How we take over a vacation rental that isn't booking

An earlier version of this post shared before-and-after figures for a single home. We've removed them; this post now explains the method instead.

Start with what the home has already earned

Before we change anything, we pull the home's last 12 months: nights booked, average nightly rate, revenue by month and every guest review. That record tells us where the home is losing money, and it becomes the baseline we measure ourselves against. For homes with 12 or more months of rental history, it is also the baseline for our first-year performance guarantee.

Then we work through the same steps on every home, in roughly this order.

1. Read the reviews first

Guests tell you what's wrong. If the same complaint shows up again and again (a dusty bathroom, a bad mattress, slow Wi-Fi, a confusing check-in), no amount of marketing will fix it. We fix those things before we spend anything on photos or promotion.

2. Rebuild the listing

Most listings that aren't booking have the same problems: dark or cluttered photos, a title that doesn't say what makes the home different, and missing amenities that guests filter for. We reshoot the home if the photos undersell it, rewrite the title and description around what a guest actually gets, and make sure every amenity and category is set correctly.

3. Price every night, not every season

A single rate for the whole season leaves some nights too cheap and others too expensive to book. We price each night based on demand, the season, local events, the day of the week and how far out the date is, and we adjust minimum stays for weekends and holidays.

4. Fix the guest experience

Good linens, comfortable beds, a stocked kitchen, fast Wi-Fi, a clear house guide and quick replies to messages. None of this is glamorous, but it is what guests write about in reviews, and reviews decide how the listing ranks.

5. List it in more places

We put the home on Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and our own booking sites, Stay Portland and Mt. Hood Basecamp, so it isn't depending on one platform's search results.

What to expect

Every home responds differently. Some improve quickly once the listing and pricing are fixed. Some take a full season. Some barely move, because the real limit is the location or the home itself, and we'll tell you that plainly if it's the case.

If you'd like us to walk through which of these steps matter most for your home, book a free 30-minute consultation, or start with our revenue estimate.