Week 2 - Implement Branding

Topics in This Section:

1.0 Branding

Branding your vacation rental business is the first step to getting started with direct stays. By branding your portfolio of properties, you’ll be able to set your business apart from “casual” hosts, increase the discoverability of your listings, and establish a vector of trust from the perspective of guests.

1.1 Where Will Your Brand Live?

Third-party OTA listings

Google Business Profile

Social Media Profiles

Website Domain

Marketing Materials

1.2 How to Choose a Brand Name?

Choosing a brand name is never easy. It can be simple and consist of a combination of words related to your name or property locations. For example, if your name is “Fiona Berry” and your properties are located in the mountains, then you may consider branding your collection of properties something like “Berry Mountainview Stays”.

Here are a few important considerations to make when branding your business:

Perform a Google search to ensure there are absolutely no results similar to your chosen name

Check to make sure the domain is available, e.g. “berrymountainviewstays.com”

Perform a basic trademark search in your country to make sure the name is not taken

Check to make sure the social media handles are available (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

Keep it simple, professional and memorable

1.3 Do I Need a Brand Logo?

A clean and minimalistic brand logo establishes trust and signals to guests that you are a professional host. Consider creating both a logo and a wordmark for versatility. More on this here.

You can have a logo designed by a freelancer online either through Fiverr or Upwork.

You could also try one of these free logo designers:

https://www.freelogodesign.org/

https://looka.com/logo-maker/

1.4 Where Will My Logo Live?

Third-party booking platform host profiles

Third-party booking platform photos

Social media profile pictures

Google Business Profile picture

Email templates

Marketing materials

1.5 Do I Need to Trademark My Brand Name?

Trademarking your brand name is an effective way to not only increase credibility, but to also protect your brand name. Doing so will help with search engine optimization (SEO) and ensure your direct stay brand appears above all OTA listings. This is not something you need to do right away, but it should be a consideration for the future.

1.6 Purchase a Brand Domain Name

The functionality to use your own custom branded URL will be added to Dtravel soon. We recommend purchasing a custom URL once you’ve decided on a brand name and checked to ensure it is available as it will add credibility and increase discoverability of your listings.

You can use godaddy.com to purchase web2 URL like “berrymountainviewstays.com”.

1.7 Create a Branded Email

Once you have a branded domain name, you can create a business email address using a paid service like Google business. For example, “[email protected]”. Signup here.

If you’d like to get started for free, then you can simply create a free gmail account here. With a free Gmail account, your email will look something like “[email protected]”.