This Travelnest review has been written from my personal experience as a host and how we have benefited with our Finnish countryside cottage.
I know that this is a digital marketing website but it is also about making money online. So, even though this is slightly out of the box there is still an online marketing element.
So, what are the benefits of using your properties as vacation homes?
Well, if you have a property that is doing nothing or you are not using at the moment opening it up as a holiday rental may be a plan. It is very lucrative, but the key is to use the right service provider so you can make it as passive as possible.
TravelNest review
I have been using TravelNest as a host since January 2022 with no regrets. The reason why I am so happy with their service is because I looked at the service from a digital marketers perspective. And as a digital marketer I could see the advantages of using one platform to administrate and leverage my property across all the vacation booking platforms rather than subscribing to each platform individually. If the penny has not dropped yet how powerful it is to have your property on not just one but all the vacation and travel booking sites it soon will when you have read this Travelnest review.
What is TravelNest?
TravelNest is an innovative platform for marketing your vacation property as a host. Unlike booking.com or any of the other vacation booking sites TravelNest shares your properties details with all the other travel sites. In my case my property is on 36 different vacation platforms, including Expedia, Vrbo and TripAdvisor. This simply means that if I have any changes to make such as adding more services or extra room we can. Because, once you make changes on TravelNest you will automatically make changes on all the other platforms. This saves a massive amount of time and energy.
How does TravelNest work?
The basic premise is to share your vacation property with all the vacation booking sites. This means taking photos of your property and all the rooms and adding vital information to the form. The more information and images you put on their form the better ranking you get. Hence, the higher probability your property will have guests and the more money you will make.
Once you have added all the information to the form you get the opportunity to speak to an agent about your property. Their main job is to help you realise how your property can be improved online.
I personally was not keen on speaking to anyone, but in the end I did and was glad, because their agents give me lots of good tips and information about pricing and hosting a property.
Considering my property is in the middle of the Finnish countryside and not in a tourist area even in Finland we have been overwhelmed with guests. In the middle of winter within days of going live we had guests. The type of guests surprised us in a good way.
The guests included:
- Finns: 45%
- Estonians: 25%
- Germans: 10%
- French: 5%
- Italians: 5%
- Latvians: 5%
- Russian: 5%
If you would like to check out the property we have setup on all the vacation rental booking sites using TravelNest click on the button below:
TravelNest fees
Before I started using TravelNest I reviewed other vacation booking platforms and checked their fees. Generally, the fees for other vacation platforms is about 15%. TravelNest charges an additional 5% for their service, which is worth it. However, regarding the fees, they can be offset in your taxes because you are using a service.
TravelNest support
I have contacted TravelNest a few times regarding my pricing and a few other questions I had and found their service very good. The staff are polite, well spoken and knowledgeable. So, if you decide to use this service do not be afraid to ask silly questions, because it is your property. If you are concerned about a booking or if there was a problem do not hesitate to contact their support team. In fact today while writing this review I received a call from TravelNest support after I asked them to correct some details on booking.com. They were very helpful and they will put your mind at rest.
How should you prepare your property for TravelNest?
This is going to depend on the type of property you are offering, so this is only some general advice.
We were living in our property for some years and then rented it out which was a big mistake. They disrespected the property and the garden and so we decided to end our contract with the long term renter. The cost of having the property renovated a lot of money as well as time, so we were glad that using our place as a holiday rental has gone so well.
The idea of using our property as a vacation home was suggested by a friend. We were a bit nervous at the start because we had a bad experience with the long term renter. In retrospect, we had nothing to fear. All this time we have been renting our property as a holiday home we have had zero problems. In fact sometimes it is difficult to know if anyone has been living there.
Preparing your property
The first thing to do is to decide what type of image you want your property to portray. If you have money to invest for getting the place up together or using a cleaning service. That would be a good thing. However, the rustic feel will still get you bookings, so if you want to invest in the future you will have the money to do so.
Considering my property is in Finland we went for the Scandinavian feel which meant lightening the place up with a white paint. Then we decluttered the interior; there was nothing to collect dust. Keeping everything simple but clean is a very good goal and if anything becomes worn out and looks unclean replace it.
This idea was suggested by a friend of mine that runs a guest house in Spain. She suggests keeping a few personal items around the property to suggest that this is someone’s home. This works very well, because since we have been open the property has always been left clean and tidy.
Final word about this TravelNest review
Among the vacation rental booking sites I would want to be on booking.com and Airbnb. That is if I arranged everything without TravelNest. However, from the information I have from TravelNest at least 50% of my bookings have come from other platforms. These include Expedia, hotels.com and VRBO. This makes the TravelNest platform worthwhile. Because, since January 2022 even with all the troubles in the world we have been enjoying a steady stream of guests. At the same time, the summer months were insane, we were back to back from June to September.
The fact is you are paying for the convenience of using one platform rather than the many. This means that if there is an issue you only have one support person to call.
If you enjoyed this TravelNest review and you would like more information. Click on the button below.