Why Your Vacation Rental Needs a Professional Marketing Team
Home › Blog › Owner Resources › Why Your Vacation Rental Needs a Professional Marketing Team
The person booking a group trip to Coeur d'Alene might have ten rentals open at once. Several fit the dates, the budget, and the number of people coming. The one that gets sent to the group chat gives them something specific to say: Look at this place. We could spend all Saturday here.
I'm Ashley Brooks, property manager at CDA Vacation Rentals. Finding that reason for guests to choose each home we manage is a part of the job I take personally.
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. We've noticed some familiar ideas from our website and marketing showing up elsewhere, and we'll take that as a compliment. We welcome a little friendly competition in Coeur d'Alene, and we'd love to see other local teams put just as much care into developing ideas of their own.
The person managing your home also leads its marketing
I bring more than a decade of experience across marketing and the short-term rental industry to CDA Vacation Rentals. I personally develop the strategy for each home we manage. I decide who we're trying to reach, what makes the property worth choosing, and how we'll show that through the listing, our direct-booking website, and our campaigns. I also lead the strategy behind the guides and other content that help guests find us in the first place. Our small team does that work in-house.
That gives you a direct line to the person making those decisions. If bookings slow down or you want to know why we're leading with a certain feature, you can ask me. I can explain what we're seeing, what we're changing, and why it makes sense for your home. That accountability matters when you're trusting someone with both the care of your property and how it performs.
The best reason to book can come from anywhere
I never know when the next good idea for a home will come to me. It could be during a walkthrough, when an owner tells me how their family actually spends a weekend there, or when a guest mentions something in a review that I hadn't thought to put front and center. I also look at the other properties guests are likely to compare with yours. Together, those details help me see what we can show about your home that guests might miss at first glance.
A reserved parking space, for instance, can look like a checkbox on a downtown studio listing. For a couple coming to Coeur d'Alene for the weekend, it means they can park once and walk to dinner, the lake, and the Resort. That's a reason to choose the studio, and it can change the headline, the order of the photos, and what we emphasize on the booking page.
Having a marketing professional close to the day-to-day work is one of the most important things an owner can look for in a manager. The people walking through the home and hearing directly from guests are in a position to catch those ideas. It takes experience to recognize which ones are worth building a campaign around.
What that work looks like at The Creative Escape
At The Creative Escape, a colorful loft in downtown Coeur d’Alene, the detail I wanted to lead with was the Community Canvas. Guests can make something of their own, browse art left by previous visitors, or take home a piece they love. That gives people a reason to remember the loft when they’re comparing places to stay downtown.
The marketing work is figuring out how to make that idea click in a few seconds. I’d lead with a photo that shows the art wall in the context of the loft, then use the opening lines to explain how guests can participate. From there, the listing needs to answer the practical questions that help someone book, like where they’ll park and how close they’ll be to the lake. The Community Canvas makes them curious. Seeing how the rest of the stay would work helps them decide.
We keep working on the strategy after launch
A home that draws summer guests because it's close to the lake may appeal to someone entirely different in the off-season. The photos we lead with, what we say first, and where we feature the property all shift as those priorities change. I revisit that regularly, not just when bookings slow down.
Once a page or campaign is live, we watch what happens after the click and listen to what guests keep asking. Sometimes we move a detail higher in the listing. Sometimes we change the lead photo or rethink the next campaign. A good strategy has to keep up with the home, the season, and the people booking it.
If you're interviewing vacation rental managers, ask them to tell you who will build your marketing plan, what they'd lead with for your specific home, and what they'd change if bookings slowed down. You should be able to have that conversation with the person responsible for putting the plan to work.
If you're interviewing vacation rental managers in Coeur d'Alene, talk to us about your property. We're happy to walk through what we'd lead with for your home and how we'd approach the marketing from day one.
Learn how CDA Vacation Rentals markets and manages vacation homes in Coeur d'Alene.
Ashley Brooks · LinkedIn
Property Manager & Booking Strategist, CDA Vacation Rentals
Ashley brings more than a decade of experience across marketing and the short-term rental industry. She leads the day-to-day work: walking properties, talking with owners, and hearing directly from guests, which is where the best marketing ideas tend to come from. At CDA Vacation Rentals, she knows every one of those 50+ properties personally: the quirks, the best angles, and what kind of guest each one suits.
