That being said, hiring a professional photographer might be some of the best marketing dollars you spend on your property.  Photographers that specialize in real estate know how to capture the right lighting and components of your property to showcase your rentals best elements.  When selecting a photographer, be sure to request references and ask to see a portfolio of their work. Ask your realtor friends who they use. Some real estate photographers charge as little as $75. That makes it well worth the cost!

So what should you photograph?

• In Real Estate it’s ‘Location, Location, Location’ – in vacation rental photography, it’s much the same, ‘View, View, View’!   If you are photographing from a porch or deck, include a cup of coffee and a paper – or a glass of wine and a book – invite the potential guest to ‘see themselves’ relaxing in your rental.  Also include a photograph of the exterior of the property.  In your web advertisement it is effective to make the view your lead photograph.
• Living spaces – families coming to rent your place want to see how they will comfortably gather, be sure to have the windows open and lots of light pouring in – that helps a space feel more.. well.. spacious!  It’s also important to make the space clutter free.  Those lighthouse knick knacks from the local curio shop are too cute for words, however, put them away when snapping your photos.
• Bedrooms – It’s important to show all of the bedrooms so that guests can get an idea of how they will set up their sleeping arrangements, particularly if they are vacationing with young children or another family.  Use light colored linens on the beds for a bright and crisp effect.
• Kitchens – As more travelers eat-in when vacationing and traditionally look for a vacation rental by owner vs. a hotel in order to have a kitchen, be sure to show the appliances available and the dining area.
• Amenities – Does your community have a golf course onsite? What about swimming pools and a gym? Having these in your vacation rental advertisement shows all of the extra activities that your renter can do while staying in your property.

And what shouldn’t you photograph?

• Bathrooms – although that beautiful new granite top vanity is a no doubt a work of art, potential guests aren’t interested in seeing bathrooms when making their renting decision.  You can have this type of photo available, however, if your guest wants to see additional photos of the property after they have made initial contact with you.

Remember, photographs help to showcase your property’s best features.  If there is something specific about your property that is a ‘draw’ for potential renters – include it!  Wet bars, outdoor living spaces, gardens, Jacuzzi tubs, etc. are things that will help your property stand out from the rest – so including these ‘extras’ in your gallery is another great way to turn the guest to your web advertisement into a renter!

Here are our top picks you can use to turn your vacation rental guest into a repeat customer:

• When contacting your guest to finalize deposit payments and arrangements, do some research on the dates they will be staying in your vacation rental and include a small list of ‘What To Do During Your Stay’ items including local festivals, music, and sports events that they might want to factor into their itinerary.

• Right before their stay, personalize the transaction with a phone call to find out if they have any last minute questions.

• When your guests arrive, if your home is professionally cleaned, see whether or not your cleaning service would be willing to fill out a card, complete with your guest’s name, welcoming them to the property.  This type of personalized welcome goes a long way for weary travelers!

• The Book! Every vacation rental owner needs to have one!  Here are helpful items to include:

1. Essential: List of emergency contact numbers, include who they should call if there are any maintenance problems with the rental and list local hospitals and urgent care facilities.
2. Essential: List of rules for your community – include any specific items related to pool facilities, beach access and check-in/check-out times.
3. Essential: List of expectations for your vacation rental – include things like whether you want the guests to start the first load of bed linens as they leave, whether they need to empty the refrigerator, setting the thermostat, and what to do with keys for the property.
4. Nice to have: List of restaurants that are close by, including their price and helpful information, i.e. ‘We love taking our kids to this restaurant, while the adults can relax in the outside patio, the kids can run and play on the boardwalk’.  Since menus can be bulky, include those in a basket next to ‘The Book’.  It’s also helpful to direct guests to the best places to buy fresh seafood, farmers markets, and grocery stores.
5. Nice to have: Calendar of local events, or provide a list of websites for your city that will help guide your guests on things to do while they are in the area.
6. Nice to have: Names of trusted rental companies for water craft, parasailing, kayaks, surfboards, etc. Also include local courses for golfers (including price range per season), bike rental companies, mini-golf – think of anything that you and your family enjoy doing on vacation, and include it along with your personal recommendations.

• And last, but not least, the thank you note!  Sending your guest a letter or an email thanking them is a great way to put the final personalized touch on their stay.  Our recommendation is to do both!  Send a note through snail mail, and also send an email follow up that includes a direct link to your vacation rental web advertisement where they can provide a 5-star review for your listing.  It helps to use a presumptive selling technique here, like “We would truly appreciate it if you took the time to provide an excellent review of our property!  And if there was anything about your stay that needed improvement, please contact me personally, we want the opportunity to make it right!”  A good way to ward off negative reviews is to encourage guests to contact you directly as problems arise during their stay.

With the Spring months here, and families and couples planning their Summer vacations most vacation rental owners are already turning down requests for prime-season Summer rental weeks, and likely could have booked them four times over.  But what about some of the less popular weeks ahead?  Getting creative by researching local festivals (obscure or not!) and creating ‘weekend getaway specials’ that promote both the venue as well as your rental is a great way to get those weeks booked!

So where do you start with Vacation Property Marketing?  One helpful place to locate festivals and upcoming events is to search for the visitors bureau website for your city.  Almost all destination cities have event calendars, some even have the ability to search a date range, which makes the task of finding events during those hard to rent weeks even easier!

A couple examples of websites to assist you with Vacation Property Marketing for destination cities are below:

• Destin, FL: http://www.emeraldcoastfl.com/activities/events/
• Denver, CO: http://www.denver.org/events
• Helen, GA: http://www.helenga.org/events
• Nashville, TN: http://www.visitmusiccity.com/visitors/eventscalendar

Now that you’ve found out that there is a (insert venue here) Festival/Show/Concert in your city, it’s time to market your special!

Vacation Property Marketing – When marketing your ‘package deal’, be sure to include the title of the event, so that it is picked up in browser searches.  Next, make the offer attractive – mention how close you are to the venue and transportation options to get there.  You can even pitch in tickets to the event as part of your special, or purchase a weekend parking pass for your guest to the event as an ‘extra’.

Once your guests arrive, have a helpful guide available welcoming your guest to the city and festival as well as give them suggestions on places to eat, and other things to see during their stay.  Be sure to mention price range information and any personal comments about the restaurants, i.e. ‘We took our grandkids to this restaurant, and found out that they didn’t have much in the way of a children’s menu – but this is a great restaurant for couples!’ These are all great Vacation Property marketing ideas.

Another helpful thing to do, specifically if it is an outdoor event is to offer some ‘rain out’ suggestions of alternate things to do and see in the event the weather doesn’t cooperate.  Making your guests’ stay as easy and worry free as possible is a great way to get return business and referrals for your vacation rental!

If you do decide that managing the property yourself is the route you want to take, make sure that you check references of any company you hire to clean the rental or make repairs.  Making sure that the company is licensed and bonded. And keep a ‘plan B’ company in mind if your first choice is unavailable.  Also, verify (specifically for repair companies) whether or not they have 24 hour and weekend service for repairs.  Comparing companies, when you are just starting out, based on price and availability for emergencies is important.  Also, ask members in the HOA for your condo community or neighborhood who they use, often you will find a wealth of information from other homeowners.

Many property owners would rather eliminate the hassle of finding a plumber to repair a clogged toilet at 2a.m. by hiring a property management company to take care of their rental.  In general, property management companies will take care of booking your property, advertising the vacancies you have, collecting the deposit and rental fees, facilitating repairs, preparing the unit for the next guests’ arrival,  and preparing income statements for the vacation rental owner at the end of the year.

When choosing a property management company remember these three words: References, References References!  Talking to other rental property owners about their experience with that company is vital to your selection.  Here again talking to other homeowners in your area is a great place to start.  Some important things to ask the references you contact would be about fees the company charges and the typical response times for issues.  Make sure you review the documents they have your guests sign, standard rental agreements, policies, etc.

Whether using a property management company, or managing the property yourself, be sure to explore both options carefully!

When reviewing your vacation rental advertisement, there are some basic items that need to be evaluated:

• Are my rates competitive with comparable listings in my city?
• Are my rates up to date?
• Are the details for my property current?

Making sure your rates are ‘in-line’ with the other vacation rentals in your city is an important step in web advertising that shouldn’t be overlooked.  Be sure to select several other comparable properties in your area when you are reviewing your rates. In addition, running discounts for weeks that you don’t have renters is another effective way to bring in more traffic.  At FindVacationRentals.com, owners can select to run an Owner’s Special in any amount, and once it has been added, the listing is then placed into an additional theme category named “Vacation Deals”.  This basically gives the owner two listings for the price of one – one in their listing city, and one in the “Vacation Deals” section.  In addition, recently FindVacationRentals.com began taking advantage of what is becoming one of the most powerful marketing tools around – social networking.  So now, as an added bonus for creating an Owners Special, FindVacationRentals.com posts a link to the special on Facebook, Google + and Twitter pages.

Another facet of vacation rental advertising is the Availability Calendar.  There are arguments both for and against the use of the calendar, but from the potential renters’ perspective, it is ranked as one of the most important factors weighing into their inquiry decision. Your potential guest would rather not go through the process of inquiring, just to find out that your weeks are booked.  Understandably, I’ve heard from some Vacation Rental Owners over the years that they prefer not to display a calendar, because they’d rather speak with the guest to see if they can offer them a discount on another week.  Whatever your position on Availability Calendars might be, if you do choose to use one, keeping it updated can help filter out inquiries for rented weeks that waste your valuable time, as well as that of your potential guest.

Recent positive guest comments cannot be underestimated in the power of advertising.  In the age of Amazon.com, as well as the ‘Like’s of Facebook and 1+ of Google+, posting an opinion about a link, product or service is almost second nature to most people.  When someone is looking for their ‘home away from home’ while on vacation, they want to know that others had a great experience.  Renter reviews that convey that the owner ‘anticipated our every need’, or that the ‘photos don’t do this beach house justice, this place is heaven!’ are powerful to your potential guest.  If you have reviews posted for your property on your personal website, or even entries in a guest book, FindVacationRentals.com works with owners to add them to their listing, just email support@findvacationrentals.com to find out more information.

Getting more traffic to your listing is important – traffic equals inquiries, and inquiries turn into bookings.  The more traffic, the better – and using these easy, no-cost steps to optimize your web advertisement will help you achieve it!

As a second home owner renting out your property throughout the year I am pleased to bring you the safest and simplest way to manage your home from miles away without the needs for keys!

It will be of great benefit to you and will make your life so much easier when dealing with your tenants, housekeeper, vendor or maintenance man.

The Oracode lock has been on the market for over 7 years and with over 12 000 locks installed in North America it is a proven and unique product which does not require any software.

It consists of a proprietary web based application that manages your lock from a distance from anywhere in the world once we program it for you prior to shipping.

I will be happy to answer any further inquiries you might have regarding our product,

Regard;

Vanessa Pavillet

Last year on FindVacationRentals.com, we rolled out what we called “vacation themes”, which are special sections of our website focused on vacation rental inventory that was well suited for specific vacation activities or travel themes.  This included special sections for beach rentals, pet friendly rentals, vacation rental deals, cabin rentals, golf vacation rentals, ski rentals, and disney vacation rentals.

Initially, we were targeting search traffic that occurs around those specific vacation themes, but, what we found what that travelers were randomly combining an activity type search phrase, like “beach”, with a destination, like “Destin Florida”, and then adding “vacation rentals” or something like that onto the end.

From our perspective, this type of searching called for a new approach to better match those searches to our owners vacation rentals.  Stay tuned to FindVacationRentals.com, as that release will be published the short term.

As we are making an effort to target these highly desirable traveler activities, vacation rental owners can help themselves a bit as well by making sure that their vacation rental descriptions are specifically mentioning vacation themes like the ones we have targeted.  There are many more that travelers are interested in – scuba diving, surfing, and many more – and owners can sell those travel experiences in their vacation rental descriptions.

When I first started renting and had a hard time keeping my condo booked, I would rent to the 21-25 crowd with a larger deposit.

Would you rent to anybody in this picture?

Maybe it’s my old age and the fact that I don’t want to deal with the hassle anymore, but I do not rent to anyone under 25 and haven’t done so in about 5 years.  I focus on families only and require someone over 25 to pickup the key.  Sometimes that means my condo sits empty a week in March during the college spring break period.

I am curious – Do any of you rent to the “under 25″ crowd?  Does it work for you?  How do you handle the deposits?  Can you keep a housekeeper more than one season?  Is it worth it?

This is an interesting topic with the economy making many owners nervous about maximizing bookings.  Plus, many of us know that after the holidays starts the rush of emails & inquiries and need to decide who we are going to cater to.

Post your comments below.

What I found was pretty interesting.  While vacation rental owners typically do a great job describing the basic features and amenities of their properties, such as whether or not it has a microwave, or how close it is to a beach, there is little information that owners post about what kind of travel experience one could expect by visiting the destination, and there are very few, if any, pictures of those experiences.

The honeymoon concept got me thinking, so I did a search on FindVacationRentals.com, using our Advanced vacation rental search, for they keyphrase “romantic”.  The results I got indicated that about 5.6% of our customers used the word “romantic” in their description text.  This listing is a great example of a well written description that really sells the experience and does not just talk about the # of bedrooms and bathrooms the place has.

Next, I tried a search for “honeymoon”, which speaks to the suggestion by the Boston Glove article to the traveling public.  This time, I only got results representing 1.8% of our inventory.  This listing was a great example of a well written description that sells the romantic and honeymoon experiences very well.

So, a marketing lesson to be learned here.  Clearly, travelers are looking for a certain experience.  Search engines like Google match travelers to content that matches there search criteria.  Travelers are often not looking for just a certain location and number of bedrooms – they are looking for a certain travel experience.

I think, as vacation rental owners, we could do a better job providing descriptions of those types of experiences.  If we do, our interest are all better served!

Jon Ludwig, Owner

http://www.findvacationrentals.com

Anytime I receive an email inquiry, I make an effort to respond immediately, even if I don’t have availability.  A good response, with maybe even some suggestions for other rental units that you know of that might be available can go a long way to securing a booking the next year, or later that same season.  I’ve even had renters delay their trip to a date that I had available after I responded courteously and promptly.

Although you do not want to give renters over to your “competition”, it may come back to you in the form of good karma and you’ll get a booking in return.  For example, I’ve referred people to our Panama City Beach Vacation Rentals page to find another vacation rental when mine is not available and they can’t change their dates of travel, and I’ve received calls from those other owners thanking me.  And, yes, I’ve even gotten some reciprocation.  Everyone can win, here.

I think all owners can agree it’s bad for the industry as a whole that renters feel like booking a vacation rental is such a huge hassle.  Thoughts, anyone (See feedback text below)?

“>>I could not find ANY that were actually available for the dates of
>>3/13 to 3/20, even though they were listed as available. I contacted
>>over a dozen condo owners and I’m very disappointed that they do not
>>care enough to update their availability calendar.
>>
>>It’s not a problem with your website, I think the site is pretty good.
>> It’s the owners that list their properties. It seems to me that they
>>don’t really care whether or not they are wasting time because they
>>only care about getting their condos booked — not about the
>>vacationer who is trying to find out what is available.”

If your unit is in a popular tourist area you may be able to find some of these already built with instructions on how to load them.  Here is a link to one I used when traveling to WDW http://www.mousesavers.com/gps.html

For the technically capable here is a link to a popular POI site that includes directions on building these files.  http://www.poi-factory.com/

If anyone can share a great guide on how a novice can build and/or customize their own custom POI files please post!

Andy

We had a whole bunch of folks that came in from different parts of the globe to celebrate the event with us.  Being the owner of a vacation rentals by owner website, I asked most of them where they were staying so I could compare notes.  Our extended family stayed in a nice vacation rental right on the beach, a few stayed at resorts, and a few stayed at local hotels.

Here’s the hard data on the major expense items for the  trip, excluding rental car and airfare:

Hotel / Resort (Standard Hotel Room, Queen Bed, 1 Bathroom):

• Maximum Occupants:2
• Per Person, Per Night Rate: $175.00
• Per Day, Per Person Average Food: $125.00
• Per Day “Resort Fee”:  $25.00
• Per Day Parking:  $20.00
• Total Cost Per Person, Per Day: $322.50

Vacation Rental (2 BR / 2 BA Condominium on the Beach with Queen Sleeper Pull Out):

• Maximum Occupants: 6
• Per Person, Per Night Rate: $28.00
• Per Day, Per Person Average Food: $65.00
• Per Day “Resort Fee”:  $0.00
• Per Day Parking:  $0.00
• Total Cost Per Person, Per Day: $93.00

The vacation rental was extremely economical for three reasons.  1) It could accommodate a lot more people.  A family of 5 could all fit into one place that cost on average $140.00 per night.  That averages out to only $28.00 per person, per night.  The Hotel and Resorts that others stayed in cost around $350.00 per night, and it could only fit two people in it, so it ran $175.00 per person, per night.  That is a huge difference.  2) Most resort hotels charged huge daily fees for parking and resort fees, which were non-negotiable.  That added another $50/night in most cases.  Most of my wedding guests found out about that as they were checking in (they neglect to tell you stuff like this when you make the reservation).  It was too late then to re-book.  No such issues with the vacation rental.  3) Having meals in with the family was a very nice break from eating every meal out.  It was a heck of a lot more economical as well.

And, last, the other major expense item was the amount spent on food per day.  My extended family took a short trip to the grocery store and had breakfast, lunch and a couple of dinners in over the course of the week that we were there.  They went out for nice dinners a couple of times, but in a place like Maui where a basic entree can often cost $50.00 or more, eating some meals in for a family of five really starts to make some  sense.

As my fellow vacation rental owners are speaking with  prospective renters that are having trouble deciding between your rental or a hotel, make sure you remind them about ALL of the costs associated with your typical resort hotel.  Advising your renters as to the true cost of staying in a hotel may keep them with you at your vacation rental.  Not to mention the many other benefits that we all know about!

Cheers to All,
Jon Ludwig, Owner, FindVacationRentals.com

• How far away from the beach is your unit?
• How do I get to your property?
• Where is the nearest grocery store?
• Do you have a map of the area?

Community Walk (www.communitywalk.com) provides a great utility to build custom maps that showcase

Sample Community Walk Custom Map

your property, easily allow guests to generate driving directions, and highlight local point of interest.  These custom maps even let you filter the points of interest and let visitors make comments.  I’m confident anyone who owns a vacation rental property, would find this tool very as a marketing tool to add to your web sites or listings but also in communicating with booked tenants.  It is very easy to set up!  You can add points of interest by doing searches, entering street address or using longitude and latitude.  For each POI can you can catagorize, add a photo, inster links to web sites and modify many other details of the POI or customize how  it is displayed.

There are ads but they are very discrete!  You can purchase the maps if you would like to not have ads.

Enjoy,

Andrew M. Seward

Here’s a sad scenario: The day before your next guests are due to check in, they call with bad news. One of them is too sick to travel. Or there’s been a death in the family. Or a major ice storm has brought down power lines and closed the airport. They’re going to have to cancel their travel plans.

If only they had heeded the advice in a recent Wall Street Journal article (February 14, 2009) about the importance of buying travel insurance with trip-cancellation coverage (“Road Hazards: Buying Travel Insurance is More Imporant—and More Complicated—Than Ever”). With the right policy, they’d be entitled to reimbursement from the insurance company for their nonrefundable expenses.

But as the article explains, choosing the right policy can be complicated. So even though it’s not all that expensive, adding about 4% to 8% to the cost of the trip, most travelers just skip it.

So what do you do, as the vacation-rental owner, when a guest calls to cancel at the last minute? You’re sympathetic, of course. But should you feel obligated to refund their money? In our opinion, absolutely not. Unless you’re able to rebook your property for the dates these guests have cancelled. You’re not a big hotel, after all, and you shouldn’t be expected to take a financial hit because of your guests’ misfortune. That’s what travel insurance is for.

If you’ve established a clear cancellation and refund policy, communicated it to your guests in writing in your rental agreement, and encouraged them to consider buying a travel insurance policy with trip-cancellation coverage, you’ve done everything right in our view. The rest is up to your guests.

About the Authors: Alfred & Emily Glossbrenner are the authors of the highly acclaimed book/CD package How to Make Your Vacation Property Work for You! and co-founders of FullyBookedRentals, a new membership website dedicated to helping other VR owners advertise, rent, and manage their properties effectively, professionally, and profitably. Take advantage of their special introductory offer of $29.95 for a full-year membership by entering the promotion code FVR40 during the sign-up process. For more on FullyBookedRentals member benefits and to sign up, click here.

Panama City-Bay County International Airport

For those of you in Panama City Beach, Laguna Beach, Mexico Beach, Grand Lagoon, and elsewhere in Bay County, FL:

The county commissioners just raised the tourist development tax from 3% to 4% for March 1-31 and 5% for after April 1. Combine this with the state of Florida tax of 6%, we are now collecting 11% from our renters. Yikes!

From what I’ve read, 1% of this is to market the new airport on the west side of Bay county set to open in May of 2010. The other 1% is to lure a low-cost airline to the airport (Air-Tran or Southwest maybe?).

The new airport can accommodate larger jets, something I assume the old airport in Panama City could not.

I hope 2% brings in enough tenants in the area to justify this cost (including the cost of the airport relocation) I’m not so sure…

How many of your tenants drive versus fly to the gulf coast? How many more bookings will you get because of this airport? I would guess your answer is similar to mine – not many.

Add your comments below.

Late last week, FindVacationRentals.com released a completely revamped website with new features designed to attract and keep renters attention.  It also offers new ways for owners to market and promote their properties.  And the best part – this comes with no price increase to our owner community.  Some of the highlights of the new site include:

• New “Owner’s Specials” section.  This allows owners to promote short duration discounts on  properties to enhance the utilization of their vacation rental.  Discounts seem to work pretty well with renters in this economy – people are still taking vacations, but they want better deals, and this section of the site speaks to that: http://www.findvacationrentals.com/cheap-vacation-rentals.html
• New “Vacation Themes”, which are linked all over the site using recognizable icons.  This includs disney, golf, beach, pet friendly, cabin, and ski focused vacations. We created custom inventory for these “theme” pages that highlights vacation rental owners that have rentals in those areas to give them more exposure.  We are also using these themes to create custom email programs, so we send renters alerts periodically that generate even more traffic for owners.  Some sites do this to some degree, but I think FindVacationRentals.com is pushing the envelope a little further by having special landing pages and promotion of specific owner properties.
• New search functionality.  Every page on the site displays the “quick search” box on the top left.  The quick search now has “autocomplete”, so if a renter types in “D…Å…Y…”, it will display options in a drop down box like “Daytona Beach” directly underneath the search, kind of like Google does.  FindVacationRentals.com also offers a completely revamped advanced search page: http://www.findvacationrentals.com/vacation-rental-search.html
• All of the pages across the FindVacationRentals.com website, including country pages, state pages, region pages, city index pages, etc, have been polished and updated to a new design that was created to attract and keep a renters attention.  The city and country index pages that display summary listing information are also much improved.  There are now visible icons for “pet friendly”, and “smoking/non-smoking” displayed with the summary data for each vacation rental listing, as well an additional icon to draw attention to those listings with owner’s specials posted so renters are attracted to those.

We would love to get some feedback from both owner’s and renter’s on the new design.

Cheers,

Jon Ludwig, Owner, FindVacationRentals.com

This week I was amazed by how much attention has been paid to the fact that Barack Obama selected a vacation rental to stay in for the Obama family vacation in Kailua, Hawaii.  Initially, the focus seemed to be on how he paid for the vacation rental – you know, what is that campaign money or a kickback from a large contributor or whatever.  But, fortunately, that seemed to lead absolutely nowhere.  As it turns out, after a week of hawking it, all the press could come up with is that Mr. Obama found the vacation rental using an online website, and he paid for it using “personal funds”.

It’s very interesting how these very small things can call attention to a niche industry that we all depend upon to sustain our own vacation rentals by owner.  I have had friends that don’t know that I run a vacation rental website come up to me recently and ask me, “Did you hear that Barack Obama just paid cash for some place he’s never been to before?”, or “What is a vacation home rental?”.  I was puzzled at first, but then it dawned on me that they had never had any travel experience other than staying in a hotel.

Admittedly, HomeAway has the most listings in the vacation rentals industry.  They have bought up VRBO, VacationRentals, CyberRentals, GreatRentals, etc, etc.  It is undetermined as of yet whether or not their roll-up strategy will work financially, but if they are successful in making the term “vacation rental” or “vacation home” something that “most people” consider when they are booking their next vacation, smaller independent sites like mine at www.findvacationrentals.com will also benefit.  All of us as vacation rental owners will benefit.  So, even though they operate websites that are competitive to my websites, I am cheering for them in their quest to build an iconic travel industry where they was once only a small niche within a niche.

The fact that Barack Obama decided to stay at a “risky” vacation rental and that so many people (and the press) are talking about it is also good for all of us.  It’s good for vacation rental listing sites like FindVacationRentals.com, it’s good for all vacation rental owners, and it’s good for the vacation rentals by owner industry.

Incidentally, FindVacationRentals.com has the listing for the beachfront vacation home in Kailua, Hawaii selected by Barack Obama on our site, and we happen to perform better in Kailua related Google searches than any of our competitors.  Small world, I guess.

Cheers,

Jon Ludwig, Manager, FindVacationRentals.com

But what if you don’t have the time (or inclination) to screen renters, handle inquiries, maintain an availability calendar, send out rental agreements, and collect payments? What if, at this time and place in your life, you just don’t want to do it all yourself?

If you’re not forced to maximize the income your property generates, if your current goal is to simply cover most of your property’s expenses, then going the property-manager route might very well make sense. But here’s the problem: The really good property managers handle dozens (even hundreds) of vacation rentals. They tend to market them all in the identical way, with a listing on their company’s Web site. And their goal is to generate as many bookings as possible for their company, rather than for your specific property.

So, assuming that for reasons of the sort cited above, you want to turn your vacation home over to a property management company. What can you do to make sure your place stands out from the crowd and gets its fair share of the bookings? How can you help your property manager do the best possible job for you?

Here are some suggestions:

• Write your own property description. It’s unlikely that your property manager knows anywhere near as much as you do about the joys and pleasures of your vacation home. But the system requires that they produce some descriptive copy, so you end up with bland, boring sentences that sound essentially the same from one property to the next. You can set yourself apart from the competition by creating your own write-up and providing it to your property manager. Put your personality into it. Explain what you love about the place. And be frank. If there’s an ocean view, but you have to crane your neck out the kitchen window to see it, go ahead and say so. Then make the point that for a full ocean view, the price would be considerably higher.
  
• Take charge of your photos. Unless your property manager is a terrific photographer or has one on retainer, we strongly recommend providing your own photos. Enlist the help of a friend (or hire a professional photographer for about $200-$300) if you’re not comfortable with a digital camera. Be sure to “dress” the set, pay attention to lighting, and use a wide-angle lens for your interior shots.
  
• Augment your management company’s online listings with your own. As noted, most property management companies now have their own Web sites with pictures and descriptions of the properties they manage. But when it comes to getting noticed by the search engines, more is often better. So boost your property’s “search footprint” by listing on several leading sites and directing all phone and email inquiries to your property manager. For suggestions on which sites to use, take a look at the free Vacation Rental Resources Guide available at our FullyBookedRentals Web site (www.fullybookedrentals.com).
  
• Spread the word with business cards for your property. For less than $25 at sites like VistaPrint (www.vistaprint.com) and OvernightPrints (www.overnightprints.com), you can design your own business card, including a picture of your property and the address of one of your online listings. Plan to order a supply of 100-250 cards to keep on hand. Offer them to friends and business acquaintances who ask about your property.

There really are many ways to get what you want and need from a vacation rental. And the Internet is a big help, regardless of the path you choose. Personally, we prefer doing everything ourselves. But we would never suggest that others might not be best off teaming with a property manager. It really is “different strokes for different folks.” The key thing is to take the reins and use the Internet tools at your disposal to help your property manager keep your place fully booked.

About the Authors. Alfred and Emily Glossbrenner are experienced vacation-rental owners and the authors of How to Make Your Vacation Property Work for You! They also own and operate FullyBookedRentals (www.fullybookedrentals.com), a membership Web site devoted to helping other vacation-rental owners advertise, rent, and manage their properties effectively and profitably.

I deal with a lot of group bookings, and sometimes the groups try to over-max the property, but we would never know this if we didn’t talk to them and tell them the rules.

plus it is a bonus to form a relationship with guests to keep them returning year after year. i personally HATE automated systems and will never have one responding to any of our calls.

Hayley

Florida Deluxe Villas

As a vacation home rental owner and operator of a vacation rentals by owner advertising website, I have been following the situation closely with regards to the recent sharp decline in both real estate prices (commercial and single family homes) and the stock market.  Like a lot of investors out there that I have spoken with, I pulled my savings out of the stock market a few months ago (phew…) and have been wondering what to do with my investment capital.

I recently read an article on the RIS Media site at the URL http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-07-16/the-upside-of-a-downturn-buyers-get-more-house-for-their-money/.  This was an interesting read – their main point was that housing prices in many markets have declined significantly in the last several months, making it a good time to consider investing in real estate.  Based on my own experience, this is especially true in real estate markets where one tends to find a lot of vacation rentals.  Those markets seem to be driven by speculation as opposed to serious longer term investors.

Based on that, I did some reasearch of my own to verify that was I suspected was true was actually true.  I looked at some of the inventory on my vacation rentals advertising website, including the markets I am most familiar with. This included Kissimmee FL, Destin Beach, FL, Lake Tahoe, CA, Breckenridge, CO, and Las Vegas, Nevada.  I looked at how many listings we had in each of those markets, and I looked at general real estate data showing foreclosures and overall pricing levels.  What I found was that while our number of active listings in each of those markets either stayed about the same or increased in the past several months, those markets were extremely hard hit with the recent decline in overall real estate prices.

Assuming vacation rentals owners are rational, they will not continue to pay to advertise their vacation rentals if there is no demand for their vacation rentals by renters.  In my own vacation rentals in Florida and Tennessee, I have seen farily steady demand.  I have had to offer some discounts, but that is mostly because everyone that is traveling seems to think that it should be at a greatly reduced price due to the overall economy being where it is.

So, all that said, I have concluded the following:

• I am still very nervous about re-investing in the stock market; real estate is looking pretty much like it is at a bottom right now.
• The demand from renters for vacation rentals is still pretty strong.
• By picking up vacation rentals investment properties for up to 40% less than what they sold for a year ago, my mortgage payment will be lower, which will increase my potential cashflow from the vacation rental.
• I am going to look for some really good deals on properties in markets that have been hit pretty hard by sharp price declines due to the speculators getting flushed out of the market.
• I am going to get creative on the discounting of my vacation rentals so if I do happen to pick one up in this buyer’s market, I’ll be sure to keep it as utilized as I can so I can cover my costs.

Best of luck to the rest of the owner community out there,

Jon Ludwig, Owner, http://www.findvacationrentals.com