Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

How To Get Your Vacation Rental Properties Good Rankings on Homeaway

Posted by Adam Zippin on Jul 26, 2012 9:55:00 AM

Barefoot has spent a lot of time building a portal system that allows its customers to take advantage of every possible business opportunity out there.  Recently, some of our clients have been questioning their ranking and how others get ahead of them and how to get higher rankings on HomeAway.com.  As a partner of HomeAway, we asked some tough questions.



The first questions was do Barefoot users get the same treatment as  Escapia and Instant Software customers received in regards to rankings? We are happy to report that HomeAway does not treat any software solution different.  Much like any successful business, HomeAway.com is dedicated to offering the best service to the consumer.  If you have bought software, hoping for preferential treatment in portal systems then it may be best to re-evaluate.  Portals, and HomeAway.com in particular, are striving to get the best homes to the right people.



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The second question, how can Barefoot users get better rankings and what do they need to do? At this time there are 2 ways to influence how a listing is ranked.  Software fed listings only have control over one of these methods, which is to have the best content possible.  Having the maximum amount of photos is about the most helpful thing you can do to achieve better listings, Homeaway.com allows you to have 24 photos.  Barefoot allows unlimited photos so be sure to take advantage of that.  Also making sure you have a professional and accurate description that details as much as possible about the home, location, and other reasons to choose this residence will help your ranking.  Homeaway.com uses an ever-changing algorithm that adjusts daily to rank the descriptions.



This made us wonder why HomeAway has tiers.  Currently software provided inventory is not ranked by higher subscription tier, all software provided inventory is tied to their classic tier regardless of the system at this point.  HomeAway will soon have the capability to offer tiered upgrades to software fed inventory, giving Barefoot customers the same opportunity as manually listed inventory



If you have questions on any of this information, your best option is to contact your HomeAway.co account manager and discuss how to optimize your listing for the best search results.  They can tell you more specifically what you can do to get your listings ranked above others in your tier.  Please share your input on our blog and we will continue to keep you up to date, but here are a few bullet points:










-You can put 24 pictures to Homeaway.com



-Unique descriptions regularly updated frequently



-Descriptions may contain up to 1,000 characters, use as many as possible



-keep calendars as up to date as possible



-Review your ad regularly and monitor those properties ahead of you, what do they do that you are not doing



-Make sure all fields that can be seen have data



-List local attractions and landmarks





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