Community: Message List

First year renting and Ready to throw in the towel?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:27:59 GMT

I live about an hour from our properties. We would never have purchased the business if we had to manage it from afar. We have a business partner who lives in the immediate area of the rentals. We make a point of walking our renters to the front door and opening it for them and letting them know one of the owners lives VERY near by. It does cost us her monthly lease on her place but it's worth having the renters know they are being "supervised."

Buying New furniture vs used

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:26:32 GMT

We own a business in two 100+ year old homes. One was restored by a contractor to historical society specifications. A lot of new furniture has stain resistent (we call it guest resistent) fabric. We do, however, do a lot of shopping at charity shops, flea markets, etc. for older furniture. There are up and down sides. The up: fits in with the decor and often well made, the down: must be cleaned or refinished and often one of a kind (hard to replace easily). It depends on your taste, the look of property and your budget.

Marketing on Face Book

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:11:20 GMT

We recently had a renter who runs a non-profit. We got to chatting with her. Her marketing team considered FB and set up an account. They got nowhere. But once they created a blog related to the work the charity does - BAM - volunteers and donations started pouring in. FB is not a networking style all people enjoy. Depending on the image you are trying to project, it might not be the idea venue.