The slower season might not be one of your favorites, but with some creativity and a little prep work, you might be able to attract some new types of travelers.  Visit these articles for ideas on improving your home, marketing to specific groups and altering your policies to help fill those slower months.

	Creative Ways to Keep a Large Home Booked in the Slower Season Pointers for keeping your large vacation rental home full during the off season.
	Operation Off-Season: 12 Tips for Attracting & Accommodating Guests Quick tips and advice for keeping your vacation rental home booked during the off-season.

	Advertising Your Vacation Home to Special Event Travelers When updating the listing for your vacation rental property, don't forget to reach out to special event travelers.
	How to Encourage Repeat Renters Having a past renter come back to your vacation rental property makes good business sense.
	How to Market Your Vacation Home to Business Travelers Learn how to attract business travelers as renters for your vacation property.
	How to Market Your Vacation Home to Couples Target groups of couples traveling together with the right language and amenities.
	How to Market Your Vacation Home to Families with Children Tips for attracting groups traveling with young children.
	How to Market Your Vacation Property to Seniors and Snowbirds Learn how to effectively market your vacation home to capture these popular winter bookings!
	How to Market Your Vacation Home to Skiers Here are tips for getting skiers to choose your vacation home when they are planning to hit the slopes.
	Should You Accept Pets in Your Vacation Home? Are you debating whether you will accept pets in your property? What you need to consider when determining a pet policy for your vacation rental.

	Determining Monthly Rates for Your Vacation Rental Home A general formula you can use to determine monthly rental rates.
	Accepting Nightly Stays at Your Vacation Rental Think outside the “weekly box” and consider accepting weekend bookings at your vacation home.

How do you keep your home booked during the off season? “High season for our Villa in Playa del Carmen, Mexico is the winter months for North America. Knowing that many Europeans have a fixed holiday period in July or August, we chose to advertise on Homeaway.com's websites in Europe. I love the feature on the European websites that allows the potential renters to view the prices in their own currency. Homeaway.com also translates the basic text into the appropriate language for us! Our extended advertising on Homeaway.com in Europe paid for itself with one rental and allowed us to substantially increase our bookings in the summer (low season) months.” –Dee F., Playa del Carmen, Mexico. (HomeAway 136793) “We are offering the only gas card offer in the area plus an extra night stay with every reservation!” – Mary M., Seven Springs, PA (HomeAway 171352) “I advertise in local magazines for off-season visitors encouraging the "cool weather" and roomy beaches. Many folks would rather go when all the little kids are in school and they can get some one-on-one time with the water.” –Stephanie, Gulf Shores, AL (VRBO 114552) “…This tip applies to any time of the year: Don't turn management of your property over to someone who doesn't take pride and special care of your property. Vacationers can tell the difference if a property is not personally maintained by the landlord. A recent comment: ‘We can tell! We stay in a lot of little houses and such and they are never this nice. We were blown away by how nice the kitchen facilities are! You can tell the houses that the landlords never actually see!'; " - Kermit G, Barksdale, TX. (HomeAway 109028)

 

 © HomeAway Inc. 2008, Updated 10/24/08