The Benefits of Credit Card Processing for Home Owners.

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This year my blogs have had the same reoccurring theme - win more rents! Thinking of ways to keep your properties occupied should always be a priority. Yesterday I listened to an interesting pod cast from HomeAway which highlighted some positive points on processing credit cards.

Having the ability to process credit cards is a simple way of making your holiday home more accessible to more customers.

Unfortunately disposable incomes are not very common these days so offering a credit card facility helps your customers spread the cost of renting. Not only that but it also offers the renter payment protection.

OK, so there is a draw back and that is that to process a credit card you are going to incur a charge of around 3-5%* of the transaction cost. You can do one of two things here, swallow the cost and be happy that you have made a rental or you can pass the charge on to your customer - either way you are making your property available for rental to people that never pay by cheque or bank transfer.

How can you get a credit card facility? Well, an obvious contender is PayPal.com Their service allows you to send invoices, process payments, you can even add the credit card facility to your own website. Here are a couple of links that you might find helpful;

http://www.paypal.com
Paypal Fees
Paypal Features

Of course there are many other payment facilities you can sign up with, Paypal is not the only one. Do a google search, ask other property owners, speak to your bank. There are many options.

Going back to the HomeAway podcast; click here to have a listen.

Questions for your guys...

• Would anyone else like to share who they use for credit card processing?
• Have you noticed rentals increasing because of being able to process credit cards?
• Have you noticed that you have been attracting a different type of customer?

Look forward to hearing from you all,

Karl

BargainVillas

karlh@bargainvillas.co.uk

http://www.bargainvillas.co.uk

REMEMBER: Home owners sign up for FREE at http://www.bargainvillas.co.uk/. Pay NO Advertising fee's or commissions....Ever!

Turn your quotes into bookings!

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Dont let your quotes die!

Just thought I'd pass on a conversation I had with a villa owner earlier today.We were just chatting in general about rental levels when I happened to ask 'so what happens after you give a potential customer a quote?' The owner told me casually that they didn't really do anything....they basically would wait and see what happened.

Yikes! I thought. If there is one thing that bugs me in this market at this time its 'wait and see' Right now I'd advise any property owner to chase any rental enquiry until the customer finally gets so sick of you that they file a restraining order. OK, I'm exaggerating...but we should all be following up quotes. All of us! I understand that a lot of people are not comfortable with this sort of thing and have never had to do it but trust me, after you've done it a couple of times you'll wonder what you were ever scared of.

Here are a couple of good tips;

When you give out a quote casually mention that you'll follow it up with a courtesy call or email to see what they think. When calling back make it seem like you are doing them a favour because you have limited availability.

When you give out a quote (only if you are prepared to offer this) tell the customer that if they find a cheaper rate for a similar villa call you back and you'll see if there is anything you can do.

If you don't win the rental don't be afraid to ask the customer 'how come?' Finding out why will help you improve things that you might have over looked. Don't be afraid to ask questions like 'who did you end up booking with?' and 'How much did you end up paying?'

ABOVE ALL: ALWAYS ASK FOR THE BOOKING!

If you are already doing these things then sorry for boring you, you've just wasted 6 minutes of your life :-P But if you're not then it wont hurt to employ a couple of the techniques above. The more you speak to your customers the more you can understand what they are looking for which, theoretically, will help you win more of those bookings floating around in the travel stratosphere.

If any of you have any other little tips or suggestions please send them in and ill blog about them.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Karl

BargainVillas
karlh@bargainvillas.co.uk
http://www.bargainvillas.co.uk/


REMEMBER: Home owners sign up for FREE at http://www.bargainvillas.co.uk/. Pay NO Advertising fee's or commissions....Ever!