There are lots of factors to consider before paying over your hard earned cash to advertise your vacation home on a vacation rentals website. Seven of the most important factors are listed below.

1. Target vacation rentals sites that attract a lot of visitors :
The larger sites invest more in advertising and hence are likely to attract more visitors. Generally, the more traffic a site gets, the more enquiries you will get, so it is worth considering the larger sites e.g. vrbo.com .You can use Google or one of the other search engines to get an indication of the most "searched" vacation rentals sites, but it's worth also cross checking this with other indicators. For example, you can get an indication of the level of traffic that a particular site attracts at alexa.com . However, keep in mind that a site with 10,000 listings need to attract 10 times as much traffic as one with 1,000 listings in order to have the same number of visitors per listing.

2. Ensure that the vacation rentals site addresses your target customers / geography :
Some sites specifically target travellers to a specific region / country e.g. http://www.relaxinfranceonline.com/ If your property is in an unusual location, you may want to consider a site that specializes in properties from that location. Also, some sites target potential renters in specific geographies, either through their advertising ( e.g. owners direct advertises to the UK market ) or by offering specific language support ( e.g. homelidays offers support in 7 different languages)

3. Consider vacation rentals sites that are user-friendly for renters :
Some sites offer neat features, such as the ability to save "favorite" properties or search for properties that are available for specific dates. Some also allow renters to post and read testimonials e.g. homelidays . Some allow users to search by keyword ( e.g. vrbo.com ).

4. Ensure that the vacation rentals site is easy for you to use and update as an owner / advertiser :
Most sites offer the ability for you to modify your listing and photos and allow you to update your availability calendar. Most also offer tracking of statistics, including the number of times your site was searched or viewed, as well as the email that you have received. This can be really valuable in assessing how effective the site is at attracting potential renters. (Of course, you still need to be able to convert those viewings into paying renters !)

5. Ensure that the vacation rentals site is cost effective:
In general, you will pay more for the well established / larger sites, with annual advertisements typically around $125-$150 per year. This will easily pay for itself with even one successful rental, but you may want to shop around to determine the best value option. Some sites offer free trial periods and it it certainly worth trying those to determine if they result in enquiries. Rentalsfrance.com has an unusual pricing model that allows you to pay per enquiry or per week rather than the normal annual subscription.

6. List your vacation rental home on several vacation rentals site:
Our research indicates that most vacation home owners list on at least 3 paid vacation rentals sites, as well as several free vacation rentals sites. Consider listing on one or two of the larger sites, plus perhaps a couple of specialist regional vacation rentals sites. An annual budget of $300 / year is still very cheap compared with other advertising options. Don't forget to take advantage of sites offering trial offers, although usually these are "once in a lifetime" offers, so you won't be able to this more than once.

7. Before renewing your vacation rental subscriptions, compare your cost per enquiry / cost per booking :
This is the most effective overall measure of how effective an owner holiday / vacation property rental site is for your particular property. As a benchmark, Rentalsfrance.com allows you to pay on a price / enquiry and offers pricing as low as GBP 1.33 per enquiry. (Note: you can choose not to respond to specific queries and these are free.)

There are lots of sites out there and it may take you some time and effort to find the ones that will work for your particular vacation rental home. If you would like to see reviews and comments on many of the leading Vacation Rentals sites, visit Compare Owner Holiday Rentals .

Kevin Graham is the founder of Compare Owner Holiday Rentals (COHR). COHR provides a guide to choosing the best vacation rental sites. For further details, please visit http://www.compareownerholidayrentals.com .