-
AUGUST
24TH 2004
Donna and I hope
you have enjoyed the summer of 2004 and that you were successful in renting as
many weeks as you wanted to. The 2005 season will soon be upon us, and some
owners have told us that they already have received rental inquiries for next
year.
Many
owners of recreational properties choose to rent only for the summer
season-typically from mid June until mid September. However, many owners who
have a 4 season property or are located in an area where the season is longer,
can now list their recreational rentals in our Winter/Off season section for an
additional $50.00. This covers the cost
of the webmaster to complete the necessary technical changes.
You will have 2
links to your property tour - 1 from the regular section and a full tour in the
Winter/Off Season section. Last year we had 11 listings…7 were rented for the 9
months and 3 others received weekly and short term rentals.
This section will
be live from September until April of 2005. It will replace the Last Minute section that proved to be
extremely popular this summer.
If you want to
rent for week ends -Thanksgiving-Christmas-New
Years-Valentines-Easter or the May long week end, or you rent from September
until June, or you are fortunate enough to rent late into the fall and again
early in the spring, we invite you to contact us as soon as possible to list in
our Winter/Off Season section.
The owners
password for this section is greatcottages.
This allows you to access all sorts of great information, how to add
descriptions to your tours, forms, marketing tips and suggestions.
We
invite all owners to take advantage of this opportunity. Great Cottages will
pay any owner who refers a new owner to us who lists on the www.greatcottages.com website a $
50.00 referral fee. All you have to do is contact us via email with the
individuals name, phone number and information, and we will contact them to
coordinate a photographic shoot.
In addition, we
are looking for correspondents from
the various lake areas to send us news of any upcoming events in their lake
communities. We will post them for visitors to check out when they visit your
area.
|
G |
uest Comments…We have received numerous guest comments
this summer, some from happy guests and from some not so happy guests. As a marketing and promotions organization,
the role that Great Cottages plays is to assist all owners with the maximum
exposure to the world via our web site. FYI-
We have received over 35,000 unique visitors since April of 2004 to the www.greatcottages.com web site.
We are concerned
that all owners accurately describe their recreational rental properties. Under
each photo in your tour, you as an owner can add descriptions to give your
potential renters the most accurate and current description of your property.
Please add all inclusions and exclusions so that guests are totally aware of
your expectations, what you supply and what they must bring with them.
Several of the
comments received this summer covered items such as: We had to buy toilet
paper, supply our own wood, bring linens, fill the propane tank, wash the
floors, or there was no where to park our boat, there was no washer & dryer
available or no where to hang our clothes or put our personal items. Each of
these complaints could have been avoided if the details you place on your
opening page or information and descriptions under the photos were accurate and
complete.
Negative comments
received affect all owners, not just you. Please make a concerted effort if you
do receive negative comments to address them immediately before they escalate.
Please read the
disclaimer on the front page of the www.greatcottages.com
web site.
Positive comments
ranged from what a great holiday, wonderful owners, everything was exactly like
the pictures showed, what an easy way to rent a summer cottage, it was more
than we expected, and we are renting again from the same owners or the pictures
did not do it justice, It was better!
This summer we
traveled around Alberta and Saskatchewan and met a number of owners, and viewed
properties that are listed with Great Cottages. In addition, we had the
opportunity to view some of the tours being shot by Clarke our photographer.
We encourage your
comments and testimonials. You may email us at
info@greatcottages.com or call us toll
free at 1-866-281-2257
We thank you for
your support of Great Cottages and look forward to having you list again with
us in 2005.
Warmest regards,
Donna & Rene