Whether you own a Palmetto Dunes villa or Forest Beach oceanfront house, Hilton Head vacation homes have the potential for significant rental income. While renting vacation homes by owner does take a bit of work, most who rent by owner find the rewards (both financial and emotional) well worth the effort.
Step 1: Prepare for Rentals
The first step in renting your vacation home is to equip your rental for guests. This means stocking your home with at least 2 sets of linens for each bed, plenty of towels, and making sure that your kitchen offers at least basic cooking gear. You'll also want to remove any valuables or items that you hold dear. The goal is for your vacation rental to be homier than a hotel room, but not so homey that your guests feel uncomfortable.
Step 2: Find Service Providers
Next, you'll want to find on-the-ground service providers to take care of your home and ease your mind if you live miles away. The service pros you'll interact with most often will be your housekeeper (or cleaning service) and handy man, though it's important to have the names and numbers of other local professionals like plumbers, electricians, HVAC repairmen, window cleaners, and tree trimmers. For homeowners who rent their vacation homes by owner, building a contact list of local service professionals is a vital step in ensuring the best experience for your guests and the best maintenance of your property.
Step 3: Determine Your Pricing
When setting your rates, you should take a hard look at your property and the current Hilton Head rentals market. Compare your home to other vacation rentals in your area, both property managed and rent by owner properties. Setting the right rates will directly affect the number of rentals you get each year and the amount of rental revenue you accrue. The four main rental seasons in the Hilton Head area are:
Peak season. The peak season for Hilton Head vacation homes typically runs from Early June to Mid-August. This is when you can charge the most per week. Since this period is in such high demand, you can also likely require a minimum stay of 1 week.
Shoulder season. Your shoulder season in Hilton Head typically runs from Late April to Early June and again from Mid-August to Late September hilton head south carolina. These weeks are not quite as popular as the peak season weeks because most families with school age children cannot travel during this time frame. During these months, you're more likely to rent to couples (both empty nesters and younger couples without school age children) and groups of adults. Your weekly shoulder season rate is typically 60-75% of your peak season rate.
Spring Break. Hilton Head is a popular destination for many Spring Break travelers. Since the actual week of Spring Break varies from school district to school district, you can typically set one Spring Break rate for the weeks in Mid-March to Late April. Your Spring Break weekly rates are typically 50-75% of your peak season rate.
Off-season. The slower season in Hilton Head is typically during South Carolina's cooler months (October to Mid-March). During this time you might be able to find snowbirds (retirees from Canada or the northern US who fly South for the winter) that seek Hilton Head rentals for one to four months at a time. Your weekly off-season rate is typically 25% of your peak season rate.
Step 4: Figure Out Your Rental Process
Give yourself peace of mind in renting your vacation home by coming up with a rental process that works best for you. The three most important items to nail down before renting are your rental agreement, accepted payment methods, and keys.
Before renting, you'll need to create a rental agreement that each guest will sign and send with a reservation deposit. There are quite a few free sample contracts out there on the web to help you get started.
Determine how you'll accept payment from your guests. Credit cards have quickly become the safest and most popular way for vacationers to pay for travel. To take credit cards from your guests, you can either set up a credit card merchant account or use an online payment service like PayPal. Personal checks are also an acceptable method of payment, just be sure to get payment at least 14 days in advance to give the check time to clear the bank. Wire transfers, certified checks, and money orders are commonly used by online scam artists and should be avoided.
Getting keys to your renters is another obstacle facing self-managing vacation homeowners. The most common solution is to install either a lockbox or electronic lock at your vacation home, so that you don't have to mail keys or have someone meet your renters.
Step 5: Market Your Vacation Home
Once you've decided on your rental rates and set up a process that works for you, it's time to get your property in front of interested travelers. For most markets, Internet advertising is the most cost-effective way to find renters. On the web, you have thousands of options to choose from when selecting advertising venues, including some specializing in vacation homes by owner. Your best bet is to search the web like a traveler would. Perform 10-15 searches for Hilton Head related keywords in the search engines and take note of which sites consistently appear on the first page.
When you have a few contenders, visit the websites and try to navigate through to Hilton Head rentals on the site. Is it an easy process? How many Hilton Head vacation homes are listed? While it may seem counterintuitive, sites with more rentals in a particular market typically perform better than sites with fewer. Why is this? Because travelers want to feel like they've seen all of the rentals available before making a decision, and sites with a bigger inventory let them do this.
When you've found a handful of sites to advertise on (3-5 is ideal), create great listings and wait for the inquiries to roll in.
