Your vacation rental property is listed with paid sites such as VRBO, Home Away, FindRentals.com, Vacationrentals.com, Always on Vacation and others. You need to spend money to make money, right? But where does it all end? And these websites require vacation rental owners to pay a year in advance.

 

I was spending nearly $5,000 a year on these sites. Should I invest even more in building my own vacation rental website? How could I compete with these major sites?

 

After years in the vacation rental business, I realized the point wasn’t to compete with the “big boys,” but to expand on what they do. Aside from guests expecting it, a “company site” builds credibility. Here are some benefits to having one:

 

  1. GET MORE BOOKINGS: When a potential guest calls on a listing, you may immediately send him to your website while talking to him; and in e-mails you send out, always provide a link to your site. Whisk the potential guest away from “the big seach sites,’” where all the other listings are! Get more bookings by providing detailed information to simplify the decision making process. Giving customers a link to your site saves them from the confusion of too many choices!

 

  1. CONTROLLED INFORMATION: On your site, you may provide slide shows, videos, testimonials, and maplinks to ” the area” for free. Many major vacation rental listing sites don’t allow links to your site or slide show without an exra charge! I have concerns with providing the exact address of vacation rentals, as some major listing sites are pressuring owners to do. Posting an exact address publically on the Internet is a safety and privacy issue for guests, neighbors, and owners. More on that in my book, VROM-Vacation Rental Owners Manual-Revving up Your Vacation Rental Revenues.

 

  1. SAVE MONEY: Cut the cost of advertising on the “must-do” listing sites, by including in-depth info using “extras” such as slide shows, videos, maplinks, local tourist info, and unlimited photos on your site. Don’t’s want to learn HTML, or become a website designer? Build an instant vacation rental website. The money you save by eliminating the “extras” from your paid listing(s), can fund your own site. Forget the learning curve, and simply upload your property photos to get the look and feel of a professional vacation rental site, using automated vacation rental website options, along with insider industry discounts.

 

Deborah S. Nelson, co-founder of Vacation Rental Gurus is dedicated to producing strategic resources for vacation rental owners. You may find the “2010 TOP TEN FREE Vacation Rental Listings,” with insider industry discounts to build your vacation rental website at http://www.vacationrentalguru.com

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