Vacation Rentals Leader Web site Rentalo.com Shares Proven Tips and Business Practices on How to Maximize Online Advertising Profits with Vacation Rental Owners

Miami, FL. February 6, 2010. It’s no big secret that the travel industry has felt the pinch of a weak economy.  The housing bubble and unemployment are just some of the factors that have made the vacation rental industry almost a ground zero of this economic downturn with many owners and investors loosing their second homes all over the world.  Despite these economic troubles, Rentalo.com; a leading vacation rental advertising company; has managed to help many property owners achieve success via effective internet advertising. 

“The quality of service my company has experienced and the ease of use that Rentalo's web site offers property managers is second to none. With out the exposure that my beach house gets from listing with Rentalo I would have had little hope of making it through the difficult down turn in the economy. Thank you to every one at Rentalo for helping my company thrives in a challenging economy.” Morrision H. Gross, Owner/manager of an oceanfront vacation home in Lincoln City, Oregon.

“I have been using Rentalo for 4 years and most recently, during tough economic times, Rentalo has exceeded my expectations in 3 important ways: 1. A referral from Rentalo resulted in a client couple renting a vacation villa for 4 months; they loved our resort and visited countless waterfalls, hiked the Highlands and themselves referred 8 more guests to Cabot Shores. 2. Rentalo's search engine promotion got Cabot Shores in December to the top of AOL travel recommendations 3. A number of prospects/guests saw our lobster fishing video as a result of Rentalo promotion and booked adventure packages with us and extended their stay at Cabot Shores. My business results are up 40% during a recession. I give Rentalo thanks for helping our business excel during what are otherwise tough times.” Dr. Paul Weinberg, owner and operator of Cabot Shores Wilderness Resort in Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

“The vacation rental niche is travel industry’s best kept secret,” says Alfredo Purrinos, President and founder of Rentalo.com “a growing awareness of this market is increasing, and wise vacation rental property owners should be prepared to fully capitalize on this opportunity.”

Here are some basic but essential things that every vacation property owner should keep in mind when advertising online:  

1.  Make sure all your property information is up to date.  Review the text on all your internet ads and make sure it is free of grammatical errors and inconsistencies.  Edit any information that has changed or remove what does not apply anymore.  Make sure your prices are current and are competitive within your market segment and that your calendar has the correct booked dates crossed out.  When writing the description of your property, make sure you include relevant keywords to your vacation rental.  For example, if you have a vacation rental in Orlando, think about what keywords a traveler would type on a search engine to find vacation rentals in Orlando in Florida.  Include those phrases as naturally as you can in the body of your vacation rental ad.  Take advantage of sites that allow unlimited text, but don’t over do it, nobody likes to read a dissertation.

2. Update your Photos.  A picture has a better chance of enticing a potential guest than a nicely written sentence does.  Photos sell, and this is your chance to show off your vacation rental to the world.  Make sure that you have high resolution photos of your property.  If you can afford a professional photographer to do it, it is highly recommended.  Whatever you do, make sure you don’t upload scanned or low resolution images.  Look for vacation rental advertising sites like Rentalo.com that allow owners to upload unlimited high resolution photos and even give you a slideshow feature to show them off.

3. Be creative.  Vacation rental property owners should think of creative ways to make their property stand out.  Special Offers are a great way to accomplish this.  Run a special on weeks that are usually slow, that will get people to look at your property and maybe inquire on dates that are not in special.  Offer amenities that other owners in your area do not offer.  Extend a discount to repeat customers or first time guests.  Some vacation rental directories allow owners to broadcast their specials or post them on their ad.

4. Be ready to answer your leads.  Technology can be your greatest ally when it comes to answering your leads in a professional and timely fashion.  Owners should not let their leads sit for hours before they are answered, inquiries from potential travelers should be answered immediately.  Make sure you have all your gadgets configured to get your e-mails wherever you are.  Rentalo.com offers a unique tool that allows you to quote offers to travelers 24/7 without you having to do it manually.  No matter how you make it happen, make sure you are answering leads as fast as possible.

5.  Cast a wider net. Consider investing on other vacation rental directory websites.  According to Alfredo Purrino’s “Vacation Rental Directories Marketing Study”, most travelers use the main vacation rental directories to find lodging.  Vacation rental business owners should consider advertising on as many of the top directories as budget allows.  The cost to advertise on the top vacation rental directories is roughly $1,000 per year, which represents approximately a 5% advertising budget, based on a yearly vacation rental business income of $20,000 (e.g. a typical yearly rental income for an individual vacation property).

So let’s get ready for a new chapter in the travel and vacation rental industry, and may the best vacation rentals get booked!

About Rentalo.com

Rentalo.com is a leading online travel lodging website that offers comparison shopping on vacation rentals and hotels. Its inventory of over 200,000 vacation rentals, bed and breakfasts and hotels is accessible through search engines, RSS feeds; affiliate online distribution partners, as well as thousands of journalists and editors through e-mail, press releases and travel publications. Through selected partnerships, Rentalo's inventory is available to an online audience of more than 100 million travelers in the United States and abroad.  For more information, go to http://rentalo.com or call 1(877) 710-5914, 1(305) 558-5577.