Well if you were on the ball a couple years ago when I first launched this site, you added your property while it was still in it’s infancy you were able to get great exposure for your rental at a great price…FREE! However, if you waited until now, you’ll likely have to pay to play. No worries though, its still very affordable advertising.

If your property is in a location that has no other properties listed yet, I will allow it to be listed for free. For example one lucky property owner or manager slipped in the first Atlantic Beach rental a week or so ago. Though they were prompted to make a payment, and didn’t I let their property in to get some Atlantic Beach rentals in the inventory.

These last remaining free spots are getting to be quite few in number, so take advantage of them if you’re in those locations. I constantly work to improve the visibility of the properties listed on my website. I want your house, condo, apartment etc. to get rented and stay that way so you tell all of your friends trying to rent out their Crystal Coast area properties about this site.

This summer was by far the best one yet for Crystal Coast Rentals. We had literally THOUSANDS of unique visitors who spent a lot of time viewing the properties here. I have no doubt that next year will be even better. I hope to turn this site into one of the best rental sites focusing on the Crystal Coast.

Why? The people that rented vacation rentals last year most likely have the disposable income to rent them again this year. Granted, you may not be fully booked yet for the upcoming vacation season.

Over the last few years in this business I’ve noticed that with online booking so prevalent, folks tend to book later in the year. I mean why wouldn’t renters hold onto their cash until they absolutely need to hand it over to pay for their rental?

Considering they can wait until a few weeks before their vacation to actually book and confirm their reservation, it should be no surprise that bookings remain mainly flat for most of the year. That is until the warm weather hits and kids are out of school. Then the reality of their upcoming vacation hits them and they start looking for the perfect beach rental.

So hold your horses, don’t panic, and remember the rental season will be here soon enough. Over the last few years of following this industry, I’ve heard from countless rental owners that thought they were doomed because their property has not been completely booked by February or March.

Well times have changed. We’re in the digital era now and things can move pretty quickly. Add in the fact that we’re possibly in the middle of the worst economic slump in twenty years and folks prefer to hang onto cash as long as possible and it’s no wonder rentals come in later than in years past.

If I’m heading to Emerald Isle for vacation, why would I fork over half a month’s income to book my rental when I can hang onto it for a couple more months?

Perhaps because it is of no cost to the owner a lot of them think this is a joke or some kind of scam. I can assure you it is neither. Everyone keeps asking, “What’s the catch?” Currently there is no catch for anyone. Its just plain free. And those of you that get in now, will be in as long as you want for free. If you ever want out just delete your account. I will eventually be charging a reasonable fee to new owners sometime down the road, once I add the rest of the features, bells, and whistles I want to add.

It always was possible to jazz your text up with bold, italics, or even link to another site for booking or other information. But now it doesn’t require a bit of html knowledge. You can simply highlight text click the link icon and create a link. You can bold text. It preserves line breaks automatically. This should encourage you to create a more enticing description and if nothing else make it easier for people to read.

You can still embed YouTube videos in the description too. In fact I plan on making a video shortly on how to add and edit your property on the rental by owner section. I think this will help a lot of folks.

So if you already have a property listed I encourage you to login again and jazz up the text a bit.

While were talking about descriptions…it’s much better for you, me and any other site you have your property listed on if you use a unique description. Don’t just copy/paste the same one here, vrbo, and all the others. This will prevent any duplicate content issues with search engines.

So get creative and really dress those rentals up!

Some upcoming updates:

1. Provide ability to upload maybe 4-6 photos. The only issue here is storage and bandwidth. I have to pay for these images, and the bandwidth to serve them up to renters. Would you be willing to pay for YOUR photos?
2. Workout a way to automate calendar setup. Currently its an entirely manual setup process.
3. What other updates or new features would you like to see?

Here are a few reasons to list with me:

1. Currently it is completely free to list your rental with me.
2. I focus exclusively on Emerald Isle, Atlantic Beach, and the surrounding Crystal coast area.
3. This site is brand new, and will constantly be undergoing many improvements as I have the time to develop and implement them. (I do this completely in my spare time.)
4. You will have outstanding one-on-one email support with regard to listing your rental, improving it’s appearance, and keeping it booked solid.
5. I have lived in Emerald Isle and on the Crystal Coast for several years, I am very familiar with the area, and can assist you in finding someone to manage reservations, maintenance, and housekeeping issues. (Though I do not directly offer any of these services. I can simply put you in touch with some honest and dependable vendors)
6. I can offer advice on attracting more renters to your property.
7. I work hard, very hard to promote and market your property for you. On this site’s first day public I was asked for an interview from News14, a local news channel. Check out the footage here. I doubt you’ll see Bluewater, Emerald Isle Realty, or vrbo.com working this hard to get the word out about your rental property.

So give it a try, I’m sure you’ll find it to be the best rental listing deal around.