Rent options availabe to cottage owners

So, you got your vacation home and now it is time to get some value out of it by renting it to other people. In this article we going to go through three basic options for renting your cottage, chalet or cabin.

First option - do everything yourself. By everything I mean:
1. Advertising. There are multiple options for advertising your cottage - newspapers, magazines, websites (like http://www.findcottage.ca/).
2. Taking calls and email from potential customers. You would also want to perform some screening procedures. For example, you don't want bachelor party taking place at your cottage.
3. Process booking and damage deposits. If you have only 1 cottage for rent, it does not make sense to run Visa processing. So, most likely you would need to deal with personal checks.
4. Greeting the guests. Some owners try to give the keys in person, just to check if people who are renting the cottage have good intentions. Otherwise you can leave the keys in lock box and give the code to your customers.
5. Saying goodbye to the guests. At this point you need to make sure that no damage is made to your cottage during the visit. Usually you would have $500 damage deposit taken, so if any repairs are needed - you can take these money. If the damage is more than $500 - your insurance should cover the difference.
6. Cleaning the cottage. Some owners take cleaning deposit and if cottage needs cleanup - you do it yourself and take cleaning deposit as extra income.

Second option - let others manage the advertising and payments. In some cases it will be more convenient just to manage "Greeting", "Goodbye" and "Cleaning" part, and let somebody else find customers and get the payments. Nowadays customers want to book the cottage online using credit cards.
However, there are not too many companies that provide such package. Advertising/payment services cost around 15%-30% of your rental revenue.

Third option - give the keys to company which provides full cottage management including advertising, payment processing, cleaning, security, etc. Usually such companies are managing only certain areas, like Muskoka or Bruce Peninsula. You can also book your own usage of the cottage, but you can have some limitations. The downside of such option is that it costs a lot of money. It starts from 18% and goes up to 30%. In some extreme cases (like Intrawest resort) it can eat up to 50% of your rental income, but it is rather exception than the rule.

Now it is your turn to decide!

Truly yours,
Max Trenton from FindCottage.ca