Start turning your extra home into a vacation rental. After reading so many articles in the Owner Community, you are still puzzled on where to start. So this checklist for turning your extra home into vacation rental can be of help to you on where to begin.
1. Legal Preparations. These include amongst others like the short-term rental laws, business licences and paper works, insurance policy for vacation rentals, and rental agreement.
2. Tax Preparations. Seek some advice of an accountant regarding the applicable taxes such as tax deductions, tax requirements, occupancy tax rate and sales tax for short term rentals.
3. Payment Preparations. You have to set up price structure (daily, weekly, monthly) and rates. In addition, you have to devise a method for tracking and recording payments and expenses. Determine your methods of accepting payments - credit card, PayPal, checks, etc.
4. Maintenance Preparations. You have to hire and maintain a trustworthy housekeeper or cleaning service. You also have to hire a reliable handyman or maintenance person.
5. Household Preparations. In this stage, the things you have to do are the following: first, fully furnish your home by purchasing the necessary items and save the receipts. Also, try to keep all instruction pamphlets or handbook together in a place where renters can easily find them. Second, create a property inventory list of all items in your home.
Third, purchase a guestbook and a local attractions book. And the last, collect coupons, local attraction/activity brochures and menus from local restaurants and put them in a binder to create a local attractions book.
6. Advertising Preparations. You have to review vacation rental listing websites and specialty websites for advertising your property. Now set up accounts with 3 to 5 listing sites. Also create a headline, property description and location description with pictures staging different views of your home. Put captions for each photo. Furthermore, purchase a domain/email address for personal site and professional email correspondences. And lastly, send an email to everyone in your address book linking to your personal site and new listings.
7. Renter Preparations. You're now on the last stage of preparations. These are the things you need to do: first, set-up an auto-responder for inquiries. Second, create standard responses and a sample confirmation email. Third, make a thorough set of directions and a list of instructions for using appliances, electronics and equipment at your property. Fourth, determine method for getting keys to renter. Fifth, create a check-in and checkout procedure and set up an emergency contact sheet. And last, put together local vacation tips for your guests.
Now that you've checked off all the items for turning your extra home into a vacation rental, go ahead and start renting and earning!