Creative Ways to Rent your Fractional Ownership Weeks

I first heard about fractional ownership ten years ago when friends in California took us up to their beautiful ski chalet at Lake Tahoe. They had bought a seven week share in the chalet along with six other families. I was fascinated when a box came out of the car containing a whole bunch of things that made the chalet theirs for the week – a sign with their name on was hung on the door; photos of their children were put up on the walls; an antique wooden salad bowl took pride of place on the dining table, and candle holders put on the mantelpiece above the fire. It was a wonderful week in ‘their’ vacation home that we’ll remember for ever.

Our friends chose this option because they knew they would never use more than seven weeks in a year, but wanted a place they could make their own for the time they had. The weeks they didn’t use in the year they were able to rent, which brought in some income as well.

Fractional ownership is catching on in Ontario with new lakefront developments being marketed across the province. So, it’s no surprise that I am hearing more from new owners who want to rent out their unused weeks, or from people considering buying into a programme and want to know if there is rental potential.

In these developments, the waterfront is generally shared with other properties, and there tends to be more cottages in the vicinity than might normally be found in a lakefront area. This can make renting more of a challenge as privacy is numbered in the top three essential criteria for most cottage renters. Townhouses and condo resorts can be even more difficult to market even if they are located on a desirable waterfront.

On the plus side, maintenance and cleaning are usually included within the management package which makes rental changeovers easier to handle. And, in some developments, the facilities can include watercraft, tennis courts, swimming pool, fitness centres, and children’s play areas, which can be very attractive to renters looking for more than the traditional dock and deck vacation.

One major issue is that most owners want to use the prime weeks and rent out the low and shoulder season weeks. They have high expectations based on the quality of the property, and the features or facilities that drew them to the development in the first place. However, the rental market at these times is extremely competitive with large numbers of available properties and a much smaller pool of renters looking for an out of season vacation. In addition, because management fees can be quite high, the rental rates of FO properties tend to be above average.

To attract this smaller group, marketing must be strategic and well thought out. Simply listing on a couple of websites may not be sufficient to attract the type of rental client willing to share their waterfront and take their vacation in a ‘resort’ style location. Here’s a few ideas:

• Find out what is going on locally and develop a ‘package’ of activities such as golf, or waterski lessons, that could be promoted alongside the property rental itself. Talk to local activity providers and see if you can provide discount vouchers – most are very happy to work out a deal with you, if it brings more custom to them in the low season.
• Attract UK & European clients by listing on some of the international sites.. Being wise in where you list can bring benefits in more visitors to your own web site, and additional enquiries. For example, when UK travel writers mention vacation rental sites in a travel article, they invariably include the international or UK based ones which will draw in many more visitors. I’m currently preparing a review of listing sites that will be posted soon.
• Rather than advertising in newspaper media, take a look at publications such as Toronto Life. For a relatively small amount, you can have a wide distribution of your ad to your target market.
• Do weekly free ads on Kijiji. This is a little time consuming as you need to advertise separately for each city, but it’s free and that has got to be worth the time!
• Build your own website or blog. Even if you only have a couple of weeks for rental, this could be a way of finding potential renters. Other owners in your unit may also want to offer their weeks for rental; ask them if they are interested in doing this as a joint effort.
  

So, having said all this, if you have a few weeks available or are thinking of taking your first dip in the property pool with a fractional ownership deal, and are prepared to do the work, you can meet the challenge.