Renting Your Recreational Property for Profit. Heather Bayer

on the level of flexibility you have for late availability and off-season bookings.

      If you have planned your marketing strategy well, you should never need to make price reductions during high season. As long as demand remains high and the number of properties available to rent is limited, you will rent throughout the summer, providing your pricing is realistic. Being more flexible with your rates becomes more important at other times of the year when your potential guests may be more sensitive to higher prices. Keep an eye on what other owners are doing by checking constantly on the competition.

      Sample 3 is based on figures for the lake cottage mentioned earlier in this chapter.

      With the total monthly expense figure calculated, you can then divide that by your proposed weekly rental rate. From the result, you will see how many weeks you will need to rent to break even. Now add in the number of weeks you can realistically expect to rent to arrive at the net profit you can reasonably expect to make. With a high-season rental rate of $1,400, this cottage needs to be rented for 12 weeks to pay the mortgage and monthly overheads, which is a realistic expectation.

       Sample 3: Rental Calculator