Just had a cancellation for the next two weeks

[barefootguy]

I would also like to recommend getting more exposure. Get your home listed on every site you can, and always push for a free trial. Then pay attention to where your inquiries and bookings are coming from. Some sites will work well for you and others won't. For example, we just let our VRBO listing expire. We got so few inquiries, that it wasn't woth spending the money. Friends of ours get a ton of inquiries from VRBO, so they keep that listing active. It seems that 4 bedroom homes (and larger) with a private pool book up earliest and fastest, then the 3 bedrooms, and on down to condo's etc.

We have a 4 bed/2 bath home with a private pool, less than 2 blocks from the beach. We bought the home last spring, so we got a late start, but during April and May we booked up for the summer. We ended up with 15 weeks booked. This year we've booked 12 weeks so far, up through the first week of July. By the end of May I expect to have the whole summer booked. We have friends with 3 bedroom homes that also book up real well every year. They have private pools, but even with a community pool you should book up well for the summer.

All that to say ... get your home listed everywhere you can.

 

[Cheering472]

You think that's a bummer? I've only had one rental from September '05 until June '06 - it's in late May. I'm . And I've offered a 25% discount.

BR

My brother is planning his next trip down there. Where can he find your property to consider it for his family?

 

[Paula]

Hey, Rather B. Paddlin, it's good to hear from you again. I don't think you've been on this board for a while.


Too Far Tampa: You could ask you rental management company what they recommend (and ask them if they recommend it to guests). I received a flier for travel insurance from our rental management company, but I didn't read it (though I think it's great if they're sending it to renters).

The best advice I saw from Donna that I hadn't thought about was putting something that makes guests smile in every room. That was great advice!

 

[DBOldford]

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys. A person-in-the-know at South Walton told us early on that we could count on about 15 weeks a year of rentals. That has proved pretty consistent, but we have had 18 weeks some years. We have not aggressively marketed the house in terms of offering discounts or short stays, etc. but this might work better for smaller houses. Summers are always booked from end of May through the second week in August, but the first week of June (right when schools are wrapping up) can be a challenge. You also have to look out for senior parties that week. Believe me, you don't want this unless at least four parents of the kids are in the house with them at all times. Mid-March and mid-April are good times, as are all the holiday weekends, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas (or the week between Christmas and New Year's Day). Paula, I agree that this year some of the rentals are coming in later than usual. We just had three weeks added. We have learned to be leery of spring weeks that are booked late, however. We require a signed statement that parents will be at the house and we ask them for the ages of all persons who will be there (in writing) before their booking is confirmed. We have only had problems twice in four years, but I would rather have the house empty that deal with this.

Paula's suggestion of value perceived for rent paid is so true. We intentionally keep our rent a bit lower than any of the other big houses at our beach, because we want to seem like a bargain. And it goes a long way toward keeping the same families coming back year after year, because the person responsible for booking the house doesn't have to lob some info bomb to 10 relatives about a big increase in rent.

Can't say enough about having quality accessories and also good kitchen items in your house. We spruced our house up considerably after we purchased it and the housekeeper said that her experience unequivocably is that the nicer the house is, the better care renters take of it. We also placed a few unobtrusive family photos here and there, just to give the house a personal touch and remind our renters that they are guests in our home rather than transients in some hotel. A personal relationship, even by mail, will usually translate into an ideal tenant. :clap_1:

 

[NewUrbanGirl]

Very interesting comments from everyone. We were told, by a management firm about two years ago, when considering renting our home out, that we would get between nine and ten weeks of rental, during the summer season. During our first year (last year) we had quite a bit more than that, so we felt great. This year, the rentals are coming in a bit later than they did last year, but still coming in nicely; I expect we'll get a bit more as the summer is still pretty open.

I seem to get a lot of requests for the same weeks that have already been rented. It would be nice to get some kind of referral network going as I try to recommend other places for folks during those weeks if we are already booked.

The best site for us has been VRBO. By far, most of our rentals come through there. We supplement with a link to our own website for more info on the house and pictures. I am interested to learn more about Kurt's service as I would like to get a 360 done at some point soon. Gotta go and visit the pages so I can find out more about it....

I'd be curious to know how many days folks rented out last year for comparison purposes, if anyone cares to share that information. We rented out 184 days, but of that, a couple of weeks were donated to worthy causes I'm involved with, so paid rental was 170.

 

[DBOldford]

If your place was rented with paying guests for 170 days in one calendar year, you're doing very well, indeed. The standard is supposedly 15 weeks minimum and up to 22 weeks or portions of the week, based on holidays. Your location and the size of the house factor into this. Our house is one of the larger ones at Grayton, so we book a year ahead for the high season weeks. We don't get a lot of rentals for winter or off-season unless they are holiday weekends. We find that renting for less than four days is not worth the wear and tear, although some owners market their houses very aggressively and at a significant discount to pick up additional days.

 

[Saluki Fan]

170 days of rental wow! The live-in chef and masseuse must cut into the profits !

I am impressed. I just had my first winter rentor but had to discount my price approximately 30% for a one month rental.

 

[Beach Runner]

I've finally had a chance to read the posts. Thanks for all of the good advice.

Donna, what a great hostess you must be! Your ideas are wonderful. So are Paula's and others.

I know these are stupid questions, but here goes. If you use vbro, does that mean you have to find your own cleaning service and handle the money part yourself, or does the rental company do this for you? And if you list with, say, whosyodaddy, do you still use your rental company? Is that just a place to get your rental "out there" so that people know that it exists other than only through the rental company?

As far as the question of number of rentals goes, in our neighborhood we are only allowed 15 "rental occurrences" per year. So we prefer full-week rentals because a three-day stay would be considered one rental occurrence. The idea behind this restriction was to give our neighborhood less of a transient feel. I think it also helps our renters like they're virtual homeowners as well because there are always owners present (and some owners don't rent at all).

 

[Mermaid]

I've finally had a chance to read the posts. Thanks for all of the good advice.

Donna, what a great hostess you must be! Your ideas are wonderful. So are Paula's and others.

I know these are stupid questions, but here goes. If you use vbro, does that mean you have to find your own cleaning service and handle the money part yourself, or does the rental company do this for you? And if you list with, say, whosyodaddy, do you still use your rental company? Is that just a place to get your rental "out there" so that people know that it exists other than only through the rental company?

As far as the question of number of rentals goes, in our neighborhood we are only allowed 15 "rental occurrences" per year. So we prefer full-week rentals because a three-day stay would be considered one rental occurrence. The idea behind this restriction was to give our neighborhood less of a transient feel. I think it also helps our renters like they're virtual homeowners as well because there are always owners present (and some owners don't rent at all).

Beach Runner, once I called one of my (endless) rental questions "sophomoric" and you said there was no such thing. So I tell you, your questions aren't stupid! We all learn from each other and hopefully profit. (Could definitely use the profit part ;-) )

This is how it works for me and probably the others too. If my rental company finds a rental for ME, they tack on a service fee. I think ours might be 25% of the rental income. However, if I garner a rental through Kurt's website or whosyodaddy--I'm on both--i.e., I find a rental for THEM, they charge me half of their usual fee. Call it a finder's fee if you will, or a discount, it means more money in my pocket. I let my management company know about the rental I've gotten and they take it from there. So they take care of the cleaning, maintenance, etc. It is more time-consuming because of course I have to check with them first to see if the time requested isn't already booked. I like it, though, because it makes me available to my renters and I can answer questions or concerns that my management company probably wouldn't. I follow a lot of Donna's and Paula's advice about how to work with renters and I've done very well by it.

 

[peapod1980]

The best site for us has been VRBO. By far, most of our rentals come through there. We supplement with a link to our own website for more info on the house and pictures. I am interested to learn more about Kurt's service as I would like to get a 360 done at some point soon. Gotta go and visit the pages so I can find out more about it....

Since I can speak as someone who has actually stayed in your home, I can say that we did find it through VRBO, and the link on there to your own website was such a bonus; being able to get detailed information (as well as multiple photos) on the house sealed the deal for us. I think the more an owner is able to show off his/her property, the extra time and expense probably pay off. I have no statistics to back this up, but my personal feeling (coming from a renter's point of view) is that things like 360-degree tours and supplementary websites would draw in more rentals.

I have to add that after reading what Donna does to make personal contact with renters, I think that is so important. NUG, you did this very well with your follow-up and little extras!