“We need another cart” are the words that Gary Miller never wants to hear again. He also wants to share that there is no such thing as ‘passive income’ in this business because it’s really hard work. Gary is one of the thousands of new owners who will enter the vacation rental business this year. […]
It’s that time of year again. The cottage country tradition in Ontario has been part of the culture for generations, and in many areas the families that make the trip have been going to the same cottage for years. Then there’s the new Canadians – our most recently arrived immigrants who learn that the annual […]
I last spoke with today’s guest a year ago and we discussed his passion for the vacation rental industry and the background to his fledgling community organization, the American Vacation Rental Owners Association. At that time, Rod was working on yet another iteration of his website, and although he had a lot of motivation to […]
From the early days of vacation rentals, families have found them to be a great alternative to hotels, and all the listing sites tout families as being a prime group to target. So, why do so many owners fall short of expectations and fail to provide many of the essentials to modern day parents? Probably […]
In this episode Mike and I sit down and chat about two issues that affect every vacation rental owner – neighbour relations and general safety, and discuss the importance of emergency planning. I brought up the topic of keeping on side with the neighbours because I’m personally affected by super-noisy rental guests next door this […]
Each week as the summer goes on, our rental agency deals with myriad issues. Most of them are minor – items left behind, appliances needing repair, requests for early check-in and late check-out etc. Occasionally, a bigger problem arises like this past week, where an administrative error on our part had a family arriving at […]
One of the best parts of my job as a vacation rental manager is to visit new properties, meet enthusiastic owners and talk rentals non-stop. I love to hear their goals for their property and to discuss marketing opportunities for them. On many occasions, I know they have called in other agencies and am always […]
It’s been a while since I had a rant so I guess the time is ripe to get back to basics and list out all those things that give vacation rentals a bad rap. In my day job as the CEO of a Vacation Rental Management Agency I see a lot of properties. Owners send […]
Over the past ten years in my cottage rental business as well as through this blog and podcast, I have talked at length with hundreds of vacation rental owners, many of whom have been amazingly successful. Those who have achieved great success share a set of perspectives and beliefs and habits. They: 1. Treat their […]
A late night phone call on the Friday of a holiday weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). An expectation that there would be ‘instant gratification’. After all, it’s possible to order a pizza, book a flight to San Diego, and speak to a help-desk person in India to deal with a computer issue, so why not book a […]
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