Free-Rentals Vacation Rentals

Aside from listing your property on a free or low-cost vacation rental directory such as www.free-rentals.com, the key to marketing your vacation rental property can be summarized as follows:

1) Use the signiture of your email to market your rental in every email you send. At the bottom of each message of your email, contain a short blurb in the signature regarding the property, a website showing it, and email contact and phone number. Regardless of if you use this email to answer booking inquiries or to socialize or for any other purpose, continually get out this free advertisement to each person you email. You never know, many email’s are forwarded to others, and it helps people keep track of where/how they can contact you.

2) Post on Craigslist.org, Kijiji.com, Oodle.com, etc.. There are many free advertisement websites allowing you to post for free. Take advantage of this often by having a canned pitch prepared with links to your website and canned images ready to be uploaded. Just post to these free advertisment websites once per month or so.

3) Throw an Open House party. Perhaps once a year or so, throw a homewelcoming party to friends and relatives, and get the word out that the place is available for short term holiday rental. Perhaps it’s best to throw these social gatherings everytime you visit the property for your own personal holiday. Have business cards stationed next to the food offering your rental, encourage guests to take several cards and keep them on hand should they find people in search of a rental.

4) Create a website for your vacation rental. Basically, if you own a vacation rental home, there is no reason why you shouldn’t also own a website that promotes that vacation home. You can have unlimited pictures, answer questions, post all of your availability calander info, your cancellation policies, terms and conditions, etc. When people email you asking for more information, it’s easiest to just point them to your website and let it do all the selling for you.

There are several things you should take into consideration when booking a vacation rental unit direct with the owner, as opposed to through a management company. The important thing is that, unlike a hotel booking, where it’s typically a take it or leave it rate… with a vacation rental, you have a lot of room for negotiation and gaining custom advantages.

Here is a list of tips to follow when booking a vacation rental direct through an owner. 
  
Get all agreements in writing

Get all the main agreements put in writing. Details of all the agreed upon items should be written and signed by the vacation home owner. Specifically, get the following in writing…
   
 Total Cost of the Rental, Security Deposit Amount, Additional Fees if they exist such as heater, firewood, utilities, cleaning fee’s, etc…, List of Policies including Cancellation, Terms of Payment, House Rules,  Address to Property, Phone Number of Property, Owners Address and Phone Number,
 Contacts for Maintenance Emergency, Driving Directions to the Property and Instruction on How to Obtain the Keys and How certain Appliances Work.

A recent poll found that 82 percent of travelers planned to take a trip to the East Coast or Gulf of Mexico between June and October (hurricane season) this year. Here are some tips if you are planning a holiday in a hurricane zone.

1) Check with the property manager before booking to determine what type of policy is offered during your stay in the event of a storm. Is there a “hurricane guarantee” or other policy that will guarantee a refund of the cost of your stay, as well as any potential property damage if you are forced to cancel or evacuate due to a hurricane?
 
2) Stay up-to-date on weather in the region to which you are traveling to be aware of any events that could hamper your arrival or cause an interruption in your stay.
 
3) Once arriving at the property, double-check the property’s policies and procedures.
 
4) If a storm approaches and an evacuation is ordered, secure a hurricane claim form before you evacuate.
 
5) During the evacuation, listen to radio reports of any evacuation lift or other instructions.
 
6) Save all your receipts to facilitate possible reimbursement when and if the unplanned occurs.
 
7) Once evacuation is lifted, you may need to return to the rental property. Read your policy details carefully beforehand.

Source

We have no affiliation with this company, but we hear they are one of the best out there (and genuinely independent, no bait and switch hidden agendas up their sleeve).
 
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Accept Reality. Unlike a chain hotel, where your experience in one country may be exactly that as in a different country, with holiday rental homes, there are great differences between countries, the power circuits, imperial versus metric counting systems, rules and regulations, etc.. You have to accept that things are the way they are when you get there and discover that their TV doesn’t play your videos because of the PAL versus NTSC issue. So just accept things and deal with them, afterall, a holiday is a holiday.

Get the Facts. The key to finding the right holiday rental is to get the details and facts. Don’t assume anything. Many websites that display aggregate rental properties will list all the details for each rental, all the way down to whether or not beach chairs are provided. But a lot of these amenities, activities and facilities change over time, so while they may have checked off the box indicating that they have a toaster at the house, maybe the previous renter broke it and it doesn’t exist anymore. If there are key items you are counting on, based on what you read on the website, make sure you contact the owner via phone or email and get confirmation that the item still exists, or if it’s a facility feature like a pool or tennis courts, make sure it’s operational and not closed for repairs.

Work with a professional. The best villa rental agencies are well aware of all the good, bad and ugly aspects of renting a holiday property.  They know all the Gotchya’s, so if you are a first time renter, it helps to work with one of the pro’s to make sure you have a good experience.