Even though there is always a high-season and low-season when it comes to traveling, there always seems to be people scurrying around on vacation. Whether that’s heading off to their next big bucket list item or simply exploring a city on the weekend, it’s hard to find a time when people aren’t traveling.
For that reason, many people turn their homes into vacation rental. It’s a way to earn a bit of extra money for a property they may not be using.
Turning your home or property into a vacation rental is a bit harder than simply putting up an “open for business” sign in your front lawn. There is lots of prep work to be done to ensure you’re doing everything as right and easy as possible.
6 Steps for Turing your Home into Vacation Rental
The First Steps
First off, you’ll want to make sure your property has the ability to be turned into a vacation home. Well, there is little doubt you can turn it into a vacation home but that doesn’t mean that people will be flocking to your property to rent it.
Think about what your property can offer that will make it attractive. Is it close to a major city? Close to the beach or the mountains? Is it on the beaten path?
You’ll also want to make sure it’s actually legal to rent out your space. In some places, like New York, you can’t rent vacation homes unless the tenants plan to stay longer than 30 days.
Go From a Home to a House
Whenever you first moved in, you likely added plenty of personal touches to make your house a home. Now, you’ll want to make sure you’re turning it back into a home.
Take out all the family photos, memorabilia, paintings, knick knacks and other little things that have made the house feel like it was yours. You’ll want to make it as neutral as possible to attract all types of customers. So go easy on the paint job, hang some local artwork on the walls and try to make sure the house is as friendly and open as possible to all visitors.
Invest in Some Necessary Home Items
You’ll want to make sure your guests have towels, linens, kitchen supplies and anything basic to survive for their stay. In addition, you might want to upgrade your house.
You may have to spend a bit to upgrade some parts of your house, making sure you’re all set to receive those 5-star reviews that will be coming your way.
Install a monitoring system to watch over your house, especially the front area so you can see guests arriving. Add a locked key box or pinpad so guests can come in and out easily. This will save you plenty of time so you don’t have to constantly coordinate to try and meet them at any odd time.
Set the Schedule
Are you going to want to rent your house out all year? Only during a high season? For just weekends? In order to make it as easy and painless for you, have these dates blocked out well in advance before you start advertising it all online.
Also, make sure you have a rock solid check-in and check-out time for your guests. Make sure it’s something set in stone so you and anyone else that’s managing the property can get into a rhythm and know what to expect.
Once you have all the basics covered, get ready to publish your property so any travelers can find you.
Lay Down the Law
With your house, it pays to outline the rules ahead of time so you’re not caught in a pickle. If you’ve got a large property, you may bar weddings from coming in. Or you could tell people about noise restrictions.
Whatever your rules are, lay them down early so there won’t be any confusion. You can add special house rules as well, about AC temperature, what to do with trash or electric usage. Remember, this is your property so do what you think is best.
Clean It All Up
The last and perhaps one of the most important aspects is making sure you have a set cleaning rotation or schedule in place. Your property may become quite popular during high seasons and you might only have a few hours to clean it all up.
You can either clean the place yourself or have a cleaning company ready and waiting so you can rest easy. Make sure to give your house a deep clean so it will be all prepared for your next set of guests.
