Your guests are searching. Right now they are finding somebody else.
This is not an estimate and it is not a projection. These are the live Google results today, for the
exact searches a family makes when they are planning a trip to your locations. You can reproduce every
one of them in two minutes.
The searches
Nobody types "Seas to Trees" unless they already know you. Before a guest knows you exist, this is what
they type:
kings beach lake tahoe vacation rental
incline village luxury vacation rental
tahoe city vacation rental book direct
kihei maui oceanfront condo rental
kona oceanfront vacation rental
What Google shows them
Here is page one for each of those searches, as it stands today. The names in blue are the booking
platforms you pay commission to. The rest are rental businesses like yours, with their own websites.
incline village luxury vacation rentalIncline Village
1Tahoe Luxury Properties tluxp.com
2Vacasa booking platform
3Goldfish Properties gfplaketahoe.com
4Airbnb booking platform
5Marriott Homes & Villas booking platform
6Wander wander.com
7MG Vacation Rentals mgvacationrentals.com
Seas to Trees does not appear.
kihei maui oceanfront condo rentalKihei, Maui
1Kihei Kai Oceanfront Condos kiheikai.com
2Maui Condo and Home mauicondo.com
3Maui Owner Condos mauiownercondos.com
4Bello Realty bellomaui.com
5Kihei Surfside Resort kiheisurfsideresort.com
6Kihei Sands kiheisands.com
7Vacasa booking platform
Seas to Trees does not appear, and you have a Kihei property.
kona oceanfront vacation rentalKona, Big Island
1Vrbo booking platform
2Kona Coast Vacations konacoastvacations.com
3Kona Vacation Rentals konarentals.com
4Casago Kona casagokona.com
5Kona Waterfront konawaterfront.com
6Kona Beach Properties konabeachprop.com
Seas to Trees does not appear, and you have an oceanfront Kona property.
Seas to Trees ranks for one thing: the words "Seas to Trees". Every guest search finds you only if
they already knew your name.
Look at who is beating you
This is the part worth sitting with. The businesses above are not Marriott and they are not Airbnb. They
are operators your size, with a handful of properties, in exactly your towns.
Lake Tahoe
Tahoe Rental Company
Tahoe Moon Properties
Tahoe Signature Properties
Tahoe Luxury Properties
MG Vacation Rentals
Goldfish Properties
Kihei, Maui
Kihei Kai
Kihei Surfside
Kihei Sands
Maui Condo and Home
Bello Realty
Maui Owner Condos
Kona, Big Island
Kona Coast Vacations
Kona Vacation Rentals
Kona Beach Properties
Kona Waterfront
Casago Kona
Several of them say on their own homepage exactly what you say on yours: book direct and save.
The difference is not the message and it is not the properties. The difference is that when a guest
searches, Google shows them and not you.
What that is costing you
A guest who finds you through Airbnb or VRBO is not really your guest. The platform owns that
relationship, takes a cut of the booking, and keeps taking it every time that guest comes back through
them. That is the price of being invisible on the search that brought them.
A guest who finds you on Google and books on your own site costs you nothing, gives you their email, and
comes back to you directly next year. Your site is already built for that. It has the booking widget, the
property pages, the gallery, the reviews. It just is not being found.
To be clear about what this document does not claim
I have not quoted traffic numbers for the businesses above, because I cannot verify them and I am not
going to guess at them. What I have shown you is verifiable: the searches, the results, and your
absence from them. Open Google and check any line on this page.
What I would do about it
No vague promises. This is the order the work goes in and what to expect at each stage.
Month 1–2 Foundation
Make the site findable at all
The site is well built and fast, which is the hard part and it is already done. What is missing is
everything that tells Google what it is about.
A real location page for each market: Kings Beach, Tahoe City, Incline Village, Kihei, Kona
Titles, descriptions and structured data on all five properties
Target the exact terms listed at the top of this document, one market at a time, starting with the
market where you have the strongest property.
Content that answers what guests actually ask before booking
Local pages built to outrank the operators currently above you
Reviews and trust signals working for you rather than sitting on Airbnb
Honest expectation: local search results move in months, not weeks. Anyone who
promises you page one in thirty days is selling you something.
Month 6–12 Own it
Turn search into direct bookings
Ranking is not the goal. Bookings that cost you no commission are the goal.
Direct booking incentives on the pages that are ranking
Email capture so a guest who found you once belongs to you
Seasonal content for the months you need to fill
Check it for yourself
Do not take any of this on trust. Open Google and search one of those five terms the way a guest would.
Look at who is on the first page, and look for Seas to Trees.
That is the whole point of this document. Nothing here is a projection or an opinion. It is simply what
is on the screen today, and it can be different.