Financial Matters Marketing Your Vacation Rental

Does your listing indicate your payment methods?

5/5 - (1 vote)

In prior posts, we discussed the increasing demand from vacationers for online payments (Benefits of Offering Online Payment Options) and presented some Online Payment Options for Your Guests for your consideration. Hopefully, many of you now do accept online payments as an added alternative to personal checks.

Have you indicated your payment methods on your listing? If not, you’re missing a valuable marketing asset. Vacationers can now see which homeowners accept online payments as it appears on your listing above your calendar and pricing like this:

To indicate which payment methods you accept, go to the bottom section of your calendar and click on “Display payment methods.” Here’s an example of the Payment Methods section:

 

Still not sure about offering online payments?

Some homeowners have actually lost bookings due to their NOT accepting some kind of online payment option.  It’s the quicker, safer, and easier choice for vacationers – and those benefits apply to homeowners as well.  Wouldn’t you prefer to have a tentative booking sewn up within hours rather than having to wait days and sometimes weeks for that check to arrive?! And how many of you have had bookings fall through in the meantime?

So, if you haven’t already set up some online booking capabilities, take a look at our prior post outlining different payment options, and set some up. And once you have, be sure to let prospective guests know that you offer this attractive amenity by updating your listing.

About the author

Elizabeth Weedon

Elizabeth Weedon - Although I’ve worked for WeNeedaVacation.com since 2008, I’ve been a loyal homeowner on the site since early 1998, just a few months after the website was launched by the Talmadges. I grew up summering on the Vineyard and managed my family's rental home there since the mid-1980’s. I’m passionately devoted to the Vineyard – and to WeNeedaVacation, which I credit with enabling me to hold onto the special property that has been in our family for nearly a century. An enthusiastic member of the WNAV Homeowner Support Team, I endeavor to keep my finger on the pulse of the Cape and Islands vacation rental industry so that I can provide homeowners advice about how to ensure their booking success with us. With owner Joan Talmadge, I am also responsible for editing and writing much of the text on our website, our monthly newsletters, and Homeowner Blog posts.