Saturday, June 29, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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Online Bookings: Collecting Vacation Rental Payments through PayPal

Posted: 29 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

From movie tickets to home improvement projects, people are increasingly comfortable booking and paying for things online. The vacation rental industry has been a little slow to take advantage of this, but is change coming? We think so!

pay online button

Photo credit: vyancoskie

"Online transactions are a still surprisingly low % in this industry," Jonathan Murray, CEO of MyVR, told Matt Landau of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog earlier this year.

However, Jonathan's one of several experts who feel online transactions are ready to take off. Tom Hale, Chief Product Officer at HomeAway, also told Landau that 2013 "would have to be the year of 'online booking.'"

Why offer online bookings?

In a survey of vacation home renters, Wyndham Vacation Rentals found one of the top reasons for renters to choose hotel-branded properties is that "it would be easier to search and book online".

That convenience doesn’t have to be the exclusive domain of big brands, however. Listing sites like FlipKey, HomeAway and VRBO offer online booking features, and the functionality is increasingly rolled into other rental management software.

Accepting online bookings means you need to be ready to act: HomeAway’s “Book It” tool, for example, gives you 24 hours to review a request and accept or decline it. That means any follow-up and screening needs to be done right away.

However, accepting payments online helps you secure and confirm bookings much more quickly — something that benefits both you and your guests.

What do you need to know about PayPal?

We may be more comfortable with online shopping, but we’re still wary; a survey by TRUSTe, a privacy management firm, found that 90 percent of online adults said they worry about privacy.

By using a system like PayPal, neither you nor your guests needs to share any of your financial details. Instead, payment information is managed by a third-party like PayPal which, while not a bank, still needs to meet certain regulations.

PayPal isn't the only game in town but, launched in 1998 and owned by eBay for the last decade, it has long been established as a relatively safe way to transfer money online.

While it has both advantages and disadvantages, PayPal has the benefit of popularity and name recognition; it continues to be "the leading online payment method globally," according to a consumer survey by channeladvisor.

As long as it's treated with the same precautions as any online financial service, PayPal offers secure convenience for you and your renters.

  • While there are transaction fees you should be aware of, there are no setup or ongoing fees.

  • You can manage transactions in 24 different currencies.

  • As noted above, neither party has to share financial details — just an email address.

  • Customers can connect PayPal directly to their credit card and/or bank account.

  • Once an account has been created, new transactions take just a few steps.

Setting up your PayPal account and adding it to your site is straightforward, with instructions available from the company.

Do you collect online payments, or is it something you're considering? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below.
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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Google+ for your vacation rental: Worth it?

Posted: 25 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

If you follow the ever-changing world of social media and online marketing, you'll know that people have a love/hate relationship with one network in particular: Google+ (also referred to as "Google Plus" or "G+").

Publically launched in September 2011, it has more than 343 million active users – not an insignificant number, but one that people like to debate: How many use it regularly? Who is using the site? Some people say it's practically a "ghost town", outside of the early-adopter techie crowd.

As with most marketing questions, it's not whether something works for everyone but whether it might work for you. And, despite its detractors, Google+ has managed to keep the buzz going with a set of features that is smart and increasingly impactful on your overall marketing strategy.

Well, it is Google

Google isn't just the top website in the U.S. – it's the top site in the world. And with increasingly blurry lines between search and social (what Google calls "Search, plus Your World"), that dominance alone is a good reason to login and make sure your business information is up-to-date.

"Sure, there's a social networking aspect to it, but Google Plus is really Google's version of Google," wrote entrepreneur Dave Llorens in Fast Company earlier this year. "It's the groundwork for a level of search quality difficult to fathom based on what we know today."

Part of that broader scope is the slow-but-steady integration of Google's other products into the increasingly-robust Google+ ecosystem. This means that, even if you can ignore it now, it will be harder to do so over the long term.

An easy way to manage your community

Google+ offers a unique way to organize your contacts: Circles. Circles are more than just a way to sort the people you know and the information they share; they also let you decide who sees the information you post.

For example, if you create a Circle called "Past Guests", you can send a message specifically to that group asking them to leave feedback on your listing; anyone not in that Circle will not see that post.

Plus, people you add to your Circles don't even need to use Google+. If they don't have a Google+ profile, your message will simply be emailed to them.

As with a newsletter distribution list, this isn't an opportunity to start spamming people! However, Circles can be a simple way for you to reach out on occasion, with information that's relevant to a specific group of people, without too much extra coordination.

Claim your content

If you've spent hours writing blog posts about your vacation property and the local community, you want to get credit for it. The solution? Google Authorship.

Pulling information from your Google+ profile, Authorship links your information to web content you've written (from websites you specify): It adds your profile photo beside blog posts as well as a direct link to your profile.

Authorship also helps prove that you are who you say you are – one more piece of support when it comes to building trust with your guests online.

Connect face-to-face

If you already have a tool like Skype integrated into your process, Google+ Hangouts may not seem such a big deal. However, Hangouts are an easy way to connect with your contacts using video, and they're easy to set up for you and your guests (as long as you have a camera).

Hangouts are such an open platform that the White House has been using them to connect with the public. You don't need to aim quite that high, but you can use Hangouts to

  • tour people around your property, especially if they have questions about particular features (Hangouts work well with smartphone cameras),

  • chat with your guests face-to-face before they arrive,

  • check-in and troubleshoot problems with your guests during their stay (as long as they have access to a camera-equipped device).

You can even record Hangouts and save them to YouTube – a great idea if you host a Q&A session about broad-interest topic like "Things To Do While You're Here", or if you want to get creative and interview a local personality, like someone from the tourist information center.

There are a lot of options when it comes to online marketing, and Google+ is just one of them. But it's a network that has a lot going for it, with tools you can integrate into your regular marketing and customer service activities.

Are you using Google+ to connect with your vacation rental guests? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
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Friday, June 21, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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Rules and Regulations for Vacation Rentals in Lake Tahoe

Posted: 21 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

lake tahoe countiesWhether attracted by the skiing during the winter months, or by hiking and sandy beaches when the weather is warmer, Lake Tahoe is one of the top vacation destinations in the U.S.

That makes it a popular location for vacation home owners, too, and there are more than 4,000 rentals listed – on both sides of the California/Nevada border – through VRBO.com alone.

If you have, or are considering, a vacation rental in the Lake Tahoe area, what do you need to know? Most importantly, that it's one lake with many different rules! Make sure you're clear which jurisdiction your home is located in and which rules apply to your particular property.

Lake Tahoe is bordered by four counties:

In addition, there are several more urban areas:

Each of these regions has its own regulations around vacation rentals – as well as its own terminology. The region also has the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a bi-state regional environmental planning agency, which guides development and planning around the lake.

While your best bet is to contact the local authorities directly, particularly if you're in an unincorporated area along the lake, here's a brief summary of what you might expect.

Placer County, California

Once you actually start your vacation rental business, you'll need to contact Placer County within 30 days to get a Transient Occupancy Registration Certificate.

You'll also need to collect a Transient Occupancy Tax for rentals of 30 days or less – but the amount depends on where your home is located:

  • If it's within an area defined as the "Western Slope", the rate is 8 percent.
  • If it's within an area defined as "North Lake Tahoe", the rate is 10 percent.

When tax time rolls around, the county provides a Transient Occupancy Tax Worksheet to help you figure out what you owe. You can get more detailed information from the Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax booklet; you should also know that the county refers to vacation rentals as a "tourist home or house".

City of South Lake Tahoe, California

To get a Vacation Home Rental Permit in South Lake Tahoe, you – or a licensed property manager – must be based within a 30-mile radius of your property and available 24 hours a day to address any issues that may come up.

You'll also need to provide a diagram or photo of your rental property that includes parking spaces.

A number of other rules are outlined on the city's website, including a note that in addition to the permit, you'll need to obtain a business license.

Town of Truckee, California

If your rental property is in the Truckee area, you need to register your property within 30 days after you start advertising your property and it is available for rent.

If you plan to rent your property for 31 nights or less, you will need to collect Transient Occupancy Taxes, a 10 percent tax on any rent you collect.

"Rent" is defined broadly to include cancellation deposits, standard cleaning fees, forfeited deposits or cancellation fees, and in-room services. However, it does not include anything that's refundable, charges for equipment, or "non-rent items (i.e. valet service, parking fees, golf fees)."

Rental terms that are longer than 30 days are exempt from Transient Occupancy Taxes, but guests must sign a declaration form.

Douglas County, Nevada

There are no incorporated towns or cities within Douglas County, so regulation of vacation rentals near the lake is covered by the county.

Will you need a vacation rental permit? Contact the county's planning department to confirm.

If your property does need a permit, you'll need to complete the Vacation Home Rental Permit form, which will need to include:

For complete details about vacation rentals in Douglas County, contact the county office.

Washoe County, Nevada

Washoe County is a large district that stretches north to the Oregon border and includes the city of Reno.

The county has a transient lodging tax, but no information available about vacation rentals (what they call "transient lodging") readily available on their website. Contact the county directly for more information.

* Note: Be sure to verify rules and regulations for your city or consult a lawyer before making any decisions about your short-term rental.

The information above is intended for informational purposes only; it is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. If you need legal advice, you should consult a licensed attorney in your area.

photo credit: JTahoe
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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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Why You Should Advertise Your Vacation Rental On Craigslist [Video]

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT


Craigslist is an advertising opportunity that vacation rental owners seem to love or hate — and sometimes both. But there’s no denying it can generate inquiries.

Let's start with positives

  1. It's massive. In fact, it's the eighth most visited website in the U.S.; One in every five Americans uses Craigslist each month.
  2. It's free. That's the main reason I encourage homeowners and managers to at least give it a try — there’s little to lose and, potentially, a lot to gain.

On the other hand, there are some negatives

  1. You need to do a little work.You need to set up your own quality posting. Craigslist isn’t like HomeAway where all listings look the same: you start with a blank page and it's up to you to design it.At MyVR, we created a tool to help generate the HTML for a great-looking post right from your existing website information. To make sure renters find it, you can renew your post as often as every 48 hours to bring it to the top of the list. You can also use our tools to remind you to renew your post, or to let you know when it has expired and a new ad should be posted.
  2. It’s a place that attracts spammers and fraudsters. This is a serious concern, but you’re likely to encounter these individuals across the vacation rental industry regardless of any one specific site. It’s important to be cautious with inquiries from overseas and be on the lookout for people asking you to wire money or use Western Union.

In short: Give it a chance

In the end, how well Craigslist works for your rental will depend on your property and the location. But I suggest giving it a try at least for a few weeks because:

  1. It’s a huge audience
  2. It’s free
  3. And, MyVR has created a tool help you make it easy.

A couple of tips

Craigslist is very concerned about people using their marketplace with bad intentions and may flag some posts for removal. To avoid having your post mistakenly identified as malicious, post your property only once and in the appropriate region.

Making things trickier, Craigslist will send you a confirmation that your post has been activated, even if it has been flagged as suspicious and is not publicly viewable. It's best to do what you can to avoid that situation.

When managing inquiries from your Craigslist post, be on the lookout for spam and fraud red flags. Whereas spam is a nuisance, fraud can truly hurt you.

You may also experience phishing attempts, where someone tries to gain access to your password-protected accounts. So read up on phishing and be wary of inquiries that contain links or ask for personal information.
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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5 Ways to Respond When Your Dates are Taken

Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

In my last two posts, I explained why I try not to get frustrated with travelers who inquire about dates I’ve already noted as unavailable, and the value I see in every inquiry I respond to – whether the result is a booking or not.

"Snail Mail" on Flickr, by jaaronI know I'm not the only one who gets these emails; some owners find them frustrating and a waste of time. Sometimes I wonder whether people even look at the calendar I diligently keep up-to-date!

Hold off before you hit delete on those extra emails, though: yes, it's annoying when people overlook information you’ve made readily available. However, each one is worth the time to follow up.

Here's how I see it: When a renter shows interest, there's potential business for someone. Maybe this time it's not you  —  but down the line, it could be. I don't want to squander a chance to foster goodwill and new relationships, so I look for ways to make that effort pay off for me and the renter.

Create a vacation rental coalition

There are many reasons to connect with other owners in your area. Having a support system is one of them, but creating business opportunities for each other is another. Once these connections are made, you can offer a 10 percent commission to anyone who throws a lead your way that gets booked and vice versa.

Offer a discount for a different date

If the potential guest completely ignored your calendar, maybe it's because they have some flexibility in their schedule. You never know! Instead of ignoring the email, consider sending a polite response offering them a 10% discount for dates that may be harder for you to fill.

Add them to your waiting list

When someone cancels at the last minute, wouldn’t it be great to have a list of people who would be excited to take their place? This may not work for all inquirers, but creating a waiting list that you can call on if needed may spare you from lost income.

Refer them to a boutique hotel or B&B

Skip the big chain hotels — if that's what an inquiring traveler wanted, they wouldn’t have contacted you. However, like a network of other rental owners, making connections with a boutique hotel or nearby bed & breakfast provides a referral opportunity that also provides great customer service. Plus, if they're open to referring their overflow guests to a vacation rental like yours, it's better to be on their shortlist than not.

Redirect them to your calendar

You don't want to offer a discount or make a referral, but you don't want to ignore the request, either. Spare them a terse "no vacancy" response and have a standard reply ready that politely redirects them to the calendar on your website to select another date.

Invite them to join your email list (or, consider starting one!)

If you have an email list you use to stay in touch with previous guests, why not invite these new connections to sign up? There are many great reasons to do so, but here’s the most important one: they’re already interested in your property.

This is huge! The first hurdle is completed, because you already have their attention. You’ve put time and effort into getting great photos, crafting an intriguing listing, and now there’s someone who wants to book your rental – it just won’t work this time.  Not every visitor will make repeat trips to a particular location, but for those who will, you want to stay top of mind; maybe the next time they visit, they’ll be able to book with you.

If email marketing isn’t part of your strategy yet, keep an eye on the MyVR blog. We’ll be talking about the dos and don’ts of email marketing in the near future; it’s one of the most effective ways I use to bring people to my vacation property.

How do you handle extra inquiries for your vacation rental? Add your recommendations in the comments below.

photo credit: J Aaron Farr
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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Why I Don’t Get Mad When My Rental Is Booked & Renters Inquire Anyway

Posted: 12 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

"You've Got Mail", by Ron Reiring on FlickrYou put a lot of time and effort into keeping your online reservation calendar up-to-date. And you should: It makes a difference for your vacation rental listings, even impacting your placement in search results. You also don't want people to waste their time inquiring about dates that aren’t available.

Why, then, do so many people insist on contacting you about days you’ve already blacked out?!  As I said in my last post, I don’t think renters are entirely to blame. Today, I’d like to explain why I’m happy to see every one of those inquiries land in my Inbox.

While extra inquiries take extra time and energy — something none of us has in abundance — every inquiry you receive is proof of your hard-earned marketing investment. More importantly, each inquiry has a dollar value attached to it, whether you land a new booking today or not.  Let me walk you through how.

Why every inquiry is worth $$$

The last marketing email I sent to my contact list (of past renters and inquirers) resulted in a 2.5% conversion rate — which means that one email motivated 2.5% of the people who received it to respond and make a reservation.

Let's say my average booking is $1,000 (mine is higher, but $1,000 makes the math easier). Let's also say that my conversion rate is 1%.

At that value per average booking, I can calculate that every person on that list — what's called a lead in the marketing world — has an expected value of $10. Every time I receive an inquiry for an unavailable date, I remind myself that each response is like someone handing me $10!

That helps me avoid frustration, and reminds me to treat every inquiry with respect and responsiveness. If I'm booked, I kindly tell them so. I might refer them to my calendar and ask if their dates are flexible; they may change their dates and book sooner than I'd hoped.

These potential guests are also the perfect people to include in my future marketing efforts via my website or Facebook Page, for example, or to run a Groupon-style deal to fill empty off-season months.

How to calculate what your inquiry is worth

How did I calculate the $10 pay-off?

  • First, consider your average booking value. In my example, I used $1,000.
  • Second, insert your conversion rate for your marketing campaigns; in my example, I used 1%. If you don’t know what your actual conversion rate is, use a number between 0.5% and 5%; results vary from one property to another, but the 2.5% rate I achieved with my email campaign is pretty good.
  • Finally, multiply these two numbers. That's the value of each lead!

Sample Calculation

Your average booking amount

$1,000

Conversion rate from your email campaign

1%

Your average lead value

$10!

Pro tip: In this example, I’ve used an email marketing campaign — something I strongly believe every owner should be doing! Even if you’re not, however, you should still track conversion rates and lead values for all your marketing channels (listing sites, free ads on Craigslist, etc.). This is the only way to know which channels give you the best value for your money!

You may be thinking: ”But if only one or two of these inquiries convert, the rest aren’t worth anything.” However, you never know who will make a reservation until they actually do! That’s why I calculate the average value. My job is to treat each inquiry as if it is the one that will become my next booking.

Why you should follow through

I'm not recommending that you stop keeping your calendar up to date — or take misleading actions — to generate more leads; that would be bad for the industry and could have even larger negative effects on your business (e.g. like hurting your rank on listing sites).

However, I do recommend taking these extra inquiries in stride and responding to every one as if they are going to be a guest, even when you're already booked.  If the volume is too much for you to manage, consider adding an auto-responder for any inquiry that comes in for dates where you're already booked.

In my next post, I’ll recommend different ways for you to proactively respond to these additional inquiries.

How do you handle inquiries when your calendar is already booked? Tell us in the comments below!
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Monday, June 10, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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My Vacation Rental Is Booked, But Inquiries Pour In Anyway

Posted: 10 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

no vacancy

Photo Credit: taberandrew

I’ve seen a lot of chatter lately from owners who are frustrated by people who send inquiries even when the calendar shows that the property is already booked.

I can understand that frustration. I work hard to keep my calendar up to date — which is easier, since we purposely designed MyVR to sync calendars across all online marketing! However, it still takes time to update and ensure it’s correct.

Sometimes it feels as if potential renters don’t even look at the calendar. And maybe they don’t! However, I feel differently about this additional work than many owners: whether I’m booked or not, I see each inquiry as an opportunity.

I actually believe it’s (usually) not the traveler’s fault; they don’t want to waste your time, they just want to confirm their plans as quickly and easily as possible. Here are four situations I’ve experienced that may help explain the inquiry overflow.

Calendars can’t be trusted

Even if your calendar is up to date, many vacation rental calendars are not. It’s a pain to maintain multiple calendars, which is why a lot of owners don’t do it consistently.

As a result, renters have been trained not to rely on them; many probably don’t even bother to check.

Owners don’t always respond

As with calendar maintenance, you may reply to every inquiry, but many owners do not.

I think this is bad for our industry, which is one of the reasons why I respond to every single inquiry I get — even when my place is already booked.

Travelers, unfortunately, have learned through experience to “spray” their inquiries because so many are left unanswered. From their point of view, the fastest and most practical way to secure a property for their trip is to send multiple inquiries and book with the person who confirms first.

Listing sites upsell and cross-sell

If you’ve ever booked a vacation property, you’ll know that I’m talking about. You submit a inquiry for one home and the system prompts you to “check out these five properties!” Or, it offers to submit a request to all of them for you if you just click a button. Sometimes, I’ve noticed, the properties being promoted aren’t even available for the dates I had entered!

Then there are follow-up emails, sent by the listing site, encouraging you to check out even more properties.

The major vacation rental marketplaces have made it really easy for travelers to submit an inquiry to multiple properties, possibly to compensate for the non-responders noted above. Despite the frustrations this can cause for owners, their intentions are good. Listing sites have made vacation rentals easier to find and book, which is making rentals more popular. Unfortunately, the result is that an inquiry isn’t worth what it used to be, and you need to do what you can to convert your leads better.

Listing sites let it happen (and that’s not a bad thing)

Listing sites could block an inquiry from going through if the requested dates are booked. In fact, some sites do remove unavailable properties from search results, but not all.

You could argue that this lack of filtering makes it more frustrating for a renter, who’s likely to be disappointed, as well as the owner. However, the underlying intentions are probably good here, too.

Plus, as an owner, I wouldn’t want the sites to prevent those inquiries from going through. In my next blog post, I’ll explain why I actually welcome these extra messages — and always respond!

What has your experience been with inquiry overflow? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

Vacation Rental Owners Blog

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Free Classified Listing Sites To Promote Your Vacation Rental

Posted: 04 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

classified adOnline classified ads can be a bit of a jungle, featuring offers for many different categories from cars to clothing. When it comes to vacation rentals, they also have a bad reputation for fraud – among both owners and renters.

However, some of these sites are very popular, particularly in specific locations. With minimal investment of time or money, as long as you keep an eye out for suspicious requests there's little to lose by adding your own listing to the mix. From my experience, aside from the major listing sites, classified sites have driven the most inquiries and bookings over any other channel.  They can be particularly helpful for filling last-minute inventory if you find yourself approaching an unfilled period on your calendar.

A few basics about online classified ads:

  • Basic classified ads tend to be free, although there may be an optional fee for more prominent placement.

  • Your ad may have a limited lifespan before it disappears, so you'll need to plan to renew it regularly.

  • Most sites don't require you to have an account to place an ad. However, registering may make it easier for you to renew your ad without recreating it.

Also, on sites like Craigslist where you need to post your ad to an area-specific local site, find the site closest to your vacation rental to post your listing, rather than the site that's closest to where you live.

You may want to selectively post your ad to a few other targeted local sites to draw attention to your rental, but with so many different sites – Craigslist, for example, has 700 local sites – it's hard to maintain too many additional ads. Be sure to read the site’s terms of use as well, since some prohibit posting your ad in multiple locations.

There are literally hundreds of classified ad sites available; don't forget to ask around and find out what sites are popular in the area around your vacation rental.

A few of the more popular sites to consider:

Additional reading:
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