| The expansion of Internet in the last decade made a | | | | Internet, just go and search for vacation homes in |
| revolution in the information delivery. Now you are | | | | your region and see what the prices are. Knowing |
| able to access information from the other side of the | | | | the market is important if you want to keep your |
| world just with a click of a mouse. How does this | | | | place occupied all the time. If you don't price it |
| affect the vacation rental owners? Are they | | | | properly you may lose more than you expected to |
| prepared for the new market? If you are vacation | | | | win. |
| home owner but you still think whether you need to | | | | Third step is pictures. Don't neglect that one! |
| list your property on Internet you better hurry up - | | | | Providing just a text description for your vacation |
| soon it may be too late. | | | | home is not enough. From other side if you do the |
| Here are my advices how you can better prepare | | | | description by yourself you may not be objective |
| your listing. Even if you have already listed your rental | | | | enough and this may turn on to be a disadvantage |
| you may rethink your approach and go and change | | | | for you - keep in mind that anyone can give negative |
| or add lot of things to your listing after you read the | | | | rating for your property or post a comment that will |
| lines below. | | | | be visible to thousands of people. People say "picture |
| First think of your vacation rental not from your | | | | is worth thousand words" so place as many pictures |
| owner's point of view but from the vacationer's point | | | | in your listing as you can. |
| of view. If you alone go to vacation what are you | | | | The last step is to find a place to list you vacation |
| interested in, what do you look for and how do you | | | | home with no or minimum cost. There are web sites |
| choose the location? Sit down and list all these things | | | | that offer free subscription trials or big discounts for |
| on a piece of paper. Now go and speak with your | | | | new subscribers. Many web sites provide trial |
| wife, relatives and friends and ask them the same | | | | subscriptions so you can list your vacation home for |
| questions, write down the answers and try to | | | | month or two and see what the performance is. Also |
| summarize the results. When you finish with this start | | | | listing prices vary a lot; you can find free sites that |
| listing the special features of your vacation rental and | | | | allow you to list with no charge and very expensive |
| try to match them to the list you have already | | | | sites that offer you not only listing but online booking |
| prepared. At the end you will end up with a good list | | | | and payments; some of them also provide full |
| of features that your vacation rental has and you | | | | management service for your vacation home. One |
| need to emphasize when you list it. | | | | important thing to consider is how many properties |
| If you are not able to do the research by yourself | | | | you can list for the price you pay and how many |
| you can turn for help to some professional marketing | | | | pictures you can upload for a property. |
| or travel agency. Many of the listing web sites can | | | | Working in this new environment, where information |
| provide you with the same information for a lower | | | | flows easily and almost simultaneously around the |
| cost. | | | | world, requires you to be more competitive and |
| Second you need to price your vacation home | | | | aggressive than until now. Preparing for the new |
| correctly. For sure your vacation rental is not the only | | | | world is a big challenge for the small vacation rental |
| one that is rented at its location. Talk with the | | | | owner but not accepting it will not lead you to |
| neighbors and try to learn how much they ask for | | | | success. |
| their rental. You can also do a market research via | | | | |