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

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.

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

Perks - They're Grreat!

When I used to travel for a living, I enjoyed the perks offered by the airlines and the hotels.  Upgrade to first class?  Sure!  Upgrade hotel room?  Don’t mind if I do!

Everyone likes perks and incentives not available elsewhere.  For your vacation home, perks make your rental stand-out.  They can make things easier on your renters so they enjoy their stay more.

You can provide perks for your guests and increasing bookings at the same time.  Here’s some ideas:

Upgraded bedding

Have you noticed that hotels now all have their exclusive one-of-a-kind bedding system?  They might be on to something.  If you go the extra distance with a nice pillow-top bed and nice sheets/comforter/duvet, let everyone know!  Putting this information on your vacation rental listing and telling prospective renters might just close more bookings.

Free Internet Wi-Fi

Get DSL or a cable modem for your rental.  When you sign-up, ask for a wireless modem so renters don’t have to plug-into your network.  If you live in a condo or other dense housing, see if your association will vote for wi-fi access for everyone (so you don’t have to maintain it).

Exercise room access or complimentary gym visitor membership

I don’t go on vacation to exercise.  But, some folks don’t want to miss their workouts – and this is a great perk for those people.  If they can have access to run off those extra calories, they may book your place rather than the unit across the street without gym access.

If your resort / community does not have an exercise room, call around to local gyms and ask them how you can get your renters access during their stay.

Tickets to shows/parks

If you are near a theme destination such as Disney World, Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg, or Branson, you might want to offer free or discounted tickets to your guests.  Chances are, they are booking a rental in your area for a reason.

Beach Chair Rental

If your beach condo has access to beach chair rental, talk to the company that does the rental.  They will often cut you a deal for the entire summer for some chairs.  Your renters will love it!

Gift basket

Okay, maybe this isn’t something that will close a sale.  But, I have learned that first impressions for renters make all the difference.  When your guests walk into the condo, they will probably smile if there is a nice little gift basket waiting for them.

The basket can be pretty simple (some snacks, etc) or can be above & beyond (some beers or champagne might be a nice touch).

Gift Card (Gas, Groceries, etc)

If competition is tough, you might score with some small perks such as these.  Everybody complains about the gas prices!

Free nights

Maybe not a perk exactly, but offering a free night if someone books a minimum stay with you might just help increase your bookings.  This is especially helpful during the off-season.

Repeat Customer Discount

I offer my past renters some sort of discount.  Past renters are less likely to cancel on you and they are easier to manage since they’ve stayed with you before.  Any way you can increase bookings from past guests should be in your vacation rental advertising arsenal.  You can make the security deposit smaller, offer free nights, or simply discount their stay.

I’m sure there are plenty of others I’m missing.  What kind of perks do you offer your guests to increase your bookings?

Posted by Jon M of http://www.FindVacationRentals.com

Although  our 2/2 condo in Blind Pass Condominiums on Sanibel Island has performed very well in the ten years we have owned it, we have had an empty week here or there.

And our  3/2 vacation rental home on Sanibel, Toucan House, always has empty months as it is a 28 day minimum rental (mandated as such), not so easy to keep occupied off season at any reasonable rate.

I market both properties extensively, but sometimes not even all my exposure, good customer service and well kept condo or home prevails.  It becomes abundantly clear that I am going to have an empty week or empty month.  I then go into a home exchange mode in many instances.

We have swapped both properties for non simultaneous exchanges in Europe (Italy, France, Croatia, Spain) as well as in the USA (California, South and North Carolina, Arizona) and feel we are much ahead for the trade.  If you have not checked out the prices of modest hotels in European capitals, you will find that they run $300 and more (sometimes much more) a night.  The same holds true for nice resort areas in the USA.

And, quite honestly, having a whole house or large apartment—-if you research, ask questions and negotiate successfully—-is considerably more comfortable than a hotel room.  Our own renters in the condo and house would certainly agree with that statement.

So if the inevitable is about to come crashing down on you, a “dark house” can still be bartered for something of great worth.  You just need to get creative.

Right now, and atypical for us, our condo on Sanibel  is open for Christmas week, December 20.  So I am doing my last minute dance to find a non-simultaneous  exchange on the several home exchange sites we belong to.

Of course, if a renter comes along, I will rent the unit even at a discounted price, but seeking an exchange is a good way to hedge your bets and come out a winner!

www.sanibel-rentals.net

If you want to maximize bookings, make sure to put phone number on your vacation rental listings and do your best to answer the phone.  Face it, some folks want to talk to a person before they commit to loading up the family truckster and taking the family on vacation:

You have a few options when it comes to your bookings over the phone.

1. Your Home Phone
This is usually the first setup for new vacation home owners.  Not bad, but not the best option.

Pros:

• Easy, Cheap, Already Setup

Cons:

• You’re probably not home all the time.
• Late-night calls (people will call at all hours).  Heck, I even post hours next to my number to call between 8am and 9pm Eastern and receive calls very late at night on occasion (but I don’t use my home phone number).

2. Second-Line / Distinctive Ring
This is an excellent option, especially if you are home often (telecommuting, etc).  Distinctive ring is a feature from the phone company that assigns another phone number with a different ring to your existing phone line.  When the phone rings, you know by it’s ring if it’s a renter or a personal call

Pros:

• Distinctive Ring is usually cheaper than a second phone line.
• A second line allows you to put the phone in the “office” of your house.  This is a little more helpful if you want to ignore it during dinner and when you are asleep.
• A second line allows you to have an outgoing message directed toward renters.

Cons:

• Same as above: you have to be home to get the call, and renters might call you at all hours.
• Second line requires your house to be wired with the second line, which is not a given for older homes.

Camera Phone

3. Your Cell Phone
This is a good option.  In this day and age, you typically carry your phone with you everywhere.  If you are at work and can take calls, you can close more bookings.  A mobile phone makes it easy to check your voice mail during lunch and call back those inquiries.

Pros:

• Always with you
• You can turn it off at night

Cons:

• Renters know your cell phone number.  To keep things separate, you might want a “vacation rental” cell phone and a separate personal cell phone.

4. Internet Phone

This relatively new technology is my current choice.  Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) is a fancy term meaning you can talk using your Internet connection.

If you go with a provider such as Vonage or ViaTalk, they give you a phone adapter that you plug into your cable modem or DSL modem, then you can plug a phone into the adapter.  They assign you a local phone number and you use it like any other phone.

4 A. GrandCentral

GrandCentral, by Google, is a great option if you’ve been lucky enough to get a phone number from them. They can forward calls to your cell, home, or work based on who is calling.  Unfortunately, this is in beta from Google and they aren’t setting up new accounts at the moment.

Pros:

• Allows you to have a separate number for renters.
• You can choose to have it ring your cell/home outside of work hours.

Cons:

• Google seems to have suspended new accounts for now.  No word on when they will resume.

4 B. ViaTalk

I use ViaTalk.  The funny thing is, I don’t actually use it to talk over the Internet.  ViaTalk has an amazing feature that allows you to setup call-follow, call-hunt, and do-not-disturb rules based on schedules.

I have a local phone number provided by ViaTalk.  When a renter calls, ViaTalk hunts me down at home or on my cell depending on my schedule (it can even simultaneously call both my cell & home).  This is a great feature, especially if you move or change cell providers, since you can keep your VOIP phone number for as long as you need and never change the number.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Can forward calls to your home/cell/work based on your schedule
• Maintain a separate voice mailbox for renters

Cons:

• Requires high-speed internet at home (not bad, but not a gimme)
• Must setup the phone adapter on your home router to talk over the Internet

Have I missed an option that you use to communicate with renters?  Let me know in the comments below…

Submitted by Jon M., FindVacationRentals.com

As the web site puts it: “Use drop.io to simply take anything [photos, videos, voice notes, web links, emails, etc.] and add them to a completely private, online space called a ‘drop’ to share real-time by web, email, phone, fax, and more. Check out our ‘How To’ video.”

I have to agree with them.  Its very simple and its FREE and there is even no registration required.

Each drop can have 100MB of information and you can have as many drops as you want.  Once created, you can add to it in many ways including uploading files, emails, post links, fax, call and leave voice messages.  Drops can be password protected, fax from them, and even host conference calls from a private conferencing number.  You can view a short tutorial here http://drop.io/howto

What can you share?  Here is just sampling of some of the things you can share to support your vacation rental:

• As many pictures as you want
• Video walkthrough, panoramic stiches
• Links to local activities
• Newspaper articles about your resort area
• Copies of Welcome Packages and other information
• Restaurant reviews
• Maps
• Driving Directions

One final word of caution, be sure to bookmark or write down your newly created drops.  Since they don’t require any registration if you forget your drop name you may not be able to find it again.

• Renting out your vacation home less than 15 days a year
• Renting out your vacation home as much as possible while never using your vacation rental for personal use.
• Renting the home more than 15 days a year and staying in it less than 15 days a year
• Renting the vacation home more than 15 days a year but also staying in the unit more than 15 days a year.

Keep in mind, the days you are staying at your home but doing some material work (like repainting, restocking, cleaning, etc) are not considered personal leisure days.

One premise in the article that I do not agree with is that you certainly can expect to make money on your vacation rental.  Let me clarify: I agree that not every rental makes money, but with some shrewd decisions on marketing and managing (such as advertising your vacation rental by owner rather than through a property management company), you can certainly turn a profit.

Of course, talk to your accountant about this stuff – don’t get your tax advice from a blog on the Internet!

Read the full article here.

Why does this Nigerian have a loaf of bread on his head? Click the image for entertaining stories.

If you’ve been around the internet for any period of time, you’re well aware of the scams arriving by email informing you of the vast sums of money you have won.  Or, if you help the Nigerian Princess move money out of her country, you can have a cut of it.

These scams have permeated the web so much that they have a name: 419 scams.  419 is the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with fraud.  Most (but not all) of these scams originate from Nigeria.

If you read the Wikipedia entry linked earlier, you should take away two points:

1. These scams have been around a long time.  The originated in the early 80′s and were run via letters, faxes, telex.
2. These scams come in ALL shapes and sizes.  If a scammer can come up with a way to scam someone, they will try it over the Internet.

While there are countless variations of the 419 scam, I want to explain the version I’ve seen that targets vacation rental owners.  Read on to make sure you don’t fall victim to a scam.

Nigerian scams are as old as this Telex machine from the early 80s

Imagine you make a booking for someone who pays you via a cashiers check.  They accidentally overpay and when they find out, they ask you to send a refund via Western Union.  Guess what?  You’ve just been scammed!

As it turns out, the cashiers check is fake and it often takes your bank weeks to determine that it is fake.  By then, the scammer has their money via Western Union, and you are left with nothing from the cashier’s check except possibly a fee from your bank and a lesson learned.  Good times.

Don’t worry – it’s pretty easy to protect yourself.  You just need to know how these scams work so you know what to look out for.

These scams work like this:

1. The “renter” pays you money (rent)
2. The “renter” ask for some amount of money back.  The reasons are endless: Accidental overpayment, medical emergency, they want to cancel the booking.

If they’ve paid by check, money order, or cashiers check, you simply need to ask your bank to make sure it’s cleared and is not a fake before you issue the refund.  If the “renter” asks for a refund via Western Union or other wire service, it’s a scam.

If you end up in this position, do not refund any money until the bank confirms the check isn’t fake.  The renter will play on your emotions, telling you they need the money for medical bills or something horrible.  Unfortunately, you cannot trust them.

These scams are so common now and so hard to prosecute, that the scammer will likely never be arrested for what they have done.  However, if you find a scammer trying to scam you by booking your vacation home, please do the following:

• Cease communications with the scammer
• Notify the FBI here
• Notify the vacation rental listing website they used to contact you.  That will allow the website to conact other owners that also were contacted by the same individual.
• Notify the scammers email provider.  This can usually be done by sending an email to “abuse@” and then putting the domain name for the email provider.  For example, abuse@gmail.com or abuse@yahoo.com.  The provider will usually shut down that email address which may help other owners.

If you’ve been contacted by a scammer and can add anything from your experience, please comment below.

Submitted by Jon M., FindVacationRentals.com

Your Vacation Rental Cash

Increase your vacation home bookings by accepting forms of payments that aren’t cash.  Below is a list of some popular options.

1. Personal Check

As long as you have enough time before check-in, this is usually your #1 option.  Since the renter has to send you the rental agreement anyway, have them drop a check in the same envelope.  Just make sure not to refund any money in the case of cancellation until the check has cleared and been in your account for 4 weeks (see the scam in the next section for why).

2. Cashier’s Check & Money Order

These instruments are as close to cash as there can be.  Accept these with open arms.  However, make sure they clear before issuing refunds of any type.  Beware the popular 419 Internet scam involving fake cashiers checks and fake personal checks!

3. Western Union

This might be fine.  I’ve actually never had someone pay me this way.  The fees are pretty crazy.  I’d prefer a renter to overnight a money order before going this route, I think.

4. PayPal

I accept PayPal as an easy way to accept credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover).  Paypal is owned by eBay and is an relatively secure way for renters to pay you immediately with a credit card.  The card is charged by Paypal and then Paypal gives you the money, minus any fees (you do not get access to the renter’s credit card information).  There are no monthly fees with this option.  The fee works out to about 3% of the transaction.

When I reach agreement with a renter, I offer this payment option as a convenience.  If a renter opts to pay this way, I require on a 3% “convenience fee” (which basically goes to pay the Paypal fee).  If a renter is booking last minute, I require them to pay via PayPal and waive the fee.

5. Google Checkout

I checked into this alluring option.  Alas, Google does not allow vacation rentals to be charged through their service.  Oh well!

6. Credit Card Merchant Account (through PayPal)

An often unnoticed feature from Paypal is their virtual terminal service.  This is different from the normal PayPal service.  For about $30/month plus a 3.1% fee, they will give you a “virtual” swipe machine.  Basically, you get the renter credit card details over the phone and enter them into the PayPal “virtual terminal” web page and submit the information online.  PayPal will process the payment and provide you a confirmation number.

7. Credit Card Merchant Account (through a bank)

You can check with your bank or search online for credit card merchant providers.  If you want to operate like a business by taking credit card information over the phone, you can sign up for one of these merchant accounts.  You will be provided with a website that acts as your “virtual terminal” to enter credit card details.  This is pretty similar to #6 above.  Prepare to pay $30-$50/month plus fees.

One word of caution: chargebacks in the travel industry are some of the highest in the industry.  If a renter is unhappy after their stay, they can easily call their credit card company and dispute the charge.  If this happens, be prepared to fight for your money and possibly lose your rent.  Credit card chargebacks do not happen if you simply cash a check.

Every email you send out to renters or friends should have, at a minimum, your contract information.  Include the following:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your inquiry phone number
• Your listing website address from your favorite vacation rentals by owner website.
• If possible, insert a one-sentence blurb about your rental.

You never know who will read your email and decide to book!

As you may know, my email of choice is the free GMail from Google.  Setup an email signature by clicking “Settings” and look for the “Signature” option on the “General” tab.

Again, this isn’t for those who are lucky enough (or unlucky, as it may be) to meet the renter in person as they check-in.

1. Snail-Mail the Keys

When I first started renting about 6 or so years ago, this was my solution.  I had a desk full of keys that would make my high school janitor proud.

Two weeks before check-in, I’d put them in an envelope and mail them off and let the renter know that it was their responsibility to call me if they didn’t get them.  After check-out you can have the renter mail them back or have them leave them for the cleaning crew.  With the cleaning crew method, they could collect a few bookings worth of keys and mail them back at once.

Expect to lose lots of keys this way.

2. Use the on-site office

For many of us with a rental in a resort, complex or community, there is usually an on-site office that handles the property management for most of the units for that complex.  Talk to them about the possibility of having them give the keys out.  Be prepared to pay 10-20% for the “service.”

Also, as part of this service they usually collect payment.  This might be good for you, but let me tell you a true story…

I walked into the office in my condo building to sign some paperwork.  While I was in there, some renters were checking into a condo they had booked through the owner.  They were checking in and paying at the office.  They went up to the condo, weren’t happy with something small and called to complain.  Guess what the first reaction for the office was?  You got it, they moved the renters into another condo!  Can you believe it?  Just like that you lose a booking and the office probably makes more money since they likely moved the renters into a condo they manage and make full commission on.  Ouch – that’s an expensive lesson for that condo owner!

3. Use a lock box

This is a good cheap, low-tech way to get keys to your renters.  These boxes either hang from the door-knob or mount beside the door.  Give the renter the combination and they can get the keys themselves.

The drawbacks include the previous renter not putting the key back, the renter not remembering the code, or not being able to see the lockbox if they arrive at night.  Make sure to have a back-up solution if one of these things happen.

4. Use a electronic keyless lock

A more 21st century approach is to allow your renters to enter a code.  The big box stores offer a variety of solutions here.

Another solution in this area is to link the keyless lock to a service so that you can set codes remotely.  This sounds very cool, but it certainly comes at a price.  I found one here, but haven’t tried it out so I can’t vouch for it.

I had all sorts of problems with the eletronic keypad I bought from Home Depot.  From battery issues (renter arrives to a dead keypad – yikes!) to simple overuse over the course of a summer, it became so I could not trust the keypad.  Plus, having a condo at the beach, I am sure the salt air didn’t help.

5. Use an off-site office

As a personal preference, I like this the best.  If you don’t have someone local to management your unit, consider calling around to see if you can find someone.  Ask your rental neighbors at an annual owners meeting.  Call around to independent realtors with offices near you (not the franchise realtors, as they will want a hefty fee for this service).

If you are lucky enough to find someone that charges a flat fee to hand out keys, you might want to consider that.  Having someone local means that your renter can get in touch with them if there is a mixup or a problem.

Do you have a solution I’ve left off?  Please leave a comment below…

Up until now I have used the Firefox extension Signature, which allowed you to store “canned respones” on your computer and just right click and insert a response in an email.  I have “responses” for inquiries, whenever I email a rental contract, whenever I receive a payment, etc.  You get the idea.

The problem with that is you have to use Firefox and the responses are stored on your computer.  If you travel and use another computer, you are out of luck.

Gmail users, I present to you canned responses.  Now you can keep all these generic responses inside your gmail account.  Hooray!  Now, wherever you are, if you are logged into gmail you can respond to your inquires quickly and easily.  Good job Gmail team!

• You have rental expenses on your tax return.
• You have large amounts of itemized deductions on your tax return.
• You claim tax shelter investment losses on your tax return.
• Your business expenses are large in relation to your income on your tax return.

Yikes!  That’s me!  To be fair, the odds of an IRS audit are low (like less than 1 out of 100 people low).  There just aren’t that many agents to read through everybody’s return.

However, as a vacation rental owner, you have immediately put yourself into a category of filer that will trigger an audit more often than the average American (we’re still only talking 1 or 2 out of every 100 people).  Don’t panic – I’m here to help!

Being a vacation rental owner offers you many tax breaks unavailable to most folks.  Heck, that’s part of the lure and financial perks you are entitled to!  So don’t worry, you just need to keep records of your expenses so you can take your legitimate write-offs and, if the tax man ever comes knocking, you can sit back and relax.

I’ll cover more of the financial setup of a vacation home owner in other blog post (keeping separate checking accounts, using software such as Quickbooks), however this post is about keeping proof of those expenses.  If you are audited, you will need receipts of your expenses.

You can hand the auditor over a box full of receipts for him to pour through, but unless you have a smile like Maggie Gyllenhaal that can persuade Will Ferrell to just ignore this audit, you’ll want to organize and save those receipts.

Here are solutions I’ve tried:

1. The Envelope Method

Keep receipts in a big envelope/box labeled “Condo Receipts 2008″ and put your receipt in there every chance you get.  This is fine, but suffers from a few issues.If you need to go back a month or so later to review a receipt, it’s a little cumbersome.  Another issue is lack of backups.You might as well label the box “Receipts 1982″ because this method is so 1980′s.

2. NeatReceipts

Scan your receipts and store them on your computer.  About 3 years ago I tried NeatReceipts for about a year.  While it is great in theory, I found the software pretty slow and bloated.  Way too many features for my needs and I felt it actually kept me from scanning my receipts too often.

Waiting for the software to load just to scan a single receipt was excruciatingly slow.  Slow like waiting on a contractor to finish that bathroom remodel he said would only take 2 weeks.  Riiighht.

Backup the NeatReceipts database on your computer with backup software such as Mozy for when (not if) your computer crashes!

3. PaperValet

I found this nice little tool after getting frustrated with NeatReceipts.  PaperValet is a very basic piece of software for about $25 – it scans a page and puts it on your computer as a PDF organized by category and date.  Perfect!

I actually used the scanner that came with NeatReceipts since it’s perfect scanning receipts.  I then created folder called “Condo Receipts” on my computer with categories and PDF files in those folders.

Backup that folder with backup software such as Mozy.  Unfortunately, this solution suffered from the same issues I had with NeatReceipts: I am lazy and wouldn’t scan the receipts.

4. ShoeBoxed

Hallelujah!  My current and favorite solution is Shoeboxed.  This is a receipt scanning solution sent from heaven!  You simply pay a flat annual fee and mail your receipts to them.  They scan them and put them online.  Wow!  This is the part of Web 2.0 that makes my life easier.

I’ve used this for a few months and I am already sold on this service.  The OCR is amazing – all of my receipts have been perfectly organized and tallied (I’m not sure if they have humans double-check each scan or if their OCR is that good).

Shoeboxed is making backups of your receipts, so you don’t need to worry about that.  However, you can always download a PDF or spreadsheet of all your receipts at any time.  Once a month I download all my receipts as a PDF just for piece of mind.  Oh, they’ll also send you a CD/DVD of all your receipts as well.

One other cool feature I like about Shoeboxed: If you use a single credit card for all your rental expenses (which you should), then Shoeboxed can immediately show you all your receipts from that single credit card.  Pretty spiffy!

What other methods have I missed?  Leave your comments below.

First, I am not a lawyer and don’t play one on TV.  If you want a legally-binding agreement for your location, talk to a good attorney in your area.

That being said, there are plenty of template agreements online, for example here, here, & here.  Get one that works for you.  Make it as simple as possible, while still covering those things you want everyone to be clear on: names and contact info, dates & times, rates, who is staying in the unit, pets or no pets, smoking or no smoking, etc.

While the ultimate goal of a contract is to make the arrangement legally binding, putting everything in writing helps to ensure everybody understands all the terms of the rental.  It’s not fun if a renter shows up a day early.  Having a rental agreements helps to make sure everybody is on the same page for all the pesky details..

Sample Contracts

Like I mentioned above, you can find example contracts here, here, & here.  For my Florida condos, I use this sample vacation rental agreement (again, I make no claims about it’s legality! .  Fill in the fields and it calculates my local 9% tax rate.  Edit the field formula to change it to your local sales & lodging tax.

Sending to the Renter

I like to send a PDF of the contract to the renter.  PDF is a pretty universal format.  In my 6+ years of renting, I have had less than 5 renters who couldn’t open a PDF file without my help.  Plus, PDFs are read-only, so it keeps renters from “accidentally” modifying the contract.

Convert your Word document to a PDF by using the free and easy-to-use doPDF (Windows only).  Mac users already have this capability to create PDFs from documents in MacOS via the print function.

Can Renters Fax the Contract to you?

In short, that is fine.  In practice, most of my renters send in a check by mail so I have them include the original signed agreement in the same envelope.

Don’t have a fax?  No problem – fax machines are so 1980′s anyway!

For a small fee you can setup a virtual fax (meaning you don’t need an extra phone line at your house or a clunky machine sitting on your desk).  Virtual fax services send you an email anytime someone sends a fax.

I like and use maxemail and the industry leader for this service is efax.  You may be able to find a free e-fax service, but I recommend paying for a reliable provider such as the two mentioned.  Free services might drop your fax number after some inactivy period (which can happen easily during your low season).

And, if you use a free webmail provider like gmail, setup your virtual fax to email you an attachment of the fax and use gmail to archive that fax.  You never know when you will need a copy of the contract!

Feel free to suggest any other rental contract templates or other ideas on how you handle contracts in the comments below.

I had the good fortune of being able to do some traveling in Europe and Northern Africa this past summer.  Of course, I used my own site, http://www.findvacationrentals.com, as my first choice when locating vacation rental properties to stay at on my trip.  After spending a lot of time as a prospective renter, it gave me a really good perspective as to what type of experiences a renter is looking for, and what separates one vacation rental property from the next as I was deciding which properties to inquire about and which property to rent.  I read an awful lot of owner adversitements from the perspective of the renter.  As I was doing that, I took a lot of notes so I could pass on what I learned to my fellow owners about what separated one property from the next. It was kind of surprising.  It wasn’t really price, as long as the price was in the right range.  I actually spent a lot of time looking for the right experience, and those owners that sold the experience were the ones that got my inquiries.

So, yes, “experience” is a bit intangible, so referring to my notes, here are some thing in owner advertisements that I really responded to:

• “Stroll down to the near private beach with the cooler provided in the unit in hand, stop by the local wine merchant for some French Bordeaux and some nice cheeses, and enjoy a picnic as you watch the sun set over the English Channel”.
• “Kick back on our third floor balcony with a glass of wine and enjoy the westward evening views with the sun glinting off the ocean on one side, and the lake on the other.”
• “Enjoy a wonderful evening with the private patio doors open and the seabreeze blowing in while you select a romantic movie from the 40 DVD collection in the unit on the 40″ HD Television”

Any of these things is a little different than just listing that your property has a “40 LCD Television”, or a “third floor balcony” or a “private patio”.  These statements create strong images about how a renter could enjoy your property and have an unforgettable travel experience versus something that is just average.  It makes your rental a luxury instead of a commodity.

Some of these amenities require you to invest in your property, but the question is – what is that investment, really?  I looked up 40″ LCD HDTVs at Sams Club or at Best Buy – they are down to around 500 to 600 bucks.  One of our rentals has a 30 DVD collection purchased at a blow out sale at Target for 5 bucks each.  Could they get stolen?  Sure, but that’s why you have a security deposit.  I just asked our cleaning service to count them after each rental, and if any came up missing, we subtracted that from the security deposit.  No big deal.

It’s a tough economy out there right now across the board.  Putting some more thought and time into your written advertisement WILL get you results and increase your bookings and utilization.  Upgrading your amenities and tieing how those amenities could be used to create an unforgetable travel experience will also get you results.  It will likely be the difference maker in that fraction of a second when a renter decides which property is going to get his/her inquiry.

Customer of http://www.findvacationrentals.com can update their properties online by logging in to Owner’s Corner.

Cheers,

Jon Ludwig

Owner, http://www.findVacationrentals.com