• Have you updated your pictures?
• Review your daily and weekly rates
  
• Have you completed the description and ammenities?
  
• Do you offer what others offer (entertainment options, pool table, etc)
  
• Have you created a video?
  

Where does your neighbor advertise? 

I get this question a lot. My fleet of rentals are booked solid year round and I always get emails, "what are you doing that we are not?" from neighbors and other owners in the neighborhood.

The short answer to why we are booked is, "because we have been going at this full time for 5 years." Which is to say, there is a huge power in reputation, word of mouth, and "dues" of doing good business. Nothing in the vacation rental world happens over night.

This being said, here are some techniques from my report to speed up your progress (ie. stuff your neighbor is probably doing, that results in more bookings).

1. Construct your own website: do not rely on listing sites for all your bookings

2. Get professional photos and video tours of your properties

3. Offer free nights to influential locals

4. Register with www.helpareporter.com and get featured in major journalistic publications

5. Apply to Google Maps and Google Places (this gets you featured at the top of a search for local accommodations)

6. Submit content about your property to press release sites and article directories

*7. Become an expert: One of the best way to drive bookings is to become an expert in your neighborhood or region. Of course, you need to get some expertise first (this is up to you). Once you have established yourself as a leader (perhaps the expert in all activities in your region or the expert of historical tours) you give your rental a huge Value Add. This generates more bookings.

In general, don't expect to start generating bookings overnight. The similarity or differences of your listing page and that of your neighbors could be vast or minimal: but what it really boils down to is generating a surround sound effect of publicity about your rental. Do this and you'll be the one doling out referrals

Matt is the author of DIY Vacation Rental Marketing - 54 free and inexpensive ways to increase your property's bookings in just 3 days.

Great thread! To answer a few questions...

1. Reporters CERTAINLY DO write featured articles about individual properties. I know because my first property was one of them. I have had success with The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Travel + Leisure, GQ, and a number of others. Just prove that you are running your rental like a business and they'll respect it.

2. I don't understand why you can't afford to offer nights. When I started out, we use the barter technique for everything from plumbing services to television ads. Giving away free nights or trading them for a valuable service is one of the things that makes property ownership great. Everyone loves a few nights of vacation!

3. Maybe Google Places charges in some places. Where I live and work (Panama) it is free. @Citrusisle, I would also be careful to say "I am cancelling because I am getting no leads" because Google Places is hard to track. Do you have walk-in guests (ie. guests that call up and say, "hey we're in town and we need a place to stay")? There's a good chance that they come from Google Places as it's searchbase is geo-sensitive: much like a hyper-specific phonebook. You may be getting business from them without explicitly knowing it. Just a thought.

4. Videos: I simply found a local videographer and traded him and his wife three nights in my rental in exchange for his lovely work of the unit. I have also borrowed a friend's nice video camera with great success. In the big scheme of things, $199 is about the cost of a two nights stay. @StayAtTremblant, for you that is less than 1 night in peak season. If the video generates 2 bookings, you've made your money back.

To sum up, I know most people don't have all day to spend dawdling with video cameras and Google Places and PR sites: most of us have other jobs or are retired or just don't really care. But if you really want to maximize your rental profit, you need to spend some time doing these things and thinking about it like a business. Think about your costs (ex. the $199 video mentioned above) as investments the same way you might think of an upgrade to your rental. Your investments will pay for themselves over and over again if you pick them wisely. I'm not saying you should use every service that you're pitched. But good marketing investments like videos, photos, websites, and the like are worth their weight in GOLD.

Matt is the author of DIY Vacation Rental Marketing - 54 free and inexpensive ways to increase your property's bookings in just 3 days.