What is the Owner Community?

The HomeAway Owner Community strives to be the most comprehensive resource for owners of second and vacation rental homes on the Web, providing homeowners the most current information on advertising, renting and maintaining a home to achieve the maximum return on their investment.

The Owner Community (OC) team is led by long-time vacation home owner and bestselling author Christine Karpinski. Guided by over a decade of first-hand experience renting her own vacation homes, Christine gives seminars across the country teaching other vacation rental owners how to effectively run their business. Christine is widely quoted in the media as a preeminent expert on vacation rentals. In fact, she's literally written the book on the subject.

Our site features hundreds of articles, podcasts, webinars and downloadable contracts and checklists covering virtually every aspect of renting a vacation home. And if you have a question we didn’t answer, you can always get in touch with us directly! After all, it's the participation of owners like you that truly make up the lifeblood of the Owner Community.

Question of the Week

Ask Christine: Is it Better to Charge an All-Inclusive Rate or Separate Fees and Taxes?

"Is it better to break up rental price into rental rates, cleaning fees, taxes, etc.? Or is it better to offer an all-inclusive rate?"

This really depends on your market. You've got to look and see what all the rest of the property owners are doing. If they all include cleaning fees and taxes in their rates, then usually it's in your best interest to price your property the same way as the other properties.

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