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Rentors.org News #22 November 30, 2004
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Expert Tips and Tricks for Vacation Rental Homeowners from
the founders of Rentors.org:

http://www.a1vacations.com/
http://www.cyberrentals.com/
http://www.greatrentals.com/
http://www.vrbo.com/

This newsletter is emailed every 8 weeks to owners of
vacation rental homes who have registered for a free
Universal Availability Calendar and/or Guest Book at:

http://www.rentors.org/

-- # Members: 37,136
-- # Calendars: 46,945
-- # Guestbooks: 17,772

In this issue:

1 - Please Update Your Calendar and Guest Book Today
2 - Holiday Rates & Dates, 2004-2005
3 - When Renters Ask, "Are You For Real?"
4 - Marketing Your Property "Off-Season"
5 - Going "Around the World" for Great Listings
6 - Your Own Domain Name for Pennies a Day
7 - Collecting and Paying Sales Tax
8 - Classified Ads
9 - More Vacation Rental Tips
10 - Rentors.org Sponsors Information
11 - Please Refer a Friend to Rentors.org
12 - How to Cancel This Newsletter

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1 - Please Update Your Calendar and Guest Book Today
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Your self-service Universal Availability Calendar at
Rentors.org has no value if it isn't kept up-to-date. Please
follow the link below to login to Rentors.org and update
your vacation rental calendar today.

Rentors Login: http://www.rentors.org/login.cfm


If you can't recall your Rentors.org password, check the
bottom-left text in the yellow box at the login screen.

While you're there, be sure to set up a vacation rental
Guest Book. Renter comments in guest books add credibility
to your vacation rental and help you to stand out from your
competitors.

And remember: As the owner, you can type in the comments
made by guests in your paper guest book (or sent to you via
email). You don't have to rely on former guests to key in
their own comments, although they can do so online if they
want to.

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2 - Holiday Rates & Dates, 2004-2005
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It's time to update your vacation rental Web pages with your
rates for 2005 holidays. Here are some possible "rate-
premium" USA holidays to consider when you set your vacation
rental rates and dates for the rest of 2004, and for all of
2005. Some dates command premium rates in just a few
locations -- like Columbus Day weekend in New England, which
is generally the peak date for fall color in that region.

Other dates can act as pegs upon which you can hang an
imaginative special offer or promotion. Why not a "St.
Patrick's Day" special, for example, including a
complementary six pack of Harp or some other Irish beer?
Father's Day, Mother's Day, even Flag Day. There are lots of
possibilities.

SELECTED USA HOLIDAYS, BALANCE OF 2004

Dec 7, 2004 Tuesday: Hanukkah begins at sundown
Dec 25, 2004 Saturday: USA Christmas Day
Dec 26, 2004 Sunday: USA Kwanzaa begins

SELECTED USA HOLIDAYS, 2005

Jan 1, 2005 Saturday: New Year's Day
Jan 17, 2005 Monday: Martin Luther King Day
Jan 20, 2005 Thursday: USA Inauguration Day 2005
Feb 21, 2005 Monday: USA Presidents' Day
Mar 17, 2005 Thursday: St. Patrick's Day
Mar 20, 2005 Sunday: Palm Sunday; Spring begins
Mar 27, 2005 Sunday: Easter
Apr 23, 2005 Saturday: Passover begins at sundown
May 8, 2005 Sunday: USA Mother's Day
May 30, 2005 Monday: USA Memorial Day (observed)
Jun 14, 2005 Tuesday: USA Flag Day
Jun 19, 2005 Sunday: USA Father's Day
Jun 21, 2005 Tuesday: Summer begins
Jul 4, 2005 Monday: Independence Day
Sep 5, 2005 Monday: USA Labor Day
Sep 22, 2005 Thursday: Autumn begins
Oct 3, 2005 Monday: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown
Oct 4, 2005 Tuesday: First day of Ramadan
Oct 10, 2005 Monday: Columbus Day (observed)
Oct 12, 2005 Wednesday: Yom Kippur begins at sundown
Oct 31, 2005 Monday: USA Halloween
Nov 11, 2005 Friday: Veterans' Day
Nov 24, 2005 Thursday: USA Thanksgiving Day
Dec 21, 2005 Wednesday: Winter begins
Dec 25, 2005 Sunday: Christmas; Hanukkah (at sundown)
Dec 26, 2005 Monday: Kwanzaa begins

-- Brian and Lisa Raub, A1 Vacation Rentals

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3 - When Renters Ask, "Are You for Real?"
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We talked recently with a vacation property owner who had
been put on the spot by a prospective renter and wasn't
quite sure how to respond:

"How do I know that the property in your online listing
really exists?" the rental prospect asked. "How do I know
that you really own it, and that you have the authority to
rent it?"

It turned out that both the caller and her husband were
attorneys and that she was merely applying her professional
skepticism to a private transaction.

Should you ever face a similar query, it's worth considering
some of the steps you might take to assure any prospective
renter that you and your property are legitimate and real.

First, if you have paid for a listing on a leading website,
there's a very good chance that such a site will have a
"three strikes and you're out" policy or something similar.
Such a policy removes and blocks "problem" property owners
from listing on the site.

For example, at CyberRentals, if we receive three serious
complaints on one property, we will summarily remove that
home from the site. To be fair, we immediately forward any
complaints we receive from renters, along with a copy of our
policy, so that the homeowners can have the chance to
respond. We strive to be as fair as is humanly possible.
But, in our experience, three serious complaints are a
pretty good indication of serious owner-related problems.

Our colleagues at Rentors.org have similar policies. All of
us realize that our business depends on prospective renters
being able to trust the listings we provide. So having your
property listed on a leading site for six months or more is
a pretty important validation.

Your rental prospects can verify this for themselves by
looking for the "Member Since" or "Page First Published On"
information that appears in your listing.

Second, there's the matter of credit card merchant status.
Rentors.org makes it easy for you to get merchant status and
to accept credit cards for your rentals. This is a huge
convenience for your renters. But it also acts as one more
validation.

With good reason, credit card companies abhor "chargebacks"
(which occur when a renter complains to the credit card
company about a problem instead of trying to resolve it with
the property owner). Anyone who is running a vacation rental
scam would probably have chargebacks galore. The credit card
companies would cut them off quite quickly.

Proving your legitimacy is one more reason to enable your
free Rentors.org Guest Book. Because owner-entered comments
show up as such, it isn't easy for a would-be scammer to
load the book with a bunch of fake entries, to say nothing
of faking a dozen writing styles.

Finally, as a last resort, you might consider lining up two
or three former guests who would be willing to serve as
references. (Offer them a free night or two in return.)
Ideally, your references would be located in different parts
of the country and willing to be contacted by telephone. (E-
mail references are too easy to fake.)

-- Hunter Melville and Dave Bollinger, CyberRentals

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4 - Marketing Your Property "Off-Season"
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No sensible person wants to leave money on the table. But
that's what many vacation rental owners are doing by failing
to actively market their properties during the "off-season."

Your off-season will vary with your location, of course. But
once you change your mindset to focus on off-season
attractions, you'll find all kinds of possibilities.

For example, some vacationers actually prefer the stark
beauty of a deserted beach bathed by the slate-gray waves
of November. And the same slopes that attract skiers in
winter have a very different beauty in spring, summer, and
fall.

As for things to do, many state and local tourism boards
have begun to actively line up film, music, and arts
festivals to attract "extended-season" visitors. Make a
point of finding out what's scheduled in the off-season
months ahead.

And, of course, all off-seasons offer that priceless
feature: lack of crowds. That means your renters won't have
to jockey for parking spaces at the supermarket or call two
weeks ahead for restaurant reservations.

You might also want to add off-season amenities, like an air
conditioner for your ski chalet or a hot tub for your beach
house. And you will certainly want to offer off-season
specials and off-season rates. The listings posted by
competing property owners can be a good guide here.

But the most important thing, after changing your own
mindset, is to change the mindset of your prospective
renters. Start by reviewing the text in your online
listings. Add a paragraph or two to help your prospects
"connect the dots" regarding the unexpected delights of
renting your place in the off-season months.

Review your pictures as well. You'll probably want to
continue featuring your peak-season photos. But you might
consider adding a couple of additional shots that capture
the glories of an off-season visit.

Finally, you can easily tailor the descriptive title for
your property to call attention to the benefits of the off
season. In fact, some savvy property owners routinely change
the wording in their descriptive titles every few weeks or
so to highlight a different aspect of their vacation
property and its locale.

-- Jan and Pat VanVoorhis, Great Rentals

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5 - Going "Around the World" for Great Listings
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If you aren't getting all the bookings you want--and you're
sure that your rates and amenities match your competition--
the problem could lie with your online listings.

Be brutally honest with yourself: Are your pictures superb?
Is your descriptive copy the best it can be? Do you have a
real "grabber" of a headline or title for your property?

Review your listings and get them fixed in your mind. Then
take the magical step of going "Around the World in 80
Homes" and start trawling for ideas.

"Around the World in 80 Homes" is a TV show from the Fine
Living cable channel. The show's producers have sifted
through thousands of online listings to identify really
interesting, special vacation rental properties. And at
their website, they provide clickable links to the online
listings for these homes.

These listings are a treasure trove of information regarding
how to equip your property and how to describe it
effectively in your online listings.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Go to http://www.rentors.org/redirect/fineliving.cfm
which will take you to a list of themed episodes, each of
which includes seven or more properties.

2. For each property, you will find a photo, a brief
description, and a link you can click on to view the listing
that's been prepared by the owner.

You'll get tons of ideas on how to make your property stand
out from the competition and how to boost your bookings.

-- Dave and Lynn Clouse, Vacation Rentals by Owner

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6 - Your Own Domain Name for Pennies a Day
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We are among the original evangelists for the concept of
owner-created, Internet-based, vacation property listings,
posted to leading vacation rental websites. Our own listings
on these sites have been extremely effective in keeping our
vacation property "fully booked"--so much so that we have
not yet felt the need to create a personal website for our
property.

The one drawback to these listings is that the Web addresses
are not all that easy for prospective renters to remember.
("For information about our Bucks County Cottage, go to
www.xyz.com and look for listing number 10251.") What if,
instead of having to provide both a Web address and a
listing number, we could just say "Go to
www.buckscountycottage.com"?

Well, for as little as $9.00 a year, you can do just that.
All you have to do is pay a small fee to register the domain
name of your choice with one of the Internet's registrar
services and "park" it there. Then tell that service to
forward or redirect users who key in that domain name to the
address of one of your online listings ("http://" followed
by the site name and your listing number).

Most services that offer domain name forwarding or
redirection also offer "masking," which conceals the fact
that the user has been redirected. There may or may not be
an extra charge for masking.

We have not done an exhaustive survey, but GoDaddy.com
appears to be the cheapest alternative for registration,
parking, and forwarding at about $9.00 a year. A site called
Register.com is another possibility, as is the venerable but
much more expensive NetworkSolutions.com.

Our advice is to try GoDaddy first. It's an established
player in the field, and for $9.00 a year you can't go far
wrong.

-- Alfred and Emily Glossbrenner
FullyBookedRentals.com
http://www.rentors.org/redirect/glossbrenner.cfm

The Glossbrenners are vacation rental experts and
bestselling authors of *How to Make Your Vacation Property
Work for You: The Quick & Easy Guide to Advertising,
Renting, Managing, and Making Money from your Second Home.*

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7 - Collecting and Paying Sales Tax
===================================

If you own a short-term rental, you are almost certainly
subject to sales, occupancy, and other taxes levied by your
state, county, township, city, or other governing body.
While renters pay these taxes as an add-on to the rental
cost, it's your responsibility to collect and remit them,
usually on a quarterly or monthly basis.

The trouble is, each taxing authority has different forms,
different requirements, and different due dates. Making a
mistake can cost you dearly in penalties and interest. (And
don't think that revenue- strapped governments aren't using
the Internet to identify owners of vacation rental property
who may owe back taxes.)

That's why Rentors.org has partnered with HotSpot
Management, a tax management service for vacation rental
homeowners and property managers. HotSpot takes care of
everything, charging $5 to $10 for each return it files on
your behalf, plus an annual $19.95 service fee. That means
that for about $80 to $120 a year, you will not only be in
full compliance, you will also make sure that you are
receiving all applicable rebates for timely filing.

If you mention Rentors.org and this article, HotSpot
Management will reduce your annual fee by 50% for the first
year. Call HotSpot at 877-589-0207 or see:

HotSpot Tax Info:
http://www.rentors.org/redirect/hotspot.cfm

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8 - Classified Ads
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Your classified ad can appear in the next issue of
Rentors.org News. Rates are $30/word (10-word minimum). URLs
count as 2 words. All caps are forbidden. Sorry, we do not
accept ads from vacation rental advertising services, and we
reserve the right to reject ads for any reason. Ads appear
in first- paid, first-listed order. Our next issue's payment
deadline is exactly 2 weeks from today. Contact:

admin@rentors.org

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9 - More Vacation Rental Tips
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If you would like to read more vacation rental tips, you can
refer to articles that were featured in previous issues of
this newsletter at:

http://www.rentors.org/archive/

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10 - Rentors.org Sponsor Information
====================================

Rentors.org is sponsored by these experienced vacation
rental advertising services. As at least one authority has
said, "There are literally hundreds of vacation rental
advertising websites, but only four that really matter."
Those four are the founders of Rentors.org, and each will be
pleased to help you maximize the rental income your property
generates each year by advertising it on the Internet. All
charge a flat annual fee. There are no commissions or other
nonsense.

The Rentors.org Availability Calendar and Guest Book work on
all four sites, so you will have just one calendar and/or
Guest Book to maintain.

A1Vacations - A1 Vacation Rentals
Home: http://www.a1vacations.com/
Join: http://www.a1vacations.com/advertise/

CyberRentals
Home: http://www.cyberrentals.com/
Join: http://www.cyberrentals.com/signup.html

Great Rentals
Home: http://www.greatrentals.com/
Join:
http://www.greatrentals.com/adminpublic/members_area.cfm

VRBO - Vacation Rentals by Owner
Home: http://www.vrbo.com/
Join: http://www.vrbo.com/global/owner.htm

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11 - Please Refer a Friend to Rentors.org
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This "Tips for Vacation Rental Homeowners" newsletter was
emailed to members of Rentors.org -- which offers free
online availability calendars and guest books for vacation
rental property homeowners and property managers.

Please refer a friend to:

http://www.rentors.org/

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12 - How to Cancel
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To cancel your newsletter subscription, please log in to
your Rentors.org account and then select "Delete this
Account." Your free calendar(s) and guest book(s) will be
deleted, and you will no longer receive this newsletter.
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Copyright (C) 2004 Rentors LLC, 95 Westlake Rd. Suite 205,
Hardy, VA 24101 USA Advertise: 540-375-3633
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