Using a full-feature web site to promote your rental home and to provide a source of rental enquiries is a good option for many individual owners. A lot of rental home owners already have their own web site. You do need to be aware of the level of expertise that is needed, though, and also the amount of time you will have to allocate to promote your site.

You will probably also need to spend a little money on promotion to make sure that people find your site. The downside of having your own web site is that you do have to spend a lot of time in making it ‘visible’ to potential renters. Search engine placement, for example, is becoming more expensive, and also more difficult to achieve reliably.

If this is too much for you, you can just put a listing on one of the general web sites, preferably one that allows you to add several photos and a generous amount of descriptive text. You can then use the link to the listing to show details to prospective renters.

A web site listing is a brochure, an e-brochure if you like. You only have to refer to it in any email reply you send to a potential renter, and he can go straight to a description and pictures of your home with a single mouse click. You can use it yourself in the same way. Go to the page and print it out, and you have a ready-made hard copy brochure to send out in the mail, to give to friends or to post on the office bulletin board.

With a simple web page to describe all the main features of your home, together with a few well-chosen photographs, you have the basis if a very convenient way to respond to general leads:

Thank you for your interest in our lovely 3-bed pool home just a few minutes from Disney. Just click on http://www.getyourrentalhere.com/your-villa.htm for a description and photos of our home. We can meet your dates at present, and our rental rate for this period is -. We look forward to hearing from you.