Your vacation rental - How to be successful - Part I
Organizing your ideas on paper
If you are a new vacation rental owner you may have ideas of grandeur. Perhaps you see dollar signs dancing in your eyes? Well if you want to be the proud owner of a successful privately run vacation rental home you are going to need to have some goals in mind. Today we are going to talk about some the basics of owning and promoting your vacation home.
- What is your goal to owning a vacation rental?
- Why should people want to rent your vacation home?
- Are there any restrictions?
- What are you charging?
All of these points are important when starting your own vacation rental website. If you do not know why you are charging three times more than other rentals in your area then why is someone going to want to rent your property? Having a well-organized plan of attack is key to being successful in any business, and don’t be fooled – this is a business.
We are going to assume you’ve already put in time and thought into how you are going to maintain your rental. Keeping everything in working order is very important however it is not today’s focus. If you have not thought about who is going to cut the grass, how you are going to deal with cleaning up after guests, and who is going to come down to fix your A/C unit for a guest you may want to take a few minutes right now to think about that.
Okay?
Alright let’s get started.
What is your goal?
Setting goals may sound silly to you but everyone needs a goal. If you own a vacation rental property you’ve put a lot of money into it. You basically own a second home that you need to take care and if you don’t have a real outcome in mind for why you own this property then you are less likely to put in the effort needed to make it successful.
So, what is your goal! Are you looking to use the rental fees you charge to pay off the mortgage on the home? Good, then set a deal line. Say: “I will have this property paid off in ___ year(s).” Or maybe you’ve owned the cottage for a long time and you are looking to earn some extra cash. What are you going to do with this extra income? Put your kids through college, put a down payment on a bigger home, buy a jet ski, heck, buy another vacation rental? These are all good ideas to have in mind when you set out. If your only idea is, “Oh hey, I’m going to make a bunch of money” and money doesn’t start flowing right away you may decide this isn’t worth it and give up. Let me just say this – don’t give up too easily. Anything worth having is worth working hard for.
Why should people be interested?
You obviously think you have a nice property on your hands otherwise you would not have invested your hard earned money into it. So what makes your vacation rental home special? Why should someone be interested in your property over another vacation rental in the same area? Take a few minutes to write down some key points that make your vacation rental an attraction property.
Is it a beach front property, does it have indoor plumbing, satellite television, a large library of books or wrap around deck? Maybe you have a BBQ and hot tub or your property is close to fantastic hiking trails. You want to list any specialty items that not every vacation rental will have.
After you’ve got a list of the key things you think will entice more people, you are going to want a list of the obvious amenities. These are the amenities and important information that anyone looking to rent is keying in on. How many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, is there a kitchen, extra beds, is there a TV, is there a doc, etc. Remember this is just a point form list right now.
You should also make a list of nearby activities that your guests will be able to take part in. For example, hiking, biking, swimming, climbing, skiing, rafting, horseback riding, and world-class golf courses are all activities a lot of people look for when looking into a vacation rental.
The order of these three steps is not that import. However, the important thing here is to do the lists so you can get all your points in order. These three lists are going to come in handy for our next lesson.
Are there any restrictions
This one is fairly obvious. Sometimes vacation rentals like to make exceptions, or put restrictions on the kinds of guests they allow. So now you have to ask yourself are you going to allow pets. If so, will you allow all kinds of pets, only small pets, only small dogs and no cats? Will there be an extra fee for pet owners? Are you going to be exclusively for adults or are you going to invite families of all sizes into your vacation home? Is there going to be a limit to the amount of people you allow to stay on the property? Will you have a ‘no tent’ policy?
These are all import questions you have to ask yourself. Make a list of all the restrictions you want to enforce and add it to your other three lists.
What are you charging?
This is where you can use the internet to your advantage, especially if you are not sure what to charge for your vacation rental. Try going to a website like VacationRentals.com or VRBO.com and see if they have any vacation properties in your area. Find rentals that are similar to yours and try and match accordingly. If you are having trouble finding a vacation rental in your area use a search engine to search it out using this formula: “City State Vacation Rental.” You are likely going to find a few vacation rentals in your area. Using these techniques will allow you to keep your prices competitive with other vacation rentals in your area, a key goal in making your vacation rental the most popular one. Just remember not to low-ball yourself. If your vacation rental property is large, has a hot tub, and a view of the mountains, don’t charge the same as a small condo. You are allowed to charge more.
So you’ve taken the first steps in setting up your personal owner-run vacation rental website. Yeah I know, you haven’t even touched a website creator yet.
Don’t worry you will!
Organizing your data is important. Taking these first baby steps, making notes and lists is the key to what every website needs and what too many websites lack - CONTENT! Content is king on the Internet, and the more detailed content you have pertaining to your vacation rental the more likely your website will be searched out and the more popular it will become!
Tomorrow we will go over compiling your content, help make it sound enticing, and hopefully get people interested in your vacation rental.
