Today’s Outer Banks rental market is becoming ever more competitive.  An easy way to set yourself apart as a home owner is to offer some type of personalized gift to your guests.  Many of today’s Outer Banks home owners are offering this personal type incentive to increase their repeat rentals.  Repeat rentals can be the difference between a good or great year. 

     Repeat guests are incredibly important to maintaining strong home rentals year after year.  Taking such a simple step can reap benefits year after year.   Some ideas for owner’s gifts can include:

 

Owner’s Gift Ideas:

Gift Certificates to local restaurants

Bottles of Wine

Gas Cards

Gift Baskets

Discounts to repeat guests

Discounted or free show or local attraction tickets

 

The easiest way to reduce your vacation home’s electric bill

If you want to know where I stand on sustainable tourism, you can read this article. I definitely think a push must be made towards making the Outer Banks more environmentally friendly. The easiest way for individuals to do their part is to change the light bulbs in their vacation homes.

For many home owners, this simple step would save them large amounts of money over time. Many first time vacation home owners can receive ’sticker shock’ when they receive their first in-season electric bill. Home owners have to realize some vacationers are going to leave every light in the house on for their entire stay. This type of guest are definitely the minority, but this does happen. The easiest way to lessen the amount of electric used is to switch your light bulbs.

Making the Switch

Need more proof on switching your  light bulbs? You can use this simple calculator.

What if a CFL lightbulb breaks?

The EPA has some guidelines for, What to do if a CFL light bulb breaks?

The cleanup is not as bad as everyone imagines when the hear the word Mercury.  The benefits of using these bulbs definitely outweigh the additional cleanup.

CFL Bulb Warranty

Most CFL bulbs come with a warranty.  As long as you have a receipt, you can go and exchange the light bulb for a new one.  Recently, I switched my home to all energy efficient lighting.  One of the bulbs did not work and with a receipt I was easily able to pick up a replacement at Home Depot  thenext time I was in there.

Owning a vacation home can be a totally rewarding experience.  How many of us have not dreamed about relaxing in our second home?  With how busy everyone’s life has become, it is not hard to see why owning a vacation home is so important to so many. 

     For many, owning a vacation home requires them to rent the home to secure the mortgage each month.  It is often in the rental process that some home owners find dissatisfaction.  Most home owners are absentee owners of their vacation rental homes.  Depending on the distance from your home to your vacation home, simple repairs can be impossible.  Often, this is why most home owners elect to use a professional property manager. 

     If you do decide to rent your home, you must realize the simple difference between a home and a house.  If you want to know the difference, you can check some people’s thoughts on Yahoo Answers.  The main difference is perception.  When you are looking to buy a property, it is a house.  Once you have moved into what you bought and add your possessions to it, the house becomes a home.  Your second property becomes a home when you fill it with your possessions.

     Though your vacation home is a home to you, it is a house to your guests.  Think about people’s mindset when they look for a vacation “house”. They are looking for a “house” to vacation in.  What they receive is someone’s home.  The difference in both groups perceptions can cause some problems for new vacation home owners. 

     If you can learn to embrace the differences, you will definitely receive the benefit of renting your vacation home and learn to ignore the additional wear and tear placed on your home from renting it to groups of people looking for a “vacation house.”  

Do you need to increase your weeks rented?  Allow dogs

Is your vacation home not booking as many weeks as you would like?  Simply changing it to a pet-friendly home can increase your home’s weeks booked.  Many home owners are instantly against allowing pets.  Most of their fears center around the damage a dog or pet could do to their home.  While this certainly is a possibility, it definitely is not the norm.

A dog left unattended could definitely cause damage to your home.  There is no mistaking that.  The positive lies in the fact that most guests take extraordinarily good care of their dogs and other pets.  Most house trained dogs will not soil your home.  The simple fact of increasing rental income can outweigh the additional expense of allowing dogs.

In a 2004 study done by the American Animal Hospital Association, over two thirds of Americans travel with their pets.  Let’s take a minute and look at that statistic.  Two thirds travel with their pets.  That means your non pet-friendly home is only marketable to one third of all travelers.  There is a large market that your home is not even an option for.  It can be that the extra weeks easily outweigh any extra damage your home incurs.

Vacation home owners use of guest reviews

One thing that often worries many vacation home owners is allowing guest reviews.  Many home owners often have the same fear, a bad review.  While one scathing review can really seem to hurt, it is definitely outweighed by the benefits of positive reviews.  Today’s travelers often vacation in places they have never been to.  As the availability of GPS and today’s mobile society increases, your vacationers could well be traveling over 1000 miles.  Many potential vacationers want assurance that what you’re presenting on the Internet is really present in your home.  The easiest way to alleviate this fear is by providing a forum where guests can comment about your home.  One simple way to accomplish this would be to create a vacation home blog.  If you are looking for something simpler, you can always try TripAdvisor.  Whatever method you choose, be sure to offer guests an incentive to comment.