A Word from Christine
A welcome message from the Director of the Owner Community, Christine Karpinski. |
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About the Author: Christine Karpinski
A short biography of bestselling author and Owner Community director, Christine Karpinski. |
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Ask Christine: Is It Okay to Have a Permanent Renter Live on the Property?
Christine chimes in on the viability of having a permanent cleaning and maintenance person live in half of a vacation rental property. |
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Ask Christine: Can I Ask For a Credit Card Number in Case of Damages?
Christine answers a question from an owner who does not take credit cards, but who wonders if she can keep a credit card number on file in case of excessive damage. |
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Ask Christine: Can I Start Renting If I Don't Have Any Interior Photos?
Christine answers a question from a homeowner who would like to start renting, but does not have any pictures of the inside of her house. |
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Ask Christine: Does a Two Bedroom Rent More Easily Than a One Bedroom?
Christine answers a question from an owner who wonders if it would be better to split her home into two separate rentals. |
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Ask Christine: How Can I Tell if My Second Home is Rentable?
Christine answers a question from an owner who has a second home in a suburb of Denver. |
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Ask Christine: How Do You Keep Track of Video Games and DVDs?
Christine offers a tip for keeping up with video games and dvds at your vacation rental home. |
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Ask Christine: Should I Charge a Non-Refundable "Wear-and-Tear" Fee?
Christine answers a question from an owner who wonder if she should charge a non-refundable fee to cover wear and tear to her property. |
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Ask Christine: Should You Offer Refunds for Acts of Nature?
Christine answers a question from an owner whose property was struck by lightning during a guest's stay. |
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Ask Christine: Why Do I Get a Lot of Inquiries, But No Bookings?
Christine answers a question from an owner who gets a lot of inquiries, but very few bookings. |
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Christine Karpinski in the Media
A record of bestselling author Christine Karpinski's print, tv, and radio appearances. |
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Christine's Blog - A Narrow Escape (9/15/09)
Christine catches a potential rental catastrophe just in time |
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Christine's Blog: 2008 Seminar Locations (12/5/07)
Christine finishes up her fall seminar tour and looks to 2008. |
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Christine's Blog: 4th of July Weekend and Using the Find Feature (7/7/2008)
Christine explains why she doesn't use her own homes on the 4th of July and shares a handy keyboard shortcut. |
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Christine's Blog: A Dispatch From Deep Inside the Mortgage Refinancing Process (5/6/09)
Christine updates readers about her progress in refinancing her home mortgages. |
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Christine's Blog: A Few Things We Can Learn From Hotels (7/9/07)
Christine recounts what she noticed while staying in hotels this past month and what hotel practices and amenities that vacation rental owners might want to emulate. |
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Christine's Blog: A Holiday Visit to My Gatlinburg Cabins (1/7/09)
Christine talks about what she accomplished during a visit to her cabins during the holidays. |
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Christine's Blog: A Labor-Intensive Labor Day
Christine takes a flurry of calls from potential renters over the holiday weekend |
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Christine's Blog: A Last-Minute Lock Change (11/27/07)
Christine deals with renters who forget to return the keys to her property-- and the backup set. |
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Christine's Blog: A Non-Traditional Booking (9/16/08)
Christine is pleased to have landed a 10-week booking at her Panama City Beach condo. |
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Christine's Blog: A Slow Thanksgiving (12/1/08)
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Christine's Blog: A Smarter Way to Handle Multiple Mortgages (6/29/09)
Christine does a mid-year assessment of her rental goals and learns a better way to pay down the mortgages on her vacation rental properties |
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Christine's Blog: Accepting Large Dogs (5/14/07)
Christine talks about targeting an often-overlooked group of renter: large dog owners. |
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Christine's Blog: Accommodating a Guest with Allergies (11/24/08)
Christine handles a renter who shows up at her property and has an allergic reaction. |
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Christine's Blog: Added Extras (3/11/08)
Christine talks about the benefits of including beach service for her guests. |
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Christine's Blog: An Overview of Spring Conferences (05/05/2008)
Christine talks about the recent shows and conferences she has attended. |
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Christine's Blog: Annual Vacation Home Buyers Survey (4/2/2009)
Christine shares her opinions about the results of the 2008 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey. |
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Christine's Blog: Arthur Frommer's Radio Show (6/20/2008)
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Christine's Blog: Back from Across the Pond
Christine experiences vacation rentals from a traveler's point of view on her family's European vacation |
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Christine's Blog: Back from the FVRMA Conference (5/23/07)
Christine's takeaways from the Florida Vacation Rental Manager's Association conference that she attended this week. |
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Christine's Blog: Back from Vacation (8/18/08)
Christine had a great time in Exuma and is ready to plan her next vacation. |
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Christine's Blog: Being a Good Vacation Rental Owner (1/8/07)
There's a new type of vacationer on the rise-- the vacation rental newbie-- and it's important to treat them well to ensure your future success and the success of the vacation rental industry. |
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Christine's Blog: Being on the Renter Side (8/28/2008)
Christine shares some insights into her search and booking process. |
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Christine's Blog: Blowing the Top Off Hurricane Insurance (7/6/09)
Christine gets a 4th of July treat: a 0 reduction on the wind insurance policy for one of her vacation rental properties |
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Christine's Blog: Booking Patterns and Weather (3/17/08)
Christine weighs in on how the weather across the country affects when bookings tend to roll in. |
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Christine's Blog: Budget Travel's Vacation Rental Handbook, Part 1 (11/4/2008)
Christine breaks down a recent article from Budget Travel magazine on the process of renting a vacation home. |
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Christine's Blog: Budget Travel's Vacation Rental Handbook, Part 2 (11/6/08)
Christine offers her feedback to points 6-10 of the Vacation Rental Handbook in Budget Travel (Nov. 2008). |
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Christine's Blog: Budget Travel's Vacation Rental Handbook, Part 3 (11/7/2008)
Christine wraps up her dissection of the Vacation Rental Handbook from Budget Travel Magazine (Nov. 2008). |
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Christine's Blog: Buying Linens for Your Vacation Home (4/10/07)
Christine writes about her experience buying new sheets for her new king-size beds. |
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Christine's Blog: Buying New Beds for Your Vacation Rental Property (1/30/07)
Christine vents her frustration with the myriad of choices to made when buying new beds for her vacation homes. |
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Christine's Blog: Christine's Take on HomeAway 2.0 (9/17/07)
Christine talks about the benefits to owners of HomeAway 2.0. |
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Christine's Blog: Credit Card Scam or Not? (4/30/07)
Christine talks about her experience dealing with an unsavory credit card situation. |
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Christine's Blog: Dealing with a Drought (11/12/07)
Christine offers insight into how to divert complaints when dealing with less than ideal situations. |
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Christine's Blog: Deviating from Your Process (2/25/08)
Christine goes against her booking process... bad idea. |
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Christine's Blog: Did Early Easter Affect Your Spring Bookings?
Before you start scratching your head about lower than normal spring rentals, it might just be the early Easter holiday. Consult your calendars for insight into booking patterns. |
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Christine's Blog: Disappointed with a Housekeeper (1/13/08)
Christine talks about her disappoinment with the condition of one of her Destin condos. |
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Christine's Blog: Do Two Wrongs Make a Right? (9/4/07)
Oh no! Christine's renters showed up and her vacation home wasn't clean. She recounts how she handled it and why you should check your HomeAway listing to make sure that your rates haven't dropped off. |
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Christine's Blog: Do You Rent with Your Heart or Your Wallet? (2/8/07)
Christine looks at three scenarios that are difficult business and moral decisions to make regarding your vacation rental home. Consider what you'd do in these tough scenarios. |
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Christine's Blog: Do You Stick to Your Principles? (7/2/07)
Christine reflects upon the quandary of offering amenities that don't necessarily coincide with the owner's personal principles to attract renters. |
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Christine's Blog: Doing Maintenance While on Vacation (3/21/07)
Christine's recent visit to her vacation rental home entailed more than just soaking in the sun. Each time she visits her properties, she completes necessary maintenance tasks that come with renting by owner. |
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Christine's Blog: Don't Take Your Property Tax Assessment Lying Down (6/22/09)
Christine fights (and wins!) a property tax dispute |
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Christine's Blog: Double-Booking Scare (5/29/07)
Christine recounts her Memorial Day experience dealing with a potential double-booked property. |
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Christine's Blog: First Impressions with Your Directions (10/15/08)
Christine gives some useful advice on providing clear directions to your renters and solidifying that best first impression! |
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Christine's Blog: Following Up with Inquiries (1/22/08)
Christine offers advice for how to followup with inquiries for the summer season. |
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Christine's Blog: FVRMA and Takeaways from Traveler Focus Groups (5/21/07)
Christine sounds off on why she's attending the Florida Vacation Rental Manager's Association conference and what she learned from focus groups conducted by HomeAway this past week. |
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Christine's Blog: Getting My Mistakes Out of the Way (2/10/09)
Christine is relieved to have made a couple of minor mistakes early in the year. |
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Christine's Blog: Getting to Know You... (7/23/07)
Christine talks about how you (the owner) can sign up to participate in press opportunities, focus groups, and other owner feedbacks forums. |
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Christine's Blog: Getting Your Ads Ready for 2008 (11/19/07)
Christine prepares for the Thanksgiving holiday--- and for next year. |
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Christine's Blog: Heading to the Hawaii Seminars (9/22/08)
Christine talks about the prep work for the Hawaii Seminar Series. |
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Christine's Blog: How I'd Like to Respond to Bargain Hunters (5/7/07)
Christine reacts to a few of the inquiries that she received this week. |
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Christine's Blog: How I'd Like to Respond to Stupid Questions (8/20/07)
Christine talks about how she'd really like to answer stupid questions from her renters. |
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Christine's Blog: How Renters Are Adjusting to the Economy (1/20/2009)
Christine shares feedback from her renters that are still booking vacations in an uncertain economy. |
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Christine's Blog: How the OC Gets Ideas (7/17/07)
This week, Christine writes about how the Owner Community decides what to write/podcast about and what you can do to help. |
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Christine's Blog: In a Holding Pattern (5/19/09)
The summer season is shaping up to be a good one for bookings. For refinancing? Not so much. |
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Christine's Blog: Inquiries for Driving Markets (2/3/09)
Christine examines some trends in the inquiries she has received. |
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Christine's Blog: Juggling Inquiries from the Road (10/10/07)
Christine deals with a situation where a renter sent an inquiry about a certain weekend and expected her to hold it for her without sending payment. |
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Christine's Blog: Less-Than-5 Reviews (2/5/08)
Christine explains why she's not upset by a 4-suitcase review. |
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Christine's Blog: Looking Back at 2008 (12/22/2008)
Christine reflects on her rental successes in the past year, along with the differences in inquiries from previous years. |
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Christine's Blog: Maintenance Disappointments (4/22/08)
Christine discusses her maintenance expectations and finding trustworthy service providers. |
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Christine's Blog: Meet the New Members of the Owner Community (6/15/2009)
Christine takes some time to introduce the newest members of her team. |
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Christine's Blog: Memorial Day Madness (5/27/09)
In booking vacation rentals for her family vacation, Christine gets a taste of what it's like to be on the other side of the booking process |
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Christine's Blog: Memorial Day Weekend (5/21/2008)
Christine talks about ideas for booking last minute renters for a big holiday weekend. |
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Christine's Blog: Misconceptions About Recent Inquiry (5/27/2008)
Christine discusses an inquiry from what she thought was a scammer but was actually a qualified renter. |
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Christine's Blog: My Labor Day Weekend Confusion (8/25/08)
Christine discusses some recent confusion about Labor Day availability. |
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Christine's Blog: New Appliances (July 22, 2008)
Christine's special anniversary gifts resolve some vacation rental problems. |
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Christine's Blog: New Technology and the New Year (1/8/08)
Christine chats about new developments at HomeAway and how to make sure you're getting your inquiries. |
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Christine's Blog: Not-So-Smooth Sailing (8/6/07)
After her claim of a smoothly-running summer last week, Christine recants as this last week was a doozy. |
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Christine's Blog: Nothing's Ever Easy (8/27/07)
Christine recounts her struggle to install an over-the-stove microwave in her vacation home. |
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Christine's Blog: Observations about Vacation Homes and Owners (10/1/2008)
Christine shares some valuable insight on her recent conversations with owners and vacation rental stays. |
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Christine's Blog: Offering Flexible Payment Schedules (4/16/2009)
Christine explains how her flexibility with payment schedules has helped her to secure more bookings. |
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Christine's Blog: On Cancellations and Missing Organs (10/31/07)
Christine talks about her recent appendectomy and her only seminar cancellation in 10 years. |
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Christine's Blog: On the Road Again... (9/30/07)
Christine checks in from her Northeast seminar tour. |
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Christine's Blog: One of Those Weeks (2/22/08)
Christine recounts this past week when everything seemed to go wrong. |
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Christine's Blog: Panic with the Power Company (3/11/2009)
Christine shares a recent experience where her online banking failed her and the utility company almost turned off the power at one of her vacation rentals. |
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Christine's Blog: Playing Catch Up (2/13/08)
Just so you know... Christine doesn't always practice what she preaches. |
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Christine's Blog: Preparing for Tax Season (3/4/09)
Christine is trying to break her habit of procrastinating on her taxes. |
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Christine's Blog: Preparing for the Holidays (12/18/07)
When you're going to be out of town and out of reach, make sure that you have a plan for dealing with crises that could befall your vacation rental home while you're away. |
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Christine's Blog: Preparing for Vacation (8/5/08)
Christine talks about the building excitement and the not-so-fun prep work for her upcoming vacation. |
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Christine's Blog: Proposed Vacation Rental Bans in Hawaii (3/2/07)
Christine addresses the reasons behind the Owner Community's new Vacation Rental Bans and Local Rental Alerts sections. |
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Christine's Blog: Protecting Your Second Home From Wildfires (3/26/07)
After a wildfire scare last week, Christine gives a few tips for eliminating the risk of fire in your vacation rental property. |
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Christine's Blog: Receiving Text Message Inquiries (12/10/2008)
Christine provides her feedback on the new SMS inquiry feature from HomeAway. |
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Christine's Blog: Redecorating During My Vacation (3/24/2009)
Christine took advantage of some bargains to redecorate a couple of rooms in her Destin condo. |
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Christine's Blog: Refinancing Headaches (5/12/09)
Christine hits a frustrating roadblock while refinancing her home mortgage. |
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Christine's Blog: Refunds for Cancellations (2/16/09)
Christine admits to sometimes being a softie when it comes to renter cancellations. |
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Christine's Blog: Responding to Inquiries... Even When You're Booked (1/22/07)
One of the top complaints that we hear from renters at HomeAway.com is that vacation rental owners never respond to their inquiries. Why not? |
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Christine's Blog: Responding to Swine Flu Worries (4/28/09)
Christine advises vacation home owners on how to deal with possible cancellations from travelers worried about swine flu. |
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Christine's Blog: Revisiting Your Insurance Policy (11/6/07)
A little CNN Headline News inspires Christine to look over the insurance policies and declaration pages for her vacation rental homes. |
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Christine's Blog: Saving Money on Cable (10/28/08)
Christine provides some money-saving tips for your cable bill. |
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Christine's Blog: Scheduling Fall Maintenance (09/08/08)
Christine vents about the burdens of scheduling and planning for fall maintenance. |
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Christine's Blog: Sending Two Contracts for the Same Week (4/7/08)
Christine gets on a soapbox about why you shouldn't send two contracts out to potential renters for the same week. |
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Christine's Blog: Small Problem, Big Hassle
A broken TV at one of her rental cabins leaves Christine scrambling |
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Christine's Blog: Summer Update, Seminar Tour, and Survey (7/30/07)
Christine talks about a smattering of topics this week include how the summer has been so far for her rentals, why she's limiting seating in the fall seminars, and how a little survey can get owners big press exposure. |
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Christine's Blog: Switching to Fluorescent Light Bulbs (4/23/07)
Christine talks about making the switch from incandescent to compact fluorescent light bulbs. |
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Christine's Blog: The 2008 NAREE Conference (5/13/2008)
Christine talks about what she learned from her panel at the 2008 NAREE Conference. |
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Christine's Blog: The Best-Equipped Home I've Rented (11/13/08)
Christine describes her experience at the most fully-equipped vacation rental she's stayed in. |
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Christine's Blog: The Downside to Vacation Rental Ownership (6/10/08)
Christine recounts a recent experience that made her momentarily forget why she enjoys renting her vacation homes. |
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Christine's Blog: The Frommer Interview (6/23/2008)
Christine shares her thoughts about her Frommer interview and a recent rental pain. |
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Christine's Blog: The Importance of Carbon Monoxide Detectors (12/15/08)
Christine urges vacation rental owners to install CO detectors in their homes. |
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Christine's Blog: The January 2nd Curse (1/3/07)
Every year, some major problem arises at Christine's vacation rentals. She's learned to prepare for the worst and relish the great renters. |
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Christine's Blog: The Most Difficult Part of Renting (9/10/07)
Christine contemplates the housekeeping situation at one of her properties. |
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Christine's Blog: The New HomeAway Connect Calendar (12/21/07)
Christine gives her take on the new HomeAway (and VRBO) calendar system. |
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Christine's Blog: The Pre-Busy Vacation Rental Inquiry Season (12/4/06)
Before you get barraged with inquiries for your vacation rental property, take a few minutes to update your listings. |
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Christine's Blog: The Pre-Vacation Scramble (7/14/09)
Christine scrambles to get her rental properties in order before leaving on her own family vacation |
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Christine's Blog: The Vacation Real Estate Market (6/4/07)
Christine's back from the NAREE conference with advice about dealing with the softening housing market. |
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Christine's Blog: The Value of Snowbirds (1/29/08)
Christine describes the invaluable feedback that monthly (or longer) renters can give. |
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Christine's Blog: Up Close and Personal (6/9/09)
Christine explains the difference between her book, seminars, and the Owner Community site |
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Christine's Blog: Updating Your Rental Agreements (12/11/07)
Christine make a few alterations to her rental contracts. |
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Christine's Blog: Vacation at My Destin Rental (3/16/09)
Christine is enjoying one of her vacation homes in Destin, but she'll still be responding to inquiries as usual. |
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Christine's Blog: Vacation Rental Booking Dilemma (12/18/06)
Christine deals with the dilemma of holding time at one of her vacation rental properties for a renter. When should you make exceptions? |
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Christine's Blog: Vacation Rental Highs and Lows (7/1/2008)
Christine discusses some unexpected bookings and a vacation rental obstacle. |
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Christine's Blog: VRBO Owner Profiles and Google Maps (4/7/2009)
Christine spent some time over the weekend adding an Owner Profile and Google ™ Map to her listings. |
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Christine's Blog: What is a Vacation Rental? (2/22/07)
At a recent conference, Christine spoke with many travelers who had never heard of or considered staying in a vacation rental. Here are a few of the questions and pre-conceived notions that they had about vacation rentals that vacation rental owners should be aware of. |
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Christine's Blog: What To Make of the 2007 Vacation Home Buyers Survey (03/31/2008)
Christine's take on the survey results of the National Association of Realtors. |
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Christine's Blog: What You Should Know About Scams (6/27/07)
Scammers are getting more and more savvy. Here are some quick dos and don'ts. |
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Christine's Blog: When Disaster (Almost) Strikes (7/22/09)
Christine has a minor scare when the electricity goes out at one of her vacation rentals |
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Christine's Blog: Whew! Taxes Done (4/16/07)
Christine is glad to be done with her taxes and checked in at her cabins on the new beds and linens that she recently ordered. |
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Christine's Blog: With a Little Help from My Friends
A fellow vacation rental owner helps Christine get her cabin into shape
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Christine's Blog: Wrong Number Coincidence (6/20/07)
This weekend, Christine once again tranposed a number (see the Credit Card Scam blog post)... and it may result in a booking. |
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Meet the Owner Community
Meet the staff members responsible for the behind-the-scenes work of the Owner Community. |
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The 2nd Edition of Christine Karpinski's Book, How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner
Christine talks about the new 2nd edition of How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner, which includes over 150 pages of new material and is now available on her website. |
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Vacation Rental Seminars & Workshops
Information about Christine's upcoming How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner seminars and workshops for vacation rental owners |
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