First of all, if you’re going to rent, you can’t sweat the small stuff. How will you feel about that water ring left on your coffee table?
When you do summer rentals, you’re running a small business that can gross up to $50,000 each season or more, depending on the property and its location. There will be the inevitable costs of doing business, including expected wear and tear. Vacationing families, if carefully recruited by you or your Cape Cod summer rentals manager, are not careless slobs. Still, accidents happen. But if you expect to build repeat business from guests, you can’t expect to charge them for the cost and hassle of fixing a plugged toilet, a torn screen or a stain on Grandma’s beloved duvet. Which should have been locked away for safe keeping anyway.
They can’t break it if they can’t get at it.
That’s the first word of advice for avoiding rental guest damage to your property: Pack up and lock up anything of great value, whether economic or sentimental. Good guideline to keep in mind.
Take a security deposit.
Besides taking reasonable precautions to protect your valued possessions, you can and should require a refundable security deposit.
For most weekly rentals on the Cape, a typical amount is from $250 to $500, usually collected as a separate check by individual homeowners who rent. Rental managers sometimes take a credit card to keep on file until the guests leave and the property has passed muster with no damage reported.
To play it ultra safe, you can deposit the security deposit check, then write a new one back to the guest after they leave and you or your manager approves of way they left the property. Or you can simply hold the check until departure, then destroy it, assuming no damage at the property. Way more convenient. Though a bit more risky,
because the guest can always cancel the check if you and the guest disagree on whether and to what degree there was assessable damage done during the rental term.
Property Damage Insurance.
Some owners and rental managers prefer to require property damage insurance in lieu of a security deposit. Some require both.
For the insurance, the guest pays a small, non-refundable premium for the policy for which the beneficiary is the homeowner. Premiums range from $50 to $89, and coverage can range from $1,500 per documented incident up to $5,000.
Well, you say, that’s way better than a lowly $500 security deposit, in case something expensive gets damaged when there are rental guests in the house.
True, but keep in mind each claim must be properly filed within a specified period of time, and generally one or more photos must be attached as evidence of the damage claimed. Then you’re at the mercy of the insurance company, who can decide whether or not to pay the claim.
We have to say that in our experience with damage protection insurance, most claims have been promptly approved and paid.
Here are two places to learn more about rental vacation damage protection insurance:
CSA Travel Protection
https://www.vacationrentalinsurance.com/vacationrentaldamage.do
Rental Guardian
The “Moral Hazard” Factor
There’s one other aspect of using damage protection insurance that you may want to consider. It’s called the “moral hazard” factor, as Scott Shane points out in a smallbiztrends.com post:
“Moral hazard is the idea that people will take more risks if they don’t bear the costs of their actions. For example, if you put down a security deposit you want back, you will be more likely to tell your kids not to use the table in the living room as a piece of gymnastics equipment than if you have paid for insurance that covers damage resulting from their gymnastics show.”
Read more at https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/09/damage-insurance-security-deposit.html
Again, in our experience with hundreds of rental guest occupancies, we have not found that rental guests are less respectful of the rental property because there is damage protection insurance in place. Just so you know.
Your rental summer vacationers are generally good people who want to do the right things when they stay at your Cape Cod vacation property. As an owner/host, you need to do the right things to encourage them to behave as you hope they will. Create the conditions for success!
Share your expectations — in writing.
Guests are not mind readers. Surely, you have specific guest guidelines for your property. Put them in writing. Notes on bulletin boards or chalk boards are OK, but it’s best to put your instructions in writing, maybe nice and organized in a guest book of some sort. People on vacation aren’t going to study what you write, but they’ll know it’s there and will refer to it when a question comes up.
One important page: the “Check Out Check List.” This information must be on-site at your property and guests must be made aware of it. It includes everything from a broad statement that guests should “leave the property generally in the condition they found it,” to specifics such as “check the outdoor shower for shampoo and other belongings.”
As rentals managers, we tell guests that faithfully following the “Check Out Check List” is their best guarantee that their security deposit will be refunded in full.
Not a bad idea to send out the List along with your rental agreement so guests know the deal from the start.
Limit the number of cars and size of gatherings in the rental agreement.
Your rental agreement should clearly state the number of overnight guests allowed at any one time. Your antenna needs to go up when a prospective guest tells you, “Oh, we have several families staying in different properties in the neighborhood, but don’t worry, no more than allowed will stay over.”
But what about inviting 20 or 30 close friends over for a day on the beach? This is most likely to be a problem if yours is the property closest to or on the beach.Where do you suppose all those “several families” are going to want to gather? Do your best to nip it by being specific in the rental agreement.
Give Them the Tools to Work With.
We’ve had owners complain that the guests “really didn’t clean up much,” when they left, only to look under the sink and find one aged bottle of Windex with about a half-inch of cleaner left in it.
Most guests are not going to go out and buy what they need to keep up your place up during their stay, or leave it the way you want them to when they depart. You have to provide them with the right tools. A range of cleaning products (then you control how “green” everything is), dishwasher detergent, dish washing liquid, sponges, latex gloves, a good wet mop, pail, broom, dust pan and hand brush, a small, portable vacuum – you get the idea. You can’t expect guests to vacuum all the rugs and/or mop all the floors when they leave. That’s why you have a cleaning service. But if they have the tools to work with, your chances of finding the place left in pretty good shape increase exponentially.
Lose the Tchotches!
Remember this rule of thumb re: knick-knacks, family photos and mementos, shell or beach glass collections, those silver embossed Champagne flutes you’ve used exactly twice, that piece of driftwood that resembles Richard Nixon, or pretty much anything else lying around, taking up space and not performing any useful function: Less is better.
Especially if any of that kind of stuff has real or sentimental value for you and your family, pack it up in boxes and lock it up in your owner’s closet. That way, your rental guests can’t be accused of losing it or damaging it.
And they won’t spend half their time in your house screaming “Don’t touch!” to little three-year-old Reginald.
We’ve had guests photograph the shelves and tabletops with a lot of owners’ stuff on them, then move it all into safe keeping somewhere in the house, only to put it back when they leave, using the photos as their guide. They shouldn’t have to do that.
De-cluttering takes on supreme importance in the kitchen. Be sure to leave plenty of storage space for guests to use, so they don’t spend their vacation with all their non-perishable groceries piled up on the counters. We hear plenty of complaints about that.
What to weed out? Come on, how many plastic food storage containers does one kitchen really need – especially the ones that have been missing their fitted tops since 1985. Guests really don’t need 19 coffee mugs or 32 colorfully amusing plastic drinking cups. (But don’t chuck that 1967 Red Sox Pennant cup with Carl Yastrzemski’s autograph – could be a collector’s item.)
Vacationers prefer sparse to cluttered, every single time. It gives them less to worry about and more space for their own stuff. Not that you need to strip the house down so it looks like a holding cell at Guantanamo. But definitely err on the side of sparse. Your guests will thank you, and your nesting Russian Dolls won’t suffer a single casualty.
Why is Cape Cod such a popular family vacation destination? Basically, it’s the beaches. So if they’re coming for the beach, what can you do as an owner/host to enhance their Cape Cod beach vacation?
Beach chairs are a must. If your property is directly on the beach, you may want to furnish those Adirondack-style resin chairs. They’re comfy, pretty durable with no parts to rust and seem to hold up fairly well, if you choose heavier gauge versions with better integrity. Some are so flimsy, they crack and break way too soon.
Especially if you plan to leave the chairs on the beach throughout the rental season, you might want to neatly inscribe your name or address on them somewhere – just so you can lay claim in case they wander down the beach at some point. A few inexpensive, stackable resin tables are also very handy and will be much appreciated by guests bearing beverages, snacks, sunscreen, tablets, whatever.
For most properties, the house is far enough away from the beach that you really need the folding, portable variety of beach chairs. They don’t have to be expensive, but they do have to be kept in good shape. If they have metal parts, they may be aluminum, but the fasteners probably aren’t. As most all folding chairs do, they will rust and you’ll be replacing them in a year or two anyway. NEWS BULLETIN: Presenting your guests with rusty, torn beach chairs does not make the cut.
Let me tellya about the beach umbrella.
Very popular items, of course, especially for parents of babies and younger kiddos. Even with 9,000 SPF sunblock, that Cape Cod sun can do a number on tender, young skin.
But here’s your problem. You tell your guests (and they will ask) that you have one of those stick-in-the-sand type beach umbrellas, because you do. At least, you did when the season started. But all it takes is one good gust of wind, and that umbrella is toast. So where’s the promised beach umbrella when the next guest group arrives? Probably inside out and useless in the corner of the garage or under the deck. If you’re smart, you’ll have its replacement in secret storage somewhere on the property where you or your manager can get at it and replace the dead body. Our advice: buy two or three umbrellas at the start of the season, and put them out one at a time.
Beach Toys Play Well.
Where do you start? Better question: where do you stop?
You can go crazy with beach toys and provide all manner of play things, from corn hole games to Frisbees® to paddle balls to kites, etc., etc., etc. But we recommend keeping it down to a dull roar.
Think little kids and apply the K.I.S.S. principle. Just give them a couple of plastic pails and shovels, maybe a couple of plastic vehicles – pay loaders and dump trucks are popular. Go with a slightly larger and more sturdy shovel or two so they don’t break on the first dig. Forget about those stupid “sifters” and plastic molds shaped like a star fish or whatever. No kid has ever used one of those in the entire history of Cape Cod. And guest parents will thank you for not having to pick them up at the end of the day.
Oh, and we definitely don’t recommend inflatables, boogie boards, SUPs, boats or anything else that floats. Unless you clear it with your insurance folks, and maybe, your attorney.
Beach Wagon Scores Big.
If your property requires a walk to the beach of more than about a minute or two, you’ll be a hero if you provide a cart or wagon for guests to use hauling their stuff to and fro. Make it big enough to accommodate everything mentioned above, plus maybe a four-year-old who loves the ride.
Neatness Counts.
Beach chairs, umbrella and toys need to have a home when they’re not in use on the beach. The garage is good, assuming your property has one. Or on the deck, under the deck or inside the screened porch. Under cover is recommended, out of the weather. That’ll extend the usable life of everything.
Remember: all that stuff from the beach, comes back to your house laden with sand. So for example, if your beach stuff is stored in the garage, provide for hanging the chairs up off the floor. Have one or more large plastic storage bins for beach toys, including a lid that fits on tightly if you have to store them outside. With things stored in the bin(s) or up off the flloor, it will be much faster and easier for you or your manager to sweep or blow the accumulated sand out of there without having to re-arrange and re-organize all the gear. Most guests will leave the beach gear as organized as they found it. So set a good example at the get-go and help streamline your turnover day property prep.
Outdoor Shower and Foot Bath.
Most Cape Cod summer homes have an outdoor shower. Not only is it just plain fun and an expected part of the Cape experience, it helps keep sand out of your house big-time. So make sure your outdoor shower is clean and in good working order before the rental season starts, including eliminating that accumulated ugly green mildew. And one last beach-related piece of equipment you’ll want: a small plastic bin filled with fresh water, strategically placed to encourage guests to rinse off their sandy feet before entering the house. Amazing how much this simple provision helps keep the property in much better shape throughout the rental season.
When your vacation rental guest sees a mouse or an ant in your house, you’ve got a problem. The guests want the pests gone, of course, but many guests, especially those with young children or pets, will not allow an exterminator anywhere near the place. You can offer them “green” products that are safe to use around children and pets, but it may be too little, too late.
That’s why, as with most problems, an ounce of prevention is worth, in this case, maybe several pounds of cure. Even if you’ve never had a rodent or insect pest problem at your Cape Cod vacation home, we strongly recommend a treatment by a professional exterminator a few days to a week or so before your first rental guests of the season arrive.
Off-season can be peak season for pests.
Sure, and why not? Your Cape property is likely shut down for the winter. It’s nice and quiet with no one around to detect the little buggers when they move in. By the time spring rolls around and you open up the property again, you may have an infestation on your hands.
We recall one of our owners going through her cottage one fine May day, only to discover an entire family of mice living in a drawer in one of the bedside tables. Ugh.
But take heart, there are a few steps you can take yourself without a professional exterminator involved to make your Cape home off limits in the off-season for insects and rodents.
First, let’s see how to derail that army of ants.
Mary Ylisela, of A1 Exterminators, one of the Cape’s leading pest control services, offers the following:
Things You’ll Need
- 2 cups white vinegar
- Bucket
- Spray bottle
- Clean cloths
- Shallow cake pans
- Cinnamon
Instructions
- Mix 2 cups of vinegar with half a bucket of warm water. Pour some of your vinegar solution into a spray bottle.
- Soak a clean cloth in the diluted vinegar solution, then squeeze out the excess. Use the vinegar-dampened cloth to wipe down kitchen countertops, the inside and outside of kitchen cabinets and the exterior of your kitchen appliances. If ants have been spotted in any other rooms of the house, wipe down hard-surfaced and non-upholstered furniture in the affected rooms, as well as hardwood or tile floors, with the vinegar solution to repel ants.
- Mop your floor with the remaining vinegar solution. Vinegar’s smell dissipates as soon as the vinegar dries.
Read more at: https://www.a1exterminators.com/get-rid-of-house-ants-in-the-winter/
No mice would be nice.
The only good mouse we know lives in Orlando. The rest we can do without. Here are some tips from doityourself.com to help make that happen:
- Maintain a Clean Environment
Mice thrive in dirty, cluttered surroundings. In such areas, they find it easy to build nests and bring up their young. Mice reproduce very fast, and can be difficult to control if left undisturbed. In a clean environment, they will find it difficult to survive and grow in number.
2. Eliminate Food Sources
Mice can survive on very small quantities of food and water. Be sure not to store anything edible in anything a mouse can gnaw through – such as boxes of crackers, bags of dog food, etc.
3. Prohibit Entry Indoors
Mice are very nimble and flexible. They can squeeze in through openings as small as a 1/4 of an inch. It is therefore vital to ensure that your home does not have any such entry points that these creatures can use to gain entry. Areas under sinks, around pipes, attics and garages are most prone to have small openings that may go unnoticed.
4. Use Traps
Traps are quite effective in controlling a small mouse infestation. Place traps in strategic locations such as corners, dark areas and places close to areas of food storage and consumption. There are several different varieties of trapping mechanisms available, some with the ability to capture multiple mice.
5. Use Bait
A suitable material used as bait can be very helpful in enticing and trapping mice. Rodenticides or food material can be used as bait. However, when using baits, the presence of young children or pets must be taken into consideration. Avoid leaving bait material in open areas where it can be easily accessed. Dispose of old bait promptly and change bait material frequently, so that the mice do not become resistant to the bait.
6. Avoid Stacking Old Newspapers or Unused Clothes
Mice love to start new colonies in hidden places, such as newspaper stacks and clothes. If you store clothes for a long time, make sure you keep them away in air tight covers. Avoid collecting too many items that you do not use frequently.
7. Block Vents with Wire Mesh
Vents and ducts can also provide mice with an entrance to the interior of a building. Cover all vents with a strong wire mesh, so that air flow remains unaffected while keeping mice away at the same time. Make sure the mesh is rodent-proof, or else the mice can simply gnaw through it and enter anyway.
8. Use Peppermint Oil
Mice can be repelled by the scent of peppermint oil. You can use a spray made of peppermint oil and water, or dab the oil on cotton swabs and strategically place them around to repel mice.
Visit https://www.doityourself.com/stry/11-ways-to-prevent-a-mouse-infestation for more.
Do-it-yourself measures can help in the off-season, but as the rental season approaches, be sure to schedule a professional pest control treatment. It’s a small price to pay so that the guests you welcome into your house are not upset by the creepy little guests you didn’t.
So you fixed the running toilet, patched the torn screens, scheduled a professional deep spring cleaning and bought some new beach chairs to replace those old rusty ones. You’re all set for the vacation rental season, right?
Not if you haven’t taken the following property management safety issues into account:
Check your insurance.
If you haven’t already, ask your insurance agent or carrier if your current homeowner’s policy covers claims that may arise when rental guests are occupying your home. If the home is your primary residence for most of the year, it may provide the coverage you need for vacation rentals. But there may be a limit on the number of weeks you can rent and still have that coverage. At any rate, it’s prudent to at least let your insurer know that you have rentals.
“When does occasional rental of a second home transform to one that requires separate coverage? ‘It depends on the insurance company,’ says Bill Mills, vice president of Strategic Insurance Agencies Group of North Carolina, in Jacksonville, N.C. ‘You have to make sure the company will even allow short-term rentals,’ Mills says.” — Bankrate.com
If your rental property is a second home, you’ll likely need a separate “dwelling” policy or even “landlord’s” insurance. Generally, you can choose from two or three levels of coverage, including an “open peril” policy, in which, unless a peril is specifically excluded, it’s covered.
The point is, check to see what coverage you have and whether or not you need something more.
Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
You’ll likely find that your insurance policy requires the proper placement of working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Even if your insurance doesn’t require it, why take any chances with the lives of your family or rental guests who stay at your property?
Here’s a sobering factoid: From December 2015 to March 2016, in 55% of the 31 instances of fire deaths in homes in Massachusetts there were no working smoke alarms.
“State Fire Marshal Ostroskey said, ‘Most people know they should have working smoke alarms. The one thing many people don’t realize is that smoke alarms need to be replaced about every ten years.’ Major manufacturers of smoke alarms indicate they have a service life of about ten years and recommend replacement after that because the sensing technology deteriorates over time.”
— capecodtoday.com
Also check your fire extinguisher(s) to be sure it’s in good working order and that your rental guests are told where you keep it for quick access if an emergency arises.
Here’s a simple, solid set of guidelines for home fire extinguishers:
https://blog.allstate.com/how-to-maintain-your-home-fire-extinguisher/
Dryer, dryer, pants on fire.
It’s no joke. Nearly 3,000 residential fires each year are caused by clothes dryers. But you say, you regularly clean that lint trap and instruct your rental guests to do the same, right?
That’s great, except for the fact that the lint trap on the average dryer, captures only about 25% of that highly flammable lint. The rest goes into your dryer vent duct, much of it sticking to the walls and accumulating over time. Eventually, the duct becomes completely blocked, the dryer overheats and boom! The ignition point is reached and you have a dryer fire.
A few tips on preventing dryer fires:
Make your dryer vent run as short as possible with as few turns as possible. Straight and short makes for less lint build-up.
Use a rigid metal vent duct, not one of those flexible vent hose-style ducts which can sag, allowing more lint to gather in the low points. The “sag factor” is a more frequent problem on the Cape, because so much sand gets into the dryer on beach towels, etc. Sand is heavy, so once inside a flexible vent duct, that duct is going to sag for sure.
Here are a few warning signs that your dryer vent duct needs to be cleaned:
- Drying times are taking longer.
- Your dryer is getting too hot when in use
- You can’t see any steam, hear much noise or feel much hot air flow outside your house at the wall vent when you run the dryer (a good thing to check once or twice during the rental season).
Very important: clearly instruct everyone that your house is never to be left unoccupied with the dryer running. It’s tempting, especially for your cleaning service on a hectic turnover day, to wash a few bath mats, kitchen towels or small throw rugs, then chuck them into the dryer, fire it up, and beat feet to the next property on their list. Very risky practice.
We’re not talking about an inflatable kiddie pool. Or even a good sized above ground pool. We’re talking about a real Cape Cod rental with pool – in-ground, reasonably sized, ideally heated – with plenty of nicely landscaped and comfortably furnished outdoor living space around it.
But wait a minute: We all know why people flock to the Cape each summer. Duh, it’s to go to the beautiful ocean beaches, right? It’s no coincidence that so many of our Pretty Picky Properties are directly on or within easy walking distance to a beach.
Then again, we represent a bunch of owners whose properties are nowhere near a beach. In most of those cases, their special appeal is simple: each offers a beautiful in-ground swimming pool.
For the great preponderance of rental guest groups, a pool is a huge plus for their vacation. It’s easy to understand why.
A pool turns a vacation rental into more of a resort, where kids will be entertained for hours. Parents and grandparents must keep an eye on them, of course, but they can do so in complete comfort and relaxation. A little too windy or too cool at the beach? Probably not at the pool. It’s always high tide for swimming in the pool. And we’ve seen precious few great white shark sightings in Cape Cod swimming pools.
Let’s not forget those families with little ones who still need an afternoon nap. No problem when you rent a house with a pool. Little Gus or Gracie can snooze away, while big brothers and/or sisters are not deprived of all the splashy fun they love. And the baby monitor is fully functional poolside.
Indeed, outings to the beach, bike trails or dinner are even more enjoyable, because everyone knows the pool is ready and waiting back at the house. Parents rejoice in having fewer occasions of mopey kids with “nothing to do.” And isn’t it nice to see the kids spending less time on a beautiful summer day holed up in a dark room with their various electronic devices?
Ah, beach + pool = vacation perfection.
Homes with pools provide a uniquely appealing family vacation experience. Yet, there are relatively few top line pool homes that rent. And that’s why those that do rent command such impressive rates. A house with a nice pool can expect almost double the rental rate of a similar property without the pool. Amazing!
One of our owners is a builder/investor who buys properties, renovates them, then makes them pay their own way with vacation rental income. He showed us one prospective property that needed a lot of work and impressed us with his ambitious plans for the overhaul. Then he walked us around to the back yard and there, admittedly also in need of renovation, was a rather large in-ground pool. He said he figured he would probably just fill it in and plant more lawn over it, figuring it was more of a liability than anything else.
We recommended that instead, he fix up the pool and make it the focal point of the home’s outdoor living area. Not to mention the lead photo in his listing on our website and in all our online advertising for his property.
He did a beautiful job, and the property has rented famously for several seasons now, at weekly rates nearly twice what comparable homes without pools in the area can ever hope to achieve.
If you are fortunate to have a pool and offer your home for vacation rentals, don’t be bashful with your rates. If you have a house with a pool and have never rented, you might want to test the waters.
Out of the approximately 120 properties we represent and manage for summer rentals, about 88% of the owners schedule their weekly turnovers on Saturday. Most rental guests much prefer a weekend day to start and end their Cape Cod vacation, and most of them prefer Saturday, because when they return home, it gives them an extra day to unpack, do the laundry, re-acclimate, and relax before starting the new school and work week. In other words, soften the blow of re-entry.
Today’s preponderance of working couples underscores the importance of a Saturday turnover day, according to Elizabeth Weedon of weneedavacation.com:
“Due to the fact that often both husband and wife now work full time, it’s more difficult for them to get away together for long periods of time. Thus, they are more than ever required to start and end their vacation weeks on the weekends. There is no question that traffic can be heavy and ferries to and from the Cape and Islands fill to capacity on Saturdays during the summer. But unless the traditional work week changes drastically, we homeowners will be bound to provide our vacation homes on a Saturday-to-Saturday basis.”
http://blog.weneedavacation.com/2013/01/15/choosing-a-vacation-rental-turnover-day/
So, what’s wrong with Sunday?
Nothing at all, really. Traffic coming to the Cape on a Sunday morning in summer is a piece of cake compared to Saturday, when things get a bit backed up, to say the least. Even leaving on Sunday morning makes for pretty smooth sailing, because you’re over the bridge and gone before the Cape weekenders strap on their kayaks and hit the road later Sunday afternoon.
We’ve had some guests who had their first taste of the Sunday-to-Sunday term tell us they would never rent Saturday-to-Saturday again. The ease of getting on and off Cape on a Sunday far outweighs any other factors for them.
For owners, it’s often easier to find good cleaners to handle the turnover day on Sunday, since most are booked solid on Saturdays and jump at the chance for the incremental revenue.
While some vacationers would rather get back home on Saturday and have Sunday to decompress, we have not found that listing your property Sunday to Sunday is any deterrent to robust reservations.
And if you’re even thinking about having your rental term run Friday to Friday, we have one word of advice: Don’t.
Rental guest groups absolutely hate having to take an extra day of paid vacation and will avoid your property like the plague. One of our owners was actually advised to do Friday-to-Friday rentals, probably because it fit the broker’s schedule better. Weeks went unbooked until the owner listed with us and we switched the turnover day to Saturday. Problem solved.
Yes, Saturday does have its traffic challenge. This advice from the TripAdvisor Cape Cod Forum can reduce the pain:
“Avoid the Saturday morning traffic by crossing the bridge (in either direction) before 10am or after 3pm.”
Once outside the peak rental weeks of high summer, essentially July and August, arrival and departure days often move all over the place. At least, they do for owners who truly expect to generate income in the off-season months of June and September. Most guests are not looking for full week rentals at those times, so long weekends become the most sought-after rental term. It can get a little tricky scheduling the cleaning and prep work, but renting partial weeks and weekends are your best shot at success in the off-season.
Vacationers will have plenty of questions to ask you about your Cape Cod vacation property and rental procedures, you can bet. Well, it’s a two way street. It’s every bit as important that the prospective rental guest answer the following questions so you know you’ve found a good fit for your property and the vacation experience you know that it delivers.
- Obviously, you’ll ask how many guests in their party, but you need to know more than that!
Make sure they count all the kids, including toddlers and infants. We’ve had parties tell us they are a group of eight, then on arrival day, we count eight adults and six kids! So be sure they are giving you an accurate body count, no matter what the size or age of those bodies!
Here’s a key related question: Do they expect any visitors during their stay? Any who will be staying overnight? Exceeding the occupancy defined in the rental agreement, even for one night, is in violation of the agreement.
Also beware of the “gathering.” Especially if your guest group is part of a larger group of friends or family all staying in the area, as in the case of weddings, for example. Maybe only eight of them are staying at your place, but you’ve got the sweet location on or near the beach, so guess where all 34 of them will choose to congregate most of the time?
Yet another aspect of group size is the number of vehicles they plan to have parked at the house at any one time. Your rental agreement can and should stipulate what the normal sized vehicle count cannot exceed. No campers or 18-wheelers, please! All you need is a call from an irate neighbor, complaining that your rental guests are blocking his driveway with their 45-foot long coach!
- Are there any pets in their party?
Most vacationers who want to bring their pets are very good about being up front with the proposition, and equally good about managing the pet behavior while in residence. They’ll even OK with paying more for the privilege. Generally speaking, we encourage owners to consider pets, since there are so many families today that want Fido on the family vacation, and that means a much larger universe of prospective guests.
But some owners flat out don’t allow pets, which is certainly their prerogative. Maybe they have family members allergic to dog or cat hair. Whatever the reason, if you don’t want pets, it’s good to probe this question a bit deeper. For example, do you plan to have any visitors who might bring a dog? Or two? You won’t know if you don’t ask.
- What is the profile of the group and what is their vacation vision?
Are they a multi-generational family? Or maybe two young families with a couple of kids each? A bunch of 40-something golf or fishing buddies on a guys-only escape? Or six or eight 60-something women in a book club or knitting group? (Based on our experience with those last two, we suggest you go with the knitting group.) Or a group of 20-something college kids looking to “unwind” after a challenging academic year? (Watch for inquiries for May or June with email addresses ending in “.edu.”)
What do they expect to do on vacation? Sit on the beach all day? Play golf, go fishing or antiquing? Stage a volleyball tournament in your back yard? Do their plans match the experience your property delivers and you want to allow?
In general, the best advice is: do everything you can to make sure the rental is the right match for the group that is inquiring about it. Don’t be so eager to fill weeks that you create unhappy situations. When the rental works for the guests, and the guests play by the rules, everyone wins.
Let’s face it, you love that Cape property of yours. You love spending time there. And you love that it can also make a nice income for you, thanks to summer Cape Cod summer vacation rentals. But before your vision gets too clouded by dollar signs, let’s get realistic about rates.
We know it can be hard to be objective, but you have to look at renting your home like running a small business. In order to maximize your success, the price has to be right.
And that’s not what you think it’s worth, but what the market tells you it’s worth.
Go online to sites like Homeaway.com or VRBO.com, and enter the criteria they ask form as if you were looking for a property such as yours. Use dates for a prime, mid-summer week. Fill in the number of bedrooms and all that. Then carefully analyze the properties that come up in your search. Pick a few that look and feel as much like yours as possible, remembering that location is of paramount importance to a rental guest. Your house might compare favorably with another you find online, but if that house is a two-minute walk to the beach while yours is more like a 10-minute walk, well, we know which house will command a significantly higher rental fee.
Here’s another obvious, but important factor to remember: the weeks you can realistically hope to rent and the rates you can expect to get for them are driven by the school calendar. Sure, you know that June and September can be the very best times of the year on the Cape. The weather can be summer-like, and the roads, restaurants and beaches aren’t crowded. So people should want to rent your property then and be willing to pay handsomely for it, right? Just one problem: most private home vacation rentals on Cape Cod are booked by families with school age children. And when schools are in session, most families can’t take off for a week or more on the Cape.
So before and after July and August, the market for renting your property (and everyone else’s) gets pretty skimpy. Low demand, high supply – naturally adds up to lower rates, in most cases much lower rates. We find that off-season weekly rental rates on the Cape are often wisely set as much as 50% lower than prime summer weeks.
Off-season means shorter stays.
We just said it’s not easy to rent weeks in June and September, and it’s even harder if your rates are too high.
But here’s a strategy we’ve seen work for some owners.
Promote stays of only three or more nights vs. renting only by the full week. Families and even couples without kids who would never consider taking a week will sometimes take off for a three or even four-day weekend. And here’s the thing: many folks are willing to pay a bit more per night for these shorter term stays than your off-season weekly rate would indicate. You’re accommodating their schedule and actually breaking up two potential week-long rentals by giving them a weekend. They’ll pay a premium for that. You can also add on the cleaning fee in many cases.
Prime vs. Super-Prime
The typical “prime” or “peak” summer rental season on the Cape runs from about the last week of June through the last week of August, depending on when schools actually dismiss for the summer. But not all of those nine or so weeks need to be treated equally from a pricing standpoint. For example, the first week or two in July and the last week in August are almost always the slowest to book. We see that pattern play out every year. So you might end up adjusting your rates a bit to fill those weeks.
At the same time, we’ve noticed that the last two weeks in July and the first two in August almost always book faster than any others. So you might consider pricing those weeks a big higher than your other prime weeks. We’ve seen that strategy pay off for many owners.
Rate adjustment is part of the game.
It makes sense to be somewhat rate aggressive when it’s November or December or even January and February. But when March and April roll around and you’ve still got more than half your prime weeks still open, you might want to consider a rate adjustment. Discounting your rates, even a little, gives you news to promote. Don’t be bashful – put it in your headline. “New, lower rates for peak summer weeks!” “Save up to $500/week!” You get the idea.
Returning guests are good, but not gold.
There’s a lot of good things about guests who return to rent your property year after year. They are proven performers, which is good for your peace of mind. They are seldom high maintenance. They know the property and usually don’t need or ask for a lot during their stay.
They are also often a source of positive referrals to their friends and family, leading to additional booking opportunities for your property.
But here’s the bad news: returning guests typically expect to pay the same rate they’ve always paid. Meanwhile, you’ve been steadily improving the property – maybe renovated the kitchen or baths or both. Maybe new furnishings, a new TV or added a screened porch. Any and all upgrades add to your cost, not to mention taxes, utilities, insurance and other costs, which go only one way – up. As long as you remain price competitive with other rental properties of your ilk, you have every right to expect a rental rate increase. You may find, however, that your loyal returning guests do not quietly accept the new rate. Each party feels the other is taking advantage. We understand that this situation can be quite unsettling for both owner and guests. Often we find that the following approach works best to soften the blow.
Explain to your returning guests that you have to raise the rates to keep up with cost increases to maintain and upgrade the property. Give some examples of costs (categories, at least) to achieve credibility. Present the new rates for first-time guests, but quickly add that for returning guests, the rate increase is less for the upcoming summer – maybe only half as much. The following year, you can take the returnees up to the full new rate, or go longer with the special treatment for them, as you see fit.
If you own a truly select Cape Cod property with high rental appeal, and your rates are market competitive, don’t worry too much about losing returning guests. There are plenty of vacationers looking for and willing to pay for a property like yours.
Unlike most of the rest of the vacation rental world, Cape Cod owners, for the most part, do not furnish vacation rental bedding and towels for rental guests. Vacationers either bring their own or rent them so they are at the property when the group arrives. Naturally, most guests would love to find fresh linens ready to use when they start their vacation. So why don’t more owners throw in the sheets and towels? In most cases, it’s not the added cost, it’s the logistics of the typical, very hectic rental turnover day.
We’ve had owners provide the linens with the proviso that guests wash and dry them so they are ready for the next guest group. Trouble is, even the most organized and disciplined guests find it just about impossible to whip the house into decent shape PLUS run often multiple loads of laundry to get all the linens and towels washed and dried – and still get out the door by 10 am on their departure day. Of course, the bigger the group, the more laundry there is, and the more difficult the challenge becomes. Some owners have their cleaning service attempt the same feat, which generally doesn’t work out much better. Fact is, there really isn’t enough time on a turnover day to get the job done.
The only practical way to provide linens is to have at least two complete sets of everything so that the soiled linens can be removed from the home and laundered on a less frantic schedule, while arriving guests receive a separate, freshly laundered set. But who’s responsible for collecting and cleaning the dirty linens, as well as delivering clean ones each week? Sometimes it’s the cleaning service, sometimes it’s the owner and sometimes it’s a third party, acting as a sort of property manager.
If your property is a larger, more expensive rental, your guests are more likely to expect that you provide the linens. Guest may even ask to have the beds made when they arrive, which some linen rental services, such as our own, will take care of for a minimal additional per-bed fee.
Especially for what we call “Resort/Reunion” properties, including quality sheets and towels is a must. These are properties, often estates really, that sleep up to 12 or more and offer resort-like amenities such as a swimming pool, spa, kayaks, etc.
Joan Talmadge of WeNeedAVacation.com, offers some more tips for managing your bedding for vacation rentals:
“Put plastic mattress protectors on your mattresses. (The regular mattress pad goes on top of this so that the plastic protector is not even noticed.)
Put pillows into cotton protectors in order to keep your pillows stain-free.
Be sure that all bedding is clean and stain-free. This includes mattresses, mattress pads, pillows, and blankets. Stained and dirty bed linens are a serious turn-off to tenants.
Be sure to provide at least two sets of bed linens for each bed.”
See more at: http://blog.weneedavacation.com/2014/03/19/should-i-provide-linens-in-my-vacation-rental/
However you decide to handle linens for your vacation rentals, be sure to communicate the information clearly to rental guests long before they arrive. In our rental agreement, we not only state when linens are not provided, we highlight it in yellow so it’s hard not to notice. The last thing you need is to get a distress call at bed time from your just-arrived guests, who were sure their rental included sheets and towels. Whoops!