Rental Platforms Uncovered: Delving into Landlord Confidence and Preference

In today's competitive rental market, choosing the right marketing platform is essential for success. Staykeepers recently created two LinkedIn polls to gain insights from rental property owners about their preferred platforms for marketing apartments. In this blog, we'll analyze the results, compare the platforms, and provide Staykeepers’ short term rental data so you can make the best decision for your business.

Poll 1 Results: Confidence in Marketing Platforms

The first poll asked participants which marketing platform they feel most confident in for marketing apartments. The results were as follows:

Booking.com: 31%

Airbnb: 36%

Expedia: 0%

None of the above: 33%

One participant, Rachel Manson, commented that all platforms are "as bad as one another" and too "guest-centric." This dissatisfaction could explain the high percentage (33%) of respondents who chose "None of the above."

Guest-centricity is a broad term, let's clarify it. Staykeepers previously discussed it in relation to how Airbnb prices apartments. Here, we investigate the potential for lost income and compare three listings against dynamic pricing by Staykeepers, which continuously updates and integrates prices on Airbnb.

Poll 2 Results: Favorite Platform for Hosting Rentals

The second poll inquired about participants' favorite platform for hosting rentals in the past year. The results showed:

Airbnb: 67%

Booking.com: 33%

Expedia: 0%

Other: 0%

While Airbnb emerged as the top choice for hosting rentals in Poll 2, it's worth noting that there is a significant gap between its preference as a hosting platform (67%) and the confidence level expressed in Poll 1 (36%). This discrepancy highlights that although Airbnb is popular for hosting rentals, there may still be some reservations or room for improvement in terms of hosts' overall confidence in the platform.

Key Insights:

Expedia's Performance: Despite receiving 0% in both polls, Staykeepers data indicates that Expedia reaches specific targets and generates bookings. As shown in our Q4 report, Airbnb & Booking.com (plus their sister sites) were responsible for the majority of reserved accommodations. However, channels such as Expedia and Agoda yielded significant bookings well in advance of check-in dates, thereby proving to be optimal marketing channels. This discrepancy suggests that rental property owners may be overlooking Expedia's potential as a marketing platform.

Confidence vs. Usage: While participants in Poll 1 were split between Airbnb, Booking.com, and "None of the above" in terms of confidence, Airbnb had a higher preference in Poll 2 when it came to actual usage. The "None of the above" option might suggest that there are other platforms that could potentially impact the results. However, due to LinkedIn's limited options for poll choices, we were unable to include them in the survey. In the future, we plan to conduct a more comprehensive survey to gather additional inputs and information, exploring the potential of alternative marketing and hosting platforms that could influence the preferences of rental property owners. 

Room for Improvement: The dissatisfaction expressed by the high percentage of "None of the above" responses in Poll 1 underscore the need for more innovative and business-owner-focused solutions in the rental marketing space. In addition to exploring alternative marketing platforms, rental property owners may benefit from considering strategies like multi-channel marketing, which can provide leverage and advantages when it comes to generating income. To learn more about how multi-channel marketing can enhance your rental property business and how to take advantage of it, we recommend checking out be in demand report. By staying informed and open to new approaches, individuals and businesses in the rental property sector can optimize their marketing efforts and capitalize on emerging opportunities.