Craigslist is one of the most popular free listings on the web. You can find listed here anything and everything under the sun. Vacation listing is only one among the available categories – and there are hundreds of them, if not more. Many people, who have promoted their business through Cragslist successfully, would recommend it to any person who want a fast and extremely potent marketing tool for their business. When it comes to vacation listing services, there are four major advantages that Craigslist offers you.
The pros of using Craigslist for vacation listing services vs paid vacation-listing services
- Financially viable - The first and most obvious of all advantages is that it does not cost you anything, other than your time. You can post your advertisement for free anytime you want at absolutely no cost. This is an outstanding advantage, especially for those who are starting out to do this business, but do not have enough capital to use for advertisements.
- Reaches the largest audience possible online – no matter how great is the website designed and well it has been search engine optimized, its coverage cannot be compared to that of the Craigslist, which is viewed by more than four billion people every day. This means that your vacation listing has the potential to be seen by just about four billion people. Out of these billions, there would definitely be a few that would zero in your advertisement and find it useful any other way. No other platform gives you the opportunity to reach out to such a huge number of people.
- Targets audience – the difference between Craigslist and regular advertisement listing is that the former is extremely well organized and separated by headings that make it extremely easy to find what you want. You can target your audience by location, which makes it extremely simple for the prospective clients to find your vacation listing. The possibility of categorizing the post makes it possible for you to target your audience, improving your chances to find the most suitable vacation renting services.
The cons of using Craigslist for vacation listing service vs paid vacation-listing services
- Sometimes Craigslist is too big and intimidating – paid vacation listing services are usually contained in size due to restrictions about money, space and availability. Craigslist does not have any such compulsions, therefore it invites all type of ads 24×7. This makes it one the biggest databases for buy-and-sell, job posting and others. While the size means the amount of exposure is bigger than any other site, it also means that your vacation could easily get lost into the multitude of ads unless properly categorized.
- The target audience might not be reached – while it is very true that the Craigslist is extremely popular and wide spread, plus offers excellent services sometimes it is more difficult for the viewer to find their topic of interest because the posting might be under the wrong heading, thereby loosing its importance online.
- Anonymity – this trait is great when it comes to offering jobs or selling small items. However, when it comes to renting out vacation homes, anonymity is a little scary. In fact, keeping in view that safety has always been a major concern while traveling; this factor makes Craigslist the least desirable source, comparatively.
Overall, the paid listing seems to be better because the focus is on you when you pay for the services, and you can demand amendments and better service if you are not happy with how things were handled. The paid listings would always be there to listen to you, to make amendments, to promote your business actively, while the Craigslist would depend upon being discovered.
Online resources:
- http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2006/07/28/how-to-post-your-property-for-rent-on-craigslist/ - a few dos and don’ts on how to post property for rent for the highest possible profitability.
- http://www.squidoo.com/craigslistforbeginners - a must read for any beginner in the business as this provides first-hand information on how to optimize vacation rentals among other real estate property.
- http://www.capelinks.com/cape-cod/main/entry/advertising-your-vacation-rental-property/ - excellent tips to be used for advertising of you vacation rental.
