Owners helpful information - Generating vacation home rentals

Our most successful owner clients understand that they need to be careful to minimize the number of times they "give away" weeks to friends and family. Every owner who has a vacation home in central Florida will be asked by friends and colleagues if they can give them a cheap stay. But ask yourself .. when does a gift to your friend or family start to cost you money?

It's simple really ...

• Never "gift" time in your vacation home for free - even to your family. If they're true friends or family - they won't mind covering your expenses. Charge them at least the cost of your utilities, cleaning and management fees for the dates that they stay. It's easy to calculate and your VillaDirect owner liaison representative will be delighted to help you. If you don't - then you are effectively paying for their vacation to the Disney area out of your own pocket!
• If you are giving a friend or family a low cost week - don't book it until the week before! If you book the dates months in advance, then you are preventing a real $$$ paying reservation from being placed. Its reasonable to ask your family to book empty weeks that are off-season. If they've got children and have to come during popular weeks - then see if they can pay at least your low-season rate to compensate you for the loss of income.
• Don't "give away" high or peak season weeks - VillaDirect can book those for you and give you "top-dollar" for them also!

It's remarkable how many times our Guest Service team get calls from owners that have a problem with a guest who booked many months in advance at a highly discounted rate. In our many years of experience, the higher the discount, the more difficult the guest is, the higher their expectation and the more problems they cause with damage, complaints and loss.

Many owners will take a booking 6 to 12 months in advance, from a guest that contacts them directly - in return for a BIG discount. After all - the guest is booking so far in advance to benefit you - right? Sorry but NO - the guests is only booking directly with the owner because they know they can't get that same high discount from a management company or booking agency. They're booking with you because they know they'll get the biggest discount. No self-respecting commercial company would ever discount heavily for a single booking unless it was within 72 hours of arrival.

Our most successful owners typically only discount about 10% from our rates on their own bookings ...unless it's a last minute reservation - in which case they would rather have paying guests than an empty home.

Many owners pay real money to advertise their property on "By Owner" web portals, with literally thousands of other owners - all competing in the same space, for the same guests, who want the same BIG discounts. Unless you choose to advertise on a site which provides a "pay-per-performance"" or commission based fee - then you'll pay anything from $99 to $400 per year - per site. The least expensive sites are usually the least effective also.

Our successful owners don't advertise on the portal web sites. Why? - because they know that their return on the advertising $'s spent is too low. Instead, they exploit local markets around them. It's said that "People buy from people like themselves" ... and these owners recognize that locals in their area who see an ad in the local shop, paper or on a notice board at their club or bar - with a local number - are 5 times more likely to book from a local person that they are to go to a web portal and book with a stranger or a company.

Figure out how much it costs to advertise on a web portal and the amount of bookings that you'll need to rent for to recoup the same amount of money that you would receive from a VillaDirect booking. Unless you have a magic formula - you'll quickly figure that you should let us do the work for the peak seasons - and just try and fill the less popular dates.

The internet has made it possible for a potential guest to shop for a vacation rental in any part of the world ... find out if it's available for the dates they want to stay ... get an accurate, no obligation quote instantly ... and book it on-line without ever corresponding or talking to a person. Everybody wants and expects an instant response to their questions - especially if they are offering to spend money with you.

Are you ready?

If you want to maximize your potential to book guests directly, then you must answer booking inquiries almost instantly, accurately and answer any questions that they've raised. If you delay - they'll book somewhere else.

Lots of our owners send their guest email inquiries directly to our reservations center. By doing that they get the benefit of the instant response, they can rest-assured that VillaDirect reservations team have the skills and knowledge to represent and close the booking for them, and if their property is already booked - they also know that they will get a commission on any booking made in another owners' property.