The poor economy is affecting everything. As families tighten their belts luxury items are the first to go. This means that many families aren’t going on vacation this year – putting rental properties in danger. More than ever property owners are looking for creative ways to promote their rental properties and create return business. Follow these tips to help your property investment make stronger returns.

Deck the Halls

Travelers want their vacations to be memorable. If they’re away for the holidays they won’t have the festive touches that home provides. Go the extra mile and decorate your rental property for the holidays. This extra touch will certainly make your properties stand out against the competition. A family can envision a visit to your property much easier if it is decked out for the holidays. Post pictures of the property in all its holiday glory. Decorating for Christmas and Thanksgiving are the most straight forward. But you can generate traffic to your home by decorating for the Fourth of July, St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s, etc. Being festive with your space lets renters know that you want them to have a great time and they’ll certainly enjoy themselves more.

Perfect Pricing

Make your prices higher during peak periods. When looking for rental property, people expect it to cost more in busy seasons. By playing with your pricing you can encourage business in the off-season. Potential customers will see how expensive your property is “in-season” and feel like they are really getting a steal. Try to find a happy, mid level price. Vacation renters shop around. They will know if you are any more expensive than the property next door. However, this also means that undercutting the competition will keep your property booked.

Repeat Offenders

Repeat business is extremely beneficial. In fact, having the same family come back each year is ideal. After a few visits you know they are trustworthy, and the entire process becomes easier. Repeat business is gained by providing an exemplary experience the first time around. Be cheerful and helpful in all of your interactions with the customers. Booking a vacation is a hassle and they will remember you making the process easier. Make special offers for repeat business. If you really want a group to come back then give them a reason to return. A discount on rent, a welcome basket or any sort of personalized communication helps to foster a relationship. Even if your costumers only intend to visit once, they’ll have your contact information and can send people your way.

Fitness with a family is all about time management. Of course, being able to mark-off a good chunk of time each day to devote to exercise is ideal, but not everyone has time to climb up on a treadmill and get a high-quality workout in. I think multi-tasking can be taken to unproductive extremes, but a great way to utilize it and get a little exercise in is stretching while you do other tasks.

Office or chair yoga is very popular, and you don’t have to actually be flexible to do it. This can be taken to any level of extreme. Whether it just makes you posture conscious or you really get intense stretching done – being more active while you’re sitting down is a huge help to your fitness and your energy levels. The amount of time we spend at computers may easily make us a generation of hunchbacks. Stretching at your desk, sitting on a stability ball instead of an office chair or taking any chance you can to stand-up are all great ways to keep your work from eating into your fitness. These ideas can be used at the office or for anyone else who spends a lot of time sitting down.

When you are doing tasks around the home, be conscious of your movement. You can get a lot out of your chores. Simple changes like curling a laundry basket or bags of groceries while you carry them can challenge your muscles as you work. I always do deep lunges. Maybe I will declare that from 11:30-11:45 I am going to lunge instead of step to everywhere I go around the house. It kills, honestly. It’s a fantastic leg and butt workout. Once you get stronger just do it for longer periods of time or carry something with you (1-5 lbs. weights or bottles of cleaning supplies work great).

Finally, I would urge you to take advantage of time when you actually do get it. I am already in workout clothes by the time my husband comes home. When he comes in I am out the door. He immediately starts to watch the kids and cook dinner while I go for my daily run. I know not every couple has a set-up that works so well but I’ve found that maximizing this small chunk of my day (I’m back and climbing in the shower in half an hour) helps me sleep better and is necessary “me time.”

It isn’t easy to find workout time within a busy work/home life. But being conscious of your time is the first step to success. Multi-task light activity with your work schedule, and when you can manage a little time to yourself really take advantage of it and plan a challenging workout. Good luck and good work!

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Protect

Our first major decision was updating our alarm system. While we’ve always included home security systems as one of our residential security features, the alarm we had been using was installed more than 20 years ago by the last homeowners. Updating our system was a good opportunity to make sure the wiring was sound and, with the advances in technology, allows me to monitor activity around the house via live feed. This is especially helpful at the front door when I’m expecting a delivery or a parent for a play date.

Gather

One of my favorite innovations was when we updated our kitchen. The original, avocado-green appliances were clearly dated, and the beige linoleum had faded so much that even a clean floor looked dirty. We examined our needs, e.g., needing a place where people could comfortably gather, and ended up removing a wall between the kitchen and breakfast room. We gained a wonderful, open area that accommodates ample counter space, a small area where I can put my children’s playpen, and a desk for me against the wall. I now have to place to work where I can also keep an eye on dinner without having to dash back and forth between rooms.

Chill

Having a relaxation space in the house was also incredibly important as the line between working and off-time can blur pretty easily. My husband and I turned a spare room into a parents-only space where we can take time away from our respective careers. I love going there while the kids are napping and just taking some time for myself to read a book, do a little meditating, or just decompress for a few minutes before getting back to work. We made sure not to have a television in the room so that we don’t end up using it as a second family room. Removing the unfortunate shag carpeting was almost enough to modernize the room by itself. We installed laminate flooring, put down a few carpet tiles, and changed the wall color from boring white to a nice, soothing blue. Just as the kids have a playroom, so do the adults have a room of our own.

As you may have guessed, we didn’t make all of these updates at once. We worked on small areas at a time, looked for the best deals on paint and home décor we could find, and did as much of the work as we could on our own. The result is a wonderful space where I can be productive, invite clients for meetings, and spend time with my husband and children when I’m off the clock.

Running a household can be expensive. In the past, it was pretty easy for me to panic about the cost of daily life. Being worried wasn’t productive, however.

Rather than continue to be fearful, I put things in perspective. I looked at what we needed on a regular basis and began to figure out how I could save my family money. I found that creating a household budget, applying an online coupon to any purchase, and buying in bulk served us well.

Budgeting is something that I’d heard plenty about, but I’d never paid much attention to how much it could benefit my family. We had always used our own type of budgeting, such as limiting how often we went out to eat, but we hadn’t sat down with our finances to come up with a structured dollar-by-dollar plan. I resisted the idea because, honestly, budgeting sounded pretty dull. Thankfully, the opposite proved true.

Knowing exactly what we spent each month helped my family readjust our spending. We used a budget calculator to track our expenditures. Our first reduction was entertainment costs. We were spending excess money by renting DVDs at a local store. Though quick and convenient, the $5 or $10 we laid out each week added up fast. We cut our costs by more than 50% when we signed up for an online DVD service. We also started borrowing movies from the library. We were able to save money – and, in some cases, not spend it at all – without affecting our entertainment levels. Win, win.

Next, we increased our use of coupons. I had clipped newspaper deals in the past but didn’t always remember to take them with me to the store. Being more vigilant about their use, whether we were buying food, toiletries, or clothing, made a noticeable difference in our spending. What I had once disregarded as the occasional chance to save a few pennies became more significant when the coupons were added together and applied to a larger purchase like our weekly groceries. I was happy to begin searching company websites for any online coupon they offered and signed up for daily deals from Groupon, which helped us save on restaurant meals and more.

Finally, we started buying in bulk. I had long avoided superstores because I didn’t think I needed to buy a truckload of household goods at once, but again, I was proven wrong. We began by purchasing what we were already buying – everything from tortilla chips to laundry detergent – and saw almost immediately that we were realizing a cost savings by not having to run back and forth to the grocery to replenish supplies each week. We needed only make a little more space in our pantry to accommodate a few larger containers, which started plenty of jokes about how we appeared to be running our own general store.

I’m glad to report that helping my family save money wasn’t as difficult as I’d imagined. We’re not exactly headed for Paris on our annual vacation, but we’ve made some marked changes to our household spending without having to make great sacrifices. We simply had to get used to something a little different and it’s all worked out in our favor.

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