Submitting descriptive text about a location - Guidelines

What is location text?
Location text is information that appears at the bottom of every location page, underneath any properties that are listed (under the heading "about locationname")
The intention is to give holiday makers a feel for the culture of the location, any nearby attractions, events, festivals or activities, ways of getting to the location and any other background information that is relevant.

We believe the best location content would be written by people who know the area well, therefore we reward owners that provide content for us. See below for further details on benefits of location text and how to submit content to vacationrentalpeople.com.

I know my local area really well, can I provide some content for you?
Certainly! As an owner, we recognise that you will know the area a hundred times better than we ever will, know which features are worth highlighting and what renters particularly look for - attractions, events, festivals, etc.

How does providing location text help me?
By providing additional information, you are providing two services:
Firstly, you provide travelers with additional information regarding the local area and provide reasons for them to visit your locality instead of elsewhere.
Secondly, the text is picked up on by search engines and will have an effect of "driving" more traffic towards the location page, and hence more visibility for your property.
For example, if your description references a local carnival or activity - people search for that - they are more likely to end up looking at the page listing your property

Also, see the "What do I get out of doing this?" section for owner incentives.

What do I get out of doing this?

If you provide some location text that we use on the site, we will reward you with a free 3 month "featured property" listing in a relevant location of your choice.
A "Featured Property" is a large advert fixed at the top of a page that really helps your property stand out.

If you are able to contribute and we use descriptive text for more than one location then we will also give you a free 3 month "premium listing", which puts your property above non-premium listings at the top of the property list and highlights it with a different background colour. Examples of both types can be seen here.

Can't you just copy and paste information from the local tourist board or Wikipedia?
Unfortunately we can't just "borrow" text from other sites without the owner's permission. Straight copying without permission is not acceptable.

If you are able to get either approval to use existing text, or you can create something that is more than just a copy from another site then this is perfectly acceptable.

What are the restrictions on what I can write?
We currently have a limit of 4000 characters per location, which equates to roughly 400-500 words maximum. If this proves restrictive then we can look at expanding this. We should also accept the full international character set in the descriptive text.

How do I send the information to you?

Please email in the first instance to support@vacationrentalpeople.com. Feel free to send us the text in an email, as well as attach a single image if required.

Can I link to other websites or incorporate HTML?
The primary purpose is to provide textual information about a location rather than just a series of links to other sites, however we are happy to link to local tourist and other regional information sites. Links to other commercial ventures will require approval.
It should be noted that links consume approximately an additional 100 characters each as the underlying code required to place the link is counted against the 4000 character limit.
If you plan to include HTML in your description, please ensure that you restrict yourself to very basic attributes like bold, italic and bullet points.

How about images?
We support a single image per location at the moment. If you have a particularly impressive image that portrays the essence of the location, feel free to send it and we will endeavor to use it.
Again, if owners feel that adding images will help then we will look at expanding our functionality in the future - however this is not a quick fix and in the case of the Internet, words are much more important than images

How about copyright?
Please ensure that you have the right to publish anything that you send us. By sending us information we assume that you have acquired the right (either by creating it yourself, or by permission) for us to publish text or images that you supply. We also reserve the right to publish in part or whole, or amend or alter in any way your contribution but you will be rewarded as above if you supply material to us that is used.

Is there anything else I should bear in mind?
There is an "art form" in creating these descriptions - to include phrases that people would typically search for in "natural" sentences.
For example, if your location will be served by a new airline route, including the phrase something like :
"Low cost flights are available by flying Ryanair from Dublin to Rodez" might pick up traffic to the site for people searching for "Dublin to Rodez" for example - and once they hit the page then they will be seeing the properties available, including yours.