How to advertise on the Internet for your Vacation Rental By Owner.

This is one of the most important things to do PROPERLY to be successful in the vacation rental by owner market.

There are endless sites to choose from. There are more FREE sites than you can list on in a life time. So what do you do?

First of all you have to understand you MUST advertise on many different sites to get the results you want.

I have talked to many different owners over the years and they tell me that they advertise on VRBO and we are not getting the bookings? Well, years ago, one site did do it for most owners. Now that everyone has bought a vacation rental and they want to have it booked solid, competition has increased. With increased competition, you must improve or step aside. We hope you improve and we are here to help!

You need to set up your Umbrella of marketing. As the picture shows above, you need quality sites driving traffic to your online vacation rental booking listing on ivacationonline.com.

So no matter where they come from, just bring them to your listing on ivacationonline.com to book them.

Start with searches of terms that a guest may use to find you. If you have a condo in Daytona Beach Florida, go to Google and search, "Daytona Beach Condo for rent" and track the results. You may have to weed out the management companies and other private websites and look for the advertising portals. Now write 4-5 of the top sites down. Now do another search, like "Daytona Beach vacation rental condo", and do the same thing. Look for the portals. Try this on Google, Yahoo and MSN searches.

Now compare your notes. Find at least 4-8 sites that come up in those searches and list with them. They are producing for your area. This is now creating your vacation rental by owner marketing umbrella.

FREE SITES. They are free for a reason. There is no problem listing with them, but do not think that being on 10 free sites is any substitute for one good quality paid site that you found in a real life search.

This is usually a work in progress. You need to have a budget and make sure you advertise enough. 3 of the most deadly sins in the vacation rental by owner market that I see are:

1) Not enough advertising on Quality sites.
2) Not enough quality pictures online for the guest to see.
3) Pricing of the unit and the booking process are too difficult.

You can work on the advertising each week. Make sure you are keeping accurate pictures and pricing on your paid portals. Guest want current information. That brings you more qualified leads and the close on the sale is easier if you do not have to explain, that those are our "old"rates and you have not changed them this year. Keep them up to date.

We will get into some fine tuning of advertising in the next blog here at ivacationonline.com
We want you to succeed. Just make sure you are advertising on the right sites and you are advertising enough. You can tell if you are booked. If you want more bookings, consider advertising more, lowering your prices and putting up more and better pictures, it all goes hand in had to get the booking!

Good luck with your advertising of your vacation rental by owner. Keep up the good work.