Michigan Lake House Timing for Bookings

[Matt Burr]

Hi all I have a lake house for rent on VRBO. This is my first time doing a short term rental. I have had the place listed since about February 18th so about three weeks with no listings. I am starting to get cold feet. My question is from others experience what part of the year do people see the most bookings in this area. Keep in mind the season up here is Memorial Day to Labor Day. I am hoping I didn't miss people booking already. Any advice would be great. Thanks Matt

[John Underwood]

Matt,

This is the time of year that you should start getting some bookings soon. Look at your VRBO listing at "analytics" I think.

See how many page views you are getting. Also refresh your calendar often.

If you have instant bookings enabled it will also help.

Search your area on VRBO and see what the competition looks like. Look at their pictures, amenities, calendar and pricing. See if you need to add anything to be more attractive to renters.

When I first started out I listed our place a little below the other guys so that I could start getting reservations and reviews. Check with your guests when they arrive and make sure they are happy and don't need anything or have any questions. You want to go out of your way to start getting 5 star reviews.

Provide some floats and chairs at your dock if you don't already have these.

Also if you have a fireplace and/or fire pit and even a hot tub it may increase your off season rentals.

We had every weekend in February reserved. I never would have guessed that we would get so many off season rentals on our Lake house.

If you message me and send me your listing number I'll look it over and provide some feedback.

Mine is #3685237 on Homeaway, but it can be found on VRBO also.

I have an add on AirBNB also, but it isn't performing anywhere close to my VRBO listing.