Check out the MUCH improved method of searching and sorting for vacation rentals in France:

We’ve finally began the process of making it easier to search for vacation rentals in areas that have many small, relatively unknown cities and municipalities.    For example, in Italy, the entire collection of cities and regions was just too difficult for the average American to navigate.

What we did was assign all the Italian vacation rental listings to their appropriate region and province in Italy and then map them to a drillable flash map.

Check it out:

http://www.vacationrentaldirect.com/vacation-rentals/132/Italy.htm

We’ve always had the ability to share VacationRentalDirect.com property listings on the top social networking sites.  However, we recently updated this technology to allow Facebook users to post their property directly into their Facebook “Wall”.

Here are a couple of examples:

Periodically posting your listing to your wall is a great way to introduce your property to your network of friends.   If your friends like it, they in turn will visit your listing on VacationRentalDirect.com and may add the listing to their wall, thus introducing your property to their network of friends, starting the process all over again.

Social media vacation rental marketing, if done correctly, can be a powerful way to gain exposure for your vacation rental.

To share your listing on Facebook,  first mouseover the “+ Share Listing” image at the top of your listing.

Next click on the Facebook icon

and finally, add some introductory text to introduce the property to your friends on facebook, choose the image of your property that you would like displayed in the posting and then Share it with all of your friends!!

Renting a vacation home or condo around Disney World in Florida can be quite a task. The area is very large and comprised of many mega residential developments which are primarily owned by investors who rent out the homes to families visiting Disney World. Thus when searching for a Disney vacation rental it’s important to search in all the categories that contain vacation homes or condos near Walt Disney World.

These categories include:

Kissimmee Vacation Rentals
Disney Area Vacation Rentals
Orlando Vacation Rentals

Many of the property owners are from the UK. I’m not really sure why this is, but if I had to guess, I’d guess it’s because Disney World is a popular spot for the British and many bought up homes as investments when they were visiting.

The competition is fierce with 1000s of homes and condos being marketed to Disney World visitors.

I am just going to feature one home now that I feel has a great set of owners who care about the rental and really keep it up:

Come stay at our pefect villa in the sun United States » Florida » Disney Area   View This Listing at VacationRentalDirect.com   This privately owned villa is situated on an established residential development called Santa Cruz with a mixture of permanent and short stay residents. There are only 71 houses in this neighbourhood. There are several golf courses in close proximity   Property Details Listing: 3009 Type: Villa Sleeps : 6 to 8 Bed(s): 3 Bed(s): 2 Pets: No Children: Yes Pool :Yes Smoking: No Amenities Air Condition Phone Radio Washers & Dryer TV Cable DVD Player

Contact:         Phone: 01293 538769

Vacation Rentals By Owner | VacationRentalDirect.com | Vacation Rental Software

Happy New Year!! I’ve been hearing from a lot of vacation rental owners and property managers about how the economic slowdown is hurting their business. Many are talking about reducing their marketing budgets for 2009. Hold up. Did I hear that correctly? Business is slowing and you want to decrease your vacation rental marketing dollars?

When times get a little more lean or when competition heats up, there is never a better time to spend more money on marketing. Margins will be thinner, but at least your properties are occupied and cash flow is strong.

For my own vacation rentals, I am always revisiting my marketing mix. I find print advertising to be very expensive and it offers little in the way of return on investment. My website remains a good source of leads and I make extensive use of pay per click campaigns as well as advertising on a select number of vacation rental listings sites, including, of course, vacationrentaldirect.com.

I am spending a little more this year to generate the same number of inquiries as in previous years, but the results are well worth it. My summer 2009 bookings are already nearly 85% booked, and that’s for seven units, with one week minimums, at rents rangins from $1500 to $5600 per week.

The vacation rental market remains very strong, but the economy is taking a tool. On the flip side, more people are traveling closer to home so the local markets are stronger.

In short, don’t reduce your vacation rental marketing dollars because you budget is tight. Spend your money wisely and diversify with a nice mix of a personal website, targeted long tail ppc, a variety of vacation rental listing sites, craigslist, eBay, free listing sites, some print advertising and don’t forget word of mouth and email marketing.

2009 will be a great year for vacation rentals, but dont’ skimp on the marketing budgets!!!