Online Availability Calendars : to update or not?

Do you keep the availability calendar for your vacation rental updated ? Is it worth it ?

If you are listed on multiple vacation rental sites, particularly those that have their own online availability calendar, then keeping them updated can be quite a chore. There are tools out there to help, but it is still a pain.

The question is : does it matter ? Do renters use online calendar availability to narrow down their choices, or do they simply ask for price and availability first, ignoring whether this information is already provided in your online availability calendar ?

In my experience, quite often, renters do not check your online availability calendar before sending a query. This can be for several reasons :

1. They simply don't bother ( or don't realise that they can check availability) Although I am sure this is sometimes true, I suspect this is a small minority of cases.

2. The renter's dates are flexible and hence, they don't want to limit their choices. I think this is often the case : the renter may not have yet booked their flights and hence their dates may be quite flexible. Ignoring the information in the online availability calendar allows them more flexibility in finding suitable vacation rentals.

3. The renter may send a lot of queries to see which vacation rental owner comes back with the best option on price and availability. Many vacation rental by owner sites now allow owners to create an enquiry list and then send the same query to all of these vacation rental owners at once. Thus it is easier to send off a "mass" enquiry to 10 or more vacation rental owners, than to individually check which of those vacation rental properties are available for the dates requested. This feature, although great from a renter's point of view, it somewhat of a pain for the vacation rental owner, since it results in a lot more enquiries from renters for every booking that will be generated.

So, it is a waste of time keeping your online availability calendar up to date ? Well, keep in mind that some vacation rental by owners sites prioritise the search results they provide to renters on the basis of which properties have most recently updated their online availability calendar. Hence, updates may actually increase your visibility to renters, resulting in more enquiries.

Comment, as always, welcome.

Kevin

Vacation Home Owner Newsletters

I am in the process of writing the July COHR Newsletter for publication to all the vacation home owners registered on COHR. I thought I would pause a while to consider the general topic of newsletters.

I receive a lot of newsletters from a variety of sources on a variety of different topics and they vary widely in their quality and ability to attract my interest.

So what makes a good newsletter ?

1. A good newsletter is targeted to the right audience :

Even if the newsletter is well-written and with good content, if the topics are not of interest to me, then I am not going to read it. Hence, make sure that your subscriber list contains only people who are interested in the topic at hand. All those registered for the COHR Newsletter are either vacation rental home owners, or owners of vacation rentals sites : hence, as long as my content is relevant to this group, my newsletter has at least a fighting chance to be read.

2. A good newsletter has original content :

It can be hard to keep coming up with original content, but if you want people to read the newsletter, there has to be some NEW element to the NEWsletter! I always include at least one feature article in the COHR Newsletters.

Examples include
On How Many Vacation Rental Sites Should You List ? , Comparing Visitor Traffic on Vacation Rental Web Sites or Vacation Rentals by Owner sites, Are they Profitable ? All of these are of interest to the vacation rental home owner and all are written personally by me based upons original ideas, analysis or research.

3. A good newsletter is short and easy to read :

I try to keep my COHR Newsletters to one page, using links to the additional content, such as feature articles. Even then, I fully expect that many readers will just scan and stop or click on something that looks interesting.

4. A good newsletter is a rare thing :

Don't try to publish newsletters too often. People will be too busy to read them or may even consider them to be spam ! I try to publish my COHR Newsletters about every two months. Depending on your topic, you may be able to do more frequently, but follow the general rule that less is more.

5. Keep in mind your reason for sending the newsletter :

If you objective is simply to educate, that's fine.

If your objective is to enhance your reputation as an expert in your field, then the quality of your content is key : this is one of the reasons why I always include a feature article. For the next issue, the feature article is on the topic of Free Vacation Rental Listings Sites , giving readers useful information on how to select the right free sites and what they can expect from the various types of free vacation rentals sites.

If your objective is to provide up to date information on services or products that you offer, make sure that the information is presented clearly and concisely, with links for more information.

6. Finally, don't forget to also publish your newsletters on your web site : many people may come back to them at a future date, and they can add useful content to your web site. Check out the COHR Newsletters as an example !


Regards,

Kevin

COHR Vacation Rental Site Listings

When I began Compare Owner Holiday Rentals (COHR) , my primary objective was to create one place where vacation rental home owners could go to select the best Vacation Rentals by Owner sites on which to advertise their vacation rentals.

I also wanted to generate at least a small amount of income to make running COHR worthwhile.

I had a number of different ideas, including offering "bundles" of listings on several vacaton rentals sites together : my thinking was that I could "purchase" these from the various vacation rentals by owners sites at a discount and then "resell"them to vacation rental home owners. (Research that I had done indicated that most vacation rental home owners need to list on at least 3 paid sites in order to optimize bookings : see my article On How Many Vacation Rentals Sites ? )

However, as it turns out, there was not much interest among the vacation rentals by owner sites in participating, so that never came to much. (Interestingly, though, WVR has subsequently taken this "bundling" approach with it $299 offer for combined listings on Cyberrentals, A1Vacattions, Greatrentals and HomeAway. )

I also pursued direct advertising and affiliates as a source of income. My advertising with Adbrite has actually been quite successful, with a 75% renewal rate among advertisers on the COHR site. However, the amount of income this brings is very small, barely covering hosting fees.

After some thought and a great deal of deliberation, I decided that I would convert the basic listings on COHR from free to paid. I had some concerns, because I don't want to be seen to promote specific vacation rentals sites. Hence, I only accept payment for the basic listings in our comparison tables. These tables contain only facts about each Vacation Rentals by Owner site, together with a link to the vacation rentals by owner site. I do not accept any payment for Reviews of vacation rentals sites, in order that these be completely impartial and independent of the vacation rental site owner. ( Actually, my Vacation Rentals by Owner Site Reviews focus primarily on highlighting facts and features of each vacation rental site, rather than subjective comments on how good or bad a particular site is : I rely on the owner comments to provide such subjective feedback.)

Over the last couple of months, I have gradually been shifting to this paid listings basis. At this point, all new listings are accepted only upon payment. During July, I will move to only paid listings on the COHR home page, and will slowly migrate the other pages after that.

I do have some concerns about moving in this direction : I really want to make sure that vacation rental home owners who visit my site feel they are getting good and impartial information. Also, even when all listings are converted, COHR is not going to make me rich. However, I think this is a win-win-win situation : vacation rental site owners benefit from the opportunity to reach a targeted audience of vacation rentals home owners ; vacation rental home owners benefit from having one place where they can review a large number of vacation rentals by owner sites and I recieve some compensation for the work involved in putting it all together !

As always, I would welcome comments.

Regards,

Kevin