If you own a holiday rental, Airbnb or boutique stay, you've probably tried most of the usual marketing advice. Post on Instagram. Ask for reviews. Update your listing photos. Maybe run a Facebook ad or two.
All of that has its place. But there's one platform most Australian accommodation owners overlook completely, and it might be the most powerful tool for getting found by guests who are actively planning a trip: Pinterest.
In this post, I'll explain why Pinterest deserves a place in your holiday rental marketing, how it differs from the platforms you already use, and whether it's the right fit for your property.
The problem with most holiday rental marketing
Most short-term rental marketing falls into two buckets.
1. OTA listings like Airbnb, Booking.com and Stayz. They bring bookings, but they also take a cut. Airbnb now charges most hosts a single 15.5% host-only service fee, and Booking.com's commission in Australia typically sits around 15% (Houst). On a $1,000 booking, that's about $155 gone before you've washed a single towel.
2. Social media like Instagram and Facebook. Great for building a brand and staying connected with past guests, but content disappears from feeds quickly, and reaching new people takes constant posting.
What's often missing is a channel that reaches new guests at the planning stage, sends them straight to your own website, and keeps working without you having to post every day. That's where Pinterest fits.
Pinterest isn't really social media
This is the biggest misunderstanding about Pinterest. It looks like a social platform, but it behaves like a visual search engine.
People don't go to Pinterest to see what their friends had for lunch. They go to plan things: a kitchen renovation, a wedding, a birthday, and very often, a holiday.
Pinterest is huge, too. It reached a record 631 million monthly active users globally in early 2026 (Statista). And travel is one of its biggest categories. In Pinterest's own Summer 2024 travel report, the platform shared that 8 in 10 users turn to Pinterest to plan trips, with around 1 billion travel searches and 10 billion travel saves made in a single year.
That's a lot of people actively looking for their next getaway.
Guests do a lot of research before they book
Booking a holiday isn't a snap decision (usually!). Research from Expedia Group found travellers view around 141 pages of travel content in the 45 days before booking a trip, spending about five hours with travel content overall. More than half of travellers use social media somewhere in that process, and most of them use it for inspiration.
That long, visual research phase is exactly where Pinterest lives. People search ideas like "romantic cabin getaway Victoria" or "beach house with pool Byron Bay", save them to boards, and come back when they're ready to book.
If your stay is on that board, you're already in the running.
Pins keep working long after you post them
An Instagram post does most of its work in the first day or two, then it's buried in the feed.
A pin is different. Because Pinterest works on search, a well-optimised pin can keep being found and keep sending people to your website for months, even years (Tailwind). Every pin you create builds on the last.
For busy owners, that's the real appeal. Pinterest isn't about posting more. It's about building a library of content that keeps working in the background, even in weeks when you're flat out with changeovers.
Every pin can link straight to your booking page
On Instagram, you get one link in your bio. On Pinterest, every single pin can link directly to your website.
That makes Pinterest one of the best tools for growing direct bookings. A guest can go from "ooh, that's gorgeous" to your booking page in one tap, without an OTA in the middle taking commission.
The opportunity: your competitors aren't there yet
Australians take a lot of holidays at home. In the year to December 2025, Australians took 113 million domestic overnight trips and spent $106.7 billion on them, according to Tourism Research Australia. Accommodation is the single biggest part of that overnight spend (Business News Australia).
Yet most Australian accommodation businesses still have no Pinterest strategy, and many don't have an account at all. When someone searches for a getaway in your area, the stays that show up are simply the ones that took the time to be there.
Is Pinterest right for your holiday rental?
Pinterest is a great fit if you have:
A beautiful, photogenic property (or good photos of it)
Your own website or direct booking page
The patience to play the long game, because Pinterest builds over months, not days (more on that in How Long Does Pinterest Take to Work?)
Guests who plan ahead: couples, families and groups booking weekends and holidays
It's less of a fit if most of your bookings are last-minute business travellers, or if you don't yet have good imagery.
Where to start
Set up a free Pinterest business account
Claim your website so your pins are linked to you
Create a handful of boards named with keywords guests search for
Start pinning vertical images of your stay and your area, each linked to your website
Pin consistently and give it time
If your holiday rental marketing feels like a treadmill, Pinterest is worth a look. It's one of the few channels that keeps getting stronger the longer you use it.
Ready to get started? Grab my free Pinterest Profile Setup Checklist for Stays and set your account up the right way from day one.
