Talking about death and wills is no fun, but somebody needs to do it!  So here we go – get a will!  That’s it! 

You really need a will if you would like to have your possessions transferred to the right people and your directives followed.  Without one your surving spouse or heirs (or worse yet the State) get to unravel and often fight about what each one of them “thinks” you would have wanted.  Boy! this can get real messy in a hurry.  Throw in a few kids, add a vacation home or business, mix in a step child and a step mom or dad and you’ve got the making for a massive fallout – or at best a bunch of folks trying to figure out what you wanted.

So before you hop in the car or airplane on your next adventure – maybe even your next trip to the corner store – take care of this important matter today!  Believe us – you will save everyone serious pain and grief if you have a last will and testament. 

Legal Zoom is a company designed by attorneys to reduce costs by letting you complete your wills and legal documents online for up to 85% off standard attorney’s fees.  Heck, even the attorneys often use it or recommend their clients to Legal Zoom.  Click on the link to complete your will in a snap!  Your family and survivors will be grateful that you took the time to do it. 

Not going to die?  Sure thing – let’s say you survive but your incapacitated – in other words you can’t make decisions for yourself?  Make sure you process a living will too – view more details here.  

Ok enough about dying – the next post will be back to the funny travel and vacation stuff.

Before you fly off on your next vacation it’s good to have a good laugh and poke fun at the airline and travel industry.  We love this video of comedian Brian Regan and hope you do to – lighten up and have a little fun!  Post your funny travel and not-so-funny airline experiences.

Do you need your passport like now – like right NOW?  Are you confused and just want to find out what you really need anyway?  No problem, here’s a great little service to get a passport from a company that has been voted #1 in passport expediting by The Wall Street Journal.

When you travel abroad be sure you have updated your passport and visa!  Your vacation or travels can be brought to an abrupt end if you do not have the proper documentation.

Double check your that your passport is not expired.  You’d be surprised how many travelers have expired, damaged or lost passports.  It can actually be easier to get your passport or visa online. 

Be sure to check out Alison Kroulek on Rush My Passport blog in regards to passport cards, tips on what type of passport you need and why so few Americans even bother with getting a passport.  Read more from Alison here or to expedite your passport needs at Rushmypassport.com

The numbers in this video presentation are Real and Crazy!

No matter if you have just one or multiple vacation rentals or corporate housing rentals, you may want to consider targeted Facebook advertising campaigns.  I’m not a Facebook advertising expert, but before you jump in or hire one check out this video.

Why Facebook?  Facebook is now the LARGEST traffic source in the U.S.  Yes, even over Google!  According to the major tracking website, hitwise.com, March 2010 was the first month that Google had become the second most trafficked site in the US.

Facebook advertising can offer even better targeting than Google and other traffic sources for your property management efforts.  It could mean better customers, better traffic and better profits.

In our search for help with facebook advertising we came across a leader in the industry that has spent alot of time figuring out the best ways to optimize Facebook ads and generating interest for many products and services.

Jonathan Volk claims to have brought in a million dollars in a year using Facebook ads.  I must confess, his methods have captured our attention.  He says that Facebook offers more traffic solutions than Google.  Using their ad system, he may be right. 

I have personally reviewed the Facebook Ads Guide and can say that it worth the minimal investment to save a “bunch of time” and the info on the Facebook Ads management tool bar is worth the price of admission.  There are also a few bonuses included in this online guide that would take you considerable time to compile or pay someone to hunt down the info. 

Watch this video and see what you think.  You may want to put his methods to the test!

ps.  like many of the products I recommend – I do so as an affiliate.  Usual affiliate marketing commissions apply for sales. Yada yada.  Thanks!

As the chief bottle washer at Furnished Rentals dot com I get to see many, many vacation rental websites.  They range from awesome to awful!  Let’s look at a couple of awesome sites and forget about the awful – because that’s what people searching the internet are going to do too!

This first group of Venice Beach California vacation rental listings were added to the vacation rental map in the last few weeks.  I always proof new listings and edit where necessary.  I click on the free link we offer to owner/manager websites and these really caught my eye.  Right off the bat the landing page is beautiful and the images are really fantastic – kind of makes you want to stay there huh?  That’s the idea and these guys did a great job!  Check out their personal website link on the listing here.

Sara from Santa Barbara Luxury Rentals recently added 15 new properties to the map and they are stunning!  Just check out the images and that’s the key…it really keeps you interested in seeing and learing more.  So beyond SEO, booking tools and such you really need to focus on stunning pictures and of course they need to be accurate!  View all of Sara’s Santa Barbara CA properties listed here.

These owners and managers listed their properties for free at FurnishedRentals.com – no catch – no credit card required - get listed today.

FurnishedRentals.com, Vacation Rentals by Map website added new owner manager profiles to all listings.  This feature enables owners and property managers to post an avatar, picture or logo to their listings.  If you have multiple rentals then travelers will see all of your listings in your profile. 

Here’s a nice example for an owner profile.  This new feature is in addition to Twitter feeds, personal website links, Youtube video embeds, Google Calendar embeds and on and on….for FREE.  To add your vacation rentals or furnished accommodations join us here.

Not now, it’s too late. 

Once you have subscriber revenue it’s really, really hard to stop taking the money.  It’s even hard to start taking a little less money.  Virtually impossible to give it away for free.  Kind of like charging for software for a long time and then being able to get it online for free.  Ring a bell? 

The real power of vacation rental homeowners and property managers is when you band together to drive a new player in the market – one that is as good or better and for less money, or better yet free!  Furnished Rentals dot com has announced a great way for you to help grow a high quality free listing site.  We’re talking full featured listing, not a watered down text entry with a few thumbnail images.  How is that you might say? 

Furnished Rentals is offering it’s cutting edge vacation rentals map advertising for FREE.  Not an introductory free listing but a full featured listing that includes 24 high res images, link back to your personal website, Youtube videos, truly interactive Google map technology, guest reviews, search nearby attractions, and so much more – for FREE. 

Want to help increase the awareness of your property to travelers?  Join us for free and let other owners know that they can get super high quality content for free.  Our Facebook Fan Page added 200 fans in 48 hours. 

Do you have a facebook fan page for your vacation rentals and short term rentals?  Great we want to Fan and follow you too!  

Straight up – no credit card required,  add your full color listings for free, join us on Facebook and let’s grow together!

FurnishedRentals.com announces free upgrades for all listings.  Add your listing for your vacation home, bed and breakfast, villa and corporate short term accommodation to the vacation rental map for free.  Add premium content to the internet for your vacation rentals – up to 24 images, link to your personal website, social media connections and more in a basic listing and our team will upgrade you for free!

We have new development plans coming over the next 60 days and we want to invite as many owners, managers and friends to experience Furnished Rentals website for free.  Do you have suggestions, ideas or comments as we develop?  Connect with Furnished Rentals on Facebook.

FurnishedRentals.com is embracing social media by allowing owners and managers to connect with Twitter updates, Youtube videos, Google Calendars and much more soon!

Thought I would post this cool Youtube video about social media stats – if you have’nt had a chance to see it check it out.

Conducting your vacation rental business online is about trust.  Advertising your vacation rentals online with FurnishedRentals.com is about mutual trust.  To that end we want you to know who we are, what we are trying to accomplish and how we can work together to drive results to your vacation home rentals and furnished corporate housing.

FurnishedRentals.com is a U.S.A based online marketing service based in Tucson, Arizona.  We are a team of 4 that work everyday on improving and marketing the furnished rentals website.  While our ages and backgrounds are varied we are dedicated to earning your trust whether you are a vacationer looking for the perfect getaway or an owner/manager looking to find vacationers looking for a furnished rental.

We are privately funded.  We have not secured any seed funding, venture capital and best of all - no massive debt!  The founders of our company John Foxworthy and Ted McGuire have been involved with owning and managing vacation rentals for many years.  We are well aware of the day to day responsibilities of scheduling cleanings, turnovers, responding to inquiries, managing deposits, maintenance and marketing of vacation rentals.  We were overseeing nearly 100 plus vacation rentals in the past.

In order to keep our occupancy levels at optimum levels we learned for a certainty that we had to advertise.  Our first ever vacation rental listing was in early 2002 with a site called VRBO.com.  We still advertise with this website to this day and see good results!  However, our advertising bills were getting hefty and we needed an alternative source for leads. 

In our inquiries it never failed that travelers would ask “Now exactly where is your rental located?”  In 2007 we decided to pursue our idea of a map based search for vacation rentals.  The first web development company that we contracted with in North Carolina just plain stole our money and was not cut out for intricate web development and our dedication to excellence!   We nearly threw in the towel at that point.  It was a tremendous amount of resources, time, energy, frustration and heartache and we had to recommit to rebuilding again.  And we also needed to convince our wives, friends and families that we were not crazy!

In 2008 we met our two developers who were intrigued with our Google maps based vacation rentals site idea and decided to help us turn the site that we originally envisioned into reality.  We now refer to them as the dynamic duo!  They are really good at calculus and even trickier mathematical algorithms!  Read more about Chris and Justin.

A vacation rental directory or list based site can be put together in short order and that is why there are soooo many of them out there.  A map based search site is really cool and at the same time very challenging to build.  That is why there are very few out there and even fewer that actually work!  We like the map based real estate sales sites  – Redfin.com and Estately.com.  We’re not so fond of the aggregator sites that pull every possible rental and jam it on a map. 

Ok back to who we are.  We never intended to be a “corporate” type site where you never see or really know who you are dealing with.  Is this company at some offshore location, are they looking to steal my info, process fraudulent charges, can we trust them?  We are finding that out in the wild west of the internet that it’s challenging to give away free advertising. 

We see owners and managers ask “Ok what is the catch?”  You guys are going to give me a really cool looking advertisement on your map for free?  You are going to let me upgrade my advertisement for virtually next to nothing?”  You are going to let visitors click away from your site to mine?!  Simple answer is YES! 

Our map yearns for vacation rentals.  The map works best with lot’s of vacation rentals.  You can refine searches really fast by clicking on a few boxes to reduce your search to see only those rentals that fit your needs.  We added guest review capability, Google calendars, Youtube videos, big images, mapped locations with nearby search capability, link to your personal website, link to your Twitter account, and more.

While we take our business very seriously we are careful not to get caught up in bragging about our latest press mentions, who’s following us, who wants to partner with us, and that we are awesome!  You can get to know us a bit better in our slap stick self analysis “Our Team” bios.  We’d love to be wildly successful and help you grow your vacation rental business at the same time!  If you need more info about the site just shoot us an email anytime, twitter or facebook with us too!  We love great relationships – let’s start one soon!

To the thousands of you who currently advertise on FurnishedRentals.com – THANK YOU.  We’ve got more good news coming soon!

Get listed for free on the map here and travelers search the map for free!