Reducing Vacancies for Vacation Rentals

[Matt Sullivan]

I remember reading a blog post a few months back that someone had written about using a third party website that helped reduce their vacancy rate significantly because it would reduce pricing to entice more people to possibly choose your rental. I can't remember the article or who wrote it. Can anyone share this website or the blog article?

[John Underwood]

I don't remember that article. What I have done to stay slam full is.

Monitor similar properties and stay competitivly priced. I check other Homeaway.Com properties throughout the year and adjust my prices accordingly. I update my calendar several times a week accept online bookings and reply quickly to inquiries to ensure top placement in the search results. I have built up over 50 5 star reviews. When I first started I kept my pricing on the low side to get people coming and to build up my reviews. Now I have many repeat people coming back every year. I also am aware of local events like Clemson Graduation, football games, fishing tournaments etc that drive demand and price for our Lake house. We Co Stanly make upgrades and max out the pictures that we can have on the site. I know have to block dates I want to use property or it gets rented. It is amazing how well a lake house can rent in the cooler and cold months too. I looked at other websites that cater more to renting rooms vs whole house and they aren't that popular in my area and home away keeps me amazing gly occupied. I also use a Craigslist ad to drive demand but it only accounts for 10% of bookings.

So it is pretty easy to search and use filters on homeaway.Com to find your competition. I put the data in a spreadsheet and use the average price to find current rates and see how full the competitions calendars are for various dates and pricepoints. This giveshould me everything I need to be competitive.