Craigslist Vent!

[Luv Bunnies]

My parents own a vacation home in Lake Tahoe. They rent it by the month to a ski group during the winter but by the week and weekend in the summer/early fall. For the past few years, I have been posting it for them every week on Craigslist. It clearly says that we rent by the night and gives the cost and all the details. At the end of the ad, it says to send an e-mail with specific desired dates. I check the dates, answer the person's questions over e-mail and, if they want to rent, I have them call my mom to arrange payment and get the keys. I've had more and more people lately who send me an e-mail saying nothing but, "Is it still available?" For when? Am I supposed to know when you want to go? I could understand if it was a specific item for sale and they wanted to buy it. Do these people want to buy our cabin? What kind of a response do they expect? Do they want me to list all of the available dates because I could be there all day doing that! So I e-mail back and ask what dates they had in mind. Then they don't respond. What's up with that? OK, vent over!

 

[NHdisneylover]

They probably are flexible on their travel dates and would go whenever it is available. I have never used craigs list fo ra vacation home partly because i want to see the available dates calendars that better sites have--I would guess people using craigs list would still think that way. Maybe you can create a basic PDF file of the calendar that you update as bookings come in and then just email the updated one to people?

 

[RitaZ.]

My parents own a vacation home in Lake Tahoe. They rent it by the month to a ski group during the winter but by the week and weekend in the summer/early fall. For the past few years, I have been posting it for them every week on Craigslist. It clearly says that we rent by the night and gives the cost and all the details. At the end of the ad, it says to send an e-mail with specific desired dates. I check the dates, answer the person's questions over e-mail and, if they want to rent, I have them call my mom to arrange payment and get the keys. I've had more and more people lately who send me an e-mail saying nothing but, "Is it still available?" For when? Am I supposed to know when you want to go? I could understand if it was a specific item for sale and they wanted to buy it. Do these people want to buy our cabin? What kind of a response do they expect? Do they want me to list all of the available dates because I could be there all day doing that! So I e-mail back and ask what dates they had in mind. Then they don't respond. What's up with that? OK, vent over!

Possibly someone playing games? If they were really interested in renting the house, they would provide specific details and respond to your email.

 

[RitaZ.]

They probably are flexible on their travel dates and would go whenever it is available. I have never used craigs list fo ra vacation home partly because i want to see the available dates calendars that better sites have--I would guess people using craigs list would still think that way. Maybe you can create a basic PDF file of the calendar that you update as bookings come in and then just email the updated one to people?

This is a great idea.

We've rented beach houses in the past through private owners. I've never used craigslist, so I can't comment on that. Anyway, I prefer to check out properties that provide a calendar along with their listing. It's much easier for me to look at what's available on their calendar. One convenience for the owner is that they don't have to answer every inquiry for available dates.

 

[JessicaR]

Kinda hit or miss with Craigslist. My husband has more faith in it than I do.

 

[DaisyLynn]

I'm thinking it could be "junk" replies. I tried selling my car on craigslist and I got VERY FEW serious inquiries. I had a TON of messages that may have vaguely touched on the fact that I was selling a vehicle. It seriously sounded like the person writing could not completely understand english, and certainly could not write it. I responded to some of these and in just two cases I got an email back, having NOTHING to do with my car. One was from some (supposed) woman who wanted to "meet up"...yeah, that kind of sleazy response.

We have been looking for a fully furnished 60+ day rental, and in a few of the ads I've noticed that the poster has added something in there asking for specific dates, number of people, etc. so that he/she can "sort out the serious inquiries from the spam".