If you own a vacation home, you might decide to rent it out on a short-term basis during the times you are not using it. Renting your vacation home is a great way to offset the cost of maintaining the home.
Instructions
- 1Stage the home. If it looks like your home, chances are it will not appeal to renters. Imagine a nice hotel. While you don't have to have the most upscale furnishing, you do want to present an inviting and clutter-free space. Do you research and make upgrades to paint and tired furnishing as necessary before advertising your vacation home for rent.
- 2Find a reliable manager. If your vacation home is too far away for you to manage it yourself, then you will need to find a reliable manager. Ask for references and interview them. Find out if they are capable of doing odd maintenance jobs that might pop up and whether they are willing to respond to potential problems, even in the middle of the night should unforeseen problems arise, such as a renter locked out of the home.
- 3Find a reliable housekeeper. Sometimes you can utilize your manager as your housekeeper or vice versa. A lot of vacation homes are located in resort and destination locations where you shouldn't have any trouble locating someone to clean the property between renters. As with the manager, be sure to ask for references.
- 4Locate repair shops and talk to the owners. A vacation home, like any home, will need routine maintenance and will often require repairs. You will need to have a reliable plumber, a handyman and an outside maintenance person for yard work or snow removal. Sometimes the manager can serve as a repairman, but be sure to ask what their qualifications are before you assume he can take on the duties of general repairs.
- 5Prepare a rental agreement. You will need a rental agreement with rules of the vacation home listed clearly. Your vacation home rental agreement will include things such as maximum occupancy, rules on pets, parking, damages and statements on homeowner liability. If you have an attorney, you might want to have the agreement reviewed.
- 6Get proper insurance. Check with your insurance agent to see what type of insurance you must carry on your vacation rental if you decide to rent it for short term use. Most likely you will need higher liability coverage than what a private home insurance policy carries.
- 7Decide what forms of payment you will accept for your vacation property. Most people prefer to use credit cards, so contact your bank. Alternatively, many of the online vacation rental sites offer third-party credit card processing services that will allow your guests to make payments online when they book your property.
- 8Consider your rates, cleaning fees, pet fees, pet deposits, damage deposits and security deposits. You will need to set rates for high and low season. Many vacation rentals are rented week to week. If you have a peak season, you should consider a minimum night stay. Otherwise you might find yourself booking out a few nights here and there, and losing out on the renters who were looking for longer stays, thereby greatly reducing your rental revenue.
- 9Decide how you will handle check-in for your guests. Many vacation homeowners will utilize their management staff or housekeeper. Alternatively, you can use lockboxes that fit over the door handle and provide each guest with a unique code to open the box to get the key. Many products on the market provide remote entry into your vacation home. Make sure your housekeeper and/or management staff have not only their own keys, but an extra key in case a renter loses the key to your home.
- 10Advertise. When everything is in place, you are ready to advertise your vacation rental. Make sure you take really great photos. Then go online and find a vacation rental site where you can post your vacation home. Alternatively, you could hire a property management agency to do all the advertising for you. Many times, an agency will want not only a monthly or annual fee, but a portion of the rent revenue as well.
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