Comments for Cottage Blogger - Rental Resources for Vacation Home Owners

Comment on Holiday Home Owner Uses Pinterest to Create Site Traffic by CottageGuru

CottageGuru — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:52:10 +0000

Hi Daniella – you hit the nail on the head about choosing images that ‘intrigue’. The key is to create an image that encourages someone to click on it and get back to your site or listing.

Comment on VR Owners Questions –“What happens if renters trash my place?” by CottageGuru

CottageGuru — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:50:06 +0000

Hi David – great question. We’ve just installed a satellite internet system in our cottage and there are limits on the plan. We put a note in the cottage guide that tells guests the internet plan is sufficient for light use i.e. web browsing and emailing. It warns that downloading or streaming will result in higher usage and additional charges. We can monitor usage so it will be interesting to see how we manage it. We haven’t had any issues yet so are hoping the potential of being charged for overuse will deter guests from it.

Comment on VR Owners Questions –“What happens if renters trash my place?” by David

David — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:33:55 +0000

“What happens if the renters go over the limit on my internet plan?”

What is your suggestion for dealing with this?

Comment on Holiday Home Owner Uses Pinterest to Create Site Traffic by Horizon Pacific Vacations

Horizon Pacific Vacations — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:35:18 +0000

Wow great tips, and yes Phoebe has done a great job at choosing images that intrigue the reader to click on them. I have to say pinterest is one of my favorite new medias. Twitter has been hard for me to adapt to as well but I like all the silly images and photos that people “pin.” Great blog and kudos well earned. –Daniella

Comment on Holiday Home Owner Uses Pinterest to Create Site Traffic by vacation rental website design

vacation rental website design — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:58:08 +0000

Being in the vacation rental industry, I haven’t had any experience using Pinterest yet but this article really helps a lot. Matt, thanks for the tip and Phoebe you did a great job utilizing Pinterest for your vacation rental home. It gave me a lot of insight on how we can integrate this platform for our user. Phoebe do you think this would be helpful?

Comment on Vacation Rental Links by Chez Europe

Chez Europe — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:48:43 +0000

I also think the Yahoo group vacation rentals forum is great.
http://www.ChezEurope.com
Rob

Comment on How Pinterest Can Boost Vacation Rental Buzz by Jo Price

Jo Price — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:21:02 +0000

Hi Heather
I wonder what’s best – to have a board just for your house or to have a more general one? I have one called Beautiful France that has mostly my house photos on but other lovely France pics too, in an attempt to draw people in. Have to admit I’ve been a bit quiet on their recently but n0w Spring is here am hoping to get lots more lovely pics

Comment on Holiday Home Owner Uses Pinterest to Create Site Traffic by Matt

Matt — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:12:28 +0000

I’ve just started using Pinterest to showcase outdoor sports in the south of France and the best places to stay. It’s clear to me already that Pinterest can be quite a powerful referrer of visitors, but I think success is down to finding images that resonate with the Pinterest audience. Phoebe from Lou Messugo followed me and due to the strength of her images and the fact that they are bang on topic, I followed her back and repinned my favourite photos to my own boards. I then clicked through to her facebook page, found some more cool pics to pin and was referred to this blog post – the feedback loop in action! I agree that it’s important that a portion of your images originate from your own web properties, but I think it’s also important to repin and follow others as becoming part of their network can expand your reach a huge amount.

Here’s a great post I found on marketing with Pinterest:
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/pinterest-marketing-tips/
Matt recently posted..Canyoning in the south of France

Comment on Holiday Home Owner Uses Pinterest to Create Site Traffic by Phoebe

Phoebe — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:25:43 +0000

Thank you so much for writing such lovely things about me and my Pinterest boards! I’m delighted I caught your eye on Twitter. I’m still a newbie when it comes to social media particularly Pinterest & Twitter so I’m still learning but it’s certainly not a coincidence that everything leads back to one of my booking sites or FB page. I realised quickly that Google images were fine for my other personal boards but served no real purpose professionally. I decided to use photos from different sites to reach as many people as possible, not just using my personal website particularly TA and Airbnb as they have positive reviews of the apartment. All that I’ve learnt has been by trial and error and through reading informative blogs such as this one. Thank you again!

Comment on Are Bed Bugs Biting at your Cottage? by Dave E Wilkes

Dave E Wilkes — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:01:29 +0000

This is a very comprehensive post by CottageGuru, covering most aspects of locating bed bugs and protecting against them.
And Brian Jones´comment about making sure that mattress and box spring encasements are bite-proof and access proof without any seams to hide in is very important.

I have found that the most satisfactory way to treat a mattress that has an infestation is to treat the all of the surfaces with bed bug killer and scrape /vacuum it and then encase it in a sturdy encasement, ensuring bed bugs can neither enter or escape and then repeat the cleaning process every week to ten days until no more signs of activity are noticed.

Mind you, if the mattresses are almost ready for replacement, it would be easy to just do that, and then keep them encased to prevent attack.

Regular checking and cleaning of bed bugs is essential, especially once they have been found.
Dave E Wilkes recently posted..3 Things You Need to Know Before Using a Home Remedy For Bed Bugs