Mistakes to Avoid While Booking Your Vacation Rentals
There has been an increasing demand for rentals, as compared to hotels and resorts. However, the rules for hotel booking do not apply to the rentals you wish to choose. Everything has its own pros and cons. Rentals provides you with a personalised and customised vacation plan.
You can fine tune, what you need and how you need it. Many Captiva island rentals, helps you in defining and planning the kind of vacation you need. Also, there are varied vacation packages designed by the rental agencies themselves, to save your time and energy. However, there are few mistakes to avoid, while you choose.
- Don’t hurry up in reading the brochure provided by the owners. You could be easily be misled by the initial glitzy sentences. Read the whole document to know about parking, AC, cleaning up and other services.
- Don’t take what the owner says about the distance from your condo to important points in the city. Check it out using digital map services.
- Don’t leave your booking process, through the rental agencies’ website. Send a mail and make sure you receive a confirmation from their side, reserving rooms for you, at your preferred dates.
- Don’t hide any details regarding your travel. Be it the dates or the number of people in your group or if there will be any pets. It will be an ugly scene, if the owner comes around to check on your comfort, and find that you have lied.
- Don’t just assume the availability of amenities, like internet, AC, housekeeping etc. Make sure you make a list of what’s available and what’s not.
- Don’t overlook the details in the documents. There is an inherent risk in terms of your transaction. So, take some time to check about the owner on the net and search for reviews.
Not Knowing When to Book
There is no hard-and-fast rule for the best time to book, but anticipating the seasonality of a destination and taking into account the most popular times to make reservations can help save you money.
People like to go to warm destinations in the winter months, so if you’re targeting a highly desirable destination, it may make sense to book early. If you are going to a destination with a lot of availability it might make sense to book later.
Regardless, travelers should try to avoid the most popular booking times, when rates may be more inflated. According to Trivago.com, the most popular times to book hotels are at 6 and 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays. (Thursday evenings are a close second.) Checking prices multiple times between Tuesday night and Sunday (the least popular day to book) may yield different, possibly lower, prices and allow you to secure the best deal.
Don’t assume the owner will be readily available.
If you think about how often you check with the front desk during a typical hotel stay, you will recognize that having someone to talk to about your rental can be very important. Particularly if there is a problem, it helps to have an actual person to deal with, so be sure to ask if the owner or a representative will be available during your rental period. Get a reliable emergency contact number that you can reach if the plumbing breaks, the electricity goes out or other problems arise.
Don’t fudge the details of your stay.
In the same way you would like owners to be upfront and honest about their listings, you will want to be honest about who you are bringing, how many people will be around, if you have a pet in tow and similar details. Many owners greet their tenants and stop by to make sure things are going well, so you are likely to be found out if you do fudge the details.
How to avoid a rogue rental
• Rent from a reputable source. Typically, a professionally managed vacation rental or a by-owner rental belonging to a trade group such as the Vacation Rental Managers Association or Onsite Property Management Association is a sign your unit is on the up-and-up.
• Look for guarantees. HomeAway and Airbnb have customer guarantees that can ensure your rental will meet minimum standards. Wyndham Vacation Rentals even offers a “bill of rights” that promises a professionally managed and clean rental.
• Learn to recognize a rogue — and report it. Vacation rentals that don’t play by the rules tend to price their rentals aggressively and demand payment by wire. “It’s the cardinal rule. “If the deal is too good to be true, trust your instincts, and report it to the website in question.”
Mistakes That Sabotage Vacation Rental Bookings
1. Underestimating the power of research
Do not underestimate the importance of research. In addition to just listing your properties, the information you pull from sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway can be invaluable.
2. Having a love affair with just one booking site
It might be easier to work with only one reservation site, but getting all of your vacation properties listed on all of the booking sites out there is absolutely crucial. Think of it as a marketing strategy, not just another listing.
Once you’ve listed them, be sure to document all of the channels your properties are listed on and keep an updated list on the status of each property in order to best manage the postings and avoid double bookings.
3. Your headline is boring
Making your properties stand out from the crowd begins with a tantalizing headline. Travelers often search for rentals by choice luxury keyword after they’ve established the location, so be sure to highlight the most exciting qualities of your property.
4. Your listings aren’t visually exciting
Beware: An eye‐catching headline will fall short unless it’s been paired with plenty of gorgeous, dynamic and appealing photographs!
We exist in an information‐overloaded, image‐oriented world. Take the time to stage your property as if you were preparing to welcome a guest. Make sure to capture a variety of landscape photos formatted to a size of at least 1024px x 683px (ideally, 24 pictures total).