5 Ways To Make Your Vacation Rental Stand Out From The Competition

January 6, 2010

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’ [...]

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Let’s Respect Our Vacation Rental Guests and Provide Them With Pillows!

January 2, 2010

I clicked through a Google Ad today to a site advertising a cottage rental here in Ontario. I thought I would approach it as a potential renter and see how user friendly the site was and whether I could be encouraged to book.
The home page was fairly good and provided a lot of information [...]

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Does It Sell More Chickens? Or…Do We Really Need That Patio Heater?

January 2, 2010

Every so often I go off on a tangent and decide we need something for the cottage that will please our guests and keep them coming back for more. And that is the key….if the new addition will attract more guests and repeat renters, then we evaluate the decision to buy based on the [...]

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How to Contribute to Greener Vacation Rentals

December 30, 2009

My good friend and author of children’s books on composting, Larraine Roulston is an environmental journalist and over the past few years has taught me a lot about living responsibly in cottage country. She and her husband Pete, are building a straw bale home in Elliot Lake which will be a prime example of [...]

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Let’s say Goodbye to Rules and Regulations in Vacation Rental

December 18, 2009

As a transplanted Brit I remember the comedy surrounding Butlin’s holiday camps with their regimented programmes, and rules and regulations for being a good guest. We’d like to think that way of relating to customers has long gone and we treat our rental clients with respect and trust, but I still come across evidence [...]

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Lessons in Attracting Negative Vacation Rental Reviews

December 10, 2009

Since we started using Flipkey to invite reviews on our cottage rentals, we’ve had a great response and mostly they show our owners are doing a really good job. It’s been quite a learning curve though as we appreciate it often only takes a minor action (or inaction) on the part of an owner, to [...]

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Is Your Vacation Rental Hot Tub Squeaky Clean?

November 16, 2009

There is little doubt that having a hot tub is an advantage in attracting low and shoulder season rentals. When there’s a lot of choice for prospective renters looking for an out-of-season break, extra amenities can be the deal decider, so the more options you can offer the better chance you have of converting [...]

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21 Lessons Learnt in a Summer of Vacation Rental – Part 2

November 14, 2009

As I was writing this post I got to thinking about how much we learn each year and how nothing ever surprises us any more.  What stood out more than anything was the number of guests who had never rented a vacation home before and their pre-conceptions about the experience which are based primarily [...]

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21 Lessons Learnt in a Summer of Vacation Rental – Part One

October 29, 2009

 
 
It was a long and not-so-hot summer here in Ontario and it seems the trend for staying closer to home caused a boost in interest in cottage rentals as we have had our busiest year ever, which is why it’s been over three months since I last posted to the blog. A sad excuse [...]

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May Contain Nuts – A Note of Caution for Vacation Rental Owners

October 27, 2009

 
I’m not alone in wondering when common sense died, and humans ceased to accept responsibility for their actions. I’ve laughed in disbelief at stories of claims made against companies who failed to inform people that coffee may be hot, or that they should not make coffee in the back of their RV while leaving [...]

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