There are so many opportunities that are available when referring to vacation rentals. The big problem is that it is difficult to realize what the best options are. It is really important that you take advantage of the education that is already available for you.

ArrangeYourVacation.com announced a partnership with more than 10 travel providers giving the vacation rental owners and managers the ability to easily reach millions of additional travelers and deliver more rental revenue

Pictures tell a story and when travelers are searching for a vacation rental, they want to imagine themselves in the home or condo they're viewing. Accurate high quality pictures will help travelers achieve that vision. Our goal is to help provide you with photography so that travelers experience the most from high quality imagery of the homes they want to vacation in. Good pictures help but great pictures increase conversion.

We want to focus us now on improving the effectiveness of your vacation rentals postings. You may already be taking advantage of all or many of these ideas, but if not, give some critical thought to how your listing appears to a potential renter.

Learn From Others
One very effective technique for improving the appearance of your listing is to look at what others have done. There are many examples of attractive listings on the ArrangeYourVacation.com and many other websites. While there are many variables, such as property location and rental rates, you can make your listing as effective as possible by using striking, inviting pictures, to capture the viewer's attention.

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!
If you are at all serious about marketing your property to potential renters, you must include pictures. We continue to be amazed at the number of listings that do not include even one picture. All of the top inquiry-generating listings on the ArrangeYourVacation.com website have at least one attractive picture posted. No picture-less listing is a high inquiry-generator.

Even if you have pictures posted, make sure they are working effectively for you. The first picture in your display sequence is the one that renters see when browsing the summary listings. Make sure this is a bright, appealing picture! If at all possible, use a picture taken on a sunny day of the view, the neighborhood, the exterior, the garden or some other striking, attention-getting shot. Many people use a picture of a bedroom for their primary (i.e. first) picture. While this may be suitable, it may not be the "attention getter" that will intrigue people to dig deeper into your listing. Note that every one of the listings shown here uses the primary picture to attract your attention. Take a critical view from the eyes of a potential renter at the pictures you are using. If a picture is dark or unattractive, you may be better off without it.

It is very easy to upload one or more pictures from your computer. If you know how to email pictures, then you will be able to upload without difficulty as the process for locating a picture on your hard drive is nearly identical. If your uploaded picture is "fuzzy", it is because you uploaded an original that was smaller than 400 pixels wide by 300 pixels high.

Constructing an Effective Listing
Use your most attractive picture for the primary (first) picture.
Do not ask renters to contact you for additional pictures. You are making the renter do unnecessary work when there are so many other attractive choices already posted.
Check that the spelling is correct and unprintable characters are deleted.
Format and align your text with spaces and line breaks.

Include a contact telephone number!
This protects you if you ever change your email address, plus many renters prefer to speak with a live person. This also helps re-assure the renter that the listing is legitimate and not posted by a scam artist.

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Enjoy!

There are essentially 2 main vacation rental scams. Be aware of them and do whatever you need to do to protect yourself from them.

1) A fake "renter" contacts a real owner and requests to rent the property. The fake renter then sends a check to the owner as a security deposit to rent the property. But they write a check that exceeds the proper amount of security deposit. The fake renter then waits a few days until the owner cashes the check, then contacts the owner and says they overpaid, and pleads for a refund in the amount overpaid… usually by telling the owner to send the refund of the amount overpaid via Western Union, and usually to Nigeria or Central Africa. A few days later, the check that the fake renter from Nigeria gave you will bounce… and so you are out that money, and you are also out of the money you just sent them via Western Union.

2) A fake "owner" will post their rental property on a rental property directory website. However, the rental listing is a fake. Usually fake address, fake pictures, fake place. But the email and phone number will be real, so they get contacted. The rental seeking victim then contacts the fake owner and requests to book the place. Of course it's available. The owner then requests a security depost and sends the contract. The renter sends a security deposit, then shows up but there's no such place available for rent.

For this second type of scam, USUALLY the biggest barrier for the scammer is that they have to PAY to join a vacation rental directory website… Most sites are about $150 USD per year, usually too steep of a price for these such scammers. However it leaves the free rental sites wide open for these kind of scammers to sign up and try to scam someone. So please be on the lookout and very careful of this type of scam when seeking a rental.

You can read more about vacation rentals SCAMs here: http://vacationrental-bo.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

Many people search for vacation rentals online. This can be a great way to find the perfect rental home for your vacation. Unfortunately, scam artists have found ways to use this technology to get your money. You search the internet and look at pictures of homes in the area where you will be traveling.

The Internet is a wonderful advertising medium to use in promoting your vacation rentals business. However, with the wonderful comes the bad…and in this discussion, the bad is called a scammer. Hopefully you will never have to come in contact with one of these horrible people who are only out to make a few bucks off of you, but if you do, read on to find out how to handle the situation so that you and your property are kept safe.

There are different forms of scams out there, and most can work with any business. It doesn't matter if you are renting out your second home or selling candles online, these people know how to make their conniving methods work around whatever they are trying to scam. There are many potential red flags that be seen when they begin communicating with you, and like I have said in the past, trust your instincts on dealing with anyone who contacts you!

A good deal of the scamming inquiries you will receive will have a lot of broken and incorrect English. Keep in mind this isn't the only way, but I have saw this type more than the others. The potential customer may want you to accept a check from his company for an extended stay at your vacation rental (i.e., 2-3 months). Others may try to send you a money order, often valued over the amount of the stay. They will want you to mail the remainder of the payment on to a family member or friend, and will list various reasons as to why you should do that for them (cousin is ill, nephew needs money for college, etc.) The note will generally have a sense of urgency to it, which may trip up some owners, and have them hastily agreeing with the scammer.

Other signs to look for when receiving strange inquiries:

-The sender will not really talk much about your property, and may even make an incorrect reference (Example: Says "I really need this spacious apartment for 5 months" when you are renting a home. Another Ex: Says "The porch looks nice" when there isn't a porch). True, the sender may have your home confused with another, especially if they have looked at many before speaking to you, but you can usually tell when someone's made a mistake and when they have no clue what your vacation home looks like or offers.

-The sender wants to pay immediately for other people to stay in your rental ("My 3 cousins need a place to stay for X months, and I want to pay by a money order/check/etc. right away). This could be legit, but lodging is not usually something to hurriedly book and pay for.

You can read more about vacation rentals SCAMs here: http://vacationrental-bo.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15