Hey all,
Just wanted to drop a few free, quick, and effective ways you can boost your property’s occupancy. These are part of a report I’ve drafted. All together, these take about 1 hour to execute. They have the ability to increase your occupancy by up to 50%.

1. Awards Nominations: Nominate your hotel or vacation rental property for an international travel award. Awards Associations like World Travel Awards (www.worldtravelawards.com) are free or inexpensive and even if you don’t win the award, promoting the fact that you are nominated (in my case as “Top New Hotel in Central America”) helps drive new bookings.
2. Google Maps & Google Places: Submitting your property to both of these services is free and lands you at the top of organic search results. It’s a huge way to boost last minute reservations since they are geo-sensitive and provide all your contact information.
3. Directories: Submit your property to DMOZ (free – http://www.dmoz.org) and Yahoo! Directory ($299) to kickstart the process of backlink acquisition. This takes about 10 minutes and may be the most important traffic building technique you do.
4. PR repositories: Sign up for services like HARO (www.helpareporter.com) and PRLeads ($100/month) to get emails everyday from journalists looking for sources in their articles. This is how I got featured in Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast, and National Geographic.

Matt is the author of http://www.boostoccupancy.com – free and inexpensive ways to immediately fill your room nights. If you liked these tips, his report is filled with 50 more just like them.