Great Cottages Fall 2005 Newsletter
Hello
2005 has been an eventful year for all of us. Most lake communities are experiencing good tourism traffic and growth with owners reporting guests from many countries worldwide. This is exciting and shows why the group participation method within the owner’s community of Great Cottages is beneficial to increasing rentals. More properties = more rental inquiries.
Traffic: The Great Cottages web site has hit over 107,500 unique visitors for the past 12 months with inquiries and site visitors from 61 countries. We are now ranked and rated by Alexa International in the top 4 % of viewed sites. As we continue to add new owner listings, these traffic numbers will grow for the benefit of all of us.
There have been a number of reported scams that have surfaced against recreational property owners. Earlier in 2005, we had the Irish scam with the stolen checks and asking owners for money to be transferred to a 3 rd party.
UPDATE: * A new Con has surfaced with people renting vacant properties from our owners for the winter. These individuals con their way into properties, do not pay damage deposits, or very little, do not pay utility bills and do not pay rent other than their 1 st months rent. They are deceitful and are causing owners much stress with their tactics. Please be very diligent when renting your properties, as you will have a difficult time in expelling them. Double check all references, demand a damage deposit, and where ever possible check with their employers.
Challenges: In addition. owners in some lake communities have been saddled with new administrative costs from local municipal governments for 2006. Great Cottages has tried in vain to fight for the owners against these new regulations for the past 3 years.
NEW FOR 2005: There have been many additions and changes to the Great Cottages site, offering a greater diversification of interested people checking out the site. Several renters from the 2004 and 2005 season are now cottage owners. We welcome you. In addition, several of you are retiring. Good luck. We wish you well in your new ventures.
Our listings have expanded our family of owners from northern Alberta, the BC interior and Vancouver Island. In addition, owners in Ontario, Aruba and the USA have joined Great Cottages. Please tell other owners.
We look forward to welcoming other new listings from Mexico and other International destinations worldwide and from the USA.
Donna and I continue to strive to make Great Cottages a true rental vacation gateway, so that all owners will benefit from targeted traffic to the site. We continue to add local tourism information that is valuable to our guests and international visitors who are new to your area.
Please review the site, and fill in the Questionnaire for owners that can be found under Owners Corner. If you require the password, please email us at info@greatcottages.com We welcome your ideas, comments and suggestions. The Owners section is filled with great ideas, marketing tips and valuable owner information-from Insurance requirements to rental forms. Many of you have incorporated these ideas into your rental packages.
New features are: Cottage Show On Line-a virtual cottage show on line, Open 24/7, that as it grows will offer owners direct contact with suppliers of products and services that we all need. Be sure to check it out!
In addition, a new section for individuals seeking a Retirement, Investment or Recreational property will be on line soon. Many recreational property owners want an escape to warmer climates, or life after renting.
The For Sale section assisted 2 owners this past year sell their properties.
Coming Soon, you will see links scattered throughout the site from International companies that might provide you with access to products and or services not available locally. In some cases, the links are for holiday or vacation ideas. A couple of owners are working with some international owners to do a property exchange for a holiday. What a great idea. Something worth investigating, keeping your vacation costs down.
* Referrals-Great Cottages is always looking for new recreational property listings, from your next door neighbor, a friend or relative who may own a rental property at a nearby lake, another province or in a different country. You will receive $ 50.00 for every referral that lists with Great Cottages.
We encourage you all as owners to communicate locally with your fellow owners, with rental referrals when you are full, share common knowledge or in the case advise each other of the scams that come up. Please let Great Cottages know so we can alert all owners in a timely fashion.
Benefits: There are many benefits to listing with us, but an owner contacted us last week with this comment. “ We had our own website, with 3 pictures, and some descriptions, but no one ever found us, unless we spent lots of money advertising in the paper. We then would direct them to our site, so they could see what we were offering. Now with Great Cottages, I have 14 pictures, lots of information about my property, and this last year you sent me 5 weekly rentals. Thank you Great Cottages. “ Bill
A few months ago, another owner contacted us-“ Listing with Great Cottages was much less expensive then advertising in the local newspaper for 2-3 weekends. I had only a few calls and no one rented. This summer we had 3 rentals from Great Cottages-a family from Europe for 2 weeks, and a family from Saskatchewan and another group from Ontario. E.J.
IDEA: Owners Tip-Several owners have told us-If you do advertise anywhere, you should add the following to your ad-Visit us at Tour #---- www.greatcottages.com It is not surprising that when you do, that several things happen: People who do contact you know in advance what you are offering, have toured your site and are interested potential renters. It saves you a lot of time, and you rent and fill up much quicker.
Donna and I thank you for your continuing support of Great Cottages.
Warmest regards,
Donna and Rene Jaspar, CIM
www.greatcottages.com
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