Competition for USA vacation rental home bookings will increase as investment property owners realize the value of asset utilization, and more vacation rental homes become available. Those looking to sell that second home may consider rent by owner revenue options rather than sell a home at a loss or minimal profit. As one example of the real estate market, Florida average property value depreciated 5% in 2007 and another 6% depreciation is expected by the end of 2008.

The market for USA vacation rental homes in 2008 has weakened with the economy. As reported before, the trend for USA tourists is last minute decisions to go on vacation, or just stay home. That will change as the economy improves. Vacation rental home property owners represent 25% of investment property owners offering their private second home for rent by owner. The 75% who do not rent use those homes a few weeks per year, or perhaps more if they allow friends or relatives to use the property for vacation. The asset utilization is extremely low at 20% when the home is occupied only 10 weeks annually.

Home owners from that 75% with investment property who do not rent may be looking to improve asset utilization and make the decision to generate vacation rental revenue sooner than later. The rent by owner vacation rental market can expect an increase in competition as more owners choose rent by owner as a means to offset costs.

Vacation rental home owners need to reevaluate market conditions and adjust how they promote their rent by owner property to remain competitive. One option is a free 6 month vacation rental listing on the RBO Vacation Ads website.

TAGS: advice home rent by owner rental property tourist usa vacation rental

Labels: advice, rental, usa, vacation

                     

Tourists to Central Florida looking for exciting adventure with a guarantee that you will see alligators may want to consider an airboat ride on beautiful Lake Toho less than a mile from downtown Kissimmee. A lakeside park provides spacious picnic areas with barbeques and tables, plus a childrens playground for your enjoyment before or after your airboat excursion.

Big Toho Airboat Rides in Kissimmee Florida offers 15 passenger and 6 passenger Orlando area airboat rides on Lake Tohopekaliga within minutes of Disney and just 12 miles from Orlando. The smaller 6 passenger airboats are for private tours or fishing expeditions.

The airboat photos below were taken earlier this month during a visit to Lake Toho with my wife. One shows the private party 6 passenger airboat (left), and then a closeup of the engine and fan (right) with a view of one of the 15 passenger airboats in the background.



Visit the Big Toho Airboat Rides website to view their airboat video, airboat photos, or check rates for airboat sightseeing and wildlife tours. Finally, a surprise feature in the closeup of the airboat engine is air conditioning! Yes, the fan and a/c unit gently blows cool air forward over tourists during the airboat ride.

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The reasons tourist behavior and vacation rentals have shifted in the economic downturn of 2008 are apparent. People still take vacations but the current trend is short notice, so adjusting website content may help beat the competition. For vacation rental property owners, bookings may improve if you adjust your strategy and accommodate last minute bookings.

If you advertise on your vacation property website that you accept guests looking to book on short notice, you may strike a nerve when it comes to tourist behavior and vacation rentals. For available dates within 2 weeks of the current date, it may make sense to offer a limited time discount rather than sit empty without revenue.

Learn how to maximize vacation rental revenue in difficult times, and you may strengthen guest loyalty and bookings as the health of the economy inevitably returns.

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The newest central Florida vacation home listing on the main site is a 3 bedroom 2 bath luxury pool vacation rental home near Disney Orlando in the Indian Wells development. The listing includes additional photos of the home and community features, and a full description of amenities, price, and owner contact information.


Learn about this affordable luxury pool home 4 miles from Disney Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, with more details about this Kissimmee Florida vacation rental here.

TAGS: Florida rent by owner rental property usa vacation vacation rental

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For tourists bound for a USA vacation, there is opportunity for bargains if you have some flexibility. As you search for a vacation home rental, consider asking about discounts for off season and you may be able to save a few hundred dollars by making plans during a slow rental period.

Another opportunity is renting a vacation villa, cabin, or home on short notice, also. Most property owners with rent by owner vacation rentals use booking calendars posted on their website. If you have spontaneous plans to take a vacation, consider openings within days of departure and inquire about any discount offers. Most vacation rental owners would rather take less and fill in the empty spot on their calendar to enhance revenue as long as it is within reason.

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A new feature on the RBO Vacation Ads website has been added for USA vacation rental property owners and agents. The info central resources include video and print tutorials for USA rental owners, plus audio advice and more PDFs are in development.

During the early stages of the growth of this vacation rental advertising website, a similar information center for USA tourists will be added to include multimedia video, audio, and print tips and advice for rental guests, also.

Rental owners, property managers, or realtors for short term rental homes, villas, townhouses, beach houses, or cabins are welcome to sign up as agents and begin listing vacation rentals immediately. The first 6 months of listings are free, and each includes a free custom availability bookings calendar.

View the new resources page of rental owner tutorials now, and return often as we continue to expand with more USA tourist related news, reviews, and advice.

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With the addition of two new Florida vacation rental villas to the RBO Vacation Ads website, it may interest vacation property owners to know the time needed to list vacation rentals. Using the tutorial videos already released, here's the breakdown of total estimated time for a new agent to create a USA vacation property rental listing on this site.

1. Register as a new agent and get 6 months of free ads (2 minutes)
2. Resize 8 large photos to 500 px wide and 72 dpi resolution (10 minutes)
3. Log-in and type or copy/paste text content of listing (5 minutes)
4. Upload 8 photos and copy/paste 1-2 sentence descriptions (5 minutes)

The 22 minutes total time is based on having 8 photos already taken, text content in a word processor to include 1-3 paragraphs about the property, and 1-2 sentences about each photo. Most vacation property owners already have photographs and the text content written, so often the typing is minimal by using copy and paste of text. Note: You will save time by uploading your photographs in the same order that you want them to appear on the website.

Once the listing is done, owners have the option of emailing us to request a free 12 month rental bookings and availability calendar. We do the technical setup and then reply by email to confirm your blank calendar is ready for posting your dates booked. Your user name and password and the link to your calendar admin panel is included in the email reply. Depending on the number of booked dates, the calendar update should take less than 15 minutes, if that. Once updated, the 12 month rental bookings calendar is immediately available for viewing by you or USA tourists visiting your listing.

As a reminder, rental owners and managers have access to listings and calendars 24/7, so adding new listings or doing edits of posted USA vacation rental ads or bookings may be done at your convenience.

TAGS: advice news rent by owner rental property usa vacation

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Another 5 vacation rental listings for Central Florida have been added to the main site of the RBO Vacation Ads website. Choices include 4 bedroom villa or townhouse vacation rental homes in Kissimmee or Davenport.



For now, the initial launch of our vacation rental ads site lists Florida properties only. However, as we establish more resources for rental property owners and then tourists, we will market to all 50 states. All listing services are functional for voluntary signup as new agents, so rent by owner property managers, realtors, and owners are welcome to join now and the first 6 months for your ad is free.

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The latest vacation property rental on the RBOVacationAds.com website is available for viewing and rent by tourists destined for the Tampa - Bradenton, Florida area. Often the cost of renting a private vacation home or villa is less than the cost of a family of 4 staying in a hotel.

For tourists visiting this site and blog, please be patient as we continue to add listings and additional resources for vacation property rent by owner agents. USA vacation tourist resources are in development and will be added soon, as well, including advice and reviews of top vacation destinations.

Follow this link to view current vacation rental property listings, including the Bradenton Florida 3BR Rental.

TAGS: advice news rent by owner rental property usa vacation

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Here is a new video just released on the RBO Vacation Ads main website that presents how-to advice for vacation rental property owners and agents with a step by step guide for optimizing photographs for vacation property listing ads. The video tutorial with narration and background music illustrates how to edit photos using free software from Irfanview, plus a download link for your free copy.



The sequence of lessons provides people with novice computer graphic skills a fast and easy method to resize photographs by width and resolution using a free photo edit software program. Watch and listen to this new video tutorial (4 min: 33 sec) and you could be doing professional photo edits for any website. Just imagine doing a photo edit in 1-2 minutes after viewing this video tutorial!

New RBO vacation rental owner and agent resources continue to be developed, and video advice to create a new listing is nearly complete. Next up will be a video tutorial for using our free rental availability bookings calendar. The rental calendar is a free option for all rental ads placed on the RBO Vacation Ads site, and may be expanded for other rental owners to link to a free availability calendar from their vacation property website, too.

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A new feature added to the main site for rent by owner vacation ads is a video tutorial for vacation rental agents to register for an account. The first 6 months of advertising are free, and then low cost rates apply with discounts for multiple vacation rental listings. The video is just under 3 minutes and features the RBO Vacation Ads theme music.

Here's the link to the first video tutorial for vacation property rental agents, and more are in production for how to create a listing, how to update the rental availability booking calendar, advice for optimizing photographs, and more.

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Labels: advice, news, rental, tutorial, vacation, video

                     

A new page was added within the last week to the Rent by Owner Vacation Ads website, and features
FAQs for vacation property owners considering placing a rental ad on the main site.

Property managers, owners, or their agents may read about how ads are placed, the terms of the free 6 month ad offer, free vacation rental bookings and availability calendars, and other options and benefits of placing vacation rent by owner property ads. The site continues to evolve and another 6 vacation villas in Central Florida will be added within the next week.

Next up will be rental owner tutorials, audio, and perhaps even video how-to advice for USA vacation rental property owners, and later tourist advice and information for rental guests.

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Labels: advice, news, rental, usa, vacation

                     

The option for adding a vacation rental availability calendar to USA vacation rental listings has been integrated into the Rent by Owner Vacation Ads main site. Rental agents like owners, realtors, or property managers may register and list ads, and then request the calendar option by email. The technical setup will be done for you, and then the user name and password to edit bookings will be sent by return email.

Unlike some availability calendar services, ours is hosted on our server without external links, so persons interested in your rental property are less likely to get lost visiting another website. The layout of each calendar provides a 12 month view with the option to view the current year, previous year, or next year, and the color scheme is custom designed to match this site.

For now during the ongoing development of the vacation rental website, you may view the rental availability calendar here to compare functionality and matching color scheme. The calendar is a free option for persons listing a USA vacation rental on our website.

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Labels: advice, news, rental, usa, vacation

                     

For realtor, property manager, and rent by owner vacation property rental ads in the USA, as well as tourists looking for US vacation rentals, the RBO Vacation Ads website has launched in BETA mode. This intitial launch is fully functional, yet enhancements will be added to improve the look and usability for owners and tourists.

Property owners, realtors, and property managers with vacation rentals may sign up as agents to begin listing short term rentals immediately. Optional functions include an availability calendar for each property, plus the ability to list or edit listings 24/7. Unlike some vacation property websites, we intend to be different offering the following:

• 6 month trial period with free owner ads
• low cost annual advertising at $50/listing after the trial period
• enhanced promotion towards top search results
• optional bookings and availability calendars
• 8 photographs per listing included at no extra charge
• attractive site in xhtml for faster loading
• list your home, villa, beach house, townhouse, or cabin

Please be patient during the initial launch which first features property in the Central Florida area. Planned growth includes vacation property ads from all 50 states in the USA. Bookmark this Rent by Owner USA Vacations Blog for updates as new property and features are added including advice and reviews for tourists looking to spend a holiday or vacation in the USA.

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