Comments on: What Should You Believe About The Vacation Rental Trends?

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:07:25 +0000

2009 may proove challenging to keep rental occupancies healthy so pricing will be critical…be willing to negotiate but don’t give it away. Enlisting the services of a local vacation rental manager could really help occupancy rates and even help keep nightly rates higher. A local management company not only helps market and promote your property, they also take care of important administrative duties. Using an online “owner direct” website can produce prospects, but does not address administrative duties such as credit card processing, check-in proceedures, emergency contact information, housekeeping, maintenance, and other guest needs during their vacation. If owners choose to promote their properties on their own, negotiate a lower commission rate with your manager as qualified leads are provided. Many managers encourage this owner participation. Doing this spreads out marketing in many different areas and leaves guest administration up to a professional manager.

By: Brenda Lachman

Brenda Lachman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:43:20 +0000

Another way to keep properties rented is offering “pay three nights get the fourth free.” Even though the economy is bad still people have booked houses for the next year, because no matter what, families still go on vacation at least once a year, and renting a home rather than staying at a hotel is cheaper. I agree with Teresa, doing the booking and leasing yourself helps a lot in times like this, even cleaning the property afterwards puts more dollars in your pocket.
Nevertheless, vacation renting your property is and will be a great business! regardless of the ups and downs in the market, real estate is always a smart investment!

By: Teresa

Teresa — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:52:12 +0000

This is going to be a tough year and I think the best way to have success is to ramp up marketing for your vacation rentals and cut costs in other areas…such as property management fees. I would say now is the time to do the all of the booking and leasing yourself. I recently started using a site called http://www.rentalspacenetwork.com that lets you advertise your properties but also gives you a vast amount of leasing tools with your account. I am now doing all my booking using their electronic signature based lease agreement system and it is working out great.