If you not tuned in to it you may not know but you need to. The internet is how a large portion of the world now searches for and books their vacations. If you have a vacation rental property or several you must be advertising on the internet. Advertising on the internet can be very cost effective, especially in the long run. One way is to build a good website.

A website once built will not only offer a place for your potential renters to see more information, updates, rates, policies, availability, how to contact you, and most importantly they can book their stay and pay you.

I know what you saying, "I don't know how to build a website". That is where ivacationonline's group of web developers comes in. For a one time low fee they will build you a custom website for all of your properties, and it will be built with custom search engine optimization features so that your website can be easily indexed and found on all the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Unlike advertising on Homeaway, VRBO, Vacation Rentals, you control everything on the site and how much you want to put on it. There are no separate charges for adding pictures, video, maps, pages, etc. You do not get a large bill every year like you do from the big vacation rental listing companies. There is a small annual hosting fee and that is all.

A website is a renters first chance to get a first impression of your property. With a clean, attractive, easy to use website your potential renter will know that they can rent from you with confidence.

To see a list of website templates and to get all the details of having your own website for all of your vacation properties please visit www.ivacationonline.com/Management_Templates.asp

ivacationonline.com vacation rental software now offers full access to the past 2 years rental rates

Ivacationonline.com has great news for all owners. As usual we are alwyas improving the usability of our online vacation rental software and website. Here is just one more thing we have done to help you book and run your vacation rental business or vacation rental by owner. We now have full access to the past 2 years rental rates to help you determine what you need to be charging for the next year. So if you go into your Rental Rates section of your property you will now see that 2012 and 2011 are fully available. 2012 will be shown in this years rates at the beginning of the rates section and we now have a button above this years rates for 2011. You can also print out both of these pages to make it easier to copy your rates over to another year. This will help you see what you were charging and what you should be charging for the upcoming year.

Only A Few Seats Open For Vacation Rental For Profits Seminar

If you have not signed up for the Vacation Rentals For Profit Seminar you will need to hurry. There are only a few remaining seats for this highly sought after event. We apologize in advance to those of you who will not be able to get a ticket to the event. The event is limited to an amount of seats which is dictated by the venue and we are not allowed to exceed the venues maximum occupancy. As stated there are still a few seats available but they will not last through this week.

Many vacation home and beach condo owners are taking advantage of this seminar and we have registrants from around the country flying in to learn how they can stop the bleeding caused by the expenses of owning a vacation home. Especially those that own a second home and do not rent out that property. Taxes, mortgage, HOA fees, special assessments, insurance, repairs, maintenance, furnishings, updating, pest control, land scaping, utilities and many more costs are eating away at many of these home or condo owners saving.

This free seminar will teach you how to cover your costs and actually turn a profit with your property. How do we know this is possible, because the lead instructor at the free seminar is Joe Godar and he has developed this system through his own experience as a vacation home owner and manager. Mr Godar, not only created the system but he is using the system to turn profits on his vacation rental properties and others that he manages, and now he is sharing that knowledge with you, FOR FREE!

Don't wait, there is no obligation, no fees, and you get a free lunch. Visit www.vacationrentalsforprofit.com/seminars.html/ to get registered for the last remaining seats.

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

Fine tune your advertising online for your Vacation Rental By Owner

Putting a few listings out on the Internet is one thing and then placing ads that bring in the business is another. We will go into a few strategies that have proven to be very effective for private owners of Vacation Rentals by Owner.

In the last ivacationonline.com blog, we talked about getting out on the Internet and making sure you are advertising on the right portals. Now once you have created your "Marketing Umbrella" you need to make sure those ads are written correctly and use some of the "tricks of the trade" to attract business your way.

Leaving up the same adds all year is not the best way to attract guests. That is what most owners do. So break away from the crowd and try a few of these concepts.

HIGHLIGHT A WEEK. Let's say you have one week open in June that has not booked. You are in April and want to try to book that one week that is left. What we have found to be very effective is to "feature" that week in your advertising. Go to each portal that you advertise on and change your title or description to reflect that week. Maybe something like this:

"JUNE 7-14 is now open! Save $150. Call today!"

What this does, is brings attention to your listing and qualifies the guest. Your listing are being seen by many prospects. You need something that stands out. So when your prospect that needs that week sees your listing, I assure you they will click on your unit. Now there may be hundreds or thousands of other listings that are available for them to book. But they clicked on yours because you "talked" to them through your description. You qualified them with this ad.

Now they are on your listing. I always let them know I have a photo album with many more pictures as that is the number one thing a guest wants to see. So they call or email me and I get them to my ivacationonline.com listing as fast as possible.

So now I have a guest that needs that week and now I have them on my online booking software listing. This is the best position to be in. I do use coupons and some discounts to make it attractive for the guest. I may offer anywhere from $100 to $250 off in the summer months on my higher bookings. It all depends on how hard I think that week will be to book and how close I am to the booking. Many prospects just like the idea of getting a discount, so I use that "hook" to bring them in. I do not discount every week. Just the ones I am promoting.

Now this will also bring in other business. Your ad will get noticed and you may get people asking if you will discount the week they want later in the year. You can do that if you want. The idea is you are getting the clicks. People are looking at your listing. And with the online booking you are giving them the path of least resistance. Meaning, you are making it EASY to book with you and EASY is good online. If you put them through emailing word documents back and forth, you will lose some of those people.

Now that you have booked that week you are promoting, just move on to the next week that needs help. Change the ads the next week. If you do this all year long, the majority of your time will be booked normally and at full rates, using this technique will fill in the weeks that need the extra attention and you can move towards being 100% booked all year.

Just remember, if you have great photos and a photo album, a clean unit and you are advertising correctly, offering a small discount and placing a "SALE" ad out there may be the only little help you need to bring in MORE business.

Try it. I can not tell you how satisfying it is to place an ad and in a few days have that week booked.

One last thing to try is many sites are offering a "Specials" or "Featured" section. Homeaway is doing this. It is money well spent to go in and create a 2 week special to try to get a few bookings that are lingering. Use the discounts. That is what they are designed for. You will get results.

Good luck and we hope these advertising techniques for your vacation rental by owner help you stay booked!