The Three C's of Vacation Home Marketing
Jon Ludwig
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Article Title:
The Three C's of Vacation Home Marketing
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Article Description:
As both vacation rental property owners and vacation rental
advertising website operators, we have often had other vacation
rental owners as well as online and offline publications ask us
what really drives the vacation rentals by owner market. We
answer that question in this article.
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Distribution Date and Time: 2010-01-12 11:30:00
Written By: Jon Ludwig
Copyright: 2009-2010
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The Three C's of Vacation Home Marketing
Copyright (c) 2009-2010 Jon Ludwig
Find Vacation Rentals
http://www.findvacationrentals.com/
As both vacation rental property owners and vacation rental
advertising website operators, we have often had other vacation
rental owners as well as online and offline publications ask us
what really drives the vacation rentals by owner market. After a
lot of thought and a lot of years of experience, we've distilled
it down to what we call the "three C's" of vacation rental
marketing: cost, comfort, and convenience. On our own vacation
rentals by owner advertising website we posted a page on this
topic in our owner's section, but thought that this was
something worth exploring on the blog to get some additional
feedback from the owner community.
Why "cost", "comfort", and "convenience"? Cost is a pretty
simple argument. A typical family of four planning a vacation is
probably going to require two hotel rooms, one for mom and dad,
and one for the kids. A decent hotel room generally costs
$150/night, depending on the location. In the high season in many
hot vacation destinations, hotels can cost up to $300 or more a
night. If you multiply that times two for two rooms, you are
looking at $300 to $600 or more per night. In most cases, that
same family of four can find a great vacation rental property
with far more amenities than a boring hotel room for half of that
price.
The other important aspect to the cost argument for vacation
rentals versus hotels is the fact that almost 100% of vacation
rental properties have kitchens with a complete set of appliances
and cutlery. This gives a family on a vacation the option of
cooking meals in, which can save a tremendous amount of money. A
family of four would probably be looking at a budget of at least
$150 a day in food if they had to eat every meal out, whereas
utilizing the kitchen in an average vacation rental would allow
them to save at least half of that figure by cooking a few meals
in.
Comfort is a very important draw for a vacation rental versus a
hotel. Since many vacation rentals are individually owned and
represent a families second residence, they typically have
comfortable furniture, DVD players, music systems, nice kitchens,
and comfortable beds in the bedrooms. A hotel room exists to make
money for its owners. It is a safe bet that these owners have
never spent a night in the hotel, and never will. Typically, any
comfort items in a hotel are looked upon by its owners as
expenses that need to be minimized, not as items that the owner
might themselves use from time to time. This difference in
philosophy creates a more comfortable atmosphere for the renter
of a vacation rental; you are truly staying in someone's home,
and that is generally a far more comfortable experience than the
clearly temporary surroundings offered by the average hotel room.
The convenience features of a vacation rental are often
overlooked by the owners when they advertise their vacation
rentals online. For example, if you owned a vacation rental near
the beach in Destin, Florida, it would likely come stocked with
rafts, beach towels, children's beach play equipment, a DVD
player, a decent television, and a variety of specialty
appliances in the kitchen, including everything from coffee
makers to can-openers. The average hotel has none of these
things, so a family would have to go out an buy rafts, beach
towels, beach toys, etc, they would have to haul it all along
with them, or they would have to go without. It is much more
convenient for the traveling family to have these things
available as part of the vacation rental's standard amenities.
Being in the vacation rentals by owner advertising business, we
have looked at a lot of advertisements that owners have posted
for vacation rentals. While many of them are good descriptions of
the basic features of the property, it is too easy to lose site
of the advantages that your vacation rental provides for the
traveling family when you are trying to distill your vacation
rental down to a basic set of features. We suggest that you focus
the text of your advertisements on the "Three C's" advantages
your rental has. If it has a closet full of rafts, snorkeling
equipment or beach gear that the renter can use, make sure to
state that. If it has a heated garage space for ski equipment so
the renters boots will be warm and dry the next day, that's
important to mention.
It's important to remember that your primary competition in the
vacation rental business is not really other vacation rentals; it
is hotels. Yes, hotels are easier to book than vacation rentals.
Yes, they are less risky than vacation rentals. But, they cannot
compete when it comes to the "three C's", and we suggest that
you push those advantages of your vacation rental in all your
online advertisements.
This article originally published here:
http://www.vacationrentalsindustry.com/blog/
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Jon Ludwig owns and operates the Find Vacation Rentals
website, located at: http://www.findvacationrentals.com/
If you are looking for new vacation rental listings, see:
http://www.findvacationrentals.com/new-vacation-rentals-by-owner.html
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