A short-term rental alliance is a powerful way for vacation rental owners and operators to act and speak as a united front. But to tap into your full potential for advocacy, continuing education, and social responsibility, your alliance needs to generate revenue.
Revenue empowers your alliance to do outreach and marketing, offer valuable member resources and education, hire lobbyists and consultants, and obtain legal advice, among other things.
Here are some strategies to maximize revenue for your alliance.
Strategy 1: Offer Alliance Memberships
The most basic way to generate revenue for your alliance is annual, or monthly, membership dues.
Make membership accessible to everyone by setting tiered membership dues with a lower cost for hosts and a higher cost for property managers. Annual dues typically range from $100 to $250 for hosts and $250 to $1,000 for property managers.
The more members you have, the greater your revenue potential and your voice in the community.
Direct emails and social media campaigns are a great way to bring in new blood to your organization.
You can build an email list through a variety of ways, from making your Facebook page private and requiring an email address to join to partnering with destination marketing organizations and online travel agencies to let their contacts know about your organization. Property management companies also have plentiful email lists that they may share.
Offer incentives, discounts, and exclusive content
Periodically, offer discounted memberships for first-time members or for certain holidays or events. Arizonans for Responsible Tourism, for example, offered 50% off its members’ first year of memberships for those who joined within three months of the group launching memberships.
You could offer a discount on National Tourism Day on May 7, which honors how tourism contributes to the economy and encourages people to explore new places, or choose a holiday that is unique to your town or state, like “Vermont Days” when admission is free to state parks and historical sites.
Additional tactics to boost memberships:
- Start a membership referral program that incentivizes board members and volunteers to recruit other members
- Reach out to partners and ask them to provide exclusive promotional offers to members as a way to boost membership. For example, local REALTORs associations are great partner organizations with which you may be able to trade promotional offers.
- Offer benefits exclusive to members (more on this below).
Strategy 2: Sponsorships
Sponsorships are another way to earn revenue.
There are different types of sponsorships you can consider:
- Financial sponsorships: Sponsors provide monetary support in exchange for visibility and association with the alliance.
- In-kind sponsorships: Sponsors offer goods or services instead of direct financial support, such as providing event venues, catering, or promotional materials.
Media sponsorships: Media companies may sponsor events or activities in exchange for advertising space or coverage. - Strategic partnerships: Companies with complementary goals or target audiences may form strategic partnerships to mutually promote each other’s brands.
Before seeking out sponsors, make sure you clearly outline the benefits sponsors will receive in exchange for their contribution but also stay open to tailor sponsorship packages to fit the needs and budget of each sponsor.
You can attract sponsors by offering benefits such as logo placement on your alliance’s website, social media shoutouts, exclusive time with members, a public thank you at meetings or events, and post-event reports that showcase the success of the sponsored activity and how it made an impact. Another idea is to provide space on your websites for vendors that want to do business with your membership.
To find sponsors, start by reaching out to existing connections such as current members, partners, or past sponsors who may already have an interest in supporting your alliance’s initiatives. Then, research potential sponsors by identifying companies that align with your alliance’s mission, values, and target audience. Find more opportunities by attending industry events like conferences and trade shows where you can connect with potential sponsors. Finally, showcase your alliance’s activities and achievements in social media posts to attract potential sponsors.
Some great potential sponsors to consider:
- Small businesses in your community such as restaurants, bars, venues, and caterers to sponsor a happy hour or meeting.
- Local print shops to print invites, marketing materials, and signage.
- National service providers: Charge them to do an educational webinar on the tools and services they offer to educate your members and advertise their services.
READ MORE: Creating Great Short-Term Rental Alliance Events
Strategy 3: Events and content
Exclusive content and events customized to your area are an enticing way to draw in more members and raise funds for the alliance.
Create enticing educational and networking opportunities that drive memberships. One idea is to take general content related to vacation rental businesses and customize it for your area. For example, you could offer an educational event on vacation rental photography, invite a local photographer who talks about what kind of photos you should feature in listings in your area, and offers discounts to members.
The event ticket sales will help you raise revenue, but you can also gate the footage of your event, so people who couldn’t attend the event can watch it later for a fee. If your alliance is the only organization offering this type of localized content, people will pay for it.
Invite sponsors to support the event and get their name in the short-term rental community. (This also is a way to support local businesses in the process.)
And while you are holding the event, remember to ask participants to make a donation to support your advocacy and educational efforts.
Need more tips on how to hold an event? Read our Event-in-a-Box Toolkit: Hosting Great Short-Term Rental Alliance Events.
Strategy 4: Collect Donations
Perhaps the most well-known form of fund-raising, donations can bring in a considerable sum, particularly if you are in the middle of advocating in a regulation-making process at City Hall.
Not only can you make a call for donations at your events, add a donation button to your website where visitors can learn more about your advocacy activities and make a contribution.
In addition, hold periodic donation campaigns through direct emails, events, and social media.
Giving Tuesday is an opportune time for such a campaign. Read more about running a successful Giving Tuesday campaign here.
Remind your supporters, too, that donations don’t have to be monetary. In-kind donations such as free venue space, food, swag, door prizes, and legal advice can be priceless.
Make your donations state tax-exempt by organizing your alliance as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit trade association.
Strategy 5: Apply for Grants
Did you know that short-term rental alliances can qualify for grants? While there are no major think tanks and foundations focused entirely on short-term rentals, there is the VRMA Advocacy Fund. The fund gives out grants annually and supports one-time projects including studies and PR campaigns.
READ MORE: Top 10 short-term rental advocacy resources and how to use them
Your alliance might also qualify for other grants such as community program grants. Maryland, for example, offers a grant to help support 501(c)(6) organizations.
Strategy 6: Offer Products and Services
If your organization has the bandwidth and scale, you may be able to offer products for sale and paid services. For example, you could offer specialized services or consultations, such as permit help or local agent services, for a fee – provided the person or people providing said services are qualified to do so.
You could also host an ecommerce store and sell products, such as alliance gear or STR-specific products, or monetize content with affiliate links to third-party products. The easiest place to start may be with an existing affiliate program, like Amazon Associates or Share-a-Sale. (Make sure your content includes a disclaimer if you use affiliate links.)
Strategy 7: Self-Funding and Financing
If you’re an alliance that is just getting started, you may need to rely on fellow STR operators to help get your organization off the ground. Reach out to local property managers to contribute money for start-up costs in exchange for holding a board position or receiving special recognition on the alliance website.
These seed contributions can help launch broader membership campaigns. As a bonus, property managers have access to many property owners and therefore have a greater ability to sell memberships to their clients.
You may also qualify for financing. Organizations like The UnTours Foundation and their Reset Tourism Fund offer debt, equity, and revenue-based financing ranging from $5,000-$100,000.
Learn more about Rent Responsibly’s Alliance Support Services.
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