Owner's FAQs

Q.  Does Ideal Vacation Rentals take a referral fee for each inquiry that comes to me from Ideal?
A.  No, Ideal Vacation Rentals does not take referral fees for the inquiries you receive.  Advertising your property on Ideal is similar to placing an ad in a newspaper.  You pay an annual fee for your listing and all contact information on your page goes to you.

Q.  Does Ideal Vacation Rentals take a commission when I get a booking that comes from an inquiry generated from my ad?
A.  No, Ideal Vacation Rentals does not take a commission when you get a booking.  Usually one booking a year will more than cover the annual cost to advertise.

Q.  How do I list a vacation rental on Ideal Vacation Rentals?
A.  To list a vacation rental click on 'list a rental' in the navagation bar at the top of each page.  Don't forget to read about our different price structures first.

Q.  How do I sent photos for my listing?
A.  You have three ways to send us the photos for your listing.  You can email them to webmaster@idealvacationrentals.com, or we can go and get them from an existing website as long as the photo is not too small.  If you need your photos scanned you can mail them to us and we will scan them for free and add them to your listing.

Q.  If I am too busy to fill in the listing form, can you go to my website and get the information you need to make my listing?
A.  Yes, we are happy to go to an existing website to retrieve your information and photos.  If we do this we may edit your copy to fit within our template for each page.

Q.  How soon after I submit a listing, will the listing be up on the net?
A.  We usually try to complete each new listing within 24 hours.  When it is complete we will notify you that the listing is up for review.  After you have approved the listing you will receive an invoice.  As soon as payment has been received, your listing will go live, from the most suitable geographical lead in page for your area.

Q.  Will my email address be available to anyone who wants to collect it for solicitation purposes?
A.  No, your email address cannot be seen by anyone.  If people want to inquire about your listing, they fill out the form that is on your page.  Your email address is specially encoded with our server for added security and to cut down on spam.

Q.  How do I make changes to my listing?
A.  To make changes to your listing you fill out the change form and your changes will be visible within 24 hours.

Q.  How do I add new photos to my listing?
A.  To add new photos to your listing, just email them to webmaster@idealvacationrentals.com  or tell us where we can retrieve them on the net.  Please specify which property the photos are for.

Q.  Why am I not getting any email inquires or phone calls about my rental?
A.  There could be several different reasons why you may not be getting inquiries.  Firstly, you should have photos on your page that make your rental appealing.  The old adage, "A photo is worth a thousand words" is still true.  People like to see what they are getting, inside and out.  If on the other hand you only have poor photos, then it may be better not to have any.  Secondly, does your description do your vacation rental justice?  Make sure that you also include things to do in the area and how close you are to amenities etc.  Thirdly, if your vacation rental is "high end" you can expect to receive less inquiries than a budget rental.  There are many people searching the internet to find the cheapest rates.  Just make sure that your vacation rental is fairly priced compared to others of equal quality in your area.  Another reason you may not be getting inquiries could be the time of year.  If you own a vacation rental in Maui for example you may get inquiries all year round, however if you own a rental in a summer vacation area in Canada, or the US, you may get the bulk of your inquiries starting about March to the summer.  People wanting a winter vacation will probably start inquiring the summer or fall prior to their vacation time.  Finally it may be that the key words for your area are not giving you the traffic that they could.  In this case it is our job to look into this for you and try to apply some techniques for driving more traffic to your page. 

Q.  As a vacation rental owner do I have to worry about internet fraud?
A.  Unfortunately there are always people who use the internet for unscrupulous purposes.  Over the last few years, there has been some internet fraud targeting the vacation rental industry.  The most common of these scams involve fraudsters saying that they are booking on behalf of a third party.  They usually want to book for a long period of time and they want to send you more money than required, usually by a certified check. They then, request that you send them back the overpayment balance.  Their hope is that you will pay this back before their check has been found out to be fraudulent, which means that you would be out of pocket by the amount you sent back and it may be too late to rent your place to someone else for that time period.

Q.  Is there any way to identify a person who is intending to implement this kind of fraud?
A.  Usually emails from these fraudsters are written with poor grammar and often have misuse of capital letters such as i instead of I.  Sometimes they tell you they are a doctor or even a minister attending a conference in your area.  Often they don't fill out your whole form, just the comment section.  They are usually very eager to pay and often say they are representing a third party.

Q.  What is the best way to protect myself from being a victim of internet fraud.
A.  The best way to protect yourself from internet fraud, is to not accept a check for more than the amount of the rental.  If it is necessary to return money for any reason wait at least 30 days, or until a check has cleared before you return any money!  To read more about internet fraud go to http://www.fraud.org  for more information.