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Most vacation rental owners can attest to the fact that renters want to see photos of your home before signing the contract and handing over a credit card. On vacation rental portal sites like HomeAway.com and VRBO.com, you can put up to 12 photos (on VRBO it's 16), but for some prospective renters that's still not enough. Consider using a photo-sharing site like Flickr to post additional photos of your vacation home.
How to Use Photo-Sharing Sites Effectively
Only put up quality, in-focus images. While you may think “What's the harm in putting up everything?” some potential renters may be turned away by particularly poor photos as a sign of your overall lack of professionalism.
Write a description. To optimize your photos so that they'll be found both on the site and in search engines, write a detailed description for each image. This may be a fair amount of work in the short-term, but will pay off in the long-term.
Use the tag feature. Likewise, adding tags (or keywords) to your images will make them easier to find on the site.
Include a link on each photo. Be sure to include a link to your personal website or HomeAway/VRBO listing on each photo to make sure that prospective renters can easily learn more about your vacation home. This call-to-action may be the driving force in securing a booking from a casual browser.
Keep track of your stats. Most photo sharing sites keep track of how many views each of your photos receive. If you notice that your photos are not getting many hits, consider adding additional keywords or joining groups.
Since there is no limit to how many photos you can post—go crazy—put up photos of everything from your washer and dryer to the closets. Just make sure that the photos will increase the marketability of your home rather than lessen it by being poorly shot, framed, or blurry.
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