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Vacation Property Owners, Realtors, Brokers, YOU!

  Throughout the years our family of four (and occasionally five when our cat is invited to join us) has learned that the best way to travel and stay on budget is to rent a vacation home. We've had pretty good luck, too. Not having to worry about the people under/next to kids who don't understand they are walking loud is a big plus. Avoiding dragging your dirty laundry through a busy lobby is always a plus! It cuts down on our food bill tremendously and accommodates the variances in our diet as we have allergies and other considerations to be made.

Recently we've been looking into some vacation rentals for this summer and have had to divert from our usual service for finding places because the pickin' was too limited for the areas we're considering. If you are a property owner, realtor, broker or have anything to do with short-term rentals, pay close attention. I have some trade secrets to share with you.

(1.) You do have a website, right? No? Get yourself one, especially if you are using an online service such as Vacation Rentals by Owners. With a website, you can add more photos, more information and present it in a more alluring manner. Also, you can expand your presence on the Internet. Tips and tricks for creating an alluring site without dropping big bucks or having a wealth of web design knowledge (along with a deal) are to follow.

(2.) Get yourself an "availability" calendar and keep it updated. Do not require your website visitor to download documents such as PDF, Word, etc. There are plenty of online tools available for free or charge a reasonable fee to use.

(3) Be clear about your rental rates and dates. On a regular basis I find that there is a lot of ambiguity about seasons. Be specific. If your rate increases during the summer, give a start and end date of that period (e.g. Summer: June 1 - August 31) and if there are holiday rates, be clear about those too. For example, if you charge more during Christmas, do you also charge more for Shavuot? Be clear, list the dates. Are you charging $280 for the night? Week? Month? Do you even rent for just a night or do you require a minimum of 2 nights stay? Be clear and concise. If you're running paragraphs to cover deals, requirements, changes and so on, you might want to reconsider your whole pricing scheme entirely.

(4) Pictures paint a thousand words. When looking for a vacation home, your guest is going to want to know what the bedroom and bathroom looks like. Sure, it's nice to have an exterior shot, a few of the kitchen and living room, but you are sending your potential guests scurrying off to your competitor when you keep 'em in the dark by not providing very clear details about the property. And really? There's no excuse. With free photo storage services such as PhotoBucket, Flickr and others, you can upload many photos and embed them onto your page or, as a few have done, direct your visitor to your photo album.

(5) Use the Force, Luke. The Internet is a powerful tool and too often in this business, it's not used to it's full potential. Provide full details. Don't push your potential guest into a buffer zone having to wait for you to reply to their inquiry. They will look elsewhere and even pay a few extra dollars (which in this business is a few extra Ben Franklin's) if it means getting the information up front and without the wait.

Does this mean shelling out to get an online reservation system? No. Does this mean getting a merchant account with Visa, Discover, Master Card and Discover to accept credit card payments? No again, but you'd be wise to use PayPal and differ the fees to your guest who will be willing to pay the 2% fee for the convenience.

Do incorporate guest book comments. Do provide an email request form.

What not to do:

Do not fudge on description. Having a sink outside the bathroom does not mean you have 1.25 bathrooms. A mini-refrigerator, stovetop with two burners and a toaster oven is not a full kitchen. Providing a set of four plates, bowls, cups and flatware is not a fully stocked kitchen. In this business, word of mouth is vital and can be viral, too. For example, we stayed in a home that clearly was not as advertised. I can assure you that every review-type service (Yelp, Travelocity, Yahoo! Travel, and many others) had a post about how bad the place was. It's more of a sin than attempting to date via the Internet with a photo of yourself from twenty years ago and forty pounds lighter.

Do not provide the physical address. Until the deal is sealed, don't provide the address of the property. Give a general location, but for the safety of your guests, don't post this information. And keep in mind that if you link to a mapping service, such as Google, Yahoo!, Mapquest, don't use the specific address for that purpose either.

Do not provide the property's phone number. Same as above. That should be included on the property opening/closing information sheet. And on that note, the phone number should be unlisted and placed on the "Do Not Call" list.

Do not rent without a contract! It seems like a given, but you'd be surprised at the number of property owners who don't require a signed contract. Never, ever, rent without one.

Do not cheese out your site with ads. Oh sure, you want to make extra money off the visitors driven to your site, but resist that urge. Your money is going to come from renting out the property, not sending people scampering away as they bat away the pop-ups and pop-unders or worse, click on the related sites in Google's Ad-sense because they'll be linking to your competitor's site.

Coming up: Tips and Tricks for designing your own property rental web site, templates, and a special offer. Bookmark this site and come back, or leave a comment along with your working email address (your address is never published and we don't spam) and ask to be put on the Property Information Blog Update list. You'll receive a confirmation that you must respond to before the email notification begins.