Is this your first time and worried about what might happen?
Take strength from my experience. We have a great holiday home and we use it as a family get away often. Times have been hard lately and to avoid selling our retreat we decided to rent it out to offset some of the mortgage repayments and outgoings.
Where did I start?
List your property with an agent?
Upside:
- Stream of enquiries,
- High street presence,
- Local presence
- Arrange cleaning, maintenance, inspections
- Key distribution
Downside
- No guarantee of rental income
- No preference for your property
- Expensive
- No control over who inspects
- Need to book own holidays
Why not take control of your own bookings?
How would you go about it?
Let me tell you what I did. I advertsied my own property, and built a website that show cased my property. I developed a list of forms, terms and conditions and brochures. In effect I developed a booking system.
Once I began to get a steady enquiry rate, I was finding I had too many enquiries to satisfy. I began referring business to other self managed properties. These self managed properties used my website, and I charged a small fee for every successful booking I took. I only managed the booking, not the property. The owners continued to manage their own properties.
At http://www.looknbook.com.au/ I have developed an availability calendar. As enquiries are received, I create a booking form on line. Once a deposit is received, I lock that booking in, and the calendar registers the property as booked.
You can list your property on http://www.looknbook.com.au/ for free, but make use of the calendar and I charge you an annual fee. The main reason I do this (other than to defray my costs) is that by paying for something you will put a value on it. If you do not maintain the calendar, it loses its value to the property seeker, and so I don't want it used that way. Pay for it, and you can use it. Don't use it, and I take will take it away. A site is only as good as the information it contains.
Benefits of the availability calendar?
The search function on http://www.looknbook.com.au/ is weighted towards properties that display their prices and display availability. Without a calendar your property appears down the search results. People are looking for holiday houses where they can see if it is available and how much it will cost.
Why use http://www.looknbook.com.au/?
I have developed the site for my own home. I have spent my own money developing the site and over the years it has built up traffic. I pay for additional advertising to generate traffic to my site. If you build your own web site you will have to pay for this and go through the same expensive exercise I have. If you use my site, you effectively have a web page you can refer your clients to. I have a booking system that comes with the listing. Pay for the calendar and you can record your bookings in the system. It is a cost effective way of giving you market presence. What is in it for me? You will generate traffic to my site. You create quality content for my site. Quality generates traffic. We all benefit.
How do you get started?
Go to http://www.looknbook.com.au/ and register on line. Give me a call and we can take it from there. My details are published on the site.
