Owning a vacation rental property can be an excellent investment, creating passive income to help grow your portfolio. After I’ve made any needed repairs, I like to enhance the appeal of my rental with the following 7 things.
So that’s it, 7 simple things you can do to enhance the appeal of your vacation rentals so that you can increase your rental rate. If you have any questions or would like to invest in your first rental property down the shore, reach out, my contact info is below.
- Relevant decor and at least 1 WOW piece. My vacation rentals are at the beach. So I add beach decor to my rental. I find tons of great pieces at thrift stores and yard sales. Many people get tired of their beach decor or want to change it out for something new and fresh. For my rentals, it’s perfect and at a yard sale or thrift store I usually pay less than half of what it would cost new. I also like to add 1 Wow piece. Something that surprises and inspires my guest to continue to tell others about their wonderful stay at my really cool beach house. Check out the beach decor at Amazon.com, a lot to choose from hanging decor for walls and wooden sculpture.
- Leave a Welcome letter with pertinent information. I typically email my guest this letter prior to their arrival, but will also leave a copy on the table so they have important information at their fingertips. The letter contains trash days, recyclable days, Wi-Fi password, address and phone number of urgent care along with the properties full address and any other rules I want to reiterate. You can download my copy here as a reference.
- An outdoor firepit. Adding a gas burning outdoor fire pit is a nice amenity my guests seem to love. I even provide skewers for making smores. Guests frequently comment how much they enjoyed sitting around the fire with their friends and family.
- Outdoor dining space. Be Sure to have a designated outdoor dining space for your vacation rental. A grill is a must have as well. After a day on the beach, most of my guests enjoy cooking and dining outdoors in the summer. Be sure to have enough seats for everyone.
- Welcome Pets. If your vacation rental is a Single family home, you may allow guests to bring their furry family member. This is a Huge selling point. Most of my guests bring 1-2 dogs and are so grateful to be able to do so. I charge an extra $150.00 non refundable per pet for the week as well as extra pet security. I also have guests send me a vet invoice or receipt of flea preventative treatment.
- A Rooftop deck. If you can add a rooftop deck to accentuate any views, this is a really cool feature. Most people don’t have rooftop decks on their primary home. So to offer this feature in a vacation home can be very desirable to renters and it just may be the “talking piece” we spoke about in the beginning of this post.
- A little Thank you. I always leave a bottle of wine near the welcome letter for my house guests. This little touch seems to go a long way. The law of reciprocity. I believe this little gesture creates a feeling of gratitude and it seems at the end of the week when the renters leave, the home is left clean and tidy. Of course we still have it professionally cleaned, but only once was it left super dirty.
Have a great day!
Direct Number: 609-231-9347
