How to create a vacation rental website?

To find tenants for a seasonal rental or not, building a rental web page has become essential. The advantages are numerous: - It's free or very inexpensive. - Global visibility - The rental site can be personalised in an infinite number of ways. - Internet pages allow to present the property for rent with photos or videos. - Texts can be used to describe the rental. - You can add plans. - You can display the booking calendar. - You can be independent of any real estate agency

The home page

Display from the home page the information that will allow the visitor to see at a glance that he is on the page concerning the holiday rental he is interested in. Indicate on the home page : - The type of rental (house, apartment) - The city, the region, the country - The photo of the dwelling outside - The photo of the dwelling inside - A quick means of contact such as telephone and email.

The other rental pages

Then you can on other pages go to the details of the accommodation for rent. Build a page for each of these topics: - The outside photos : There are never enough photos to show. Show the garden with the barbecue, the terrace or the balcony if there is one. Don't hesitate to show not only the accommodation from the outside, but also the view from the living room, and views around the rental. You can display the photos one below the other or use a slide show. - Interior photos: Even if there are five bedrooms, show at least one photo of each one. Show the living room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. No need to show the toilet and the garage. - The video of the holiday rental. - A page with a booking calendar. Choose a color palette to differentiate the weeks already booked from the others. - A page of the rates according to the periods. It is essential to keep this page up to date. Answering a person that the rental price is higher than the one displayed is of the worst effect, and is even illegal. Be transparent and display all possible prices such as the amount of the tourist tax, or the amount of the cleaning of the rental. - A complete contact page with all contact details. Don't be short of directions and access map. - What activities are available near the rental. - At least one page about the region as far as tourism is concerned. - A page on the history of the region. - A page about the gastronomy in the region. - A page with a list of good restaurants around the rental may be useful. Take the opportunity to exchange your link with the one of the restaurant you indicate. Exchange of good process. - Talk about crafts and art in the region. - A page on the weather in the area. There are online weather forecasts that allow you to view a weather forecast for a targeted region. - A guestbook in which previous tenants can praise the accommodation and your welcome. Provide the tenant with a real paper guestbook in the rental. And fill in the guestbook of the rental with the texts written in this book. - An external link page in which you will place the web addresses with which you exchange links.

Information not to forget

- Do you accept animals. - Is Wifi available, and is it free? - If the rental is on the seaside, indicate how many meters from the beach. - How far away is the bakery and the supermarket. - If the rental is in a far country, give practical information such as vaccinations, visa, currency. - Sanitary facilities, dishwasher, laundry ... - Do you provide bicycles? - Is it necessary to bring sheets or towels?

Several languages

It's not an obligation, but the minimum is at least one page in English. Present in this page the minimum information that will allow someone who does not understand French to contact you.

A page of video

Everyone has a video camera now. If you don't have one, you'll find someone who does. This camera will allow you to show a film about the rental. Choose a day when the weather is very nice. Film from the outside, and enter the accommodation.

Some advice concerning the video

- Don't talk during the video and turn off the sound. As you do not have the technical means to obtain a good sound recording, it is preferable to make a silent video. - Do not make a too long video. One minute is a maximum. Once the video is filmed, you can make a small editing if necessary with free software that you can find on the Internet. You will not be able to keep your video on the server. A video takes up too much space and needs to be loaded quickly. It is therefore preferable to have your video hosted for free like Dailymotion or Youtube.

A title for each page

The title of each page named ''Title'' is very important for search engines. Start by naming your homepage using important keywords. For example: holiday rental in Brittany with private swimming pool. Once your project is finished, come back to it frequently to update and enrich it. The richer it will be and the more visitors you will have.