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This video is about how to book out your vacation rental. We polled some of our best experienced rental owners, and asked them for what tips they would share to someone who has a struggling rental, or is thinking about buying a rental. These tips will help you book your vacation rental out more, and build a healthier and more profitable business.
In this video:
0:00 - Book your rental more
0:29 - Have a theme
1:09 - Go nuts with decor
1:46 - Invest in photography
3:22 - Who are we?
3:52 - Prepare to repair
5:03 - Pick the right property manager
Brought to you by LakeHub. We are sharing the joy of lake life! Learn more at https://LakeHub.com
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0:00
What's up everybody it's Simon from Lakeb. Today we're talking about vacation
0:03
rentals. If you own a vacation rental on a lake or you're thinking about buying
0:08
one then we've got some tips for you. We polled our favorite rental owners for
0:15
three tips on how to book your rental out more often. And stick around to the
0:21
end because we've got some bonus tips on how to make sure that you have a more
0:26
sustainable profitable rental in the long run. Tip number one is to have a
0:32
theme. You have to stand out above the crowd. When people are shopping for
0:35
vacations they might be looking at half a dozen or a dozen different places and
0:41
you have to stick out above the crowd. It starts with your brand name. In this
0:47
case that's the name of your listing, that's the name of your rental. Give it a
0:52
good memorable brand name and then carry that theme into the decor. So
1:00
either start with the decor and then come up with a brand name or come up with a theme and a brand name and then decorate the house just like that. Tip
1:09
number two is when you're decorating go nuts. What I mean by that is this isn't a
1:17
house. You don't have to go subtle. You can go over the top with colors. You can
1:22
go over the top with you know kind of like crazy pictures and decor and stuff
1:27
that you wouldn't do at a house because people expect more from a rental. If you
1:33
decorate a rental like a house it feels plain Jane when you're on vacation. You
1:39
want kind of you know some places kind of Mickey Mouse up a little bit. Tip
1:45
number three is to invest in high quality photography. Now you don't want
1:51
to do this until your decor is completely finished. So if you're
1:56
renovating a place or you're redecorating or something like that make sure that every detail is done before you hire a photographer. But when
2:04
you do stage the place really well. Again lots and lots of details. If there's
2:10
their fire pit outside build a fire and show that fire raging when the
2:15
photographer is taking the pictures of the outside. Are there lights? Turn them
2:20
on. Is there you know like a video game system? Turn that sucker on. Place mats
2:27
with silverware. Every detail. Bed turned down just so. Every detail staged. Show
2:35
that place off. Spick and span. Not a gum wrapper on the counter. Nothing like that
2:41
Okay take the time. Invest the money in order to get those beautiful photos that
2:49
is going to be your number one marketing asset. Yes you need to hook
2:54
them in with brand name and yes you need to inspire people with a good theme but
3:00
the photos are what really really really sell it home. You're gonna use those
3:05
photos on every platform that you advertise and you're gonna use them for
3:09
a long time. So this is the sort of thing that you need to buy once cry once. Get it
3:14
done right. Invest in that. It will pay off in more bookings. I just want to take
3:23
a moment to say that we are Lake Hub. We are sharing the joy of lake life. We
3:27
invest in our lake visitors. We want to give you guys all the information that
3:32
you need. We invest in our small business owners around the lake and when
3:37
everybody has everything that they need in order to have the best time at the
3:41
lake, everybody wins. The business owners win. The visitors win. Everybody has a
3:45
good time and comes back to the lake. That's what we're all about. We love our
3:49
lakes. Subscribe if you do too. Bonus tip number one. People will not treat your
3:56
place like their house. It will get beat up. You need to prepare to repair. Okay
4:03
that's just a cost of doing business when you have a vacation rental. So
4:08
expect repairs. Which leads me into the second bonus tip which is to over
4:16
engineer everything. Go big on furniture especially outside furniture. If you go
4:25
with kind of cheap wood kits and stuff like that, cheap outside furniture, it's
4:30
tempting because outside furniture can be expensive but expect that stuff to
4:35
get beat up. I mean not just weathered but it'll break. I mean if it's not built
4:44
really really well and when I when I say really really well I mean with lumber or
4:48
channel iron like custom-built heavy-duty outdoor furniture, it's going to break. You're going to go through sets. So that's just something that that folks
5:00
learn from having vacation rentals. Final tip if you hire a property manager and
5:07
you're having somebody else do all the bookings, taking care of cleanings, so on
5:11
and so forth. If that's you, be very picky about who you hire. That can help your
5:18
business be profitable in the long run. Not all property managers are created
5:22
equal. Okay so if you get a good referral from somebody, read the reviews, take the
5:29
time. I mean you're going to be married. You're going to be married to this person
5:34
for a long time. This person or this company or whatever it is that you're
5:37
hiring, you're going to be married to them. They're going to be an integral part of your business. Oftentimes they'll take 25-30% of your bookings, of your gross bookings
5:46
So you're going to be paying them a lot of money. You want to make sure that they
5:50
are top-notch. If they're top-notch, you will book more, period. And so that is
5:56
another way to invest in your business is to be very, very, very picky about who
6:02
is managing your property. With those tips, you're ready to have a better
6:07
vacation rental business. I'm Simon from Light Club. I hope that helped you. We'll
6:11
see you next time
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