Deposit Insurance for Vacation Rentals Thru ivacationonline Vacation Rental Software

ivacationonline.com is proud to announce our new partner, TRAVEL GUARD and their Deposit Protection Plan.

Managing a vacation rental is getting easier everyday. With the online booking, reservation system and vacation rental software that http://www.ivacationonline.com/ provides, running a vacation rental keeps getting easier and easier.

Now with the TRAVEL GUARD ACCIDENTAL RENTAL DAMAGE INSURANCE there is no reason to take and hold and then return a security deposit. For a one time fee of $45 that you charge to your guest, there is a policy placed on the lease that covers the owner up to $1500 in accidental damages. What is an accident? Well, it does not cover anything intentional. If there is an accident, junior bounces a ball and it beaks a lamp, then you file a claim thru the ivacationonline.com vacation rental software and you, the owner receives a check from Travel Guard. *per the terms and conditions.

Why should you as an owner offer this? One reason is it will keep your cost to book with you down. If you are taking a $500 security deposit, the guest must give you an extra $500 when booking. That is replaced with a $45 fee. So if the guest is shopping around your rates may now appear to be less. Then you as the owner will not have to track that, and then return it after the stay. So it will help with your booking rates and it is less work on your end.

Then you now have $1500 in coverage where before you may have taken a $500 deposit and what do you do when there is more than $500 in damage? You just tripled your coverage.

The ivacationonline.com vacation rental reservation system does all the work. You simply tell the system you want to participate in this program, then each booking will have a $45 fee added to the booking and the insurance is placed on the booking for you. This is all done behind the scenes at ivacationonline.com. The only you will ever have to do it file a claim, which is a form in your admin if one needs to be filed. Simply fill it out and press send!

The best news is, you as the property owner gets paid for participating in this program. So you make money on the selling of the insurance on your property.

Keeping things simple and staying on the cutting edge in the vacation rental business is what ivacationonline.com is all about. We are here to make it easy to book online and to bring all the tools an owner or manager needs to have a successful property rental business.

Look for more updates on TRAVEL GUARD TRAVEL INSURANCE soon on the ivacationonline.com system.

Republic of Panama Vacation Rentals - Las Olas Villa

We wanted to share with you our new villa that is now for rent as a vacaiton rental in the Republic of Panama at the Las Olas Resort location of Playa La Barqueta.

If you are looking for a vacation destination, you have found it! Panama has so much to offer. With the new Ocean Front villa, LAS OLAS VILLA you can take a vacation of a life time to a remote private setting in a luxurious beach front villa. From the live in care taker to the daily maid service, you will be able to relax and enjoy the ocean side life style. The 4000 sq ft villa is professionally decorated and the private pool with gazebo is a stunning way to spend the afternoon.

Consider the Republic of Panama and Playa La Barqueta for your next vacation of a life time and book your trip online today at http://www.lasolasvilla.com/ Be sure to view our photo album on the site so you can see exactly what your vacation in Panama will be like. Here are jsut a few of the activities you can enjoy while on your trip.

Horse back riding on the beach in Panama. Have horse brought to you at the villa and enjoy a sunset ride on the beach. There is no better way to relax than having a horseback ride on the surf and sand of Panama.

Zip Line in the Rain Forest of Panama. In the small coffee town of Boquete Panama there is an adventure business called TREE TREK. If you ever want to feel like you are flying, this is the thing for you. Spend a great day zipping along the tops of the rain forest in Panama.

Kayak Tour of the Mangrove System. One of the wonders of Panama is the Mangrove system in La Barqueta. This system Mangroves goes on for miles and takes you to the Pacific Ocean. Experience with the local guide Elaine and she can show you all you need to know about this outdoor wonderland!

Ocean Side Massage Service. If you really want to get away and relax be sure to schedule your ocean side massage. The experienced staff of Las Olas Villa will arrange your massage pool side and ocean side. This is a treat not to miss!

There are so many more things to experience on your vacation of a lifetime to the Republic if Panama. Here are just a few more. PANAMA ACTIVITIES.

Call today or email us anytime. If you are looking for a differnet vacation and to get away from the crowd, this Ocean Front Villa at Las Olas Villas, in Playa La Barqueta is your next stop. Book it online today.

Deposit Insurance with Travel Guard

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Travel Guard. Travel Guard and ivacationonline.com have teamed up to provide a unique service to both private owners of vacation rentals and management companies of vacation rentals.


Accidental Rental Damage Insurance through Travel Guard is now integrated into your ivacationonline.com account. As the property owner or manager, you now have the option to charge a $45 fee for coverage up to $1500 in accidental damage done to your property. This benefits both the owner and guest.

The owner now has up to $1500 in coverage in case of an accident. If you previously took a $300 security deposit, what did you do when something cost more than $300? Now with the Travel Guard Accidental Rental Damage Insurance being integrated with the ivacationonline.com vacation rental software, your bookings can have up to $1500 in coverage. That is 5 times the coverage of a $300 security deposit.

You will also see an increase in bookings as your pricing now seems to be lower. If you are taking a security deposit, that appears to be an additional fee to book with you. So they may shop elsewhere.

The good news is the owner/manager receives a portion of this fee as compensation for offer the coverage on their property. Now you can actually make money by running your business on the vacation rental property management system, ivacationonline.com!

The guest also benefits from this as they do not have to tie up additional funds in a security deposit for months. They also have more coverage then a $300 security deposit provides.

We feel this is a huge step for the private owners to run a successful vacation rental business. They can act just like the pros!

Claims are all handled inside the ivacationonline.com software and the whole transaction is automated upon booking. There is no additional work for the owner/ manager or guest.

Next on the development list is the Travel Guard TRAVEL INSURANCE interface. The owners/managers will be able to offer either optional or mandatory travel insurance with every booking through the ivacationonline.com vacation rental management software. This is another huge step forward in protection and convenience for the owners/managers and guest. Stay tuned....

Here is a short note about Travel Guard:

Travel Guard works with marquee clients worldwide to provide customized travel insurance plans, emergency travel services, travel medical assistance, concierge, and customized call center solutions for their employees and customers. When you partner with Travel Guard, our passion for exceptional customer care will exceed your expectations and those of your customers.

John M. Noel is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Travel Guard. With more than 20 years of industry experience, Travel Guard is one of the world's leading travel insurance providers. The company specializes in providing innovative travel insurance, assistance and emergency travel services for millions of travelers and thousands of companies throughout the world.

Travel Guard has built its reputation upon unparalleled customer service and its values-based approach to doing business. As a result, John Noel has been awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year, the University of Wisconsin Regent Partnership Award, and the State of Wisconsin's Exemplary Employer Award. Recently, Noel was named as the recipient of the World Tourism Award in recognition of "Travel Guard's values-based approach to business and its philanthropic mission to give back to both the global and local communities it serves.”

"Our clients appreciate our exceptional customer service and our ‘never say no’ approach to doing business… We’re proud to work with leading companies throughout the world who share our commitment to solid corporate values."

John Noel
Founder & CEO, Travel Guard

ivacationonline.com is proud to be associated with TRAVEL GUARD and we look forward to a long relationship with them. If you need a reservation system for your vacation rental and want to have this level of service and the protection that TRAVEL GUARD provides you and your guest, join ivacationonline.com today!

Happy Renting!

Joe Godar
ivacationonline.com

2009 Vacation Rental Season - Take Control now!

This may be the toughest season ever for vacations rentals in a very long time. How are your rentals for the 2009 season?

Here are some proven techniques to keep your properties booked and the cash flowing.

Sitting around and complaining that the economy is bad and your bookings are down will get you no where. This is the time to get to work! You need to go over everything and put some time into your business.
1) Update your photos! Do you have a quality photo album to showcase your place? If the guest know to shop around, they will be looking harder and harder at the online photos that represent your rental. You need your best foot forward. Taking new quality photos is not expensive and can help! Be sure your photos are the best you can afford!

2) Advertise! This is the time to advertise more! Not less. Run specials. Make it look attractive to book with you! What does your title say about your property on your ads? Does it say, "BOOK WITH ME" or does it say, "I have not updated my ad in years". Here is one example:
GOOD AD: "Save $250 today! May 1-7 is open! Ocean View Condo, Call today"
Not so good ad: "3 bd 3 bath condo with dvd player in master bedroom"

You need a call to action and a reason to call you, instead of someone else. A coupon or special may be the trick to get them to call!

3) Follow up. Call if possible the prospect that emails you. If they put a phone number in the ad, call them at that number as fast as possible. If there is no number, email them as fast as possible. Answer the questions and tell them you want the business.

4) Have an online reservation system. This makes taking a booking fast and easy. The easier it is on the guest, the better the chance they will book with you! Using a site like ivacationonline.com and the vacation rental software it provides can make a difference. Who wants to wait for documents to be emailed back and forth and then filled out and mailed back! Make it easy and attract more business.

5) Do something every day! Update your calendars, change your ads, call your guest. Take 10 min and ask your self what needs to be updated and ACT! Sitting around will get you no where.

Try a few of these options and you will see the results! More bookings! People are still going in vacation and you need to be out there and get in front of them.

Good luck in the 2009 season!

More information on vacation rental software and vacation rental management software.

Stop Vacation Rental Foreclosure

This is the "SIGN" of the times! It does not have to happen to you!

If you own a vacation rental and you are having trouble with making the payments, there is help. Here is what we are seeing as the biggest problem in the vacation rental industry. There are really 2 things that have happened.

SPECULATION. Many buyers a few years ago have purchased a property when the market was on the rise hoping to flip in in the short term for a profit. They bought as the market was going up and then it peaked and fell off. So selling it for what they paid is not an option. This was the start of the real estate bubble.

So now they own a vacation home or condo and may not have wanted to be the owner for the long run. They do not have a plan in place to rent or manage the property. This is very common in this market. There is help. We want to help! ivacationonline.com can help you manage your property online and turn it into a cash flowing machine. It is not that hard. You simply have to look at this as a business. You need to advertise, take credit cards online and set up your business! Once set up, the market is still there. People are still going on vacations and they can stay with you and now you have help to pay your mortgage.

This does take work! It does take time. The option of not doing this and giving the property back to the bank is last thing most people want to do. This is a great business. Guest want to pay you to stay in your vacation home or condo and this is cash flow you need to support the property. Sitting around and "waiting for the market to come back" is basically financial suicide.

Fell free to contact us today for a complete property evaluation. We can take a look at your property, estimate cash flow and help you get started on the road to a successful vacation rental business.

Here is the other problem we are seeing in the vacation rental market.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT. Many owners have properties and have had them for years before this real estate break down. Many property management companies do a great job. It seems that the smaller, private companies or mom and pop shops seem to have a leg up on the mega companies we see in almost every resort town.

The smaller companies are able to pay more attention to your property and may have several key people that work there and will know you and your home. Some mega companies have a rotating system to place business in your property and they have a hard time keeping your unit occupied.

We can help you! You can do this on your own if you need the extra cash flow to pay your bills. Sitting there and doing nothing will end up getting you NOTHING in the long run. Make a change. Find a new company that can produce results or go out on your own. We have the online vacation rental software that will run this business for you. Once set up, taking online bookings and handling the day to day things that this business needs is very easy. It makes you look like a top rate company, with one property!

Make some changes! Try something new! Got out on your own. Stay out of foreclosure. We have software, books and customer support ready and willing to help you run your vacation rental by owner. It has never been easier! Just take some action today! Call us, we are ready to help! We help owners every day turn vacant, empty, cash sucking homes into cash flow machines. Just give this a try!

Joe Godar
888-716-2220
ivacationonline.com Vacation Rental Software
Vacation Rentals for Profit - Book

Vacation Rental CASE STUDY

NEW DESTINY WEST VACATION RENTAL- CASE STUDY.

I often get asked a question from new owners, "What does it take to get these properties to be successful?" This is a loaded question! The biggest problem I see is owners do not approach this like a business. I have said this a hundred times. They walk into 2ND home ownership, need or want cash flow to pay for it and never really "dig" into the details it takes to be a success.

That is why we do what we do! We want to show you EXACTLY what it takes to be a success. Owners that are doing this "right" are having record years. People are still taking vacations. No matter the price of gas or the economy or the real estate market, they are still going on vacations. You just have to be in a position to get that business before someone else.

I have had the privilege of knowing a couple from Cincinnati, Greg and Tracy. They wanted a 2ND home in Destin, my neck of the woods, so they came to Destin to view properties and pick one out.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to document what they are doing and how they will become successful. I know Greg very well. So I know he will be very professional and business minded in his approach to setting this new home up. So here goes!

We will follow them every step of the way. I will blog about it and give exact details of what they did right or wrong and we will see the first booking come in and watch as they fill up the calendar for 2009.

We recently blogged about the 10 Steps to Success for Vacation Rentals. We will follow this format and show you each step so you have a blue print of what to do and when to do it. Here is the first step and update on where they are.

1) BUY THE RIGHT PROPERTY TO BEGIN WITH. Greg and Tracy did this perfectly. They have been to Destin. They understood what they wanted as a visiting family on vacation and looked to provide that with the home they purchased. They agreed to try to find the largest home for the money, in the best shape, close to the beach and pool in a family community. They viewed homes for one full day. They settled on one in Emerald Shores. Which is the community I purchased my very first home in. They went to make an offer and it was under contract. So the second choice was a more expensive home in nearby Destiny West. Which is a bit more upscale, very desirable and close to the beach. This home has great character and was a builders own home that was never rented.

Just by viewing it with them, I could tell it would be a great rental. It is only 2 doors from the community pool, it is as close to the beach as they can get in that area. And they agreed to buy a Golf Cart for the guest, making it more attractive and easy to get to the beach and around Destin.

GOLF CART. This is something I want to touch on. High end rentals seem to be doing great in this market. In Destiny West, it is common for the owners to provide a Golf Cart for the guest to use. There are not many rentals in the community. So starting with a great home and then on top of that offering a street legal Golf Cart so your guest can use it for the week is a great way to attract business. Legal work MUST be done to protect your self. Please contact your attorney when doing this. But from a marketing prospective, this is a home run in my opinion. This is the type of thing that will demand more rent and make the difference in booking with you or someone else. Financially it makes sense too. To invest $6,500 into a nice Golf Cart and then increase your rentals by $10,000 to $15,000 a year is a good return.

July 31, 2008. This is the date they closed on the house. They came to Destin to stay in the home for a few weeks to furnish it and get it ready for occupancy. The home was not totally furnished so they need some time and money to get it ready. They took as many pictures as possible while they were in town. There will be more work to do on the next trip, but they are now ready to set up the web sites, get the vacation rental software with http://www.ivacationonline.com/ completed, apply for the merchant service and begin to advertise.

So they have taken the first HUGE step and closed on the property. They have started to complete the home and it is now ready for guest to arrive. They want to make more improvements but this can wait until there next visit. Once we start on the web site work we will continue this and give you the exact details on where we list their home, why we listed, the Search Engine Optimization we will do, the pricing structure plus more! So stay tuned as this new rental hits the market and becomes another great success story! The next step is setting up www.ivacationonline.com and getting the merchant service. We will blog about this soon!

Details, Details, Details..Vacation Rental Details!

I wanted to share with you the number one reason for success int he vacation rental by owner business. DETAILS.

The owners that treat this as a business and take a business approach to it, are usually VERY successful. They follow thru with the details. Many owners get very frustrated at the level of bookings they have. They may have full time jobs, families and many other things pulling them in 10 different directions.

We are all very busy! The owners that take their time and work a little every day, paying attention to the DETAILS always seem to be the successful owners.

Here are some examples. One owner may advertise on VRBO and be about 20-30% booked. When we advise them to advertise more, spend More money on more web portals, they may not follow up and think that VRBO is more than enough. The owners that do the proper search for the vacation rentals in their market, spend the time listing on more quality advertising portals and complete the details on each listing site, are usually 70-90% booked. The devil is in the details.

Just doing "some" advertising is not enough. The details of marketing are you have to do enough of it to be successful. Taking the short cut with one ad is not going to make you successful. Spend the time and money and dig into the details to make your adverting a success.

The same can be said for your photos. It use to be 3-5 pictures would bring you all the business you need. Now the owners that have photo albums, like PICASA from Goggle are the ones experiencing success. It takes time to build one, follow thru with the details and list your captions. And you will have success. The more time you put into these details the better your success. Here is one example of a slide show that has turned my 3 bedroom condo into a booking machine in Destin Florida:

This is an average condo in Destin. Since I take the time to dig into the details and have a complete photo slide show, I advertise on 5-7 quality sites, have my online booking system in place, I have taken a condo when I purchased it, from a $20,000 a year unit to over $50,000 in gross rents for 2008 and nearly 100% occupancy. No other condo in our complex comes close, yet we all have identical units. The reason is DETAILS. The other owners could do the same thing, run more ads, have photo slide shows, take credit cards online etc.

The business is out there. You have to out perform the competition. Sitting around waiting for the phone to ring is not going to work. There is no magic pill to swallow. Just get to work, run more ads, update your unit and run your vacation rental by owner like a business. Spend time on the details and you will see your bookings increase!

Good luck!