Damage Deposit Terms and Conditions

In the article on Security Deposits vs Property Damage Protection I mentioned that we charge a $250 damage deposit. According to HomeAway the average owner charges around $500 for a damage deposit. Here are the terms and conditions that we have in our Vacation Rental contract relating to the Damage Deposit.

DAMAGE DEPOSIT- A damage deposit of $250.00 is required. This must be received within two (2) weeks of check-in date. The deposit is held as a damage deposit, and is NOT applied toward rent.  It is fully refundable within fourteen (14) days of departure, provided the following provisions are met.

Tax Consequences of Donating, Bartering or Swapping your Vacation Home

If you make personal use of your vacation rental, you probably already know this affects how rental expenses can be treated in your tax return. Specifically, the IRS requires that you report the number of days of personal use. If this exceeds the greater of 14 days or 10% of the number of days the property is rented then the IRS considers the vacation rental as a home.

What you may not be aware of are all the things that the IRS considers to be a day of personal use. The following are some of the more common situations that apply to vacation rentals. All of these count as days of personal use, and some are less obvious than others.

Finding the Right Cleaner Part 2

In Finding the Right Cleaner Part 1, we discuss some of the important things we're looking for when selecting a cleaner. Being a good communicator and being flexible. Something we've also found important is to make sure that the cleaner has a sophisticated understanding of what is involved. We once interviewed a cleaner who assured us that she wouldn't tell on the guests. Her tone made it clear she thought this was a positive thing, while it clearly demonstrated her lack of understanding of the relationship.

Among the things we're looking for is someone that has adequate backup arrangements for when they are sick or out of town. It's not enough for them just to rely upon friends and family doing favors. We've had that situation in the past and been left in the lurch. We've also found that a good cleaner will often know local repair people in the area, which can be invaluable in dealing with emergencies.

Finding the Right Cleaner Part 1

Finding the right cleaner for your vacation rental can be really difficult. We've tried using cleaners from local property management companies, but at every turn they were trying to convince us that we needed the full property management package. We've tried cleaning companies, but they didn't provide the personal service that we needed. We've interviewed several cleaners who were very experienced residential house cleaners, but didn't really understand the extra effort involved in a vacation rental.

There are several important qualities that we're looking for in a cleaner. One of the most important is finding someone that can communicate clearly and in a timely fashion. It's important to remember that a cleaner is often doing 3 houses in 1 day, and that it's not easy for them to stop and call in between doing all that work. We've found texting (SMS) to be invaluable. It's quicker than a call and has really improved our ability to communicate with our cleaners.

Interview Questions for a Vacation Rental Cleaner

In the 5 years that we've been renting our 2 vacation homes, we've had several cleaners. We'll have more to write on this subject, since having a good one significantly reduces the stress involved in running a vacation rental. But for starters, here are the questions we ask when interviewing a cleaner. These are customized for our condo on Beech Mountain, but hopefully they will give you an idea of the types of things to ask for other situations.

Some People Really Are Who They Say They Are!

[This is part of the Friday series of Short Stories - see About]

With any of the advice I give to others who ask me about renting by owner, I often qualify it with an admonition that there are occasions when it is best to be flexible with your requirements.  For example, I do almost always insist on having a phone conversation with the people who inquire, before I am willing to extend a formal offer to book.  You can learn a lot by speaking with someone, and I do think that making that human contact from the get-go has helped us to avoid several potentially problematic groups.  (I'm sure this requirement may also have also caused us to miss out on a few perfectly good, and lucrative, bookings as well - but each must determine his own tolerance for risk.)

There was one occasion when I made a booking that took a little leap of faith on my part.  When the inquiry came in via email, I almost discarded it as a scam: Missionaries contacting us from the Solomon Islands.  (Yes, I know!)  But I continued to communicate with them via email, we worked together to overcome the difficulties of time zones and the expense of international calls by having a conversation by using Skype.  There were some technical difficulties, which resulted in my having to type while my potential guest spoke - we joked about how I felt a little like Harpo Marx.  Anyway, the extra effort in working with these folks turned into a very good bit of business, plus the chance to make the acquaintance of a very nice - and very interesting - world-traveling couple.

[Also see Screening Prospective Vacation Rental Guests]

PageRank for Vacation Rental Listing sites

In an earlier article on whether it is worth posting your property on free listing sites the steps are a little complicated. There are simpler approaches. Arguably not as accurate, but Google PageRank is at least one measure of the popularity of a website. It is a complex recursive formula that measures how many other highly ranked sites link to a particular site.

General opinion is that PageRank is no longer as important as it once was. Google now looks at many factors in determining how to order results for a search. But Google does continue to publish PageRank from time to time. For a benchmark, www.homeaway.com and www.vrbo.com have a PageRank (PR) of 6 (out of 10). If you search for a site and it has a PageRank of 0, then it is a new site that has started since Google last published a round of PageRanks - every six months or so. If a site has a PageRank of 1 or 2, it's not currently very popular.