It’s a competitive world out there folks, and the vacation rental market is no different from any other with thousands of cottages, cabins, villas, gîtes and vacation homes jostling to grab the attention of the rental public. To get their attention, the number one priority is to make sure your listing has ‘eye candy’ appeal – lots of extremely good photos showing off all the best features. Here’s a few specifics you could consider

1    Post great bedroom photos – check out these on the UK agency web site Bramley and Teal  When I did a recent poll to ask what guests looked for in a vacation rental, attractive and comfortable bedrooms was high on the list. This is an inexpensive way of creating a designer look in any style of property and it sells….believe me!

2   Add features your local competition doesn’t have – internet access; home theatre system; additional watercraft; a hot tub or sauna. Think hard. Why would a potential renter choose your place over one that is similarly priced with similar fixed features? It’s all in the extras you offer and the more you can differentiate the more likely you are to attract the conversions.

3   Make your website sticky – if you have lots of information on your site that makes it interesting they are more likely to stick around. For example, if you were looking for a pet friendly vacation in the Lake District (UK), why would you look further than either Otter or Kingfisher Lodge. Not only is this welcoming but there’s lots of information for dog lovers to explore. It’s a great example of using a vacation rental web site to share more than just a few listing details. I’ll be reviewing the Windermere Lodges web sites soon as there is a lot to learn from what this owner has achieved.

4   Use social networking to get the word out. Use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to broadcast your message. Start by listing with Second Porch and take a look at what The Chicago Tribune said about this new concept in the use of social networking to market vacation homes.

5   Make guests feel welcome from the moment they enter your listing or site – Build your site as if you were a host where nothing is more important than welcoming your guests. Appeal to all their senses in your text and help them out by making it easy to navigate. Here’s what the owners of Le Chant d’Oiseau in The Loire, France, have to say on their site:

Here at Le Chant d’Oiseau we don’t promise anything but a place to relax, unwind and cast aside the stresses of everyday life. Whether relaxing in the sun with a good read, or meandering the quiet country lanes by bike or on foot, we invite you to soak up the peace and tranquility of ‘la France profonde’ at its most enchanting.

How inviting is that?

Being competitive means standing out from the crowd and offering something that will capture interest and attention. What do you do that makes your place different?

  Having a web site and/or a good listing on a major site may be enough to maximize your vacation rental occupancy , however most owners can do with a little extra help in filling up low and shoulder season availability. I have been a Twitter devotee for a few months now and already reap the benefits of this mode of social networking, so for those of you who have never thought of jumping on this bandwagon, here’s 25 ways to use Twitter as a promotional and networking tool.

There’s lots of beginner guides to Twitter and you may have come across some already. This one from Lifehack is one of my favourites:

The most popular Twitter users are the ones that understand the networking potential of following and being followed. They strike a great balance between self promotion and marketing, and support and help for others. They ask questions; reply to questions posed by other Twitter users; link to a wide variety of interesting things; retweet (RT) messages to generate buzz for their followers, and are generally active and supportive. If you create this type of Twitter persona, you will attract a lot of followers, who in turn have their own followers who will hear about you. That is the power of Twitter.

1 Follow other owners

There’s lots of owners on Twitter and they’re a helpful, friendly bunch. You can find them by searching for ‘vacation rental’ on Tweetdeck or checking owner signatures on the Lay My Hat forum.

2 Tweet about what you are doing.

This doesn’t mean telling the world in 140 characters what you had for breakfast or are watching on TV, but if you are doing something of interest related to your vacation rental business, write about it. There was a recent conversation spawned by a Tweet simply saying. “Heading off to buy a decent knife set for my holiday rental”.

3 Ask for help

Twitter is a great place for finding help and there’s plenty of other owners willing to offer help or answer questions. If there’s lots of Twitter users in your area, they are a great resource for local knowledge.

4 Announce an event

Let potential renters know of an upcoming event in your area, and include a link to your vacation rental for accommodation.

5 Provide a link to a golf course in the area

Linking to local attractions, golf courses, restaurants etc are a great way to generate some interest in your property.

6 Recommend a listing site to other owners

If you find something good that other owners may find useful, tell them about it. Share the good stuff

7 Provide a series of renters tips

Offer a regular tip for renters – either specific to your place or general suggestions and advice. For example: “Make sure you buy a fishing licence before you cast your rod – don’t risk a fine”. These types of tweets will get retweeted which will get you more visibility and followers.

8 Post a picture you have just taken

Use Twitpic to  post a photo you have just taken of something in and around your property. Wildlife, a beautiful sunset, someone fishing off a dock etc

9 Recommend a guide book of your area

Don’t miss the chance to make a little money by using your Amazon associate link to promote a guidebook of your area. You could even write your own.

10 Link to a video

Use YouTube to video your property or just to talk about an aspect of your location. Keep it short and interesting. Make sure your YouTube channel clearly shows your web address or links to your listing

11 Tweet about things to do

Make suggestions and recommendations for things to do in the area of your property. Attract outdoorsy types by tweeting about hiking trails; cycle routes and cross country ski areas. Using keywords in your Tweets like hiking, biking, golf, geocaching etc, that will be picked up by others searching for those words. This can boost your follower count.

12 Say thank you to people who retweet (RT) your posts or mention you in their tweets

Tweet love is created by being polite and courteous. Saying thank you to a tweeter who has taken time to RT one of your tweets is a polite gesture to make. Just make sure you put the @ symbol before their Twitter user name to ensure it gets to their Twitter stream.

13 Recommend people on Follow Friday

On Friday’s you will see plenty of posts with #followfriday included in the text. This is the day when tweeters recommend their followers to others. It works best when you describe why you are recommending them.

14 Answer someone else’s question

If you come across a question someone has asked and feel you can provide them with a worthwhile reply, go ahead and offer your response. It will be welcomed.

15 Create an offline network

Tweeter meet-ups are a great opportunity to get together off-line with people you meet on Twitter and can create a valuable off-line network. Mastermind groups can develop from these as you all share your expertise.

16 Use Tweetdeck to create groups so you can follow topics

Creating groups is a great way of keeping track of what is being saying on a particular topic. It’s best to be more specific in your topics such as ‘vacation rental’ and ‘holiday rental’ rather than ‘travel’ for example.

17 Use hashtags

Hashtags are another way of tracking topics and making sure your messages are being seen by your target audience. Check out this Hashtag tutorial for more help on this one.

18 Keep your Tweets shorter than 140 characters if you want them retweeted

When a message is retweeted by one of your followers, they may want to put a brief message at the end of it, such as ‘I liked this’, or ‘Check this out’. You want that to happen as it is an endorsement of your message to their followers. However if your original Tweet takes up all the characters, there’s no room for this, so it’s good practice to leave 20 characters or so to spare.

19 It’s OK to self promote occasionally

Marketing yourself and your property is what it’s all about but make sure you don’t bombard your followers with self promotion messages. Intersperse with chat, questions, retweets and information sharing.

20 Find travel writers to follow

Keep in touch with travel writers and journalists on Twitter – when they are looking for sources or references for a travel story in your area, you will be remembered and noticed. Follow them and they will usually follow you back. If your place is family friendly you should be following all of the Traveling Mamas:

21 Link back to your blog

If you have a blog and post to it regularly, use Twitter to let your followers know when a new post has been published. Shorten the URL of the post and add it to the end of your brief message promoting it. Watch your site visitors grow!

22 Recommend great resource sites for your area

You are the expert on your area. Share the knowledge and recommend sites that will help your guests plan their vacation.

23 Let people know what’s new

Installed a hot tub or sauna? Bought a hammock or new kayak? Let people know what is new at your property. Even if you have just added 10 new DVDs to your movie collection, each little nugget of information will be spread among your followers and theirs.

24 Promote a themed weekend, special offer or discount

Create a themed package that ties into a local event or activity and use Twitter to advertise it. You could offer your Twitter followers a special discount.

25 Be consistent

Like a blog, a Twitter stream needs consistent attention to keep interest going. When you tweet regularly, informatively and with a variety of posts, your followers will stay interested in what you have to say.

Twitter will never take the place of your listing, blog or web site, but it is a very useful addition to your marketing toolbox, and used well could have a really positive outcome. Let me know how it works for you.

“When renting a vacation rental, do you want a detailed meet and greet from the owner or would you rather just get on with your holiday?”

This question appeared on Twitter this morning and it was very topical since we were discussing exactly the same thing yesterday while we were preparing our cottage for our next rental guests.

Thank you to @la_vache for raising this issue, as the decision you make regarding it might have an effect on how your guests treat and respect your property.

I tell a story in my book about one of my earlier experiences in renting a cottage in Ontario.

“Some years ago, ten of us arrived from the UK on a late February afternoon for a touring vacation starting with three nights in a very large property. For anyone who has travelled back from Europe, you’ll know that you feel pretty jaded after getting in at 4 pm EST (which is 9 pm back in the UK), queuing for immigration, wrestling the throngs in the baggage hall, waiting another hour in the rental car line-up, then hitting the highway in the height of the rush hour! We were beat! So the prospect of getting to this luxury villa, relaxing by the fire, even getting in the hot tub, was very appealing. We arrived, almost as planned, at 8 pm (1 am back in UK), to be met by the owner. I have no quarrel with people being proud of their homes and liking to show them off, but this bordered on the ridiculous. An hour and a half later, the owner was still explaining the heating system – that was after instruction on using the washer and dryer, dishwasher, barbecue, how to operate the showers, where to find the cues for the snooker table, what the optimum temperature of the hot tub was, and going through three pages of instructions of what not to do. By the time the owner had departed, we were exhausted.”

Think of the last time you bought a car – if it was a new one, you’ll understand the urge to just get in and drive away. The last thing you want is the sales representative issuing reams of instructions on how to maximise fuel efficiency, change the windscreen wipers, and check water levels.

You have already seen the specification, and probably had a test drive, so all you need is a good manual, and a phone number to ring should you have any questions. The same goes for a vacation home.

I hear the chorus of ‘it’s not the same – this is our property that we are giving over to strangers, and they need to know all the quirkier aspects of it’. With good planning, a thoroughly written guest guide, good screening of prospective guests, and a commitment to why you are in this business, you should feel comfortable in at least letting them settle in for a couple of hours, or only spending a very short time with them on arrival.

If you do want to show them around, we would suggest making it a very brief tour. Your guests just want you to go away, so they can explore in their own time, perhaps clean up after a long journey, and as they are on holiday they’ll be wanting to relax with a cold drink! So resist the temptation to regale them with stories of the last time the septic blocked up, or about the racoons in the attic last summer. Put any warnings in the guest guide, make sure you send a copy for them to read before they arrive, have a prominently displayed copy in the cottage, ask them to sign to say they have read and understand the instructions, and leave them be. They will appreciate you, and your home, all the more for that.

“Renting Your Recreational Property For Profit:”(Published by Self-Counsel Press)

We have just made the decision that we’ll meet our guests at Osprey Cottage this year, to briefly handover the cottage guide and point out the cottage boundaries, as it’s easy to stray onto a neighbours’ land. We’ll leave the telephone number so they can call if they have any more questions, and we’ll make a judgement about how much information and guidance they want.  As @margaretbavaria said in a Twitter post this morning,

“Some of our guests need a lot of support. Our contact is very much driven by them.”

We did a quick survey in the office yesterday and looked at the problems and issues we had last summer with some of our cottage guests. Without exception, all of the issues occurred in properties where the guests had not been met by an owner or a representative of the owner. My view is, that when guests are personally welcomed, they feel a connection with the property owner and are less likely to disrespect the property in any way. It was also pointed out to me that the owners who take the time to create a welcome, either in person, or with a welcome gift and note, are more customer focused in their approach to the rental business, and will experience fewer issues anyway.

I’d be interested to hear what my readers think about this issue. Do you meet and greet? Do you welcome your guests in any other way? Do you simply leave them to find everything out for themselves and hope they will call you if they have a problem?

If you are already feeling the pinch with your vacation rental bookings then maybe you should be considering accepting pets.  Our own stats show that over 60% of enquiries this year have been from guests who want to bring their pets on vacation, and the bulk of our current bookings are in pet friendly properties.  This may be because pet owners book early to secure the best properties that will accept their fur friend, or due to a concern over the cost of kennel fees.  Whatever the reason, there’s a lot of pet owners about, and if you want to be sure of maximum occupancy, then welcoming them could be your edge in this increasingly competitive market.

Saying yes or no to four legged guests has been a hot topic on the number one vacation rental forum, Lay My Hat, and there are many posts vehemently scoring points on each side. The one that caught my eye recently mirrors my own views and as far as I’m concerned this owner says it all:

I have 3 dogs and a near 2 year old and I can safely say that the dogs do not write on the walls, stairs, TV or furniture with felt pen, make fingerprints all over the windows or hide the TV remote control (or anything else small) somewhere obscure and take the card out of the satellite box. And dogs are generally much cleaner when they eat, food tends to stay in a bowl, whereas that of a toddler ends up anywhere within a 360° 2m radius of the plate.

I’ve been accepting pets at Osprey Cottage for years and we have never had an issue with a dog. We welcome them with a neat little pet pack that includes a temporary tag; some home made dog biscuits, and a letter that outlines how we expect them to behave.  This does the trick and we rarely have any additional clean up to do. We don’t charge extra for them and our pet owner guests are the ones who leave the place the cleanest.  I rest my case!

When I first wrote Renting For Profit in 2003, I was sharing experiences of buying 6 cottages over 5 years with the accompanying joys and challenges.  I chose the title for the book because over those years the rental income was sufficient to pay the mortgage and the additional expenses, with a good amount left over to reinvest. Five years on and the situation has changed.  Cottage property has risen in price, taxes have gone up, competition has grown, and the rental rate required to meet the costs is pricing many renters out of the market. Add to this the uncertainty of demand given the economic situation and it all lends itself to a more unpredictable picture.

As an example, a property that cost $250,000 five years ago and rented for $1800 a week in high season, may now be $350,000 to buy, but the rental rate might still be $1800 to remain competitive. New owners making an investment purchases are having to work a darn sight harder to created any type of profit.

However, the situation is a little brighter for those with an existing property providing it is already upgraded and ready for rental. The expenses involved in setting it up for marketing may be easily recouped over a few high season weeks, and even larger purchases like a hot tub, can be paid for within a year providing the marketing is right. And the marketing is the key.

Maximising profit requires work and its simply not enough to list a property on a couple of web sites and hope it gets seen. This may be sufficient to rent in the high demand weeks, but competition for the low and shoulder seasons is fierce. Owners must become skilled marketers; learn how to create search engine efficient websites; be budget conscious with their advertising money; and creative at growing new income streams. 

This highly competitive market is likely to weed out the bad apples, which is a good thing. Owners who are not prepared to upgrade their properties with attractive furniture, newer appliances and good mattresses will be at the receiving end of bad reviews on social networking sites, and will not last long. Those savvy owners who have seen this coming are already at the forefront of the push to raise standards and will see their profit margin increase as the word spreads.

There are many ways of maximising profit and I have just finished my ebook on the topic which will be published before the end of the month. It’s free and has lots of tips and advice on capturing the market in the low season.

For now, here’s five questions to ask yourself. If you can safely say Yes to all of these, you are on your way to to making a profit from your cottage investment. If you don’t quite understand some of the terms used, and haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, you may need to do some more homework so stick around this blog as I will be writing about all of them in the next few weeks.

Do you have a written marketing strategy?

Have you set a budget for your expenditure for 2009?

Do you have a search engine optimised web site?

Have you undertaken a complete cottage audit to establish scope for improvements?

Do you have a unique selling point?

Let me know your thoughts. Is your vacation rental enterprise profitable? Does your current strategy work for you? Are you prepared to make changes to be more competitive?

We have just driven 10,000 kilometres and stayed in 15 separate campgrounds on an amazing vacation in the US south west. Every campground was chosen from a terrific web site called RV Park Reviews which allows RVers to comment on the places they have stayed and provides an open forum for both positive and negative comment. Most reviewers gave balanced and helpful feedback that informed our choice of site and proved a valuable guide to the best parks to suit our needs.

On the few occasions we went out for a meal we looked up restaurant reviews for the local area, and once again we were delighted with the choices we made based on those testimonials.

So, would this type of review site work for the vacation rental market? Some of the larger listing sites have a feedback function so that guests can make comments on their stay at a rental property. This does leave owners wide open to negative reviews from guests who had an axe to grind about an issue they were in dispute over. Some have an area for an owner to respond which is fair but the responses I have seen tend towards a defensive rebuttal rather than a pragmatic and thoughtful reply.

Vacation Rental Watchdog operated by vacation rental specialist John Romano, is a site for renters to make complaints about a property and gives the owner the opportunity to respond appropriately. Looking through a few of the complaints listed, they seem to be valid and mostly cover issues where a property is ‘not as described’, or has been overstated by the owner on a listing.

I think as vacation rental owners, we should be transparent about the features and facilities of our ‘product’ since we are expecting clients to make a leap of faith when they make a booking based simply on a few photographs on a listing. Providing there is nothing hidden; renters expectations are established through thorough communication before the rental, and the responsibilities of each party are made clear, we shouldn’t be afraid of an honest review.

Unfortunately, we’ll never get away from the bad weather phenomena where a renters view of a property is unfairly clouded by a week of rain, which they then spend nitpicking around the cottage. But that aside, a spotlessly clean, comfortably furnished property that gives guests value for their vacation dollars is far less likely to generate negative comment.

Whether we like it or not, social networking is here to stay, and no doubt, more review sites will surface and become popular over time. We may have to accept that on occasion an unfair review will be posted, regardless of our attempts at creating the perfect vacation rental location. Let me have your comments.

This year has seen a big increase in the trend for taking last minute vacations, with owners and agents reporting growth in short notice enquiries. These can be anything from a month in advance, to one I received last week from an optimistic renter on the highway, all packed but with nowhere to go!

In my capacity as a vacation rental agent, I’m often in the position of trying to find a suitable property for eager renters but on many occasions find that the properties they wish to rent are not ready for occupancy because the owners have not been expecting out of season renters.  Those owners who are prepared to accept a short notice booking are reaping the benefits.

I have this in mind whenever I do a changeover at my own cottage. Even if there isn’t a rental group coming in on the same day, I keep in mind that there could be someone at any time, so make sure it is left in a ready-to-go-state.

Refill Propane, Water and Other Supplies

Ensure there is sufficient propane, a fresh water bottle is available (if you have a water cooler) and that paper supplies are refreshed. That way, you can leave the place knowing it is all ready for a short notice guest.

Accepting Payment

Payments can be an issue if you don’t accept credit cards, which most privately managed properties don’t, so investigate how you could take money through PayPal.  Only accept a cheque if there is sufficient time for it to clear through your bank; ask for a certified cheque sent by Express Post instead. 

Providing Information to Renters

A streamlined booking process makes last minute rentals easy to manage. Make sure your pre-arrival information is up-to-date and ready to go, and you can fax it easily.  You may find there is not enough time to post a package to arrive before the rental begins.

Pre-arrival Preparation

If you are able to, turn the heat up in the property before your guests arrive, if the weather is forecast to be cool. If you can’t get there yourself, see if you can organise someone local to make the place cosy and welcoming. We always leave some lights on and tune the radio to a classical music station. The feedback we get from this preparation that takes no more than five minutes, makes it really worthwhile.  I also do a quick check of the bathrooms and kitchen and bedding to make sure it is all fresh and clean.

Savvy owners know very well that there are a lot of people who make last minute decisions to rent and are very well prepared for them. They are the ones who maximise occupancy and create a solid income from low and shoulder season rentals.

Results from a 2007 Yahoo Travel survey revealed ’that 61% of those questioned now go online for vacation recommendations. Travellers are no longer just searching for a hotel based on price, they are now mainly looking for user reviews, user ratings and photos.’  Sites such as Trip Advisor have areas where visitors can leave testimonials, both good and bad,  and this transparency and viral feedback is contributing to a new wave of word of mouth marketing.

Clients visiting your web site or listing want to read what you have written about your vacaction home, but they also want to hear real accounts from real people who have stayed there too. Some of the larger listing sites offer testimonials as a part of their package, however read the small print carefully. If you are happy for any of your guests to log in and have their say with no chance of you seeing it before it is published, this may be a route to go. This would be OK with me – I’m quite confident that my guests will provide honest and hopefully all-positive feedback. If this would worry you, then perhaps you should revisit your listing and make sure it is transparently open about your property and what people should expect.

If you are using a blog platform for your web site, then you’ll have a comments section which can be a great place for guests to ask questions, make comments and suggestions. This makes it real for people who are  jaded by all the listings saying exactly the same thing about ‘comfortable beds’, and ‘well equipped kitchens’.  On a blog, negative comments may be submitted but you do have the control to approve them or not and including the negative ones can work in your favour as potential guests perceive the feedback as genuine.

You could simply  create a page for your testimonials that you can copy out of the guest book and contact your guests and ask them if it’s OK to use their feedback. Scanning pages from your guest book is another option but on many occasions they are not legible and don’t read well on a computer screen. Don’t be tempted to make up your own comments – this goes into the text you use to describe your property, not an area where you are claiming it is genuine feedback from guests.

There’s some good tips in Dean Rieck’s article on Copy Blogger about how to use Powerful Testimonials.  His advice covers whether you can edit or not; using quotation marks to attract interest, and how you can use long quotes for maximum impact.

Adding a guest book such as the one offered here  is one option. It is free but the downside is that the page will show ads supplied by the software provider. You can upgrade to their Premium Service and have the ads removed, but then it becomes a payable option. Another negative aspect is that the comments are anonymous. There is a way of identifying some who has made a comment but it’s not that easy. Even though you can edit and approve comments, there is no way of telling if the person has been a genuine client or is just making some mischief.

Testimonials are a powerful way of spreading the word. Use them wisely and you’ll create a loyal following.

It is likely that most of your vacation home rental guests will be of the low maintenance variety. They book; pay their money; arrive at the designated check-in time; leave promptly on the last day, and apart from a few lines in the guest book, you may never hear from them again.

Sounds ideal? Sure, if you don’t want any feedback on your property or are not bothered about what people really think. Just remember though, the majority of your rental clients will fit with the old customer care statistic that 9 out of 10 consumers who have an issue or complaint will not let you know – they will just tell 10 of their friends instead.  And wouldn’t you like to know if there was a problem before it began circulating the internet in forums, blogs, and on YouTube?

I read a book several years ago called A Complaint is a Gift, and it had a real impact on the way I conducted my business. Instead of getting irritated with minor guest queries and what you might see as niggling complaints, why not work on recovering every situation with a solution, however small. Here’s a couple of examples:

If a guest has emailed on several occasions before their vacation with lists of questions, give them a call the day after they arrive at the cottage to ask if they have everything they need. This may well elicit another bunch of questions which is fine. This just shows a possible deficiency in the information you have provided prior to the rental beginning.

When you get a call about something lacking in the cottage that the guest expected, stifle the urge to be exasperated and do something instead,  to fix it immediately. We had a guest comment recently there were not enough hangers in the closets and responded by getting the caretaker to take a pack of brand new one down there on the same day. 

Going the extra mile can seem a real pain at times and may even go against your instincts in the case of a particularly picky guest. However, you may find you reap additional benefits from spending time and even a little extra money on appeasing them.

I’d be interested in hearing your comments on this one.

Photo by Cubbie_n_vegas on Flickr

"If you are told you can’t have it – you want it more! Ever watched a child in a candy or toy store?"

Lay My Hat Forum contributor

I was reading an interesting thread on the Lay My Hat forum this morning. The gist was that the more honest you are about the shortcomings of your vacation rental, the more likely people are to book.

This seemed an interesting perspective. It’s not that I am dishonest in any way about my cottage. I make it clear it’s on a river and not a lake, and there is no access into bigger water unless guests are prepared to take the kayaks over the rapids, but I don’t overstate the negatives. However, the author of the originating post on the thread suggested that because people are reassured by honesty, it wins their trust.

Think about the Buckley’s commercial and the tagline- "It tastes awful and it works".  As one of the best-selling cough remedies, their advertising strategy of blatant honesty obviously works too!

Last year, I had a call from a potential guest about a property we manage on Chemong Lake. She just loved the look of it inside and was ready to book. When she told me she had small children and it was important they could play in sand and wade in shallow water, I explained that the waterfront was very weedy and although swimming was OK in the deeper water it was not the scenario she was looking for. She then said that her husband would love that because the fishing was good, and asked some questions about local public beaches.

My detailed description of the waterfront only seemed to strengthen her decision to book, which she did. Her follow-up note after the vacation said it was the best time ever because they took the children out to the local provincial park each day, and every evening, she sat on the dock while her husband fished. "The best of every world" is how she described it!

There’s another by-product of honesty and that is the ‘No Surprise’ factor. In customer service terms it’s also called under-promising and over-delivering. If weed is occasionally blown onto the shore at your cottage, mention it; if you know your neighbour is planning some construction on his property in the summer, let your guests know. If these things do happen, they are expected; if they don’t, your clients are even happier.

If you discuss these things over the phone with potential guests and they still want to book, it’s good idea to follow-up in writing so you have a record of telling them the negative points. Just a little bit of ‘insurance’ you may never need, but always good to have!

Photo by go4action on Flickr