Who can resist the pull of a short video? This is the simple premise that youtube’s fortunes are built on and businesses all over the world have built impressive video libraries because it is so much easier and effective to package up a message or a description or instructions visually. Even more so if those videos are entertaining, funny or have emotional appeal.

It is only recently that the vacation rental community has cottoned on and now video is seen as the new frontier where images have previously ruled. Of course!! Videos are the perfect vehicle to showcase a vacation rental property – either as an animated slide-show with images strung together to create greater visual impact or fully-fledged videos featuring all aspects of the property. These range from a video itinerary to a fly-over with a drone and on a more mundane level short instructions on how to re-ignite the boiler or how to use the various remote controls of your entertainment system. These latter ones are certainly more effective than a lengthy write up in a guestbook.

But who is using video and how widespread is this? The reality is that few platforms who promote holiday rentals offer video uploads or are just beginning like homeaway, who allow you to add a URL. While the big players will pave the way on the vacation rental promotional side, there is an opportunity for smart rental owners to differentiate themselves by using video to help their clients acquaint themselves with the property before and during their stay. This is where the video itinerary comes in: It not only helps where a property is difficult to find, it can also serve as an “appetizer” to showcase the drive up to a property. And of course video is very helpful for instructions within the property which you would not upload to Airbnb or other platforms – this type of information is relatively sensitive and therefore the perfect place for this is a digital guestbook. Making your guestbook interactive in this way lends a whole new quality and dimension to the guest experience: by offering short video insights your guests can familiarize themselves with the property and its surroundings and it not only helps them with planning, it also creates a sense of anticipation and reassurance – and helps with to connect emotionally to their holiday.

If you thought this means going on a course to learn how to create professional videos – knock yourself out! But in my own experience, your average smart phone makes it easy to shoot and create sufficiently high quality footage. So have a go, start with a short, simple video, get some feedback from your guests and build a small library from there – the easiest way to present these is of course through the digital guestbook.