Renters:

Things worth thinking about when renting a vacation home:

Spending your holiday in a vacation rental home has many advantages compared with traditional hotels; a lot more space available for you and your family, many private homes have amenities like video games, dvd's, outdoor garden with barbecue facilities and maybe even a pool or jacuzzi etc. etc.
You have the choice every day if you would like to cook your own food or go out dining.

But renting a private vacation home for your family holiday might also mean that you need to think about some things you normally do not think about.
We have collected the following tips that should make the renting process go without any trouble ensuring you and your family a brilliant holiday experience:

1. Make your reservations early.
2. Before you make any payments, make sure you get your agreement with the vacation rental property's owner/representative in written. This agreement should at least include your arrival and departure date, the total cost including eventual additional charges, the deposit, cancellation and refund policy.
3. Pay your deposits on time ensuring you avoid losing money and maybe ruin the holiday before it has even started.
4. Get complete information on what is included with the property: bed linens? beach towels? etc.
5. Cleaning is included with some properties, some offers it at an extra charge while some expects you to do the cleaning. Ask before you travel.
6. Get your complete travel information before travel; airplane, train, bus, boat, car.
7. Make arrangements for how to get the keys several weeks prior to arrival.
8. Get the owners/contact person's phone number for unforeseen incidents. Try this number and talk to the owner/contact person before departure.
9. Look at a map so you know exactly where the address and the property is located.
10. Never travel without travel insurance.

Owners:

Dealing with guest complaints:

The two most common complaints that vacation rental owners receive are concerning weather (1) or cleanliness (2). Here is some simple and effective ways of dealing with these complaints.

1. Weather complaints;
The weather conditions are not controllable by humans. This should be quite obvious for the most of us, but many people get very frustrated when their preciuos holiday weeks are getting ruined by horrible weather. Therefore, include in the rental agreement that unsatisfactory weather will not result in refunds. This will not make the unsatisfied renters mood whose vacation was ruined due to unforeseen bad weather, any better, but it gives you a clear ground to stand on when dealing with such complaints.

2. Cleanliness;
This is by far the most common complaint from vacation rental guests. It also can be diffcult to solve this kind of complaint, especially for long-distance owners, since their accessibility to the property is limited. As a result, long-distance owners must rely on their cleaning staff to prevent this from happening.
This potential problem can be avoided by establishing a check-in policy. The policy should instruct renters to check for cleanliness upon their arrival, and to report any dissatisfaction to the housekeeper immediately. Both you and your housekeeper's contact information should be available to your renters. If they do not take that opportunity to notify anyone of their frustration, then you are not at fault. Make your policy clear to your renters: if they do not notify you or the housekeeper right away, there is no way to rectify the problem.

More tips will follow soon.....