Marketing your vacation rental

The holiday season is hectic for almost everyone. But for vacation homeowners, the holiday season represents a tremendous opportunity. If your vacation home is located in a ski area or a beach area, there is high demand.

The holiday season also kicks off the peak winter travel season. Many travelers are looking to escape their winter blues and hit the slopes. Lake Tahoe is one of the peak ski destinations in the United States.

Here are some tips for making the most of the holiday vacation rental season. 

1. Get organized in advance. There isn’t going to be much downtime between guests so make sure the supplies are stockpiled, the cleaning service is scheduled, and any maintenance needed is done. The last thing you’ll want to deal with during peak days is an unneeded trip to the store to refill your supplies.
2. Take advantage of the inbound inquiries. Yes, it can be frustrating to field 25 requests for the same few days when you can only book it once. However, look at these inquiries as opportunity. These prospective guests liked your home enough to inquire. Offer an alternative weekend later in the season. Perhaps even mention a slight promotion to them since they could not get the days they desired. Just because you can’t book them for Christmas doesn’t mean that they might not be interested in a 3 day weekend in February.
3. Respond to inquiries IMMEDIATELY. Guests tend to send out many inquiries when they are browsing vacation rental sites. The first person to respond to them with availability in their price range is likely to win the business. Waiting a day or even many hours will most likely lead to lost business. OnlineVacationRentals.com features text notification when an inquiry is emailed to you. This gives you an opportunity to respond within moments of the guest viewing your home.  Sign up for it today.
4. Be professional. There are a lot of scams on the internet and many geared towards vacations and vacation rentals. Maintaining a professional demeanor will help to set the prospective guest at ease.  Being able to point to your OnlineVacationRentals.com, NorthTahoeRental.com, NorthShoreRental.com or other vacation rental marketing site can help as well.