ESTATE AGENTS. We know what you’re good at. Helping people find their dream home. Then selling it to them.
On your patch, you’ll also be a dab hand at looking at a pile of bricks and mortar and putting a price on it. That’s your thing.
What may not be your thing is dealing with short-term renters found on Airbnb and its ilk. Like the shepherds’ hut in the above photograph that overlooks the Malvern Hills.
Airbnb and co are in it for the long haul
During the last decade and a half, short-term rentals have become as popular as puffer jackets in wintertime. And Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia and co look like they’re bedded in for a very long stay in this industry.
According to the Office for National Statistics, there were nearly 2.8 million stays in short-term lets booked through those big three platforms between July and September 2023.
So what? you might be thinking.
Well, it’s worth remembering that our region is pretty popular among tourists.
The latest figures show tourism gave Worcestershire a £1 billion boost in 2022. In the same year, visitors splurged around £637 million in Herefordshire.**
Which is not to be sniffed at.
Unsurprisingly, many of those visitors chose to stay in the kind of short-term rentals found on Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia.
Essentially, the short-term rental market is big business. And even if you only market and sell property, those eye-watering, rent-a-roof figures are still intertwined with your business as an estate agent. Because, as you know, many local investors buy property specifically to rent it out to others.
Air lift
As Airbnb and co continue to grow in popularity, agents au fait with the short-term rental market could offer hosts additional services, as well as sell them property that’s ripe for renting. Local knowledge and property management are just two of the other possibilities the region’s agents are best placed to offer short-term rental property investors.
To sum up, as Airbnb and co continue to reshape the visitor economy in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, it spells good news for estate agents as well as other businesses that offer services and experiences visitors are looking to spend their money on.
And the better a property is marketed, the more likely people are to want to stay in it or, indeed, buy it.***
Please drop me a line if you have any questions. I’d be happy to chat to you about photographs that help sell properties in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
Let’s create content with even more kerb appeal.
– Lucas
* Source: Visit Worcestershire
** Source: Herefordshire BID
*** The Landlord Blog has this to say about professional property photography:
“I’m often left mortified – hand over open mouth – when I scour through Airbnb and poison my eyes by exposing them to some of the dingy
photos that are being used to ‘sell’.
“Photos are the single most important aspect of marketing and generating bookings, so it’s imperative not to skimp on them!
“Put your iPhone down! Invest in proper professional photos of your property (FYI, they’re not that expensive, and they will pay for them
self [sic] ten-fold in two shakes of a lamb’s tail), so you have tasteful, wide-angled and vibrant visuals to entice the punters!”