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What's up everybody it's Simon from Lakeb. Today we're talking about vacation
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rentals. If you own a vacation rental on a lake or you're thinking about buying
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one then we've got some tips for you. We polled our favorite rental owners for
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three tips on how to book your rental out more often. And stick around to the
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end because we've got some bonus tips on how to make sure that you have a more
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sustainable profitable rental in the long run. Tip number one is to have a
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theme. You have to stand out above the crowd. When people are shopping for
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vacations they might be looking at half a dozen or a dozen different places and
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you have to stick out above the crowd. It starts with your brand name. In this
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case that's the name of your listing, that's the name of your rental. Give it a
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good memorable brand name and then carry that theme into the decor. So
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either start with the decor and then come up with a brand name or come up with a theme and a brand name and then decorate the house just like that. Tip
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number two is when you're decorating go nuts. What I mean by that is this isn't a
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house. You don't have to go subtle. You can go over the top with colors. You can
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go over the top with you know kind of like crazy pictures and decor and stuff
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that you wouldn't do at a house because people expect more from a rental. If you
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decorate a rental like a house it feels plain Jane when you're on vacation. You
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want kind of you know some places kind of Mickey Mouse up a little bit. Tip
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number three is to invest in high quality photography. Now you don't want
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to do this until your decor is completely finished. So if you're
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renovating a place or you're redecorating or something like that make sure that every detail is done before you hire a photographer. But when
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you do stage the place really well. Again lots and lots of details. If there's
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their fire pit outside build a fire and show that fire raging when the
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photographer is taking the pictures of the outside. Are there lights? Turn them
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on. Is there you know like a video game system? Turn that sucker on. Place mats
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with silverware. Every detail. Bed turned down just so. Every detail staged. Show
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that place off. Spick and span. Not a gum wrapper on the counter. Nothing like that
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Okay take the time. Invest the money in order to get those beautiful photos that
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is going to be your number one marketing asset. Yes you need to hook
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them in with brand name and yes you need to inspire people with a good theme but
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the photos are what really really really sell it home. You're gonna use those
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photos on every platform that you advertise and you're gonna use them for
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a long time. So this is the sort of thing that you need to buy once cry once. Get it
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done right. Invest in that. It will pay off in more bookings. I just want to take
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a moment to say that we are Lake Hub. We are sharing the joy of lake life. We
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invest in our lake visitors. We want to give you guys all the information that
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you need. We invest in our small business owners around the lake and when
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everybody has everything that they need in order to have the best time at the
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lake, everybody wins. The business owners win. The visitors win. Everybody has a
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good time and comes back to the lake. That's what we're all about. We love our
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lakes. Subscribe if you do too. Bonus tip number one. People will not treat your
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place like their house. It will get beat up. You need to prepare to repair. Okay
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that's just a cost of doing business when you have a vacation rental. So
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expect repairs. Which leads me into the second bonus tip which is to over
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engineer everything. Go big on furniture especially outside furniture. If you go
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with kind of cheap wood kits and stuff like that, cheap outside furniture, it's
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tempting because outside furniture can be expensive but expect that stuff to
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get beat up. I mean not just weathered but it'll break. I mean if it's not built
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really really well and when I when I say really really well I mean with lumber or
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channel iron like custom-built heavy-duty outdoor furniture, it's going to break. You're going to go through sets. So that's just something that that folks
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learn from having vacation rentals. Final tip if you hire a property manager and
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you're having somebody else do all the bookings, taking care of cleanings, so on
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and so forth. If that's you, be very picky about who you hire. That can help your
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business be profitable in the long run. Not all property managers are created
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equal. Okay so if you get a good referral from somebody, read the reviews, take the
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time. I mean you're going to be married. You're going to be married to this person
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for a long time. This person or this company or whatever it is that you're
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hiring, you're going to be married to them. They're going to be an integral part of your business. Oftentimes they'll take 25-30% of your bookings, of your gross bookings
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So you're going to be paying them a lot of money. You want to make sure that they
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are top-notch. If they're top-notch, you will book more, period. And so that is
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another way to invest in your business is to be very, very, very picky about who
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is managing your property. With those tips, you're ready to have a better
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vacation rental business. I'm Simon from Light Club. I hope that helped you. We'll
