Let’s talk “secrets.” People keep secrets for all kinds of reasons, but ultimately, every secret consists of knowledge that someone has and doesn’t want to share. Your “signature” recipes are an excellent example.

If you’ve researched, tested, and perfected a recipe for an incredible cocktail dip, why should you blithely hand it over to every guest who asks for it, knowing full well that they are certain to use it at their own parties? (We actually know one confrontation-averse hostess who will happily hand over her recipes—except that she always manages to leave out one or two key ingredients. Seems like a character straight out of Lake Wobegon on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion.)

Similarly, there are authentic “secrets” concerning how to make the most money from your vacation-rental property—with the least amount of aggravation and effort. And these are precisely the kinds of things that real-estate agents, property managers, advertising sites, and those with competing properties can’t—or won’t—tell you about successful “by owner” vacation rentals.

Why?

Ignorance and laziness are certainly major reasons. You can’t reveal what you don’t know. And you’re not likely to be motivated to dig into the subject if—like many rental agencies and property management companies—you’ve been coasting for as long as you can remember.

There’s also the matter of income protection. It could be the owner down the street or down the hall—the one with the identical house and pool or hot tub—who has figured out how to remain fully booked in a highly competitive market. Or it could be an exceptionally smart and energetic property management company. Or it could be somebody else. The fact is, no one else has any interest in sharing what they know to help you stay fully booked. They want those bookings for themselves!

As more and more people discover how to put their second homes to work by offering them as vacation rentals, the competition for bookings is only going to grow. That’s why we created our Vacation Rental Secrets & Sources series.

The first volume is ready now. Others are in the pipeline at various stages of development. If our book/CD “seminar-in-a-box” (How to Make Your Vacation Property Work for You!) is the foundation, the Vacation Rental Secrets & Sources (VRS&S) series is the “advanced course.”

When you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t be spending your time and energy creating a Web site for your property, investigating the latest in keyless locks, or putting together an online photo album. You should be focused on preparing a crackerjack listing for the leading online VR advertising sites. And you should concentrate on building a network of local cleaning and service people you can contact from afar should the need arise. 

It’s a question of priorities: Establish a solid foundation, and then build on it. Don’t do it the other way around.

However, when you’re ready to build, the VRS&S series can be an excellent guide. Here you will find in-depth, freestanding articles on a wide variety of advanced topics. Each one of them is packed with secrets, sources, and seasoned advice that is simply not available anywhere else.

And, as completely independent vacation-rental experts, our interest—our only interest—is giving our readers the best information and guidance possible. So you can bet we name names and make specific recommendations without fear or favor—just as we have done for more than 30 years in over 60 books on many varied subjects.

“Here’s What You Get”

FullyBookedRentals.com has gone electronic! Just as it makes perfect sense to offer our 300-page “seminar-in-a-box” as printed pages in a three-ring binder with a CD in the front pocket, it makes perfect sense to offer our VRS&S articles exclusively on CD. With an average length of about six pages, articles are “bite-size.” In contrast to a book, each can be easily printed, if you choose.

There is the additional advantage of low postage costs. (We ship the VRS&S CD free of charge.) And, perhaps most important of all, there is the advantage of being able to offer each article in full color—without the cost of printing in color. But, as noted, it is easy to print an article in color or black and white if you choose.

We also love the fact that electronic articles can be searched. The CD contains both PC and Mac versions of Adobe Reader, the program—with a built-in search function—that you’ll use to read and print the articles. And, of course, all the links to products and services we talk about and recommend are clickable, so you can read the articles on your computer screen and go directly to the Web sites for more details.

When you put the VRS&S CD into your drive, it will automatically call your Internet browser and run a file that will present the disk’s menu.

Here are the articles you’ll find on the menu for Volume 1:

• Fine-Tuning Your Advertising Program
• Taking Great Photos (or Hiring a Pro to Take Them for You)
• Creating and Using an Online Photo Album for Your Vacation Rental
• Showing More Photos for Less with Photo Collages
• Creating a Web Site for Your Vacation Rental Property
• Going Keyless (or Using a Lock Box) at Your Vacation Rental
• Cutting Energy Costs with a Tamper-Proof Thermostat
• Avoiding and Coping with Rental Bans and Restrictions

Volume 1: Article Overview

Fine-Tuning Your Advertising Program

• Why the best strategy for advertising your VR property is to sign up with as few sites as possible.
• How to do an annual review of your VR advertising program to determine what’s working and what’s not.
• Bookings vs. Inquiries? Which one should you be tracking and why?
• How to get extra months and other freebies if you’re not satisfied with a particular site’s performance.  
• Where to advertise your VR property. The “Big Four” sites we identified and recommended in the first and second editions of our Book/CD package are now owned by HomeAway. So we’ve taken a fresh look at the VR advertising field and come up with a new list of “Must-Have” sites. We’ve also revised and expanded our recommendations for the best regional and special-interest sites.  
• Adding a new site to your VR advertising program often means having one more calendar to update every time you take a booking. Unless the site supports the HomeAwayConnect (formerly Rentors.org) “Universal Availability Calendar.” But which sites support the HomeAwayConnect calendar? There’s no master list available anywhere—even at the HomeAwayConnect site! So we’ve created one and presented it in this article.

Taking Great Photos (or Hiring a Pro to Do It for You)

• Expert tips on taking great photos, from a professional photographer who specializes in doing interior and exterior shots of vacation rentals.
• How to avoid the amateur “snapshot” look in your photos.
• Creative ideas for “dressing the set” to make your photos more appealing.
• What to look for in a professional photographer if you decide to hire one.
• How to find a professional photographer (or a talented amateur) in your area with the right set of skills for taking the shots you need.
• How to work with your photographer, once you find the right one.
• A terrific source of “inspiration shots” to get your creative juices flowing!

Creating and Using an Online Photo Album

• Why creating an online photo album for your VR property is a good idea.
• The best free and low-cost photo-sharing Web sites.
• Step-by-step procedure for creating an online photo album that will help you understand the process, regardless of the specific site you decide to use.  
• How to include a link to your online photo album in your listings on HomeAway, VRBO, and other leading sites.  
• How to present your online photo album as a clickable link in e-mail messages and sig files.

Showing More Photos for Less with Photo Collages

• How to show more images of your VR property on sites that limit the number of photos you can include in your listing.
• How to save money on VR advertising sites that charge extra for adding photos to your listing.
• Why paying extra for more photos on VRBO is no longer a surefire way to move higher on the search results page.

Creating a Web Site for Your Vacation Rental Property

• Our Position: You may not need to create a Web site for your property. It’s definitely not the way to begin your advertising program, as we explain in this article. Create effective listings on several leading VR sites first, and then reassess the situation.    
• What are your options if you decide the time is right for creating a Web site for your VR property? What will you need and what’s the best way to go about it? What’s it likely to cost?
• Why hiring a professional Web designer (vs. doing it yourself) is the way to go.
• Examples of truly superb vacation-rental Web sites that you can use as a source of ideas and inspiration.
• Our “short list” of recommended Web designers with experience creating sites for VR owners.
• Tips and techniques for creating an effective VR Web site—one that elicits the “Wow!” reaction from prospective renters.
• Where to go for free critiques of your VR Web site, by experienced vacation-rental owners.
• How to get some of the key benefits of having your own Web site without actually creating one (a low-cost technique that you can set up in minutes).

Going Keyless (or Using a Lock Box) at Your Property

• Why keyless locks and lock boxes are preferable to mailing keys to your renters.
• How to buy keyless locks and lock boxes. Features to look for. Where to buy.
• Recommendations on specific makes and models that get high marks from VR owners.
• Two excellent Web sites that offer guidance on what to buy for your specific situation.
• The benefits of using a lock box as a backup to your keyless-entry system.

Cutting Energy Costs with a Tamper-Proof Thermostat

• How to prevent your guests from cutting a hole in your pocket by running the A/C at 65 degrees (or the furnace at 80 degrees). We discovered a great solution that’s very affordable, but unless you know what to look for, you’ll have a hard time finding it.
• We’ll tell you exactly what to buy, and how to install and use it in your VR property.

Avoiding and Coping with Rental Bans and Restrictions

• How rental bans and restrictions get started and specific steps you can take to avoid them.
• How to harness the power of the Net to stay informed about what’s going on in the community where your VR is located.
• The best sources of news and information on Home Owner Associations (HOAs).
• Why collecting and paying sales and occupancy taxes is a good idea (and where to go for more information on what’s required in your area).
• What to do if your town or HOA announces plans to restrict or ban short-term rentals.
• Rental Ban Success Story: How one savvy property owner took action and fought a proposed rental ban.

Conclusion

As with all our publications, you can count on the FullyBookedRentals.com 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied. If you like How to Make Your Vacation Property Work for You!, you’ll love the Vacation Rental Secrets & Sources series. But even those who have not yet been exposed to our “foundation” book/CD seminar-in-a-box will find something they can use to make (or save) more money in the VRS&S series. The cost is $39.95, with free shipping. Please click here to add Volume 1 to your shopping cart.