Owning a Vacation Rental

So you want to turn one of your properties into a vacation rental? Here's a few things to think about before taking the plunge.

Make an Attractive Package
Having a great property to rent out is the easy part -- packaging it into something marketable that has its own personality takes a little thought and effort. When people tell their friends where they stayed on their Hawaii vacation, you want the name to be memorable. "Beautiful house right on the beach" is pretty generic. "Oahu Oasis" is something that people will remember, and hopefully look specifically for and find when they're booking their own Hawaiian retreat. to go with your catchy vacation rental name, put together a .pdf brochure that you can send to people who request information, and have a professional graphic designer do it for you. It's not that expensive, and you will more than make up the money you spend on it if it gets you one extra booking that you wouldn't have gotten with your plain-jane email descriptions. Remember -- you're not writing fiction here, you're simply trying to convey a sense of your vacation rental in 2D pictures and text. It's not easy -- let a professional take care of it for you.

Common Vacation Rental Questions
You know what people are going to ask you -- they're the same questions you'd ask ifyou were looking to book a vacation rental. What type of stores are within walking distance? How far to the ski lift? Does it have air conditioning? A wood-burning fireplace? The list goes on. Write them down and answer them, either on your brochure or in a separate document that you can send out with the brochure.

Consolidating it on the Internet
Hosting both your brochure and Q/A list on the internet will cost you very little, and it gives people a one-stop shop to get all the information you need. If you're lucky, you can even reserve a domain name that's the same as your vacation rental title. It doesn't have to be complicated.