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!

FurnishedRentals.com launched new enhancements today.  The Furnished Rentals vacation rental by owner and manager site has always utilized Google maps technology to help travelers locate their next vacation getaway and now they are integrating Google Apps. 

Furnished Rentals preferred members can now post their Google Calendars and use Google Analytics to track results for their vacation rentals.  When Gmail users make their Google calendars public for their vacation homes and add the necessary info into their property profiles at Furnished Rentals the Google calendar will render in the listing.  In addition, owners and managers can add their unique Google Analytics user id to preferred listings to track visitor results.

 “Our team at FurnishedRentals.com utilizes Google Apps for development tools, customer communication, intercompany collaboration and more as we build the vacation rental map.  Many owners and managers currently use Gmail accounts and tools for their day to day vacation rental management and it is a natural fit to integrate the Google Calendars and Google Analytics functionality with FurnishedRentals.com” said John Foxworthy, company CEO.  “We are continually looking to stay in step with the social media and technology curve to offer our vacation rental owners and travelers the best tools to advertise, manage and find vacation homes.”

A preferred listing with 24 images, link to a personal vacation rental website, Twitter feed, Google Calendar embed, Google Analytics, YouTube embedded video, interactive mapped highlighted icon and new “top tier” list view placement is only $59 per year.  Similar vacation rental ads on other vrbo sites can be upwards of $500 per year. 

More info about renting vacation homes and advertising vacation rentals FurnishedRentals.com

Just a quick follow up to Homeaway’s Superbowl ad.  Here is a link to Austin Business Journal and it shows success for Homeaway’s ad campaign. View more details and the full article here.  As stated earlier here the ad campaign should drive awareness for the vacation home rental industry as a whole.

List and search vacation rentals by map here.

What is the “super duper” RED ALERT for vacation rental scams beyond horrible spelling in ads and non-working phone numbers?  Please pay me with CASH!

Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it!  Cash is the preferred currency of scammers.  It’s beautiful - no paper trail and no recourse for you.  Vacation rental owners and managers who are truly legitimate businesses will offer credit cards, Paypal and personal check.  Credit cards offer you the best protection for one simple reason – you can dispute the transaction. 

The scammers are looking for a quick cash or wire transaction to take your money and move on.  Do not waste your time on vacation ads that allow only cash payments – you’ll have just about as much success with the spam emails stating “you are the heir to the fortune of the king of Timbuktu or the Euro Mega Lottery!”

Find vacation rentals online

For current vacation homeowners and travelers who rent vacation homes it’s not really big news that there is much more value than staying in a hotel room.  In recent interviews with Homeaway’s leadership team they believe that there is still a huge market that is not aware of the distinct advantages of renting a furnished vacation rental.

The Superbowl ad from Homeaway will star Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo.  Just guessing, but the commercial will probably portray how differences between typical hotel travel and that of a spacious vacation rental are simply no comparison.  Maybe it will show a cramped hotel room, no privacy and no fun vs. a vacation rental that is more bang for your travel buck?

This commercial should increase awareness to the general public about the “online vacation rental marketplace.”  Everyone in the industry should see a bump in traffic and inquiries.  Enjoy the Superbowl!

Yep – what type of beds you outfit your vacation rental with directly affect your bookings!  How is that you might ask?

Let’s take a look at several scenarios including 1, 2, 3 and 4 plus bedroom vacation homes.  Renters of 1 br furnished rentals will prefer a king size bed as opposed to a queen or smaller bed.  People are getting bigger (unfortunately) and will seek out rentals to meet their bigger needs.

Travelers looking for 2 bedroom rentals will gravitate towards king beds and the option to convert 1 bedroom to twin beds (teen siblings no longer sleep in same bed – no surprise!).

Vacationers looking for a 3 bedroom rental prefer a king bed in the master, queen or king in bedroom 2 and two twin beds in bedroom 3.  If you are flexible in switching out the twin beds for another queen or king even better.

In the 4 bedroom plus vacation rentals you will find larger families looking for even more options for bedding.  Here’s the order – king, king, 2 twins, 2 twins and more twins if needed.  Often you can push the box springs together for twin beds and convert to standard or queen bed.

If you are appealing to travelers with small children, a pull out sofa sleeper can attract even more business to your vacation rental.  We have found this combo works really well in 2 brs – 2 couples in big beds and kids on the sofa sleeper.

Review your visitor inquiries and see if your requests match up to what you offer as to beds.  If you get many requests for twin beds and do not currently have them, you may want to reconfigure your sleeping arrangements?  Lastly, be sure to put good quality mattresses in your short term accommodations – nothing worse than a bad mattress – pancaked from previous visitors!

Now is a good time to buy bedding too due to the housing market getting slammed – sales have really slowed to a crawl for bed stores and they are willing to make some really great deals.

I noticed a recent travel inquiry for a vacation rental come in:  “We found you online at FurnishedRentals.com and wanted to be sure that the pool can accommodate our family.  Just want to double check because our kids really like to swim and the last trip to Florida we stayed in a vacation condo community of 250 units and there was only 1 pool.  The pool was so crowded our kids could not get in and we want to be sure we don’t make that mistake again….”

Stay in a vacation home rental and enjoy more space and less people!  While we are all familiar with the fact that you will have more space and privacy than a hotel, we often overlook how crowded property amenities can max out in a hurry during peak seasons. 

Many resorts, hotels and condo communities can accommodate 100% occupancy for rooms and parking, however, services like laundry, ice machines, vending, fitness centers and especially swimming pools get jammed with too many people.  We have stayed at vacation rentals that offer business centers for high speed Internet and the waiting line is too long to wait. 

As you consider renting a condo or home for your next vacation consider what season you will be traveling and if it is the peak season be sure you are OK with increased crowding.  Check with owners about the number of units in the community and how access is affected in the busy travel season. 

I highly recommend seeking out a single family residence with a private pool if you want the best privacy and the assurance that the pool will not be filled to the brim with all of your neighbors.  You’ll spend a bit more for a single family furnished home vs an apartment or condo – but your family will thank you!

Search and Advertise Furnished Rentals

For most vacation and furnished rental managers CAT really spells NO.  Cat owners will find that the vacation rental choices are very very limited if they must bring their cat along for the journey.

Pet Friendly should be modified to two categories for vacation homeowners – Dog Friendly and Cat Friendly.  Very few vacation rental manager owners will accept your feline friends. 

Cat owners and their cat friends are probably just as nice and responsible as renters with dogs.  Many owners and managers that decline reservations with cat requests, say that cats tend to walk on furniture, counter tops and appliances and go so many more places in the rental than a dog would.  They also say that a vast majority of travelers complain more about allergic reactions to cats vs. dogs.

You’ve probably received a few email inquiries from travelers explaining how their cat is much better than the average cat – declawed, cage trained, house trained etc.  According to many vrbo’s it  boils down to the presence of a cat - the cat “footprint” left in the rental is much greater than that of a dog. 

Owners be sure to clarify what Pet Friendly means in your rental advertising - Example:  Small house trained dog may be ok with deposit or pet fee – sorry no cats.  Travelers be sure to disclose your pet requirements in your email inquiries and contacts with owners and managers.

“Sweet!  I got on VRBO for my new beach house CA vacation rental for $500 and we’re number 80 on the list!  That’s Good – Right?”

This is the question we received recently from a friend in California who decided to get into the vacation rentals market and advertised his new rental on VRBO.com – the top vacation rental site owned by Homeaway.

“I guess so, if a traveler can work their way down the list that far.”  That’s when I decided to do the math again…..79 listings are before my friends home.  A 16 image listing on VRBO is over $500.  $500 x 70= $35,000 a year for just those 70 listings in a small beachfront California community! 

Do the big math now – 130,000 listings at say an average of $279 per year is a little over $36,000,000 per year.  CHA -CHING!  That’s 36 million!  No wonder there are so many web developers trying to get a piece of that pie!

Is there any wonder how Homeaway will be paying for the premium ads at the SuperBowl this year?

In all fairness many inquiries and leads received by vacation rental homeowners come from VRBO and their network of sites, but WOW that’s crazy pricing for listing your vacation rentals.  I renewed a VRBO listing this year and the new rate for 12 images was $488 up from $397 last year.  Gotta pay for the Superbowl! 

You can see why so many people are developing their own personal sites, utilizing social media like facebook and twitter, and looking at alternative vrbo sites to save money promoting their vacation homes.  Advertising multiple rentals is really expensive – just ask your property manager.

Like the little green lizard on tv  ”Give us 15 minutes and we can save you 15%” and Give FurnishedRentals.com a few minutes and we can save you 85%!

And Sticking to the Numbers – FurnishedRentals.com is #1 for many keyword searches including furnished rentals at Google, Yahoo and Bing.