You finally decided to start renting out your Jersey Shore vacation property.  Seems to be an easy task, but some of the best homes will not rent out if the advertisement does not convince renters to inquire about your property.  As the owner of several vacation rental websites I get the opportunity to see which properties get good traffic and inquiries and which ones don’t.  Follows are what I feel are the most important parts of your vacation rental listing.

The title – This has to be one of the most important things to consider.  When a renter clicks on a city to view the properties in that city, the title is the headline that is seen.  Remember that old saying about first impressions?  Well this is one of your first impressions to the renter.  A poorly written title could mean a not so great property.  Try to key on some of the best features of the property in the title.  If space allows, it may even be a great idea to include the name of the town.

Pictures – In today’s world, it is so easy to place a picture of your property on the web.  The more the better, but if you are not tech savvy, get at least one picture up there (let me know, I will personally help you).  I would have to think that most renters just breeze by all the listings without photos.

Description – This is another one where I see a lot of rental managers and owners making big mistakes.  They copy and paste the description from one rental website to the next.  If you are doing this, it is advised that you stop.  First of all, you could be breaking copyright laws.  In your agreements with some rental websites (in the fine print) you agreed not to do this and gave them the copyright to your description.  Secondly, there are two prime ways to get traffic to your rental listing page.  The first is someone clicking on the city and selecting your property from the results and the second way is search engines.  Someone could possibly find your rental page via a search engine.  If you use the same title and description on every site you use, then some of this content may not get indexed.  Therefore, it is best to write a unique description for each site where you list your rental.

Amenities – Most websites allow you to select available amenities.  Make sure you select as many as are applicable to your property.  Some websites allow the vacationers to search based upon the amenities.  It wouldn’t be nice if a renter searched for properties with a hot tub, your place has a hot tub, and your property was not in the results because you missed a check box.

Contact Information – If possible leave a cell number and not your home phone.  By the time you get the message (if they even leave a message) and return the call, that renter has already spoken to ten other owners.

Any other information you think could make it/break it for a renter – The more information the renter has about your property, the better.  Imagine if you didn’t allow pets.  Now think of all the inquiries you receive from people requesting pets.  If this was included in your advertisement, you could have avoided all of these “Waste of time” calls.  Worse yet, imagine the person who forgets to ask and shows up on vacation day with his/her pet at your property.  This could have been prevented.

This is not a complete list, but I think this covers some of the most important components of the vacation rental advertisement.  Follow these ideas and you’ll be on your way to writing the best ads.

It’s that time of the year.  Time to start planning your Jersey Shore vacation for the summer of 2012.  Every year when my family gets together for the holiday, we plan our summer shore trip.  We’ve been doing this for many years now.

We have four different families that go and we usually rent a larger home in the Avalon or Stone Harbor area.  One family does all of the paperwork including searching for the rental and making the booking.  We alternate every year.  So every four years, we do the searching, booking, etc.

The family who is responsible this year needs to pick about 5-10 candidate properties.  At Christmas dinner we will talk about them and by New Years we will pick one.  This needs to be done early this year and every year.  Many of the best rentals get filled very quickly.  Some of them are already booked.

My advise is: If you want to get a great Jersey Shore rental house this year, then start your search now!

Better late then never.  I’m finally getting around to posting some more of the videos from the bike tour of Cape May County that I took back in June.  Sorry for the delay, but I have a pretty tight schedule (I run this website plus others, have a day job, am  a graduate student, own rental properties, and have a wife and daughter.)  Since I stayed in Avalon, my video set starts there.  This post picks up from there.

After leaving Avalon, I arrived in Stone Harbor which is still on the same island as Avalon Mile Island).  The atmosphere in Stone Harbor is very similar to that of Avalon.  It’s a really nice quiet town with a huge, clean beach!  Just to give you an idea of how beautiful Stone Harbor is, I shot a quick video from the southern end of the town near the bridge that leads to North Wildwood.

Before I left 7 Mile Island, I realized there is a small public fishing area on the bay in Stone Harbor, I shot a quick video from there just to give you an idea of what it looks like.  If my memory serves me correctly, I believe this to be near 114th street and 3rd Ave.

Riding over the bridges was very windy.  You need to cross over two bridges to get from Stone Harbor into North Wildwood.  One of the bridges is a toll bridge, but they allowed me to pass via bike for free.  Once in North Wildwood, I decided to ride down towards the seawall to catch a great view of the beach and ocean.  What a pleasure it was!  You can actually see Stone Harbor by looking over the inlet.

Hopefully, you will enjoy these videos as much as I have enjoyed making them.  I am planning one more follow up post to talk about the remaining videos.  I will do my best to post as soon as possible, but sometimes work and family takes up more time than one would expect.

I’ve uploaded the first set of videos from my Avalon trip to the NewJerseyShoreVacationRentals.com YouTube channel.  They are a must view for anyone who is planning a possible trip to Avalon.  They will give you a general idea of what the Avalon beach and boardwalk looks like before you go.  You will not be disappointed.  It is very peaceful and clean.  Avalon does have a boardwalk, but it is not very commercial like some of the others (Wildwood, Ocean City, Atlantic City), although there is a shop or two, an arcade, and a restaurant or two.

Watching these videos will show you what a beautiful place the Avalon beach is.

The following videos will give you a great feel for the boardwalk in Avalon.  Although this was filmed early in the morning, the relaxation level is the same all day long.  There’s no partying or loudness here at all, only peacefulness!  It is quiet compared to the other Jersey Shore boardwalks.

These videos were actually recorded the day before my bike ride.  Since I stayed in Avalon, I didn’t need to go far to record.  Hopefully they will provide you with a good representation of how a vacation in Avalon will feel.

I spent last week vacationing at the Jersey Shore.  Our family rented a great property on 27th Street in  Avalon.  Anyone who knows me knows I like to run and sometimes I overdo it.  So while I was nursing some leg injuries due to running, my wife and I thought it would be a great idea to rent bikes and ride them throughout the week.  Avalon has a bike shop right around the corner from where we were staying and we figured the biking would be less impact on my delicate knees.  The price was also right at about $65 per week per bike.  Sounds like the perfect storm!

The first three days of our vacation, we took daily bike rides into Stone Harbor all the way to the point.  The point is the southern most tip of 7 mile island in Stone Harbor.  Avalon and Stone Harbor has to be one of the best places ever to bike ride.  The island is about 7 miles long and has a bicycle lane that covers most of the island.  The traffic and visitors are also very well trained at yielding to and respecting bike riders.  This was great fun with my family as I pulled the baby buggy, but midway through the vacation week I became a little ambitious.  I started the day (Wednesday) out with a quick 2 mile run (yes, many of us run while hurting while we should be resting)  to the northern end of Avalon and back.  My wife was planning an afternoon at the beach with my daughter and the rest of the family.  I really wasn’t up for the beach that day so I figured: perfect opportunity to explore a little further and maybe even get some good video and pictures for the Jersey Shore Rentals website.  About 9:30am, I decided I wanted to ride the bike to Cape May.  This would be a challenge for me since I am a very inexperienced bike rider.  Since I am an experienced runner (I recently finished the New Jersey 1/2 marathon), I was a little cocky about this bike ride thinking: “This should be no big deal.”

After the trip was over, I was hurting.  I should not have been so ignorant and disrespectful to the bike (thinking since I was in running shape, I could ride a bike).  I completed the ride in about 5 total hours for a total of approximately 37 miles.  This included stopping along the way to admire the awesome Jersey Shore scenery.  Now that it’s over, I’m so happy that I did this.  This is a totally different perspective than riding in a car.  I’ve taken this trip many times in a car, but it’s just not the same as on a bike and you really get to appreciate it in a different way.  The bike also allows you to stop and take everything in at any point you want.  My favorite part of the trip was from the top of the bridge overlooking the Cape May canal (amazing view) on the parkway.  Sunset Lake in Wildwood Crest is another place that I never knew about but discovered on this trip.  As shown by the name, this is the ideal place to watch the sun set if you are staying in the area!  In a car you can’t take it all in since your traveling to Cape May at about 55 miles per hour.

Although I was sore and sweating for a great deal of the trip, I did manage to get some great videos and pictures to share with you.  I plan to post video and images in subsequent posts as I’m still trying to determine the best way to host and display them.  Thursday of   vacation week I rested and Friday my in-laws volunteered to watch our 3 year old daughter.  My wife and I took off together on Friday and had another great ride.  This time we headed north, stopping in Sea Isle City (about 42nd street).  This was another great ride only a little shorter.

There are still some questions that need to be addressed even after you made arrangements for your Jersey Shore Rental. While reserving, you may not have thought of most of these things since this was information that was not needed for your decision to rent.  Although you already have the plans in place, here are some questions you need to ask the rental manager before you step out the door. Trying to find all of this information upon arrival at your rental will only make your vacation less enjoyable.

1. How do you obtain the keys to the property? Where do you pick them up? This could possibly be at rental manager’s office. If so, you need a time and a place.
2. If you are traveling by car, where do you park? If you have multiple vehicles in your travel party, make sure you know where everyone is parking. Some places have assigned parking spots and others don’t. Some Jersey Shore destinations will be better enjoyed by parking the car and leaving it for the entire week.
3. What do you need to bring? For example, if you need a beach chair, find out if they are provided. This is applicable to any other item you may need such as tennis rackets, basketballs, water sport equipment, family games for entertainment, etc. Sometimes these items will be included with your rental, sometimes not.
4. Know where the nearest hospital is located. You may get injured while on vacation and not have the time to find this information during an emergency. Most Jersey Shore locations have a hospital within a short drive.
5. If the house is equipped with internet access, you should know how to access the network (username and password) before you get there. This is especially important if you need to remotely access your office while on vacation.
6. Make sure you have a contact phone number for the property owner or manager (preferably a cell number). Anything can go wrong with a house such as water heater breaking, pipe leaks, toilet overflowing, etc. You need to know who to call if these situations arise while on vacation. These things happen even in the nicest and most expensive houses.
7. Know anything specific about the house, for example, if there is a spa, you may be responsible for keeping up with the chemicals in the absence of the owner. You may also be responsible for other things such as putting the trash out or cleaning at the end of the trip.
8. Find out if you need to bring items such as towels and sheets for the bed. If so, make sure you know the size of the bed(s). Other types of vacations may provide services that change these items for you, but this is generally not the case with Jersey Shore Rentals.
9. You should know the procedure if you want to leave early. How will you get the keys back to the manager?
10. You should know the rules of the community, especially if the rental is part of an association. They may have special rules such as no open fires, special destinations for trash, or even pet rules.

Knowing the answers to these questions will make your Jersey Shore Vacation more pleasant and enjoyable.  Time spent on vacation is the most precious time of all. Three hours spent prior to vacation to figure these things out is still
better than 1 hour while on vacation to figure them out.

There are many beach destinations in the United States, but the New Jersey beaches are amongst the best. When selecting a destination for vacation there are many things to take into consideration. With so many places from which to choose in the United States and even the Caribbean, the editors of this site feel that the Jersey Shore has the most to offer and is a place in which you will want to return every year. This article highlights the top five reasons why this is true.