0 Shares Is a Public Rant Ever Justified? I’ve had the occasional rants and got some backlash for them, which in retrospect may have been justified to some extent. It’s easy to jump on the soap box and bang out some frustration in the form of a blog post and hit publish – it gives a little satisfaction to get it out there […]
0 Shares What’s Important to your Rental Guests may Surprise You An article in the Huffington Post caught my eye this week as a couple of serial vacation rental guests delivered their criteria for reserving a property. Five Rules for Choosing a Vacation Rental gives their must-have list before they book a place and it interested me as there’s a couple of points that I wouldn’t necessarily […]
0 Shares Thevine House – The key to a great ‘hook’ When was the last time you planned a holiday? Was it in a vacation rental? Can you remember how you chose it – what made you say, “Wow – we’ve got to have that”? Think about it. Did you write a list of criteria your destination and accommodation had to have, or did you just […]
0 Shares Do you Know Your Guests? Having a lot of rental guests go through our agency reservation system each year means we can see patterns and trends and often identify different types of people who stay in our properties. Mostly they are wonderful groups who book, pay promptly, have a wonderful time and write great reviews, however over the course of […]
0 Shares VRS003 – Being a Vacation Rental Guest In this session I explore the experience of being a guest. With a recent vacation in a Bahamas villa fresh in my mind, as well as the memories of many previous rental home holidays, I wanted to share some of my insights of what it’s like. From going through the selection process to booking, and […]
0 Shares Pleasing Guests From The Start – A Pura Vida Experience Each year we rent a vacation home for our February vacation. We can be fairly specific in our needs but I am usually swayed by terrific photographs and great reviews. As long as it has the key amenities – hi-speed internet; queen beds; linens and cleaning included, I can make a decision. Last year we […]
0 Shares Top 8 Vacation Rental Lessons I’ve Learned – Guest Post by Matt Landau When I first started in the vacation rental business, I knew next to nothing. I was on vacation. I met some Dutch businessmen. I looked at some contracts. And then poof: I purchased their company (Los Cuatro Tulipanes), located in the scariest part of town, with two prostitutes and a small gang as neighbors. […]
0 Shares A Year of Vacation Rental Learning – Part Two Following my previous post on the things we learned in the first half of 2011, here’s the second part. It was a very successful and profitable year and we enjoyed welcoming a wide range of guests from all over the world. However, there are new challenges every year and since I always keep notes of […]
0 Shares A Year of Vacation Rental Learning – Part One The New Year is always a time for reflection and now that January is just about gone, I’ve already applied a lot of the learning points from 2011 to our marketing and operational plan for the cottage. We kept a log of things that happened during the year as a reminder of the good and […]
0 Shares Being a Guest in a Vacation Rental I’ve stayed in several vacation rental properties this year and am now looking forward to my first visit to Costa Rica in February where we’ve rented Flying Toucans, an idyllic looking villa with a swimming pool and fabulous views of the Pacific Ocean. As I showed the listing to another friend yesterday and we […]
