t seems so far away, yet time has gone so fast that it is hard to believe that we are entering a new year together. When we started to promote Vayoo, about 8 months ago, we didn’t know anybody in the Vacation Rental business outside of Spain. At the same time, we didn’t have too much content to share and our app was still not finished.
Today, we have more than 1000 monthly users from more than 150 countries, our blog has more than 100 unique visitors per day and although there is still a long way to go, we are pretty happy with the results achieved.
In the last blog post of the year, we wanted to talk about the 2018 goals for your vacation rental. Vacation Rental business is just like any other field in your life - you need to set your goals, device strategies, implement them and, measure the results in order to start the cycle again.
Our recommendation for this 2018 is simple - set your SMART goals. But, what does this actually mean?
S – Specific: what exactly do you want to achieve? Try to be as specific as possible. The more specific, the bigger the chance you'll get exactly what you were looking for. S.M.A.R.T. goal setting clarifies the difference between 'I want to become a successful host' and 'I want to get 20% more bookings by implementing a better price strategy and applying new marketing techniques'
M – Measurable: break your goal down into measurable elements. Becoming a better host is not a measurable goal. Getting 5 stars from every host and answering every review is. Defining the physical manifestations of your goal or objective makes it clearer, and easier to reach.
A – Attainable: take some time to investigate whether the goals are really attainable. Weigh the effort, time and costs your goal will take against your profit and other obligations and priorities you have in life. So if in order to become a successful Vacation Rental entrepreneur you need to spend thousands of dollars (which you don’t have) in new furniture, maybe this is not the best goal. Having said this, don’t be afraid of aiming too high. Sometimes, the only way of achieving great things is to set greater goals.
R – Relevant: are these goals relevant to your vision/ultimate objective? You can decide whether a goal is relevant or not by asking yourself the following questions - why do you want to reach this goal? What is the objective of the goal, and will this goal really achieve that? If your ultimate objective is to become a successful Vacation Rental entrepreneur and one of your goals is to get 20% more bookings, you could ask yourself, does getting 20% more of bookings help me become a more successful Vacation Rental entrepreneur?
T – Time-bound: time is gold and you know it well. Most of the time it is the deadlines which make people switch to action. So, set deadlines for your goals and start working ASAP. Do not procrastinate and if you feel you are doing it, think about the excuses you’re giving to yourself. Most of the times you will discover that you create them. Remember to keep the schedule realistic and flexible. In this way, you won’t become overstressed by the time boundaries. If you decided that your goal is to get 20% more bookings in 2018, maybe is better to set a progressive timetable where you start with a 5% and you end with a 30% increase.
Have you already set up your goals for 2018 for your Vacation Rental? If that’s the case, drop us a message with them and we will give you a free month of Vayoo subscription.