Vacation Rental Links

I’m a morning person, happiest at around 5 or 6am with a big mug of tea, a fire going in the wood stove, and the prospect of a couple of hours web surfing and research. I’ll spend the time reading new blog posts that have come into my RSS feed reader, checking out new entries in the forums I regularly visit, and looking for news items relating to the vacation rental industry.  I guess it would sound dull to many people, but since most of my time is used writing about vacation rental issues, it’s pretty much worthwhile to me.

I’ve gathered a few more links since I last posted a link list, so I thought it was time to share this with you.

Forums

Forums are great for hearing about what other people are doing, sharing ideas and letting other owners know what you do that is successful to your rental business. One benefit is that you can add a signature at the end of your post that includes your web address which is yet another method of marketing. Finding them has been a bit of a challenge so I just have three to tell you about today.

Yahoo Groups – Vacation Rentals for Owners and Renters

I’ve just registered as a member with this group so have only just started to explore and read some of the messages. What I’ve found so far is a friendly community of (mainly) vacation home owners who ask and answer a range of questions on rental issues. Some of the latest discussions cover using e-signatures on rental agreements; creating a blog (dear to my heart!), and how to deal with pressure sales from listing sites. Great stuff!

Vacation Centric

This is a new forum and at the moment there are only 14 members of which I appear to be the most active. However, every new forum has to start somewhere and I like the format of this one as it’s neatly set out into subject areas. Like the Yahoo group it’s for both owners and renters so there is a good opportunity for getting your property seen as the forum membership grows.

Cottage Life

This is a very active forum for cottage owners mostly in Ontario but there are also a good number of contributors from across Canada as well as Michigan, New York State and Wisconsin. I requested a new topic for rentals but once again, I’m a bit of a lonely soul out there, so it would be great to see some community developing there on rental issues.

If you’ve never posted on a forum  before it can be a little intimidating particularly in some where discussions can become heated.  Most have ‘moderators’ – volunteers who keep an eye on the discussions and remove any spam messages or inflammatory posts. On the whole, you will find a whole range of useful information from people who have ‘been there, done that’. Just a note of caution. Always read forum guidelines before you make your first post or reply; don’t use a forum as a medium for blatant promotion of your rental, and remain polite at all times!