More and more people are looking past hotel accommodations and looking more towards vacation rentals. It’s not there’s anything wrong with hotels but vacation rentals give guests that added sense of home.
With vacation rentals, you’re able to make a home-cooked meal, have a spacious area for everyone to sit down and socialize, plus it’s accommodating to more people other than two to four people per room, like in hotels.
And as a vacation rental owner, it’s a hospitality goldmine!
Whether you’ve made the decision to rent out your actual home or if you bought a home and are specifically utilizing it for vacation rentals, there is some serious money to be made. Being the owner of a vacation rental property, you’re the host and technically, a small business owner… you may not feel like a small business owner but you are, and in order to successfully rent your property out, you have to get into that entrepreneurial mindset… The reality is that by hosting your rental property, you’re technically starting your very own real estate business… According to Forbes, you can even start a vacation rental business without even getting involved in real estate… you just have to decide what you want to get your hands into.
Getting in the entrepreneurial mindset means that you have to take the necessary steps to rent your home legally, understand that renting your property means you’re in a very competitive market (even though it may not feel like you’re running a business), and you have to list your property at a price that’s not so high that it pushes potential renters away but not so low that you end up losing money.
When you’re in the stage of deciding whether or not you want to rent out your property, one of the best ways to help you decide is to check out your market first. There are tools to help you understand your rental market and help you to make better business decisions. Once you check your market and see that your property will do well, that’s when it’s time to get your property ready to receive guests.
Price Your Property Appropriately
If you’re new to the real estate market, you’re probably just guessing what’s the right price to list your property at. A lot of hosts will “low ball” their property and list it way too low just to outdo their competition and bring more people to their property… Well, there’s a reason people say quality over quantity…
It doesn’t matter how many people you get to stay in your rental; what matters is pricing your rental at a rate that’s fitting for what you’re offering. If a potential renter really likes what they see, they’re going to be willing to pay what you’re asking for if it means they’ll be staying in a high-quality accommodation… people will pay for what they want, and once you know and understand that, you’ll price your property for what it’s worth.
Make Your Property Stand Out
One of the quickest ways to grab the attention of potential renters is to make your property stand out from hotels and other accommodations; you have to create an attractive listing. Think about it like dating and getting to know someone… This might sound superficial but there has to be a physical attraction first before you even have it in your mind to want to get to know someone. If you’re not attracted to a person physically, you’re not going to want to get to know them on a deeper level because you’re not physically attracted to them.
That same theory applies to real estate. If a person is looking for a vacation rental, they’re not going to even click on a listing to see all the amenities it has simply because it doesn’t look good on the outside or have curb appeal. That reason alone is why you need to post photos of the outside of the house with detailed descriptions and also make sure you get good photos of the landscaping as well. The whole point of making your property stand out is to make it more appealing than your competitors, which is not only other vacation rentals but you’re up against big hotel giants as well.
Add the Detailed Touches
As mentioned earlier, people opt for vacation rentals because they want the comfort of home away from home. So in order for you to give guests that added touch of home, you’re going to have to give it to them in the details.
You’ll, of course, need to have the big necessities like wifi, alarm systems, televisions, and bedding and towels but your property also needs to small details that make big impacts on guests like calming color palettes, pillows that say “welcome home,” wine glasses (and even some that say Mr. and Mrs.), toys for small children, etc.
You want to take the time out to include these little things because a lot of the times, they are things that guests would never think to bring with them on their trip but having them there just made their trip that much better.
