
Scrolling through OTAs like Airbnb or Vrbo, it does not take long to come across unique vacation home names.
While a poor and unimaginative name may not leave an impression on guests, a great one can do far more for your business than you realize.
Thinking about naming your own vacation rental home? Now is a great time to do so. Before diving into what your vacation rental name could be, let’s first take a closer look at the benefits of giving your vacation rental a name.
Yes, you should! Giving your vacation rental property a name can bring many benefits to your short-term rental business. Here are just a few of the ways it could help you out:
The vacation rental industry is experiencing a boom as more property owners are seeing the value of renting out their properties. With this boom also comes high vacation rental densities — in other words, more competition among hosts.
Using an inviting and unique name for your vacation home is a fantastic way to stand out from the competition and make an impression on travelers browsing rental properties in your location.
When word-of-mouth spreads and new travelers want to find your vacation rentals online, it’s way easier for them to search for a unique name like “Beach Blessing” or “Endless Summer” than to search for general terms like “beach house in California”.
This way, potential guests can be brought straight to your listing instead of finding countless other beach houses in the same area.
As you provide an exceptional guest experience and vacation rental offering, guests will begin to associate your reputation with your vacation rental name.
This is an effective way to build a long-lasting brand that will allow you to grow and scale your business at a faster rate.
Now that we’ve taken a look at the advantages of having a name for your vacation rental, the next step is to know how to choose a suitable name for your rental property.
Here are some of the main points to keep in mind when coming up with vacation home name ideas:
Before choosing a name, you need to have a clear understanding of your brand. What message do you want to convey? What do you want your vacation rental to be known for?
Once you have an idea of your brand, it will be much easier to decide on a name.
For example, if you want to create a brand based on relaxation and escape, your name could use words like hideaway, retreat, paradise, peaceful, and tranquil.
Your vacation rental undoubtedly has many features that you may want to highlight in its name. However, it is far more effective to focus on one or two features instead to avoid overly complex names.
For example, if you own a beach house with sea views that also has a pool and different types of family activities in the area, trying to cram all these features into your name will be confusing to the reader and will not leave a good impression.
Instead, picking one or two features to communicate in your name will get the job done easily. You may also like the idea of including a family name to communicate that you are a family-run business. Including your family name would communicate these values and your priorities well.
While it is not a good idea to copy another rental property’s name, there’s no harm in looking around for inspiration.
Your own great name may come to you while browsing through the names of properties similar to yours.
The main idea behind choosing a vacation home name is to make it eye-catching and memorable. The best way to get this right is to use unique words and phrases that will stick in the minds of those who read it.
For this reason, instead of using simple, everyday words like “beautiful” or “relaxing”, you could use “jaw-dropping” or “tranquil” instead. The words convey similar meanings, but using ones that are not used often makes it more unique.
As mentioned earlier, complicated names are not great for your vacation rental. Neither are names that are too long.
When it comes to a name that will boost brand recognition and, ultimately earn you more bookings, short and simple is the way to go. Aim for a name that is two to four words long to reach the proper sweet spot.
Whether you have a lake house or an apartment in the city, your property name still needs to cater to your desired guest.
The language you would use when targeting a family-friendly audience will be different from what you would use if you’re targeting a business professional. Likewise, the name you would use to target honeymooners will differ from what you’d use to attract backpackers.
Using humor in your vacation home name is another great way to make your property memorable. Two smart ways to achieve this are through using alliteration or quirky words.
For example, funny beach house names like “Sea La Vie” or “Flip Flop Inn” is creative and memorable. Similarly using words with alliteration like “Dune Delight” will make it a catchy name.
You could also try experimenting with other literary devices to come up with a fun name. You could try rhyming words, like “Fun in the Sun” or even describe your property using geographic terms, like “Portland’s Paradise” or “The Hollywood Hideaway”.
However, it’s best practice to avoid acronyms in your chosen name, as it can get complicated to explain what they mean.
Once you mix and match ideas until the catchy words sound like your perfect name for your vacation rental, it’s time to start spreading the news.
Your next step is to start updating your OTA listings and direct bookings website with your chosen vacation home name to start promoting it.
If you use a welcome book or provide a welcome basket with branded merchandise like soap or snacks, you can also update these to include your vacation name. You may also want to think about creating or updating your vacation rental logo too.
This may all seem like a lot to do at once just for a vacation home name, but most of these tasks can be streamlined with vacation rental automation software.
iGMS, for example, enables you to update the details of your vacation rental across multiple OTAs and your direct booking website, all from one convenient platform. This means you can use iGMS to update your vacation rental name across all leading OTAs and your website at the same time.
iGMS enables you to:
While your vacation rental name must be unique, it doesn’t hurt to look around for inspiration.
From beach house names to lake house names, and everything in between, here is the ultimate list of name ideas to mix and match and inspire your own name choice.
Build your beach house name from the inspiration below:
Build your cabin, cottage, or lake house name from the inspiration below:
Build your luxury getaway name from the inspiration below:
Build a nature-themed name from the inspiration below:
Build a city-themed name from the inspiration below:
About the Author
Callan Riddles is the Content and Social Media Specialist at iGMS. Callan has a passion for finding new ways to help vacation rental businesses thrive. In her free time, she loves to travel, read, and experience all the new things that life has to offer.
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