Vacation Rental Marketing In just a few weeks I’ll be flying to Costa Rica for our annual escape from Canadian winter and even though the snow and cold temperatures have yet to arrive here, it will be a welcome break from the dull colours of our seasonal landscape. We booked our stay at Flying Toucans in February and over the past 10 months have visited and revisited the owners’ web site, pored over every photo, used the information page to plan our stay, and have envisioned every part of our vacation. It’s not the most elegant of web sites but the images are so enticing I would challenge anyone to check it out and not want to be there….now. One of the biggest mistakes owners make is not taking more time over the images used on their listings – I see so many dull and cloudy exterior pictures; kitchens showing dog bowls and empty beer bottles (yes, they are out there); bathrooms with toilet seats up; and bedrooms with bare mattresses. So, when I came across Alan Egan’s, Rent More Weeks and his campaign to persuade owners to upgrade their listing and site images I was intrigued, and downloaded his free Vacation Rental Marketing Guide. It’s a colourful and insightful eBook covering six of the most common errors made when taking vacation rental photos and giving detailed advice on how to fix them. The free eBook was an eye-opener for me. Part of my work involves viewing over 100 waterfront cottage properties every year, and photographing them for my rental agency site at CottageLINK Rental Management. I generally allow about an hour and a half to take the photos, and am usually fairly pleased with the results but appreciate they are not at a professional level. However, Alan has now convinced me I can do better and improve the staging and lighting to give far more impressive results, as well as taking more time over them. Just a little tweak like having exterior doors open when taking outside shots would make such a difference. There are plenty more tips so download the book and let me know which tip would change the impact of your site or listing photos. Alan has published several more eBooks and I hope to review them early in the New Year on Renting for Profit Photo from www.flyingtoucans.com
