point (USP) in order to stand out from the crowd, appeal to a specific audience, and warrant a higher price tag. In other words, when turning your property into a luxury vacation accommodation, you need to make it more than a home.

Your USP could come from the values that your space encapsulates or from the amenities you offer. It may even already exist in the form of a remote, natural destination – something that 31% of affluent travelers are keen to find and will happily pay more for. 

Priorities for Travelers

If you don’t already have a USP, consider what would appeal to your target market. Some top priority USPs for modern luxury travelers include:

• Sustainability 
• A standout viewpoint (e.g. floor-to-ceiling windows with a panoramic view of the sand, beachfront or mountains)
• Unique culinary experiences (e.g. a Michelin chef and personalized menus)
• Tailored experiences (bespoke activity packages for groups)
• A focus on health & wellness (offering facilities such as a wellness spa or hot tub)
• Family-centric services

Luxury vacation rentals are about more than offering a bed for the night. Your rental needs to reflect the lifestyle, values, and interests of your service to become a stand-out villa.

2. Understand Your Finances

Before making any big moves into the world of luxury property management, it’s vital you’re financially prepared. It’s easy to get swept up in choosing top amenities or paying for beautiful photography, but in order for your rental service business to work, you need to first consider money. 

We’ve taken a quick look at the different aspects of financial preparation you should take before starting your high-end accommodation service. 

Looking Into Financing Options

Forming a boutique guest experience to meet the requirements of high-end vacations isn’t cheap. Before diving into the hard work, make sure that you’ve got the funds you need to bring your passion and ideas to life. If you need a little extra financial help, look into funding options. These include:

• Bank loans
• Remortgaging 
• Private loans from family or friends
• Angel investors
• Crowdfunding

Prepare a Budget

A budget will help you to make sensible financial decisions as you create your villa. Detail the money you have along with any existing outgoings (like loan repayments and bills), and then begin allocating money for future expenses. This might include renovation works, management costs, and staff costs.

It’s a good idea to continue working on your budget as you learn more about luxury rentals. When different expenses crop up, add them to a spreadsheet, shop around for quotes, and create an estimate of how much you expect on average them to cost. Once you’re ready to get started, you’ll have a clearer outline of the required finances.

Get to Grips With ROI

Return on investment (ROI) is a crucial part of any business, and by understanding it now you’ll be in a better position to make informed financial decisions before jumping into accepting guests at your rental. 

ROI looks at how much money you make on an expense. For example, you might look at the costs of a Michelin-star chef for your guests against how much it’ll increase the value of your villa. If it’s going to cost a lot but not actually increase the value of your services, is it worth doing? Or could you achieve the same guest satisfaction with high-end catering options and boost your ROI?

Prepare to Take Bookings

A lot of financial management when turning your home into a short term rental revolves around budgeting and expenses. While this is crucial, it’s also smart to prepare for incoming revenue during the planning stages. The sooner you set up a system to accept payments, the sooner you can start taking those all-important bookings and revenue collection.

Prepare to Take Payments

There are a few different options available for accepting payments. If you’ll be working with clients in person or charging guests for additional services on-site, you’ll benefit from a card reader. With contactless capabilities and quick, secure payments, it offers convenience for seamless, full access to professional services.

However, most short-term rental bookings will rely on an online payment system. This service allows customers to pay securely when they book and provides a stress-free, intuitive method of remote payment. It’s good to note, too, that one of the benefits of online payments is easier financial management, with automatic payment matching and a digital record of your transactions making it a breeze to keep track of your accounts.

3. Focus On Interior Design

We all know that the old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is almost impossible to follow. When it comes down to it, your rental will undoubtedly be judged based on its appearance, and to fall under the umbrella of luxurious villas, it needs to ooze a high-end vibe.

If you haven’t already, take the time to work on your interior design plan. Start with some research, looking into how other villas are decorated and what seems to appeal most to your target audience. You don’t want to be a copy-and-paste of the current trends, but it can help to give you a starting point.

Your interiors should help your site stand out, too. Consider design touches that would elevate your brand and provide a reason to choose your vacation villa over other small hotels in the same vicinity. 

If you have a vision and the funds and it’ll see a solid ROI, it’s worth hiring an interior designer to bring a professional finish to your space. With expert insights, they’ll help you decorate in a way that resonates with your target market and suits the world of vacation villas.

4. Add Amenities

In many cases, what separates luxury rentals from standard vacation homes are the amenities offered. 

It’s well worth investing in some high-end features to level up your rental and entice travelers to spend a little more on their booking.

There are some choices, like hot tubs and cinema TVs, that are more obvious but still worth considering if they suit your target audience. However, to add to your USP and cater to a niche market, consider more unique high-end amenities like a designated yoga space or VR headset. 

These touches can distinguish your villa as a specialized space, offering something out of the ordinary for your visitors. 

Your amenities should reflect your target market, too. For a health and wellness audience, for example, high quality top-end smoothie makers and fitness equipment are likely to be priorities, whereas a younger market might be more geared towards the world’s latest entertainment gear.

5. Invest in Management Software

A crucial aspect of short-term rental is the management. But if you’re looking for a side project that’ll earn you passive income, you might not enjoy organizing bookings, messaging guests, and keeping an eye on cleaning rotas. 

For simpler management, set yourself up using vacation rental software and maintain your status as the perfect host. Designed to automate repetitive tasks and keep track of scheduling, these digital tools keep your business thriving while you work on other ventures.

The iGMS vacation rental software makes real estate management a breeze. Sync your bookings across listing sites (including Airbnb and Booking.com) for a seamless overview of your schedule, automatically assign tasks to your team based on bookings, and view all incoming messages in one cohesive system. 

You can even use automated messaging to welcome guests and provide the access information they need for a happy, stress-free stay. 

6. Hire the Right Staff

Unless you’re tackling your new venture with a DIY approach, you’re going to need housekeeping, maintenance, and a concierge team. Your staff – along with your vacation rental software – will keep your property up and running when you’re busy, so take time to find trustworthy people you can rely on.

As a rental, consider additional staff that you might want to offer as part of the experience. This could include family services and assistance, like babysitting, as well as lifestyle extras, like a personal trainer, chef, or massage therapist.

Be inspired by activities around your rental destinations, too, and encourage customers to discover all your location and community has to offer on their perfect vacation. For example, if you live near a beach with good surf, a surfing instructor is a great optional extra, while a hiking guide through the nearby mountains is a luxury must-have.

To find staff, post a listing on a job board, like LinkedIn or ZipRecruiter, or work with a recruitment agency that will find the ideal talent for your role. 

7. Consider Professional Marketing

What’s the best way to get the word out about your villa? If you’re new to the game, a professional marketing strategy is going to see the greatest results, helping you launch your rental brand into the world. 

4 Marketing Strategies

Marketing is a multi-pronged approach, with various strategies that suit luxury retreats including:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media marketing
• Paid advertising (including pay-per-click and social ads)
• Listing on reputable rental websites (such as through Plum Guide here)

Marketing experts will help you reach your clients and build up an enticing brand image, showing your rental accommodation in the best light.

If you haven’t got any experience building a brand, we recommend first looking into marketing professionals to build your website, deal with the photography for your rental, and write the copy for your sites/listings. You can either work with individual freelancers to bring this strategy to life, which is better if you’re on a budget, or keep things simple by hiring a full-service marketing agency.

8. DIY Marketing Tips for Short-Term Rentals

When your budget doesn’t leave much room for marketing, it is possible to go it alone. But, this will take time, and it’s a good idea to get to grips with the ins and outs of good marketing before you begin.

Start by taking photographs of your accommodation. You can use existing high-end listings and search through social media accounts to get inspiration for your own shots. Be sure to add close-ups of details you want to stand out, like specific amenities or areas of decor. 

Launch A Website

You can then use your photographs to build a website. Your site should have a:

• Home page – to introduce your audience to your rental and show off some of the best images.
• About page – detailing more information about your rental, including its history and what’s on offer across different destinations.
• Services and amenities page – with a full list of everything you offer (focus on stand-out luxuries).
• Gallery.
• Contact and booking page.

You don’t have to code to build a website, as long as you have an eye for design and can write well. Use a drag-and-drop website builder to get started, taking advantage of their templates for a professional-looking site. Just be sure to double-check your writing for any errors and use other rental sites as visual guides.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is another way to get the word out about your brand without spending a lot of money. Take a look at similar accounts on Instagram to get a good idea of what your audience will expect. 

It’s smart to spend some time learning how to market your luxury villas successfully on social media before you begin, too, as you can do as much harm as you can good for your brand if you’re not clued up on marketing. 

9. List Your Accommodation

Listing your accommodation is your final step to getting it out into the world. Choose well-known sites as well as some more niche listing platforms that are specific to your USP or luxury niche. 

When listing, entice your audience with compelling, engaging written copy that shows off everything you have to offer.

Give potential customers a peek into what they can expect for themselves, their friends, and their family when they book your luxury short term rentals for their vacation. This includes clear descriptions of:

• What your location offers.
• Your interior decor style (e.g. bright, bold bedrooms or a cozy, traditional setting, a penthouse).
• Amenities and services.
• Lifestyle perks (e.g. “wake up to a morning stretch in our outdoor yoga studio before enjoying vegan pancakes made by our in-house chef”).
• Contact details and booking information.

Be sure to look into search engine optimization for listings, too. Using the right keywords for your target audience might just give you a healthy headstart as you open your business for bookings.

Final Thoughts

Turning properties into luxury rentals takes time, effort, and plenty of marketing know-how. But, with these tips by your side and the desire to build something extraordinary for your visitors, you’re already on your way to launching luxury retreats that go beyond accommodation, catering to the world’s most luxurious lifestyles. 

For more insights into running short-term rentals across a range of destinations, join the iGMS community.

About the Author:

Lucy Cromwell is a specialist writer and contributor to iGMS. Lucy enjoys covering industry news and advice on all things real estate. Lucy aspires to be a leading voice online, by helping others make informed decisions when it comes to investment opportunities and renovation improvements. Connect with Lucy on LinkedIn: @Lucy-Cromwell | X: @LucyCromwell7