finding the best rental website for owners?

[Timothy]

I went to google search, typed in "advertising vacation rentals" etc, and received the typical 4 billion hits..but........i was given a formula (so friggin complicated for lil ol me that I couldn't follow it) for finding the top ten sites....divided by this and that...and multiplying the amount of those who ..blah blah bahl my something sqared to get....so..screw it. I SIMPLY wish to know if ANYONE OUT THERE has had good experience..good hits/results with "vacatoinrentals.com" or VRBO or other supposed good sites for advertising vacation rentals. Thank you

[BILL]

RENT.COM and list the area.

[MIKE L]

Be sure to qualify your searches for the geographic area where you have your vacation rental. Try different keyword terms to see if you can tell which source like vrbo, homeaway, etc. produces the most results. This may help you determine what directory is best for your location.

Check out your competition, and see what descriptions, keywords, photos, etc. they are using. See if there are areas where you need to improve your ads to get noticed.

Other thoughts. Do you have your own website for your vacation rental? It's essential to market and to help add credibility to your "business". You can use the web building tools available on GoDaddy, BlueHost, 1&1 or other web hosts to build a basic site with location, description and photos.

You can use Craigslist, but you still have to make sure your property stands out. When I use Craigslist I direct people to go to our website and don't even take inquiries via CL. There are too many spams and scams coming through CL inquiries.

Keep in mind that you get what you pay for. HomeAway, VRBO and Flipkey may run $600 per year, but they produce results. That's why they have grown so large. HomeAway (and there subsidiaries) has become very dominate in the market. I hate paying them, but when you get a significant number of bookings, it pays over and over.

Make sure you are using local resources to promote your vr. There may be business directories that you can place a listing for a nominal fee.

Establish a FaceBook page and Twitter account for your vr. Update with area information, photos and event information so that people are interested in following you.

I would also suggest that you seek out vacation rental owner forums and see what other owners are doing. Yahoo has an excellent group for vacation rental owners. I highly recommend it.