A short interview (podcast-style YouTube clip) where Mark Simpson interviews Natacha Parent about Instagram marketing for short-stay accommodation owners. Natacha highlights a common mistake—using hashtags that describe the host (e.g., 'Airbnb host') which attracts competitors rather than guests—and advises choosing hashtags that reflect guest interests (e.g., 'bike trails'). She also discusses platform preferences and her hosting background.
Chapters
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 got 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 collaborators, partners in other places, which is good. It's always nice to know other hosts, but they are not your target market. Your target market is 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, like 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.
Welcome to the Brucely 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 go on 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 yeah. 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 France 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 flat 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 insane 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 layer. And yeah, it's going good. 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 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 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 target audience, not herself, them. It's like find the right hashtags for them.
Have you got any tactics and tips? What I find is really funny is that loads of people say get on the hashtag, 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 you.
There are different things. When you're on Instagram, you go to the search tab on the top and you write, you write what you're thinking of and then you will see, like 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 why 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 hashtag and see okay is it a too big hashtag or not? Check you have to do a little research on this 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.
