Maine had over 15 million visitors in 2023 alone.
If you're a Windham property owner, these tourism statistics should be eye-raising. They present a fantastic opportunity to earn some side income on your property by renting to vacationers. Whether this is your family home or a vacation home, learning how to share your home can be tricky.
In today's post, we'll give you five home sharing tips to help you maximize your rental income. With plenty of other Windham, ME rentals, it's essential to employ home sharing strategies to stand apart from the competition. Please keep reading and learn how it's done.
1. Outline House Rules
Before you welcome your first guests, come up with the rules of your home. The more clearly you state these rules, the better you'll be able to protect your property from poor tenant behavior and tell them what to expect.
Some of these rules include things about:
- Pet allowances
- Noise/quiet hours
- Smoking
- Maintenance, doing dishes, and laundry
- Parking
- Additional guests
2. Depersonalization and Marketing
When you've got family photos and heirlooms around the unit, it's hard for guests to feel like they're on vacation. It'll feel like they're in someone else's space.
Remove things that make your unit too homey. Once you've done that, you'll be ready to create your rental listing by writing a thorough description of the property and local area. Complete the listing with lots of high-quality real estate photos.
Post the rental on the listing site of your choosing. Consider investing in digital marketing to put as many eyes as possible on the unit and get ahead of the competition.
3. Pricing Strategies
When starting a new vacation rental, you're going up against more established competition. The first thing people look at is reviews, so if you don't have any/many, you need to entice renters in other ways.
Competitive pricing will attract more frugal renters, giving you guests and income immediately. Implementing sliding scale pricing based on the ebbs and flows of the tourist season will also help maximize your income.
4. Strong Guest Management
Guest management should start as soon as you secure a booking. The key to strong guest management is communication. Give your renters all of the information they need about check-in - and the house rules - ahead of their arrival.
When they arrive, make sure they know you're available to answer any questions/concerns. Other than that, the best thing you can do is give them their privacy.
5. Ask for Reviews
One of the most important vacation rental tips we can offer is to ask for reviews when happy guests check out of your unit.
As mentioned above, ratings and reviews are how guests initially separate the best vacation rentals from the rest. By asking for positive reviews, you can secure future bookings without the need to invest in marketing.
Taking Home Sharing Tips to Heart
These home sharing tips will get your vacation rental up and running quickly. However, with more bookings, you'll create more work for yourself managing the rentals. If you're finding it overwhelming, hiring a vacation rental manager is a great idea.
PMI Vacationland is Windham's top option for vacation rental management. We can tackle everything mentioned here and more, so contact us today to find out how we'll maximize your property.
