The 10X Truth: Why Your Email List of 50 Past Guests Beats Your 5,000 Instagram Followers
You're exhausted.
You've been showing up on social media every single day—posting those stunning sunset photos from your deck, sharing reels of your newly renovated kitchen, announcing availability for that last-minute weekend gap.
You're doing all the "right" things the social media gurus tell you to do. You've even hit that goal for your follower count, which felt like a milestone worth celebrating.
But when you look at your actual booking calendar?
Crickets during shoulder season.
Price-slashing to fill gaps.
The same feast-or-famine cycle you've been stuck in for months.
Meanwhile, Airbnb just raised their fees again. You're losing 15-20% of every booking to the OTAs, and you know you need to build your direct booking channel.
Everyone keeps saying "grow your social media presence" and "build your following." So you post more. You engage more. You watch those follower numbers climb.
And yet somehow, you're working harder than ever while your profit margins keep shrinking.
Here’s the BIGGER problem with all this. Vacation rental owners (like you) have bought into a dangerous myth: that the path to sustainable direct bookings runs through growing a massive social media following.
This belief keeps STR owners trapped in an exhausting cycle of creating content for platforms they don't own, chasing audiences that don't belong to them, hoping that somehow, if they just get enough followers, the bookings will materialize.
They're pouring energy into building someone else's platform while their most valuable asset—the guests who've already stayed with them and loved the experience—sits on their email list (if at all), with no emails being sent to them.
It's like renting a storefront in the busiest mall in town and spending all your time trying to get people walking by to notice you, while completely ignoring the customers who've already bought from you, loved your product, and would happily come back if you just reminded them you exist.
Here’s a story I HAVE to share with you! Let’s say Michelle (what we’ll call her for this example), a vacation rental owner with six properties in the Smoky Mountains who came to me completely burned out from the content hamster wheel.
Michelle was doing everything "right" on social media.
She had grown her Instagram to over 5,000 followers through consistent posting—beautiful property photos, local hiking trail recommendations, seasonal decor updates, behind-the-scenes content.
She was posting 5-6 times per week, engaging with comments, using all the right hashtags. She even hired a VA to help manage the content calendar because it had become a J.O.B. in itself.
And yes, she WAS getting engagement.
Likes, saves, comments from people who "loved" her properties. But when she looked at the actual conversion from Instagram to bookings? Maybe one or two inquiries per month, and most of those were price-shopping or asking for discounts.
Despite all that consistent effort and a growing follower count, Michelle's direct bookings were flat.
She was still getting 80% of her reservations through Airbnb and VRBO, which meant she was paying thousands in OTA fees every single month. Her occupancy during shoulder season was inconsistent at best. And she was exhausted from the constant pressure to create content that seemed to entertain people but rarely converted them into actual guests.
Michelle felt trapped in a never-ending cycle of content creation with no sustainable return.
But that’s NOT the worst part. She had over 200 past guests—people who had already stayed at her properties, loved them, left 5-star reviews, and had the exact experience she wanted to create for future guests.
But she had never once followed up with them after their stay ended.
As an Email Marketing & Content Strategist who helps vacation rental owners build direct booking systems that reduce OTA dependency, this is something I see all the time with my clients.
STR owners are chasing vanity metrics on platforms they don't control while ignoring the goldmine sitting in their past guest database.
They're building their entire business on borrowed land—Instagram's algorithm, Airbnb's policy changes, platforms that can shift the rules overnight—instead of creating a foundation of owned relationships that actually belong to them.
I worked with Michelle to shift her approach from chasing new followers to nurturing the relationships she'd already built. We started capturing guest email addresses and building a simple system to stay connected with them.
Instead of pouring all her energy into Instagram content that disappeared into the feed within 24 hours, we created email sequences that kept her properties top-of-mind for the people most likely to book again.
The transformation was remarkable.
Within 90 days, Michelle was generating new inquiries and bookings from repeat guests and referrals—people who were already in her ecosystem.
Her email list was outperforming her 5,000+ Instagram followers by a massive margin.
She started filling her calendar with a single email campaign to past guests, offering them first access to fall dates before she ever posted publicly.
Her cost per booking dropped dramatically because she wasn't competing on price anymore—these guests already knew her, trusted her, and wanted to come back.
Within six months, her direct bookings had grown, and she cut her time stressing about what to post on Instagram.
She started using social media primarily to capture new leads into her email system rather than trying to convert cold followers into bookings.
Most importantly, she regained precious time and mental energy. Her marketing started working for her around the clock—automated welcome sequences, past guest nurture campaigns, seasonal reactivation emails—while she focused on actually hosting her guests and improving their experience.
To get some perspectives on what others in the industry were experiencing with this dynamic between reach and relationships, I reached out to some connections in my network.
I asked them variations of this question: "In your experience working with vacation rental owners, which ones tend to be more successful: those focused on reaching more people or those focused on connecting deeper with the guests they already have?"
Here's what they had to say:
Stephanie Ciccarelli - Co-founder of Lake.com, Branding Expert & Speaker
Relationships with guests win out in vacation rentals over the vanity metric of social media followers because your relationship with a guest is "one-to-one" instead of "one-to-many." With guests, you know them personally, have a greater knowledge of their goals, and I've established trust. You likely have multiple channels of communication with guests, and because of your one-to-one connection, are able to authentically share how much you value their business and care about their family. Having an engaged following on social media is wonderful, but unless a follower converts from prospect to customer, and graduates from the one-to-many relationship with your brand, to a one-to-one relationship with a team member in a capacity to meet their needs, sheer number of followers doesn't mean much.
Stacy Wesson - Business Development and Director of Owner Services Arrived
The sweet spot truly lives in doing both: reaching new people and connecting deeply with the guests you already have.
Your current guests are priceless—they’ll lovingly tell you where you can improve your home or your services, and those honest insights help you level up in ways you might not see on your own. Plus, nurturing those relationships just feels good.
The owners who are winning right now? They’re the ones who care for their loyal guests while also welcoming the new ones with open arms. It’s a balance—and honestly, that’s where the magic happens.
Robin Christman - Vacation Rental and Real Estate Photographer
For me in the last 9 months I’ve been mostly building new relationships on social media and it’s been very valuable since I didn’t have many relationships yet as my business niche and location here in Colorado are somewhat new. In this short period of time I’ve built a lot of new relationships that have helped in building my business and will continue to foster these relationships while also building more new ones.
I asked a few short term rental owners this question:
"When you think about sustainable growth for your short term rentals, what are you focusing on most right now - building long term guest relationships or growing your reach on social?
Why?"
Here's what they had to say
Modern Mountain Vacations - April & Tor
I do see these two concepts you mentioned as complimentary, but I'd say our primary focus is building long-term guest relationships because our personalized hospitality naturally leads to repeat stays, referrals, and guest loyalty. Our social presence supports that by showcasing the guest experience and sharing local tips, but it’s more of a secondary tool that amplifies these relationships.
Babbling Brook Cottages - Lamar & Terri
For us, social reach and long-term guest relationships serve two very different purposes, and we intentionally invest in both. Social media helps with discovery and brand recognition — it introduces Babbling Brook Cottages to the right people. But sustainable growth for us is ultimately rooted in the relationships we build with our guests over time.
What fuels our sustainable growth isn’t a single tactic — it’s a long-term commitment to hands-on hospitality and being deeply present in the experience we provide.
Walnut Canyon Cabins - Carl (Owner & Manager)
I am truly trying to balance between the two. My long term guests have been very good! Keeping in touch through newsletters and updates keep us front of mind. That said, growing on social, google, and other platforms are vital. People love constant, and the only constant is change, so they and we like to do different things sometimes. Therefore, being introduced to new customers and markets is necessary.
Darby Profili - Owner of Stay With Darby
I focus on long-term guest relationships — socials fills the calendar once, relationships fill it for years. Social media is still a newer tool for me so I spend a lot of time on it (and honestly have fun being creative), but great experiences and word-of-mouth are what actually make this business sustainable.
River Rock Reserve - Dave Williamson
I believe winning in today’s landscape is multifaceted and multi-channel. First and foremost we want to deliver the best experience for our guests so that they are excited to come back. Outside of that, there is an emphasis on revenue management to stay competitive in the marketplace for daily rate and occupancy. We keep an eye on the OTAs, direct booking traffic, and social media with regards to lead generation. Most of our bookings still come from Airbnb.
JMC Retreats - Megan Little-Moran
I would say building long term guest relationships.
I am definitely focusing on nurturing my guest list via email and social to build a long-term relationship. So in a sense, using both to foster that relationship.
Regarding the future growth of our business: While it’s definitely important to grow our reach on social media, for us, long-term guest relationships are our priority. It’s true that many of our guests first learn of us via one of the social media platforms, but our desire has always been to have repeat guests and new guests via word-of-mouth. The biggest compliment we can receive is a recommendation from a past guest!
We are currently focused on growing our reach on social media as well as marketing to increase our direct bookings. We have dialed in our hospitality and taking care of guests. We are now going to circle back around to those guests that have been with us and remarket to them.
These conversations reveal something important: while many vacation rental owners acknowledge that both reach and relationships have their place, there's a consistent thread running through every response about what actually drives sustainable growth.
Stephanie's distinction between "one-to-one" versus "one-to-many" cuts to the heart of it—followers are a broadcast audience, but guests are actual relationships where trust, knowledge, and authentic connection exist.
Multiple property owners echoed this same insight: social media serves a purpose in discovery and brand awareness, but it's the deep guest relationships that fuel repeat stays, referrals, and long-term loyalty. As Darby put it perfectly, "socials fills the calendar once, relationships fill it for years."
What stands out across these perspectives is the recognition that relationships aren't just a nice-to-have—they're the foundation of sustainable revenue. Carl mentioned keeping in touch through newsletters to stay "front of mind" with long-term guests.
Lamar and Terri emphasized that sustainable growth is "rooted in the relationships we build with our guests over time." April and Tor described their social presence as "a secondary tool that amplifies" their primary focus on personalized hospitality and guest relationships.
This led me to reflect on several important questions worth examining, so make sure you ask yourself these questions too!
QUESTION #1: How much of your marketing budget and energy is currently being spent on rented attention (followers, reach, impressions) rather than invested in owned relationships (your email list, past guest database) that compound over time?
It's important because every hour you spend chasing followers on Instagram is an hour you're not spending nurturing the guests who've already proven they love your properties.
Social media is rented real estate—you're building on land you don't own, subject to algorithm changes, platform policy shifts, and the constant need to "feed the beast" with fresh content.
Without a system to convert that rented attention into owned relationships, you're starting from zero every single time you post.
It's kind of like spending years building a beautiful house on someone else's property instead of buying your own land.
Sure, the house looks great, and people walking by admire it. But you don't own the land beneath it, so you're always one policy change, one algorithm shift, one platform decision away from losing everything you've built.
Meanwhile, that small plot of land you actually own—your email list—might not look as impressive from the outside, but it's the only asset that truly belongs to you and grows in value the more you tend to it.
QUESTION #2: What would it mean for your business if the content and marketing you created today continued to bring you bookings six months, a year, even two years from now, instead of disappearing into the social media void within 48 hours?
It's important because the Instagram hamster wheel is designed to be exhausting. Posts have a shelf life of 24-48 hours maximum before they're buried in the feed, which means you're constantly creating just to maintain visibility.
But email? Email compounds. A welcome sequence you write once works for every single new subscriber forever. A past guest nurture campaign you build today continues generating repeat bookings year after year. You're building a system that creates leverage, not trading time for temporary visibility.
It's kind of like the difference between running on a treadmill and actually going somewhere. With social media, you can run faster and faster, post more and more, but you're still in the exact same place when you stop.
The moment you pause, your visibility drops to zero. But email is like planting perennial seeds in a garden. You do the work once—plant the seed, tend to it—and it keeps producing fruit season after season without you having to replant from scratch every single week.
QUESTION #3: If you could only focus on one metric for the next 90 days—growing your Instagram following by 5,000 or growing your past guest email list by 50—which would actually move the needle on your occupancy rate and profit margins?
It's important because this question forces you to be honest about what actually drives bookings versus what just feels like progress. Five thousand new Instagram followers might feel impressive when you announce it, but followers don't pay your mortgage.
Followers don't fill your shoulder season gaps. Followers scroll past your beautiful content and then book with your competitor who offered a lower rate on Airbnb.
But 50 past guests who already love your properties? Those are 50 people who are far more likely to book again, refer their friends, and pay your full rate because they're not comparing you to 10 other options—they already know you're the one they want.
It's kind of like choosing between having 5,000 people at a networking event who've never heard of you and might forget your name by tomorrow, versus having coffee with 50 people who've already done business with you, trust you completely, and are actively looking for a reason to work with you again.
The 50 people who know you will generate more revenue, more referrals, and more sustainable growth than trying to convert strangers in a crowded room where everyone's competing for attention.
These questions reveal the fundamental problem with building your direct booking strategy on social media follower growth alone: you're investing in an asset that depreciates the moment you stop feeding it, rather than building a system that appreciates over time.
The truth is that sustainable direct bookings don't come from having a massive following—they come from having deep relationships with the guests who've already chosen you once and would choose you again if you just stayed in touch.
By shifting your focus from chasing followers to nurturing your owned email list, you fundamentally change the economics of your vacation rental business. You're no longer competing on price in a sea of strangers.
You're building a loyal guest base that knows you, trusts you, and books directly with you year after year.
You're trading the exhausting treadmill of content creation for a system that works while you sleep—automated sequences that welcome new guests, nurture past guests, and keep your properties top-of-mind without requiring you to show up on Instagram every single day.
This approach fundamentally shifts your marketing from a cost center to an appreciating asset. Every email you capture compounds.
Every relationship you nurture increases in lifetime value. You're building equity in your business instead of renting attention from platforms that can change the rules overnight.
To start building a system that creates more profitable bookings through owned relationships (not rented attention), grab my FREE → Profitable STR Playbook
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