“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.