Our home exchange program has been in business for 13 years, and we have arranged thousands of home swaps. We are finding that this economy is inspiring home owners to use their properties in savvy ways, and home swaps are one great example of this — using their own vacation homes to enable them to vacation around the world for a fraction of the cost of traditional travel.

We’d love for you to check out The Vacation Exchange Network. You’ll find a unique home exchange program, where membership is free for the first year, we arrange the exchange for you if you’d like, and you can stay in someone else’s home even if they do not want to stay in your home.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Jill
The Vacation Exchange Network

Any review content that the vacation rental owner adds will show up on their own personal Google map that will be attached to their listing on FindVacationRentals.com. The map will show how close the owner’s vacation rental is to the local attractions highlighted, and provide driving directions as well.

And, no advertisements will be added in

In order for the map to display properly, the vacation rental owner will need to provide his or her address to the property. Some owners have been hesitant to do this for understandable reasons, but, in this day and age, its just too easy to find an address if you really want it, so I say why not make it as easy as possible for the renters to pick your vacation rental over anyone elses.

Cheers,
Jon Ludwig
Owner, FindVacationRentals.com

Andy

As an owner, if you pay for online advertising, you should try to negotiate a different management fee for renters you refer. Since you are doing the hard work to get the renter to the management company, they will likely discount their fee for that rental a significant amount.

Jon M. (FindVacationRentals.com)

You can deduct any “real” cost you incur. That is, you can deduct the cleaning (and linen service if you do that separately). I am not sure you can deduct any loss of rent. I would talk to your CPA, but I doubt that’s allowed under IRS rules.

When I donated my condo, I talked to my local manager and cleaning crew about my donation and asked if they would reduce their fees at all for that stay. They offered to waive the cleaning fee completely. So – you might want to see what your housekeeper will do for that particular stay. You never know!

Jon M (FindVacationRentals.com)

My attitude is “some rental income is better than nothing!” I’ve incorporated high season rentals all inclusive with utilities and 11% tax, showing value and a ‘bargain’, while accommodating their incoming arrivals, not always on the 1st of the month. I’d prefer during “rough times” to work with renters while still able to meet expenses. 85% incoming is better than waiting for full price and collect zero while having empty units!

Amenities are as if I, the owner, were living there with high count linens & towels, new furnishings, and appliances. I also include local phone coverage and a TRAC cell phone with agreement and instructions of how to replenish. This is most appreciative to international renters. Internet is available via the cable company to obtain a modem for their minimum 3 months duration at their cost. This is very simple and affordable for at home convenience. Every condo community is different. Some have activities with a TV channel giving the calendar of social events and activities to network. I’ve been told, if you are lonely, it is your own fault.

Lastly, I’ve learned everyone has their own definition of “clean”; hence, going foward I insist on $100. cleaning fee, and for them to leave their short-term home how it was upon arrival. “Leave it as you found it for the next tenant, not as if you were at home!” My last repeat tenant left the floors and ceiling fans dusted; however, every cabinet, drawer and linen closet was another story!

Here’s to a better 2009!

This is a great site!

Thank you!

I’ve also incor

The english is also usually not quite right.

If your not sure and you think its possibly a scam (it probably is) I found you can generally scare them away by saying something like. “My rate for that week is xxx, unfortunately due to the prevalence of scams I cannot accept cashiers checks but will gladly accept credit cards via paypal”

Andy

Andy

Andy

Another amenity that seems to keep people coming back is a well stocked kitchen – we have two sets of dishes (nice stoneware my wife picked up when Dansk was going out of business at 90% off – and a decent heavy gauge plastic set in easy reach).

Finally, make improvements every year (even if its a new toaster) and MAKE a big deal about it. People will notice and appreciate it.

Andy

Andy

When advertising your rental on FRBO websites, remember that you are not just marketing a house to vacation in. You are marketing a total vacation experience and the more you can paint a picture in your tenants mind of what the experience will be like, the more bookings you will get. The first step is to pick a Name that represents pleasure and relaxation and compliments your home’s location and decor.
Consider purchasing a ” House Sign” that is designed to give your home character and carry out the “theme” of your home. The pictures you post should capture the House sign, unique features of your home and pictures of amenities close by. If you have no unique features, then consider adding some, such as a water garden, fountain or barbeque pit. These are small upgrades you can do with minimal cost that sets the ” mood” of the vacation. Always remember that you are selling a “dream” not just renting a home. Instead of cutting costs if rentals are slow, add services and you will get the booking over the com-petition every time. The more information you can give them about what to do in the area, the happier they will be. My tenants always get a Check In Booklet with lots of information on what to do in the area along with contact numbers. Most tenants like being able to plan ahead what activities they will indulge in during the stay. The more you help with this process, the happier the tenant. A happy tenant is a repeat tenant.

Finally, having your own web site is imperative and makes renting easy.
I can’t imagine having to answer the same questions over and over again with each tenant. I simply send them to my website and tell them to email me should they have any questions “after” reviewing the web site.

http://www.vacationrentaltricks.com
http://www.extremepolynesianbeachhouse.com
http://www.bearlodgefalls.com

There’s also 1st Home Exchange. They have homes for swap in 130 countries. And worth a look at if you are considering France, as they seem to have a rather large selection all over France.

Something to keep in mind is that most of these sites are exclusively home exchange sites and if you try to advertise your home as a rental, they will remove your listing. So make sure your text advertises your home exchange offer an not your rental.

I am so glad to hear that you are using home exchange as a great way to use your vacation rental properties for your own accomodation when travelling during those periods when you are unable to rent them. We all have to make the most of what we have and think creatively, especially during a time of economic downturn worldwide.

I was also pleased to see from her comment that Emily is compiling a list of home exchange sites for her ‘Vacation Rental Resources Guide’. It is a good idea to include only long established agencies with a good reputation as unfortunately there are many start-up sites every year that often disappear without trace a few months later. I would only like to suggest to Emily, and all vacation property owners interested in home exchange, that you also look beyond US based sites. If you are looking for an exchange abroad, it generally pays to look for established agencies based in the country you plan to visit for the best choice of exchange offers there.

Our own home exchange agency, Home Base Holidays, has been operating from London since 1985. We now also operate a home exchange service for the Guardian newspaper group, providing even more attractive exchange offers throughout the UK and worldwide. With the pound sterling dropping dramatically in value against other currencies, including the US dollar, in the last few weeks (very alarming if you live here!), this is a great time to arrange an exchange to the UK.

I also publish a blog, Travel the Home Exchange Way, for regular information about home exchange. I will include a link to your post on the blog shortly as I believe your ideas on using vacation rental properties for exchange will be of interest to some of our visitors and members. If you, or any of your readers, have ideas for other ways we might cross promote rentals and home exchange, I would be delighted to hear from you.

Cheers,
Lois Sealey
Home Base Holiays, London

I enjoyed reading your post about using a “home exchange” to fill open weeks at your vacation rentals. Which, by the way, are gorgeous. Your photos are good enough to grace the pages of National Geographic or Coastal Living!

I’d be interested to know if you (and other readers of this blog) have a favorite home-exchange site to recommend — one that you’ve used and have found to be especially good.

We’re putting together a list of home-exchange sites for our FullyBookedRentals “Vacation Rental Resources Guide” (http://www.vacationrentalresources.com) and would love to get your opinion, based on first-hand experience.

Here’s our current list of established home-exchange sites that get good reviews:

o ExchangeHomes (http://www.exchangehomes.com)
o HomeExchange (http://www.homeexchange.com)
o iTravex (http://www.itravex.com)
o Seniors Home Exchange (http://www.seniorshomeexchange.com)
o Vacation Exchange Network (http://www.thevacationexchange.com)
o Sabbatical Homes (http://www.sabbaticalhomes.com)

Anyone have experiences to report with these sites (good, bad, or indifferent), or have others to recommend?

Cheers,
Emily Glossbrenner
FullyBookedRentals
http://www.fullybookedrentals.com

For those of you that decide to rent your vacation home rentals at discounted prices, look for vacation rental websites that allow you to post an “Owner’s Special”, or something like that. For example, on our vacation rental website, we have a special feature that allows vacation rental owners to post owner’s specials on a special section on our site. If you decide to run an owner’s special, make sure you put phrases in all of your online advertisements such as “discount vacation rentals” or “cheap vacation rentals”. While those terms may not have the best sound, they are very popular search terms on Google, and you will increase your exposure through Google if you use those terms in your online ad description text. I wrote a post on this blog about that topic here.

Jon Ludwig
Owner, FindVacationRentals.com

I own in a large resort with almost 2000 privately owned condos, 80% of which get rented out as weekly vacation rentals. Bookings have been down the last few years and many of my fellow owners have been complaining that their units are not fully renting. My unit is has consistently been fully booked. I’m sure the 3 C’s have something to do with it but among the 2000 units I’m sure there are some cheaper and some nicer and some that are both. I’m convinced the quick courteous response closes many deals, I guess they assume I’ll be just as responsive to any and all their questions before, during and after they stay (and they are right!). So how do I do it? Being able to monitor my inquiries on my phone, justifies the expense of a fancy phone with a data plan. From Verizon the data plan costs me almost $50/month. But a single peak or a few off peak rentals will pay for that! I also list my Cell phone as the primary number for inquiries.

So in addition to “Cost, Comfort, & Convenience” answer their inquiries and questions quickly and I bet you will see your “Conversion” of inquiries to bookings improve.