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

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.

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

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.

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

Vacations for Veterans

Regardless of your views on our foreign policy, I think everyone can agree that what our veterans do for our country is incredible honorable and they are not recognized enough for their service.

As vacation rental owners, we are in a unique position to offer our homes up and to give our wounded veterans a brief respite when they need it most.  If you do offer your vacation rental, you have the final say on what dates your unit will be available.

On a personal note, I had the opportunity to offer one of my beach condos to a veteran a few months ago.  VFV does the work to verify the Purple Heart status of the veteran and, if you wish, will put you in contact with the veteran directly.  It was immenesly gratifying to not only offer my condo up to this veteran and his family, but to receive the thank you note from him and his wife after their trip.

This holiday season, please think about giving back to this outstanding organization.  FindVacationRentals.com, FindBnB.com, and VacationSpaces.com are proud corporate sponsors.

Please visit VacationsForVeterans.org for more information on this organization and to learn how you can help.  And while VFV needs inventory, they also are in need of financial donations which go directly to support the travel expenses of those veterans in need of financial aid.

Submitted by Jon M, http://www.FindVacationRentals.com

Why “cost”, “comfort”, and “convenience”?  Cost is a pretty simple argument.  A typical family of four planning a vacation is probably going to require two hotel rooms, one for mom and dad, and one for the kids.  A decent hotel room generally costs $150/night, depending on the location.  In the high season in many hot vacation destinations, hotels can cost up to $300 or more a night.  If you multiply that times two for two rooms, you are looking at $300 to $600 or more per night.  In most cases, that same family of four can find a great vacation rental property with far more amenities than a boring hotel room for half of that price.

The other important aspect to the cost argument for vacation rentals versus hotels is the fact that almost 100% of vacation rental properties have kitchens with a complete set of appliances and cutlery.  This gives a family on a vacation the option of cooking meals in, which can save a tremendous amount of money.  A family of four would probably be looking at a budget of at least $150 a day in food if they had to eat every meal out, whereas utilizing the kitchen in an average vacation rental would allow them to save at least half of that figure by cooking a few meals in.

Comfort is a very important draw for a vacation rental versus a hotel.  Since many vacation rentals are individually owned and represent a families second residence, they typically have comfortable furniture, DVD players, music systems, nice kitchens, and comfortable beds in the bedrooms.  A hotel room exists to make money for its owners.  It is a safe bet that these owners have never spent a night in the hotel, and never will.  Typically, any comfort items in a hotel are looked upon by its owners as expenses that need to be minimized, not as items that the owner might themselves use from time to time.  This difference in philosophy creates a more comfortable atmosphere for the renter of a vacation rental; you are truly staying in someone’s home, and that is generally a far more comfortable experience than the clearly temporary surroundings offered by the average hotel room.

The convenience features of a vacation rental are often overlooked by the owners when they advertise their vacation rentals online.  For example, if you owned a vacation rental near the beach in Destin, Florida, it would likely come stocked with rafts, beach towels, children’s beach play equipment, a DVD player, a decent television, and a variety of specialty appliances in the kitchen, including everything from coffee makers to can-openers.  The average hotel has none of these things, so a family would have to go out an buy rafts, beach towels, beach toys, etc, they would have to haul it all along with them, or they would have to go without.  It is much more convenient for the traveling family to have these things available as part of the vacation rental’s standard amenities.

Being in the vacation rentals by owner advertising business, we have looked at a lot of advertisements that owners have posted for vacation rentals.  While many of them are good descriptions of the basic features of the property, it is too easy to lose site of the advantages that your vacation rental provides for the traveling family when you are trying to distill your vacation rental down to a basic set of features.  We suggest that you focus the text of your advertisements on the “Three C’s” advantages your rental has.  If it has a closet full of rafts, snorkeling equipment or beach gear that the renter can use, make sure to state that.  If it has a heated garage space for ski equipment so the renters boots will be warm and dry the next day, that’s important to mention.

It’s important to remember that your primary competition in the vacation rental business is not really other vacation rentals; it is hotels.  Yes, hotels are easier to book than vacation rentals.  Yes, they are less risky than vacation rentals.  But, they cannot compete when it comes to the “three C’s”, and we suggest that you push those advantages of your vacation rental in all your online advertisements.

Interested?  Check out photosynth now.  I also recommend you watch this great video tutorial on how to create your own in a matter of minutes.

Enjoy!

Andy

If you go the Google Maps home page http://maps.google.com/ you will notice a link to “put your business on google maps”

Go ahead.  You never know!

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.