How to increase your bookings with Instagram with Natacha Parmantier - Full Interview

What do you see is the most common mistake that short stay accommodation owners are doing when it comes to getting started with Instagram? So just to caveat that, so Natasha now has built up two properties, plans for a glamping site. And what she's also doing, which is what I love, is she's giving loads of help and advice and tips to other people from around the world on how they can get started as well. So you obviously you've coached a lot of people, you work alongside a lot of people. So what is the most common mistake that you see them make when they get into Instagram?

But the first, like big mistakes, I think in the, in the hashtags, people are putting in the hashtags, basically, Airbnb host, Airbnb super host, vacation rentals, whatever, what it's bringing them, it's bringing them followers which are basically their competitors or not. Like, we will say like collaborators, partners in other places, which is good. It's always nice to know other hosts, but they are not your target markets. Your target market is like who is coming to your place in general. So you have to think when you're thinking about hashtags instead of putting what you are, because this is not what we want to focus on who you are. It's good, but you want to focus on who they are. So if you know that most of the people coming to your place, for instance, I have one of my students, she has a lot of people coming because they love like bike trials, then I advise her to use those kind of hashtags. Find the one which is working for her, her target audience, not herself, them. It's like find the right hashtags for them.

Welcome to the Boostly podcast. We are in season seven, episode nine and in this episode we're talking all about Instagram. Now in this episode I've invited Natasha Parent here based in Valencia, has two properties that she rents out and has got plans to create a glamping site. Natasha has traveled the world. She is now also helping other short stay accommodation owners in her own Facebook group, which is lovely, titled Airbnb. More direct bookings, Marketing tips for vacation rentals. We go on to talk about hashtags, we're going to talk about stories. She shares a lovely little tip that will help get more traffic to your website from Instagram. And then we start to talk about some direct booking tips. So without further ado, let me pass you on to Natasha. This is the Boosted podcast. Please make sure before you leave you rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your Podcasts from.

So yes, to reply to your first question, where I am based, I'm in Spain. In case you don't notice it from the accent, I'm French, but I left 10 years ago. I have lived in different countries. I think it's the sixth country right now, Spain. And I have been hosting, hosting when I was in Germany and it was just when I was traveling, I would rent out my room, I would go travel and pay for my trips. So it was not too bad. And then when I came to this in Valencia, Spain, I decided to rent a few rooms in my flat. So I'm doing home share in this flat. Kind of dangerous in Spain because you don't know the risk. People can pay one month, they give you the deposit and then basically they occupy your flat and they just don't pay you. So we decided to do the same as we were doing here in the flat there. And yeah, it's bringing goods, there are festivals. It's not like super like rented all the time because it's like small village but there is mountains, there are a lot of things to do around. So yeah, that's the two accommodations that I have and my plan for the future.

So yeah, we're going to talk about Instagram. As we said in the topic and the title. Now, out of all the social media channels, where does Instagram rate on your favorite. I know me personally speaking, I love Instagram. It's the only app that's on my phone. I do use Facebook a lot, but I tend to use Facebook more on my computer and I leave Instagram on the phone just because I really enjoy using it and interacting with with it and just learning all the new tactics and tips on there. So where does it rank for yourself, Natasha?

Also good to know all the strategies and to know, okay, which one is working best for me, which one is giving me like the highest percentage of conversion because it's like no point to spend time on something which is not giving you the highest return on time spent. So what is the Best for me? Two platforms for me for my business is Facebook and LinkedIn for teaching people how to have better online visibility for the vacation rental is those things. So that's why I'm spending more time on this. But I love Instagram for my personal life. I'm checking all the time, especially for places to stay. And as I said, I love learning marketing strategies. So that's why I know a lot about Instagram but that's not my top one for myself.

What do you see is the Most common mistake that short stay accommodation owners are doing when it comes to getting started with Instagram. So just to, just to caveat that. So Natasha now has built up two properties plans for a glamping site. And what she's also doing, which is what I love, is she's giving loads of help and advice and tips to other people from around the world on how they can get started as well. So you obviously you've coached a lot of people, you work alongside a lot of people. So what is the most common mistake that you see them make when they get into Instagram?

But the first big mistakes I think in the hashtags, people are putting in the hashtags basically Airbnb host, Airbnb super host, vacation rentals, whatever, what it's bringing them, it's bringing them followers which are basically their competitors or not. Like, we will say like collaborate partners in other places, which is good. It's also nice to know other hosts, but they are not your target market. Your target market is like who is coming to your place in general. So you have to think when you're thinking about hashtags instead of putting what you are, because this is not what we want to focus on who you are. It's good, but you want to focus on who they are. So if you know that most of the people coming to your place, for instance, I have one of my students, she has a lot of people coming because they love bike trials, then I advise her to use those kind of hashtags. Find the one which is working for her, her target audience, not herself, them. It's like find the right hashtags for.

Them if you've got any tactics and tips. What I find is really funny is that loads of people say get on the hashtags, but then there's no follow up advice. So if you've got any really cool little short little tips that you could advise on what's the best way of going around and finding a hashtag that they could look to take advantage of in terms of when they're posting things to use.

There are different things. When you're on Instagram, you go to the search tab on the top and you write what you're thinking of. And then you will see, Instagram will tell you, oh, this hashtag there is like over 10 million posts. This hashtag is like 100 posts. So as you were saying, you don't want a hashtag which is too small and that you will be the only one there. It's not the point. But you also don't want one which is like overcrowded because you will be one in a sea of people and they will never see you. So this is the first thing, like find a hashtag which is like not too widely used and not too, like, not too. The second thing, what I advise, look for your competitors. Look for the competitors or look for the hotels. One, look for the hotels. Don't use the hashtags which are just for hotels, but look for the hotels. They have a big. Usually they have a big team. They have more money than you for their marketing. So they have a team behind them who are doing the research on what hashtags they should use. So look at what they are using as hashtags and again, click on each hashtags and see. Okay, is it a too big hashtag or not? Check. You have to like do a little research on your competitors. And then also if you know some of your past guests, check their accounts. Check what they are using as hashtags.

When it comes to Instagram Stories, I still think that it's so new for a lot of people. I love to play around with it. I've got loads of apps. I like to engage and just sort of test out and things. But when it comes to Instagram Stories and if someone wants to get started, do you have any advice that you could pass on when it comes to using Stories, is there any sort of like little top, little tips that you could pass on here?

Doing Instagram Stories is the way to grow right now. This is what you want. You want to do this. And I know a lot of people are afraid. So if you're watching this live or if you're listening to the podcast and you're afraid of doing it, we all have to go out of our comfort zone. This is something. If you want to grow, this is something important. And why Stories is very important. As Mark was saying, people don't like a lot of people. We don't have time. We don't go to the feed anymore. We just go to the Stories. This is at the top. Airbnb, Instagram and Facebook are pushing this. The Stories is what we are pushing. So that's where you have to go. The biggest tips that. In fact, I have two tips on this. The first one, in our world, in our society right now, we are missing the human connection. We are missing there is a brand, there is like, we don't know people. So just be real, just be yourself, as Mark is doing.

When you do Instagram Stories, you've got the ability to add a Location text. So you can add in a location. So I'm in Javier. You can do Javier. And what the cool thing about that is that when someone's on Instagram and in the Explore feed of Instagram, they click on where they are, that is Javier or Valencia or wherever, you can click on the story. And what Instagram does is it pulls in some of the most popular ones from the past 24 hours and you're able to watch and engage. Now, if you're going to think about this for like a location basis right now, if I was to go into Instagram and if I was to type in Vegas, I can watch all of the last feeds from Las Vegas in the last 24 hours, all the parties and things going on. But if I've got somebody that knows that they're going to be really like an area, think about going to an area and say that you've done a location tag and they come and look at your area for an accommodation business. If you're showcasing who you are and what you do. Now, a really popular hashtag is room with a view. So if you're watching this, are you listening to this? And you've got an accommodation that you know has got done in views from your property, add that little hashtag in with the location tag and then people will tune in. And don't forget, this is disappearing content. So it will leave after 24 hours. But if they tune in on that time, they could discover your property. And then the next obvious step is that they'll come onto your account, they'll come onto your feed, and you just go from there. Now, as we all know, with Instagram, you cannot put web links anywhere in your post. It's just not clickable for obvious reasons. But there's a really cool tip and bit of software, bit of website out there that is free. And I want Natasha to just explain a little bit more about what linktree is.

In fact, that's a tip that I was sharing in my group and that Melissa commented on your post. So linktree is enabling you. It's a freemium service, so you can use the free or the premium version. I'm using the free one to have different links. Why is it good? Because maybe you have different accommodations. Maybe you have like your book Direct, which marks is good to talk about this, your Book Direct link. Then you can have like your book Direct link, your different accommodations links. If you have a blog, you can link your blog. If you have Facebook, you can link your Facebook. If you're doing airbnb experiences. You can also share your Airbnb experiences. Basically you can have the different links there and it's amazing. One thing this is for people who are not tech savvy. Linktree is perfect because it's very easy to use.

So we've gone through hashtags, we've gone through stories, we've gone through linktree. So loads of little cool little tactics and tips to get started with there. Now let's go in to talk about direct bookings because we going to finish talking about your group. I think it's an amazing group and we are going to really do a nice little picture of that later. But when it comes to direct bookings, what is the one bit of advice that you seem to be passing onto your members time and time again? When it comes to people saying, right, I want to increase the amount of owner bookings, I don't want to spend commission, I want to get my own coming in, what is the one bit of advice that you you find? Natasha, you are passing on time and time again to your members.

As you just mentioned, having your own website if you want direct bookings is helping. Second one, be on Google. Be on Google, my business page. This is like a lot of people not on it. So your competition is not on it. Mostly the hotels are there, but there is nothing this kind of like more personal accommodations. They are not on Google. But when people are looking for accommodations they are also looking at Google Maps. We are all using Google Maps and having this little pinpoint on the map is helping you with after you can have your direct website linked to it and then they go there. Another tip in. In fact you are like the one saying it I think in your academy or in your group is to on Instagram because there is the Instagram thing but also Facebook on the highlights to put that book like join the VIP list or book direct to get like the best rate or things like this so that it's like it's written, you know, they know. Okay, you're giving. People need to know what to do. Like we give them the call to action. What they have to do, they have to be direct.

Now let's talk about the Facebook group. Let's talk about your Facebook group. First and foremost. What is it called? What was the idea of creating it and what are the plans for it?

It's called Airbnb More Direct Booking Marketing tips for vacation rentals. And I think I'm changing it sometimes why I call it Airbnb when I say product bookings because basically it's very mainstream. Everyone knows Airbnb, especially on Facebook. Like most of the groups are about Airbnb. So I put this keyword I'm all about keyword and why I created this because I noticed there are a lot of other groups of Airbnb hosts which are focusing more on the hospitality side like how to host well, what to do, which kind of sheets to have, what to do for the cleaning, whatever but and some like will be on the wish listing thing which I don't believe in but this is only my point of view and but they don't think about other ways marketing ways or for online visibility. There are like so much like so many more things than just being on a website like Airbnb and just waiting for like passively waiting for one booking to come.

One final question then and we're just going to totally flip this back around to hashtags. It's one that I forgot to ask at the time. But when it comes to it, where should you put these hashtags? Should it be in the post? Should it be in the comments? Where are we putting them and how many should we be? What's your advice this?

Having 10 to 15 hashtags is good and they recommend to put it directly in the caption. So that's what Instagram is saying. So I guess they know what they are telling.

Dasha, thank you so much. Now where can people go and find you? Where is the best place? Please leave us with the best places that people can find you.

The best place is my As I said I'm spending time on Facebook so on in my Facebook group. If you have any question about vacation rental, I would advise you to go to this Facebook group Airbnb.

More direct Booking okay, this is season 7 episode 9 of the Boostly podcast. If this is the first time that you have listened and tuned in then you've got a whole load of back episodes to go and catch up in. This season alone we've talked about outsourcing, we've talked about gdpr, we focused on self check ins. We've talked about digital guidebooks and so much more. All you need to do to go and check them out go to booster.co.uk podcast. Please make sure you go and rate, review and subscribe to this podcast. It gets further up the charts. I want to say thank you to hostfully who are our sponsors of the of the Boosted podcast. They create stunning digital guidebooks that you will wow your guests with. Go to the YouTube channel, go to the itunes, go to the sponsors Spotify. Go wherever you get your audio or your video and please come and say hi if you want to find me on Instagram. It's uk. Like Natasha said, I do a daily vlog. I love to play around with loads of little apps, tricks and tactics and whatnot on Instagram, so you'll mostly see me there. And if you want to come and find out more about Boostly, as always, boostly.co.uk but thank you so much for tuning in and I will be back again very, very soon.

Sam.