Pack your bags, we're moving!
If you own or manage a Vermont vacation rental property that you would like to advertise on the web, you have come to the right place! This website has been in continuous operation since 1996, and previously was published as Vermont Four Season Vacation Rentals dating back to the 1930s.
Our personalized service, strong marketing and search engine results, and extensive experience have allowed us to enjoy a very high renewal rate among our advertisers. To read what some of them have said about our site, see the Testimonials page.
Properties listed here must be available for extended stays — by the weekend, week, month or season — rather than for transitory overnight use, and must have cooking facilities. Listings may be placed by the owner, property manager, or rental agent. We take no commission, and do not inspect properties.
Signing up involves a simple six-step online process. Once your rental ad is approved, paid for, and posted, you can use our on-line customer account area to make changes to your text, contact information, and photos whenever you wish. You can also take the listing off-line temporarily (although this will not extend the time period for the listing).
If you do not use computers or prefer not to use the on-line ad-building process, we can send you a form, build your rental ad, and make changes for you periodically. Just get in touch using the contact information at the bottom of this page.
In the sign-up process, you will choose whether you want phone and/or email inquiries regarding your rental to go to you or to a different person you designate. Advertisers do not need to have e-mail, though it does help communication with potential renters and/or our staff.
Listing Fees
The price for a one-year vacation rental ad, with up to twelve photos and up to about 300 words for description and rental rates, is $199. You can also choose to pay by the month at $29.50 per month, with a minimum of four continuous months (both initially and for renewals). In both cases, you must pay upfront. Renewals are for a minimum of four months, too.
The year-long price is the best deal, and is the equivalent of paying for less than 8 months at the $29.50 monthly rate. There is an advantage to keeping your ad on our site continuously, since the regional page ads are ranked within each bedroom category by seniority, which is measured by how long the ad has been posted with us without interruption. Listings can be temporarily deactivated and then reactivated by the advertiser.
We also offer these additional options for extra fees to those who have purchased an annual or monthly ad:
- An Availability Calendar is available for $20 per year (see more information about this below). You can update the calendar at any time. It must be paid for at the annual price, but can be created for listing of shorter duration.
- A web link from your rental ad to your own existing website — with more information about your rental property — can be purchased for $20 per year, or $2 per month. Links to pages on other rental advertising sites are not accepted.
For a listing of any duration, there is no credit or refund if you decide to remove it prior to its expiration date. However, you can temporarily take your listing off-line, if you will be unable to access your email or get phone messages, or if you do not wish to receive inquiries at that time. The listing will retain its seniority until it expires.
Rental agencies and resorts should contact us before signing up. While rental agents are free to advertise on our site, we have extra options and pages available to rental agencies and resorts that are best explained directly. See our contact information at the bottom of this page.
The Listing
Your listing will have its own page which will be linked from a regional page list by a small “thumbnail” photo and 4-line description, starting with the headline you write for the ad. It may also be found by town, nearby lake, nearby ski area, or through our search function. Listings are organized by the number of bedrooms and seniority.
Most advertisers choose just one region, but if you are near the border of two regions, you do have the option to place your ad in an additional region, concurrently with the time period of your first listing, at the reduced price of either $130 per year or $15 per month.
When writing your listing, please use accurate descriptions so that you will get renters who are looking for the kind of property you have to offer. Be honest to avoid discontented renters. For example, explain that a beach or dock is shared with the owners or neighbors if that is the case. Highlight the features and best aspects of your property. Our mutual goal should be to have renters who are happy with what they find, and inclined to return.
It is up to you whether to include your rates in your ad, but we find most renters appreciate seeing this information and may not bother to contact you if you do not include them.
Before you start the sign-up process, you may want to review the regions and some of the existing listings on our site, and write a draft of your listing. Be original. You may use up to 200 words for the long description and up to 150 words for rates and dates. [Headline: 60 characters; Short Description: 120 characters; Long Description: 1300 characters (about 200 words); and Rates & Dates: 1000 characters (about 150 words).]
Photos
Good photos with rich color and comfortable settings help sell a rental. You can start with photos you have now, and update them when you get better photos or when you alter your property or furnishings. You can also go through the on-line sign-up process now, and upload your photos later. Let us know if you want us to put the ad on-line before we have any photos from you.
For most rental properties, we recommend an exterior shot as the primary photo, a photo of the view, yard, or beach, and a couple of colorful interiors showing comfortable seating or beds. Remove any clutter before shooting. Take multiple photos in different lighting and choose the most colorful, truthful, and appealing. Purchasing extra photos often pays for itself by an increase in rentals.
Most people use our photo upload utility to send their own digital photos or photos they have scanned. If you wish, you can mail good prints to us and we will scan them for you.
Or you can e-mail or send digital photos on a disk (please limit the size of e-mailed photos to under 1 MB each if possible; if not, e-mail individually). The dimensions should be at least 1000 pixels in width or height, and in a high resolution (more than 72 pixels/inch) so we can adjust them if necessary.
Further directions about photos are given during the sign-up process. Photos will be automatically sized for our site and “optimized” for quick loading on the web. We reserve the right to edit them, or reject them if they are inappropriate.
If sending printed photos or a disk, send with your listing number to:
VermontProperty.com
119 Spruce Knob Rd
Middletown Springs, VT 05757
Availability Calendar
We urge you to consider purchasing an availability calendar on which you can show which nights are available and which nights are unavailable (booked or closed). Both renters and advertisers appreciate the calendars because they can save needless phone calls and e-mails, and potential renters can search for listings with available dates. However, a calendar is only worth having if you can commit to keeping the information on it up to date. Like the rest of the listing, you can make changes to the calendar online whenever your availability changes.
Rooms Tax
The Vermont Tax Department says that the rooms tax should be collected on vacation rentals with two exceptions: 1) no tax is required when total days property is rented per year are fewer than 15 days (these first 14 days are taxable if you end up renting for more than 14 days in a year), and 2) no tax is required when a rental to a single tenant is for more than 30 continuous days and there is a pre-existing written lease.
Addressing this issue from the start may save you difficulties and penalties later. The Vermont Tax Department looks at many print and web advertising venues for properties that are rented out short-term, and which may be subject to the tax, and sometimes contacts the advertisers directly using information in the ads. Back taxes, plus interest, may be assessed.
Currently the Vermont rooms tax is 9%, subject to change by the Legislature. For more information, or to register to collect this tax, visit tax.vermont.gov/business or contact the Tax Department at (802) 828-2551.
If you are collecting the Vermont rooms tax and if you include rental rates in your listing, the Tax Department recommends you either specify "plus 9% VT rooms tax" or "includes VT rooms tax" (and any local tax) both in your listing and in your rental agreements.
An additional 1% local option rooms tax, administered by the VT Tax Department, also applies to some towns. Other towns administer and collect their own rooms tax through city charters. See an up-to-date list at: tax.vermont.gov/business/local-option-tax
If you are ready to advertise on our web site, you can start the six-step process now by clicking the link below. Once you register and pay for your ad in Steps 1 and 2, you can interrupt the ad-building process and return to it later if you wish.
Questions? Contact us:
E-mail: vtdesk@vermontproperty.com
Phone: (802) 242-2021
