Vacation Rental Marketing 101- Part II

Every picture is worth a thousands words. This phrase has been echoed for centuries and holds more weight today than ever before. In the vacation rental industry photographs are important for a number of reasons. First, photos show a potential renter an accurate depiction of the home they are about to rent. Secondly, it protects a home owner from unsatisfied customers. Finally, they show the professional standards of the home owner. It's that last one that I feel is the most important.

While almost every vacation rental homeowner understand that it is necessarily to have photographs of their vacation home available to the public, it seems many property owners neglect the quality of the photographs. An image of the front of the home with a trash can on the side of the garage, poor lighting, and out of focus, is not going to entice a renter into sending an inquiry. In all seriousness, this may seem a bit extreme, but I see images like this all the time.

High quality photos will reap great rewards for the homeowner and are worth every penny you invest in having professional photos taken of your property. Consider this website: San Diego Vacation Homes. All the images on this website are professionally taken and edited. When this kind of detail is considered, a potential renter is more likely to inquire about the availability of a home. In addition, a travel enthusiast will be more likely to book, as they will understand the level of dedication.

It's really a matter of simple math when it comes to high quality photos for your vacation home. The more effort you put into making sure the images are crisp, clean, and sharp, the better the chances are going to be to lure the potential renter to stay in your home over the competition. The vacation rental industry is fickle in that renters need to trust the person with the keys to their vacation, so why not put forth the dedication to show the renter you care. Make sure your photos are up to date and at the very least good quality.

Value Proposition Part II

Many people have already purchased that are dated and in need of an upgrade. The internet is always changing and it is extremely important to have a website that looks professional, otherwise your potential guests will not trust the website and "bounce back" to the google search results page.

The bottom line is that the Vacation Rental Property Network will help you build a professional website that will create an outstanding user experience for your potential guests. The result will be an increased conversion ratio. This means more revenue to your vacation rental business. Here is our typical time line for developing a website:

1. You will be asked to complete a quick profile because we want to make sure we are on the same page in regards to the production of your new website.
   
2. You will have a scheduled meeting with a website developer to confirm your requirements.
3. We will gather all the information about your area and your properties.
4. We will build your site navigation.
5. We will structure your database of properties.
6. We will rework your content to conform to our best SEO practices.
7. We will optimize every page on your website to increase the visibility of your site in the search engines.
8. We may add a real time booking system to your website if appropriate and for an additional fee.
9. We will train you on how to add and remove properties from your website.
10. We will point your domain name to our servers and your site will be live.
11. We will provide ongoing basic support of your website.
12. We will follow up with you to make sure that your site is current and utilizing any new enhancements added to your website.
13. We will list all of your properties on our listing service known as www.showvacationrentals.com.
14. We will provide you with a log in to your Google Analytics account, so you can track the performance of your site.

Once your site is complete, you will have an attractive site that will allow your clients to electronically book properties right from your website. You will be able to efficiently manage your inquiries and past guests. You will be able to manage the content on your website for each listing. You will be able to add and remove these listing at your leisure. Finally, you will be able to use Google applications that will help you quantify the performance of your website. In the end, this means you will be able evaluate the performance of all your listing services as well as the performance of your Adwords campaigns.

Visit VRPN for more details

Value Proposition Part I

A successful marketing strategy for your vacation rental business starts with ownership of your brand, website, content, and client relations. It is extremely important that you view each inquiry as a sales opportunity. Most home owners don't have the time required to service an inquiry with anything more than a followup phone call or email, and an overwhelming amount majority of vacation property owners believe that losing an inquiry doesn't matter because listing services have always provided enough leads to the property manager or home owner. The reality is that vacation home owners, in most destinations, can look forward to an increased inventory/choice for a potential guest. Property managers and home owners can also expect the number of potential guests to decline because of a smaller national disposable income. Consequently, guests will be more likely to haggle over the rates you offer. As the economy readjusts, these rental inquiries become more valuable, and wasting money on unproductive listing services will no longer suffice; only use the best.

We at the Vacation Rental Property Network understand the value of a listing service, however, they are merely an electronic catalog of vacation rental listings. The actions of these listing services indicate ownership ownership of the guests information, obtained during the visit to their respective listing service. In other words, the rental inquiries from online listing services do not belong to the homeowner. We encourage you to thoroughly read the terms and conditions of your listing services.

Today, many listing services have sales teams making projections and promises to potential advertisers. They will promise traffic, inquiries, and bookings. The fact of the matter is that one does not need more than a couple of the high performing listing services. We feel our alternative is much better then being "sold" a listing on an unproven website.

Owning a website is completely different from buying a listing on a listing service. Here are just a few of the major differences:

• First, the client comes into your website and will only see your properties, rather than going to a listing service that has many properties competing for the same booking. Many listing services have 10's of thousands of properties.
  
• Listing services can be extremely expensive. In fact, the trend of the effective listing services is to increase the cost of the listings over time. Many of the second tier listing services are lowering their prices and offering deals because they no longer produce the results that the advertisers have come to expect. In some cases, advertising is sold at rates where a person can have no reasonable expectation of generating any kind of fair and economic return.
• Listing services are an expense while a website is an asset. For example, you rent a section on a listing service for an annual fee. Every year you will be required to renew your subscription as ling as you want to be included on the respective listing service. Conversely, your website is an asset that you own. Adding your content, photos, media, and properties will reap long term rewards for your vacation rental business.

Visit VRPN for more details.