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BC Vacation rental tips for owners:

The BC vacation rental market is booming. More vacationers are traveling to British Columbia and other Canadian and international destinations each  year.  With the traditional source of travel accommodation, a hotel, you get a room.  Vacation rentals on the other hand have multi rooms, a personal touch to them and offer visitors more room, more privacy and more amenities than a hotels.   Plus, vacation rentals  are often cheaper. 

For owners, vacation rentals can be a sound investment.  Renting out vacation homes can be two to ten times more profitable than a regular home month to month rental.   For property owners, risk-reward should be a consideration ?  Vacation rentals are a business and successful businesses start with good planning.   

BC Vacation Rentals  - Get the right insurance

Homeowner's insurance for your vacation rental property is essential. Do skimp on liability insurance.  Choosing the right home owners insurance can save a vacation home owner money, time and future headaches.    Determining your insurance needs is an individual choice and it often is valuable to ask other owners in your area who they are insured with, their experience in dealing with the various insurance companies  as  insuring a vacation rental is much more involved than a regular home. You may have a new rental guest every week. Have you anticipated how you will deal with possible damage claims, irate guests and legal action ?  With insurance, it is better to have too much than not enough.  

BC Vacation Rentals   - Marketing your vacation home

Any BC vacation rental property owner needs to advertise to be successful and remain competitive.  Recently I read an article that suggested Canadian businesses need to invest 80% of profits to advertising.  This was no doubt written by a hopeful executive from some advertising firm. Investing 80% or even 40% of profits to advertising hasn't been our experience.  Smart advertising rather than paying out obscene amounts will help your bottom line grow in the long term.

Online advertising has proven to be a key way of reaching prospective vacation renters. In many businesses, people use print advertising with limited shelf life.  Once a newspaper or magazine is read, it's discarded along with your ad.  Newspapers have a shelf life of a few days.  Your ad just doesn't get seen for any length of time. 

A few years ago Edmonton hosted the Commonwealth games.  The local newspaper did a hype for locals to advertise their rentals for the visitors  that would be traveling to Edmonton at $45 for a three line, one day ad in the print section.    The only problem, out of town visitors would likely not read the newspaper.   Most visitors coming to Edmonton made their reservations ahead of time using on line vacation rental sources.   

With vacation homes, most people are not from the local area so they don't usually read newspapers or other print material.

Vacationers search the internet  to find vacation rentals. If I want vacation accommodation in British Columbia I would chose to search on sites that are based locally.  Yes, their may be  a number of BC  vacation rental  listings on some site based in France, North Carolina or Texas, but I choose to go local for a number of reasons. 

Consider advertising as an investment.  You put out $39, $99 or even $299 for a one year ad.  You want and need inquiries from your advertising  investment that can be converted into bookings. Is investing in a US based company  with a gazillion vacation rental listings a benefit or is it best to keep your advertising  more local?  There are benefits to both and many vacation rental owners consider investing in multiple places to advertise.

As owner of a BC based website, I deal with each listing personally and try marketing each area of BC several times a week while other areas of Canada, along with our international listings in Costa Rica, Mexico, the USA and worldwide are done weekly.

We can bring interested vacation home renters to your listing, but like anyone else, we can't make them contact you about your rental.  That is where you need to take some time creating an inviting  description as well as including some great photos of your home and area.  

Other ways that you can help your property get more rentals.

Get a website for your vacation rental if possible.  Get your home listed on multiple sites.  Internet advertising can get you ten times better results than other techniques for a fraction of the price. 

BC Vacation Rentals - Make your fees all inclusive 

Hotels are famous for surcharges that suddenly appear on the bill at check out.  That is one of the reasons so many travelers are checking out of hotels and  choosing to rent vacation homes. Don't follow the hotel examples.   Include the cleaning fee in the price of the rental and require a reservation deposit that converts to a security-and-damage deposit when renters arrive.  That way renters won't feel nickeled and dimed with a list of fees and charges.

BC Vacation Rentals - Local by laws & taxes

Before considering renting your British Columbia home as a vacation rental be aware of both provincial and local restrictions.  Check with your local tax office or Chamber of Commerce for up to date information. Shorter-term rental regulations can vary by district within British Columbia based on the local zoning bylaws.  As an example: A Kelowna bylaw restricts vacation rentals to 30 day minimum. In the Shuswap and Columbia areas (Salmon Arm, Revelstoke)  and Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast  short-term rentals are not allowed in residential zones.

Also be aware of the BC rental tax law.  

In British Columbia, Hotel Room Tax applies to accommodation sold in hotels, motels, resorts, hostels, bed & breakfasts and other establishments such as vacation rentals offering short-term accommodation.  Hotel Room Tax (HRT) applies to short-term (less than one month) and overnight accommodation sold by operators who offer four or more units of accommodation

Hotel Room Tax applies to overnight or short-term accommodation sold by operators who offer four or more units of accommodation. Registered operators in certain areas of the province are also required to charge a Municipal and Regional District Tax of up to 2%.  For more information please visit 

 http://www.sbr.gov.bc.ca/business/Consumer_Taxes/Hotel_Room_Tax/hotel_room_tax.htm

BC Vacation Rentals -  Being Classy

Provide a rental experience that encourages both repeat rentals and word of mouth recommendations about your property. 

Do what the classy hotels do.  Provide your renters with little extras, mints on their pillows, fresh flowers, a bottle of local wine, an overnight bag  with toothpaste, a tooth brush, slippers etc. Even a few snacks, a small vegetable tray, bottled water or chips goes a long way.   It might cost you $25 upfront to treat guests - but the payback in word of mouth testimonies and repeat guests far exceeds the cost.   With gas prices going to the moon, a $25 gas card incentive per stay is a great idea. 

Provide your guests something to take home that will remind them of their stay. It doesn't have to be anything big, perhaps a fridge magnet,  not only will the renter feel grateful for the gift, they will likely think fondly of your vacation home.

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