ShareFeatured in a radio interview by American Guidebook Publishing legends Pauline and Arthur Frommer. The interview ran on 130 radio stations and talks about their progress and future plans and the benefits of using them. You can listen to it in a podcast format here:
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Here’s a more unusual way to extend your marketing reach: hit on your Facebook friends (and their friends, and so on).
Second Porch started a Facebook application that lets people “friendsource” vacation homes through their social network. The application lets homeowners list their rental properties through Facebook, and build “followers” or potential guests. And renters can find vacation homes through Facebook friends, as well as rate and recommend properties to others. Travelers can click to see homes that have been rented, rated or reviewed by a person in their social circle of friends, or friends of friends – extending the concept to one that allows owners and property managers to develop a new word-of-mouth marketing channel where each past guest can easily share your home with their friends, and friends of friends. It’s called the Social Guestbook app which you get access to when listed.
“Most people on Facebook probably have access to at least 10 friends with vacation homes,” said Brent Hieggelke, founder of Second Porch, which has amassed more than 14,000 homes across 100 countries since it launched about 18 months ago
While that may be not be the case for everyone (including me!), the app does try to eliminate one issue that vexes the rental-by-owner market – Trust. Owners fear renting to strangers who might trash their home. Renters, on the other hand, are wary about misleading listings. Second Porch says that’s exactly their advantage as “you can see the face behind the place.”
Socially Connected Vacation Rentals is their tag line.
Second Porch say that it’s important you dont ‘list and leave’.The homes that generate the best results are writing news updates regularly (about once per month) and inviting people to sign their Social Guestbook and building out a nice community. You get 18 photos and can add links to external albums (such as Flickr), can embed a Home Away or VRBO availability calendar, post late availability alerts, and linkt oyour own website, blog or other media you may use for marketing
It costs $10/monthly to list.
