Lay My Hat

All great suggestions. And I have actually never used PIMS. Will look into it as it looks very interesting. My hands-down best way to track leads and reservations is the following (assuming you have your own website): 1. Create a Google Analytics account and install code 2. Create Google Analytics G...

Hi all, I've now spent about 4 years using Google Adwords as a compliment to various listing sites to promote my rentals and I have to say that it is absolutely imperative to our business. First, once you've had a campaign running for a while, you can identify what is working and what's not. This al...

I've found that, when it comes to cancellation policies, people will come up with the most ludicrous excuses. My business partner is always on the side of believing them, and I'm always on the side of doubting their integrity. While it's good to be strict and take deposits and stick to cancellation ...

Great responses!!! Trip Advisor now has a vacation rental section for which I guarantee they will soon ad a guest review component like they use for hotels. But whether you use VRBO or FlipKey or another vacation rental site, here is the process that we found to be most effective for scoring only ex...

The absolute most effective practice for us was to use Adwords as a laboratory for determining what keywords convert best. For us that turned out to be a weird, clunky, elongated phrase that a) was relatively inexpensive, b) had almost no organic competition and c) had a super high conversion ratio....

Charles, I too was once a victim of click fraud. It was not with my vacation rental but with property I was trying to sell (the cost per click was, in some cases, upwards of $10). The short end is that Google won't do much (even if they find the culprit). I have learned to tweak my Adwords campaign ...

The "barter" is no new concept. But we've offered -- with great success -- free nights in the low season to owners or reps at advertising mediums (magazines, newspapers, tv shows, radio shows...etc). This allows us to get credit at the top exposure publications without paying a dime. Becau...

I recommend purchasing an SSL certificate from your internet host. It should cost around 70 USD/year and gives you the "https" beginning to a URL as opposed to typical "http." It is simple as pie to install and it gives a lot of guests total comfort in knowing their credit card d...