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!
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