The vacation rental sector has become quite competitive in the past few years, which is why PMs need creative selling techniques that offer competitive advantages for the guests and at the same time mean an additional revenue for the agency, increasing their vacation rental profitability.
In this article we will be touching upon what is cross-selling technique as a strategy that can give your agency a wider inventory and at the same time generate extra revenue for your business.
What is Cross-Selling in the Vacation Rental Sector?
In the vacation rental sector, cross-selling typically means partnering up with another agency so you can offer their properties on your website.
When you negotiate with the partner agency you are able to expand your offer to different target audiences, or type of properties ( villas, luxury segment etc.) or destinations.
This is an interesting strategy for vacation rental agencies to increase their revenue.
When do I Need to Consider Using a Cross-Selling Technique for My Vacation Rental Business?
The decision of whether you should use this type of strategy should be based on the market demand and trends.
For example, perhaps you might see a shift this summer on the demand of the type of properties that tourists are seeking and now they might prefer renting out villas with private pools rather than urban apartments.
But what if you do not have this type of property in your listing?
Finding owners with a specific kind of property in the short term is not very effective, so the best option would be to seek a partner agency that does offer them.
Another good example, is in the case you are getting requests or see a high demand for a particular destination (be it another city or another country) where you do not operate.
Again, in this case, a cross-selling technique with another agency can be a good choice.
In conclusion, you will want to cross-sell when you want to complement or expand your offer of different property categories, types and destinations.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Cross-Selling for Your Vacation Rental Business
Before you make a decisión of whether you should use or not a cross-selling sales technique for your vacation rental agency, you should consider the following advantages and disadvantages:
Points to Consider When You Use Cross-Selling with other Vacation Rental Agencies
As mentioned beforehand, there might be some downsides to cross-selling, so when you negotiate with another agency consider the following tips:
Investigate the partner company: you can check the reviews that guests have left to know their service and quality standards.
Try to find agencies that are also aligned with the same core brand values of your agency in order to protect you brand image.
Try to get recommendations of possible partner agencies from your software partner or colleagues from the vacation rental industry.
How to Create a Successful Vacation Rental Cross-Selling Strategy?
Cross-selling can be a double-edged sword sales technique, which is why in order to create a successful strategy we advise you take the following steps:
- Analyze demand trends and occupancy figures to determine if there is a real need to implement cross-selling for your agency.
- If you have decided that this strategy fits into your business plans, start searching for agencies that help you reach your objectives.
- Try searching for agencies with the same core values and service standards as yours.
- Try to find recommended partner agencies through your software partner or vacation rental colleagues.
What is Cross-Selling Strategy that My Business Needs?
At Avantio we offer a very user friendly cross-selling module, whereby you can choose to work with any agency within the system in one single click and automatically:
Once you have come to an initial agreement with the partner agency and signed the contract you can activate the module and start to cross-sell on your web.
You also have the option to choose a one way or bi-directional cross-selling, meaning that the partner agency can also offer your properties on their site.
And a great feature that you can use is the Cross-Selling Reservations Management feature. A panel where you are able to keep track of all the reservations made on your website for other partner´s accommodations and settlement status.
If you are interested in this feature and want more information you can contact us via email at contact@avantio.com
Now that we provided a guide of what entails cross-selling and how you can benefit from it you can start considering it as a sales technique within your vacation rental business plan.
