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“REV UP YOUR RENTALS” RECESSION PLAN by Christine Karpinski February 2, 2009 Homeowners Can Stimulate Their Own Economy in 2009
Worried that bleak economic conditions mean your vacation home will sit empty in 2009? Stop wringing your hands and start taking innovative action now to pull in renters.
We’re all concerned about the economy. And if you own a second home you rent to vacationers, you’re certainly no exception. Will cash-crunched consumers cut their travel in 2009? you can’t help but wonder. Will they stay in vacation homes? And more to the point, will I get enough bookings to cover my mortgage? Stop worrying and start taking action. No matter how bad things get, many people will continue to take vacations and they will need places to stay—you just have to persuade them to choose your place.
Now is the time for homeowners to kick their marketing efforts up a notch. With a little flexibility and creative thinking, you can attract and capture ’09 vacation seekers.
Remember, between now and March is heavy booking season. And many people who travel with extended family (a perfect group for vacation homeowners to target, by the way) like to plan next summer’s vacation when everyone is together for the holidays. In other words, if you want to set yourself up for success in 2009, you’d better get started right away.
Allow renters to put their vacation on layaway. If you’ve been following retail news, you know that many stores are responding to the credit crisis—and its attendant “pay in cash” trend—by bringing back the “layaway” plans popular decades ago. Vacation homeowners can do the same. Rather than insisting upon the typical 50 percent down, why not allow customers to pay in monthly or biweekly installments? Your goal should be to have the customer paid-in-full prior to arrival.
Paying several thousand dollars in one whack can seem overwhelming these days. But when you let a customer make payments, suddenly it seems much more doable. Just feature your layaway option prominently on your website, or at least in your inquiry responses to travelers.
Scrutinize your web listing to make sure it’s up-to-date. If you rent by owner, chances are you have a personalized listing with one or more of the major online marketplaces. To customers searching for a vacation rental, that listing is your home. Are you sure there’s nothing off-putting about your listing? Are all your amenities included? If you haven’t looked at your web listing lately, do so now.
Sometimes homeowners forget to indicate all their amenities. Maybe they have Internet access, for example, but for whatever reason they didn’t check it off. Well, if a potential renter is planning to do a little work while on vacation and it looks like he can’t, that’s a significant barrier. He probably won’t contact you. In this economy you must be sure you’re depicting your home in the most detailed and positive light possible.
Make sure your photos do your home justice. Your house may be absolutely beautiful, but if your photos are poorly composed or staged, potential renters will never know. Sometimes a few adjustments can make a world of difference. For example, if you have a fireplace, light it for a look of coziness. Open all blinds to let in natural light. Stand up on a chair so you’re looking down at the room and be sure ceiling fans don’t appear in the shot (this will make the room look bigger). Arrange magazines on coffee tables and make sure all trashcans are empty.
With minimal effort you can make the rooms you’ve so carefully decorated photograph as well as they look in real life.
List “driving distance” to nearby cities on your website. If your vacation home is located in, say, eastern Tennessee, include on your site how far you are from Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Asheville—basically, any city within driving distance. This will help your listing perform better in search engines such as Google or Yahoo. It will also attract those travelers who might not be willing to fly to a major (and pricey) vacation destination but who would consider driving a few hours to a fairly inexpensive one.
The bad economy may well result in more people traveling shorter distances—especially now that gas prices are lower. So make it easy for them to see how close by you really are. Listing as many cities as you can think of also shows potential guests that if they get bored, there’s plenty of action just a few hours away.
List cost comparisons to hotels in your marketing. Remember, your real competition is not so much other homeowners as it is hotel rooms. There are lots of people out there staying in hotels who could be staying in vacation homes—namely yours. Do a bit of homework on how much it costs to stay in hotels in your area, and post nightly rates prominently in your listing.
Be sure to mention how much money potential guests might save if they’re traveling with a group of friends or extended family. Even if visitors realize what a great deal vacation homes are—which is by no means a given, by the way—they’ll appreciate that you made it easy for them to make a smart decision.
Loosen up your minimum stay requirements. Tough economic times can make it infeasible to take a week off work and enjoy a lavish vacation.
However, many people will feel that they can commit to, say, a four-day weekend here and there. If you currently require a five- or seven-night minimum stay, consider adjusting it.
The more flexible you can be, the better. Strict requirements will turn travelers off and send them straight to a more accommodating competitor. Remember: Even a weekend is better for your pocketbook than zero nights.
Consider opening your home to furry customers. Do you welcome “man’s best friend” into your vacation home? No? Maybe it’s time you started. When you become pet-friendly, you open yourself up to a whole new market of travelers. A 2003-2004 national survey by the American Pet Products Association found that nearly 40 percent of all households in the U.S. have a dog. And according to the Travel Industry Association of America, more than 29 million Americans took trips of more than 50 miles with their pets (the vast majority of them dogs) during the past three years.
Remember, it costs hundreds of dollars for guests to board their dogs or hire a house sitter.
Even if you charge a pet fee or a pet deposit, it will still cost guests far less than leaving their four-footed friend in a boarding kennel.
I’ve known homeowners to double their bookings when they start allowing pets. And if you’re worried that someone’s dog will destroy your house, don’t be. If she is willing to bring along her pet, that pet is almost certainly well-behaved. And your guest will be so grateful that she’ll take extra care to ensure that her furry family member doesn’t scratch up the furniture or do his business on the carpet.
Partner with nearby attractions to provide customer discounts. If you’re worried about your rental property, chances are the owners of all the tourist attractions around you are worried, too. Consider approaching a few of them to ask if you can be a re-seller for them. You can offer a ticket (or a meal) at a discount to renters—a “value-added” service that sets you apart from the competition.
Obviously, this does require a little more work up-front. But once you get a relationship established with some local attractions it will really pay off. Look for (non-marketing) ways to cut costs. It’s pretty self-evident that you don’t want to slash your marketing efforts during an economic slump. Actually, you might even want to step them up. However, there probably are some other places you can cut costs. Are you paying too much for your cable TV package, for instance? You might get rid of pricey movie channels. And you might decide that your lawn doesn’t really need to be mowed every week—every other week might be fine.
Be sure to book your own vacation during a non-peak time. Yes, when you have a lovely mountain chalet in a winter resort area, it’s soooo tempting to snuggle in for a week at the height of ski season. Or, if you have a beach house, you naturally want to spend a glorious summer week or two soaking up the rays. Resist the temptation. You should leave all peak weeks open for rental.
Right now every dollar counts. With a little creativity, you can find plenty to do in and around your vacation home during the off-season. And maybe next year will be better.
Yes, we’re in a “renter’s market” right now, but that just means you need to go the extra mile to make your vacation home more appealing than the next person’s. If nothing else, taking a few proactive steps now feels much better than helplessly wringing your hands over the bleak economy. And when those 2009 bookings come rolling in, you’ll be glad you made the effort.
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