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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.
Yesterday I received a phone call from a renter. Before he asked me any questions about my property, prices or availability, he went on a rant about how difficult it has been for him to find a property to rent. He said he had gone to ‘every vacation rental website, every search engine and searched 1000 different ways' and he could not find one home that fit his criteria.
I politely interrupted, “Sir, what exactly were you looking for?”
His response was, “a property that does not discriminate against large dogs! I have a big dog who travels with me all of the time and every single owner who I have called that advertises ‘ pets accepted'—as soon as I tell them I have a large dog, they just about hang up on me.”
As a large dog owner myself, I assured him that I accept all sizes of dogs. I even added, “One of my recent guests had an Irish Wolfhound.” He was so ecstatic and booked right on the spot. After we finished all the formalities of taking a booking, he asked me, “Christine why don't you write in your ad that you accept large dogs?”
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I don't know! And what really irritates me is I too have run into the same problem when trying to rent. Furthermore, many of my renters have asked the same question: Do you accept large dogs? And why hadn't I ever thought about adding info about it to my listings? You can pretty much guess what I did right after I got off the phone—added “large breeds accepted” on all my advertisements. I wonder how many large dog owners overlooked my property thinking that I wouldn't accept big dogs.
Now I betcha you can think of something that renters commonly ask you (besides price and availability) that you don't have on your ads either—go and add it to your listings now. :)
Happy Renting by Owner,
Christine
If you're interested in hearing Christine speak at one of her upcoming seminars, visit the Seminar Schedule for more information.
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