Hear from Navin
Most short-term rental operators don’t have a demand problem. They have a follow-up problem.
B2 Vacations was in a familiar position. They had a solid portfolio, steady bookings through OTAs, and a long list of past guests. On paper, everything looked healthy.
But when it came to repeat bookings, not much was happening.
Owners Navin and Chanda had tried a few different tools and approaches, but nothing really stuck. As they put it:
“Most tools don’t move the needle.”
What Changed
Instead of looking for new channels or more top-of-funnel demand, they focused on something simpler: reaching back out to people who had already stayed with them.
With Yada, they started sending targeted emails to past guests who had booked in the past, often through OTAs, and hadn’t heard from them since.
The messaging wasn’t complicated. It focused on a few practical things:
- letting guests know they could book direct this time
- highlighting new inventory and more flexible stay options
- giving people a reason to come back
From there, they layered in SMS as a follow-up—mainly to prompt a response or bring people back to the site.
Nothing about it was particularly novel. The difference was that it actually got done, consistently.
What Happened
They started seeing bookings come in. Not all at once, and not from every message, but enough to notice.
“This thing is working really well… we’ve seen a big uptick in bookings.”
Over time, those bookings added up to more than $70,000 in direct revenue from past guests.
For B2, that was meaningful, not just because of the revenue itself, but because it came from a source that had been mostly unused before.
Why It Worked (in practice)
There wasn’t a single breakthrough moment. A few things just lined up:
They reached people who already knew them
These weren’t cold leads. Guests had already stayed in the market, often in similar properties.
The offer was straightforward
Book direct. More options. Better policies. No complicated pitch.
They stayed with it
This wasn’t a one-time campaign. It was a handful of simple touchpoints, repeated over time.
What’s worth paying attention to
The interesting part isn’t the exact number. It’s that the revenue came from something that was already there:
- past reservations
- contact information
- some level of trust
Most operators have that same data. It just sits in their PMS or inbox and never really gets used in a structured way.
B2 Vacations didn’t overhaul their business to get this result. They just started using that data more intentionally.
Where this goes next
B2 is about eight months in with Yada now, and this has become part of how they think about growth. Not as a replacement for OTAs, but as something that runs alongside them:
- filling in gaps
- bringing back previous guests
- slowly increasing the share of direct bookings
It’s not instant, and it’s not automatic. But it’s predictable in a way that a lot of other channels aren’t.
If you’re already sitting on a list of past guests, the question isn’t whether there’s value there.
