Seeking ideas: getting in on the rental boom

I looked at reviews & availability. There is a local area tourist Facebook group where people post ISO condo & home rentals and recently RV rentals. Not long ago the RV rental requests were next to never, now fairly common.

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Awesome idea…I am going to work on that now!

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Which part? Referrals or doing it yourself? LOL.

I’m happy to answer any questions about dog boarding either way.

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Having a place I can recommend for boarding to guests. We are a “no-pet” stay but I like having options in case someone needs a place for their pet. I realize most will use their preferred place at home, but sometimes those are booked, or the guest could bring their pet and take them hiking during the day, for example.

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So, as any FYI, many home boarding hosts like myself hate pick up and drop offs. It’s my least favorite part of the job because 1. I have to wait for people who are invariably early, late, change plans, etc. 2. All the other dogs need to be put away from the door for safety. 3. Any coming and going causes barking and mayhem.

My friend in New Zealand uses a kennel that charges for pick up and drop off as an add on charge. This discourages people from doing things like ending a stay on Monday night, picking up their dog and then flying out again Tues. night. If you want to see your dog overnight you have to pay for it. It seems counter intuitive until you are boarding dogs.

Rover dot com is the service that is like Airbnb for dogs but you might find another host near you who just does word of mouth, has a facebook or google biz page or has their own website.

Good luck.

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Thanks for the insight on p/u and drop off. I’ve posted in a local facebook forum and am getting some responses, one of which is on rover.com. We are a rural area and am getting people who even board bunnies. I’m asking them to send me a price sheet so I can send to guests ahead of time.

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Rover, like Airbnb, takes a big slice in fees. I think between what the guest pays and what the host pays it’s about 20%. And if either guest or host suggests cash payment then the account gets flagged and the host gets a warning. So if you invest the time to meet any of these hosts and find out their policies, maybe you can find who is willing to book direct. In this situation hosts may want to stick with Rover for insurance and the guarantee of payment in advance. Hosts there can also set a cancel policy such that they still get some money in the event of a last minute cancel.

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