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| 7 Tips for Keeping Your Home Clean and Green Posted: 22 Jul 2011 06:55 AM PDT
1. Before purchasing cleaning products and other items for your home, consult GoodGuide, a comprehensive online info center that rates products based on the greenness of the chemicals they contain and the way they are manufactured. This resource covers dish soap, laundry detergent, air fresheners, coffee and tea, appliances, tissues, toilet paper, and more. Your careful choices will help keep your guests—and the surrounding environment—healthy, whether they are settling into a vacation routine or cleaning up at the end of their stay. 2. Supply rags, sponges, cloths, and brushes for cleaning so that guests don't feel compelled to go through a roll of paper towels in order to tidy up. Simple, friendly instructions on keeping these materials clean and dry will make them last longer. 3. Offer a clothesline and clothespins so that renters can easily dry towels, bathing suits, and laundry without using any unnecessary electricity. Let the sun and breeze do the work of a dryer—or, if the weather is not so balmy where you are, consider drying racks or an indoor clothesline. 4. Provide lots of screen doors and windows that can be opened effortlessly. These will help whisk away stuffy air and odors in a much healthier manner than chemical air fresheners can. In some locales, carefully planned ventilation can even avert the need for energy-guzzling fans and air conditioners. 5. Opt out of the antibacterial soap hype. The FDA has found that these cleansers do not prevent sickness any better than regular ones, and even have the dangerous effect of promoting "super germs" that are increasingly resistant to antibacterial products. Stick with the simple cleansers and your guests will be just as happy. 6. Setting up a compost bin will not only keep extra waste out of landfills; it will also prevent the garbage from getting smelly and cause guests to go through fewer plastic garbage bags. Composting at a vacation home can get a little complicated, especially if you will not be around to monitor the system you have set up. So this green option is best for committed owners who have the time to show new guests the ropes, tend to the compost pile every few days, and make use of the rich soil in a nearby garden. 7. If you hire a cleaning service for your rental home, make it an eco-conscious one. Joanna Eng is a New York-based writer and editor who covers travel, green living, food, careers, entrepreneurship, and more. Her travel experiences have ranged from hostel hopping in Mexico to staying with distant relatives in China to renting a beach apartment in New Jersey. |
| Rates and Pricing for your Vacation Rental Property Posted: 21 Jul 2011 10:24 AM PDT Since our website re-vamp, we have placed a greater emphasis on rental rates, so that travelers can see accurate rates for the specific dates that they are looking to stay in an accommodation. It is now more important than ever for owners to input accurate rate information into their listing because travelers only pursue those opportunities that they know they can afford. Luckily for owners, inputting accurate rate information is a simple process with a powerful outcome: the more interested travelers you have, the more inquiries you get, and the more bookings they generate.
On the Rates page, there are several customizable items intended to make the rates displayed as accurate and personalized as possible. The first option you have is to decide on a currency in which the rates will display. There are 14 different currency options, including everything from the US dollar to the Brazilian real to the Indian rupee to the Russian rouble – and everything in between. Once you’ve picked your currency, it’s onto inputting the rates themselves. On FlipKey, you have the option of adding as many rates as necessary to fully inform guests of how pricing varies throughout the year. There are typically two ways to differentiate rates – by designating the season, or by designating the duration of stay. Some owners choose to have a minimum length of stay, others don’t. How you personalize these options is up to you! Amongst the options when adding a new rate are:
For each new rate you add, you have the option to set any or all of the above limitations, depending on how you operate your property. After you have submitted your desired rates, you also have the option of adding taxes, fees and adjustments that travelers should expect to incur when they stay with you. These fields include:
This area allows you to lay out exactly the expenses a traveler should expect to incur. And if that’s still not enough, then there is a section for “Additional Rate Info,” where you can highlight additional fee information, discounts, and other details about rates and fees for your property. After rates are submitted and properties have gone live on the website, one question we often get is - ‘why are my rates showing up in US dollars when I entered them in a different currency?’ The answer is simple: All rates in the search results display in US dollars in order to make the search process easier for travelers. If we had results coming up in 14 different currencies, then it would be nearly impossible to compare prices from one property to the next. This way, travelers scanning the search results can compare all of the rates in one currency. However, when the traveler clicks through to an individual listing, the rates will show up in the currency of your choice. Neat, right?! Taryn Collins is a FlipKey owner services specialist and vacation rental marketing expert. Her bi-weekly blog, Ask FlipKey, aims to answer the difficult questions that vacation rental owners and managers ask every day. Submit your questions in the comments! |
Cleanliness is a key factor to consider when owning and maintaining a vacation rental home. Travelers are looking for a tidy, comfortable place to stay, and owners want to keep their rental in great condition for as long as possible. But cleaning a house or apartment can lead to a whole host of environmental concerns: unhealthy chemicals going down the drain and polluting the air, the overuse of disposable products, and the frequency with which you have to clean a home that welcomes new tenants weekly, to name a few. Here are seven tips that will help you go green and clean at the same time.
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