Vacation Rentals by Map? Chances are you have used a map recently to find a friend’s house for a birthday party, mapped out a local theatre or instructed your car navigation system to help you find a location. Google maps, Mapquest and Microsoft Visual Earth maps – they are here to stay.
Maps are popping up on most of the top vacation rental websites. Why? Because they are a tool that travelers are asking for and they really help vacationers decide where they are going to spend their money and time. No matter if it is your first visit to Disneyworld, San Diego or The Grand Canyon you will gravitate towards “knowing where are we” and “what’s nearby” ?
Many travelers have a similar experience when staying in a new city for the first time. I call it the “Next Time I come Here” revelation. This revelation occurs when you are on vacation and you have a chance to settle in and find your way around. You walk away from many vacations saying “The next time I come here I know where to stay or not to stay” based on the condition of your vacation rental and most importantly it’s location.
Most vacation rental directories help you to narrow your search by country, state and then city. Some allow you to click on a “map this property” button and you can see the general location. Finding vacation rentals on the Furnishedhomes.com vacation rental website allows you input text searches for landmarks, hospitals, theme parks, addresses and even zip codes. For example, if you type in 32801 in the text box you will see the auto suggest tool load – “Orlando, Florida”. If you select the auto suggestion and search your Google Map view will be Orlando, FL and all vacation rentals within 100 miles!
A recent inquiry from a traveler to a vacation rental homeowner illustrates how helpful the “auto suggest” and zip code search can be. The inquiry to the owner went something like this – “I found your listing on the Furnished Home’s map. It appears that your rental is about 2 blocks from my 97 year old grandmother’s place. Would like to visit for a week or so and your place looks great and we can walk to my grandmother’s residence…..”
The Furnishedhomes.com website is powered with Google Maps and will be adding new features to help travelers and vacationers find vacation rentals by map and nearby attractions. Look for some very cool traveler resources to help market your vacation rentals more effectively.
Vacationers search Furnishedhomes.com maps for Free and Owners/managers list unlimited properties FREE for 6 months.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Oahu vacation rentals // Jul 23, 2008 at 4:21 pm
This is a great idea. We’ve been thinking about mapping our rentals on our Hawaii Accommodation website using a software from this Hawaii real estate website.
My question to you would be, has this developed any more traffic to your site?
2 blogcontrol // Jul 24, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Thank you for your question and by the way your site looks very nice! Google Maps have been top rated new tools that travelers are asking for. The Furnishedhomes.com site was developed with Google Maps at it’s core. In order to differentiate the site from standard directories that perhaps allow a visitor to map a vacation rental after reviewing the property this site starts with the map. Searching via maps allows for not only seeing where a property is located, but what is NEARBY. As the site continues to cater to visitors needs it is likely that one can find a list of nearby attractions to review too. For example, if one wants to be as close to Pearl Harbor Memorial, the visitor can type in Pearl Harbor and see only those properties nearby. The map is a starting point for our searches. We look forward to seeing some of your beautiful properties on the Furnishedhomes.com map. Users want to see maps and we believe they will become a requirement. Best Regards!
3 Oahu vacation rentals // Jul 30, 2008 at 5:33 pm
We have been looking into data feeds that include restaurants and points of interests, such as the Pearl Harbor Memorial that you mention. That way, you could see a vacation rental or home for sale, and at the same time, the surrounding points of interest.
I will say that here in Hawaii, it would be nice to see vacation rentals on a map so you knew which ones were near the beach.
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