Q: What is LakehouseVacations.com?

A: LakehouseVacations.com is a lake property advertising service. We are here to help individuals, realtors, and agents rent lake properties. We do not own any properties ourselves. We are not a real estate company. We do not operate on a commission basis. Our service is lake property advertising for a flat fee.

LakehouseVacations.com is also a lake information resource. We have included a lake map, weather, boating, fishing, camping, and local area information for most of our lake pages. We hope you will visit us whenever you have any questions about a particular lake.

LakehouseVacations.com was launched in January 2005. It is a spin-off from our hugely successful website, Lakehouse.com, which has been online since 1997 and is based in Mansfield, Texas.

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Q: Why should I advertise my lake property on LakehouseVacations.com?

A: LakehouseVacations.com has many benefits over the other vacation rental websites. We are a specialized advertising service. Since we only feature lake properties, your home will not be lost among thousands of other properties that are not lake related. Our uniqueness is what brings you closer to finding more rental customers. Visitors to LakehouseVacations.com are here looking specifically for a lakehouse to rent.

We have a member database consisting of thousands of interested buyers who have requested that we contact them about new ads. As soon as your ad is posted, our Auto Notify system sends out emails to the people whose search criteria match your property's description. We may already have a customer on file just waiting to be informed about your property!

LakehouseVacations.com services the entire United States. Many times, people are not exactly sure where they want to spend their vacations. Here they can browse over 2,000 lakes at one time and make their search easier and quicker.

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Q: How do I advertise my property on LakehouseVacations.com?

A:
STEP ONE: Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
STEP TWO: Register if you are not already a LakehouseVacations.com member. Being a member is completely free. If you are a member, LOGIN to your account.
STEP THREE: Once you are logged in, click on "New Ad". From there, you complete a simple form.

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Q: What does it cost to advertise lake property on LakehouseVacations.com?

A: DELUXE Ads are $89/year and include:

(10) large color photos

Unlimited text description of your property

Featured Ads placement
     (located on the top left of every page of our website)

Map link (for an exact location)

Contact information (name, phone #, email)

Link to another website (if you have one)

Visitor counter

Buyer/seller match-up - instant leads from our database
     of 5000+ potential customers!

Q: Do you offer free trial ads?

A: We currently have a 90 day free trial ad. This is a 5 picture ad that is the same as the paid ads except it does not include a phone number, website link, or external availability calender. You are welcome to use our availability calender. If you want your phone number, website, or external availability calender to show on your ad, you will need to purchase an ad (see above).

The first step to advertising on our site is to register as a member. After completing your registration, the ad submission process is a simple one that can all be done online - entering property information and uploading photos. Go to our Advertising Rates page and click on the Submit button by the Trial Ad or CLICK HERE to submit a trial ad.

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Q: What is meant by a "GOLD STAR AD"?

A:  Gold Star ads get the most exposure because they sort to the top of search results. Your ad can be a GOLD STAR ad for only $10 more.

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Q: What is meant by a "FEATURED AD"?

A: Featured ads are randomly featured on all LakehouseVacations.com webpages in the lefthand column. (5) different properties are displayed at a time. Properties are also featured on the various state pages, randomly, (5) at a time. This gives your property optimum exposure. All paid ads with a photo are displayed in the Featured Ad column.

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Q: What is meant by a "DELUXE AD"?

A: Deluxe Featured ads are the same as Featured ads but with (10) property photos instead of (5).

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Q: How do I update or remove my ad?

A: You have 24 hour/7 day a week access to instantly update your ad. Simply login to your account and click on "My Ads".

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Q: How do I pay for my ad?

A: You can pay for or renew your ad by logging in here: LOGIN . If your ad is not yet active, you will find it in the Disabled ads section. From there, click on the blue "Pay" link that is next to your ad. We accept all major credit cards and checks.

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Q: What if I forget my login id or password?

A: Your login id is your email address. If you do not remember which email address you used, you can contact us, by using the contact form and we will look it up for you. If your email address has changed since you registered with us, contact us and we can change it for you. If you have forgotten your password, go to "My Account" and click on "Lost Your Password?". You will receive an email very shortly with your password. The email will be sent to the email address that you initially registered with.

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Q: I am having problems logging in.

A: Your login email address and password must be typed in with the same upper and lower case letters that you registered with. It is case sensitive.

Your computer must be set up to accept cookies. Go to this website for help with cookies: http://www.google.com/cookies.html

If you have ever typed in your email address and/or password incorrectly, you may need to clear temporary internet files on your computer. Go to this website for help with clearing temporary internet files:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260897

You can also try to enter the website thru a different URL. Try one of these:

http://LakehouseVacations.com/login.php
http://LakehouseVacations.com/account.php

If none of these solutions have helped, please contact us and we can try resetting your password.

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Q: How long will my ad be displayed?

A: All paid ads will be posted for 12 months or until you request it be removed. Free ads are displayed for 90 days.

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Q: How can I upgrade from a free ad to a PAID AD?

A: First you login to your account. Then click on the blue "Renew" link. If you pay by credit card, your ad will automatically be upgraded and you can immediately update your ad. If you choose the money order/check payment option, then your ad will be upgraded when your check has been received.

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Q: My property is listed with a realtor. Can I also advertise it here?

A: First you should check with your Realtor, but we have no problem with advertising your property here, just like you would in any newspaper. We will gladly list your Realtor's name, email address and phone number as the Contact.


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Q: PHOTO HELP

A:

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Q: I uploaded my photos. Why are they not displaying?

A: If you do not see photos on your ad, they did not successfully upload. You can try again and upload them one at a time or email them to office(at)LakehouseVacations.com, replacing the (at) with @

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Q: What if I do not have photos of my property?

A: Photos are not required but they are highly recommended. If you want to add or change them at any time, you can login to your account , click on the pics button to upload, change, or delete photos.

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Q: Is there a limit on the size of photo I can submit?

A: For fastest uploading times, we recommend resizing your pictures to less than 1 mb, but it is not necessary. Our system will automatically change the dimensions (height and width) of the photo, if necessary, so it will fit on a computer screen.

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Q: What is the best size photo to use?

A: Because the average monitor is 17", set at an 800x600 screen resolution, we recommend that you submit photos that are 667x500 pixels, in order to get the best and biggest possible photos for your ad. There is also a limit of 2 mb on the file size (in bytes) per photo.

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Q: What formats are allowed for photos?

A: Your photos must be in either .jpg or .gif or .png format to load properly to your ad.

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Q: What is the difference between .bmp, .jpg, and .gif photo formats?

A: A photo stored in bitmap format (.bmp) is not as internet efficient as a photo stored in .jpg or .gif format. For example, a 600k bitmap photo is only approx. 60k in .jpg format. If you have photo editing software that can convert a bitmap photo to a .jpg photo, then you will get the best photo type for use on the internet and this website.

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Q: How can I upgrade to 10 photos?

A: If you originally submitted your ad as a 5-photo ad and you would like to upgrade to 10 photos, the fee is $10. Please call our office at 888-933-LAKE(5253),M-F, 7 am - 5 pm and we can process the upgrade over the phone. At this time we do not have an online option to upgrade. We will in the future.

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Q: How can I change my photos?

A: If you have uploaded your allowed number of photos, you must first delete a photo to add another. When changing/updating photos, you must click on REFRESH or Press F5 to refresh the thumbnail (small) photos.

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Q: I have changed my photos but the old ones still show up?

A: Go to your ad from the home page (www.LakehouseVacations.com) and click Refresh (F5) and you will see the new pictures.

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Q: Why can't I find "my" lake here?

A: If you do not see "your" lake listed here, it is simply because we haven't been asked to add it yet. There are over 100,000 lakes in the United States and we have not had time to add them all. We are currently prioritizing development of new lake pages, based on the ads submitted. So if you want to advertise your property with us, all it takes is an email from you and we will immediately add your lake as a category (within seconds if we are online).

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Q: How will I be contacted if someone is interested in renting my property?

A: In the Contact section of your ad there will be a link to an email contact form, so you can be directly contacted by potential customers. Anytime your email address is displayed on a website, it is likely to be retrieved by companies that send out spam/junk emails. By using our "hidden email" technology, you can still be directly notified, without your email address being "exposed". Whether or not your phone number is displayed is entirely up to you. It is not a required field.

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Q: What is the difference between a "website click" and a "view count"?

A: A "website click" is increased when someone clicks on an external website/http. This is for people that have another website where they are advertising their property. Many real estate businesses use LakehouseVacations.com to drive more visitors to their company's website. We have this count on their ads to let them know how many people are doing that. A "view count" is increased when someone clicks on your ad to see all the details. This count goes up when you visit your ad, but only counts one time every 24 hours.

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Q: How do I put a link to my availability calendar on my ad?

A: Copy and paste the following URL into the "AVAILABILITY CALENDER" field of your ad. Replace the 99999 with your account number.
http://www.rentors.org/calendar.cfm?pid=99999

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Q: Where do I go to get an availability calendar?

A: Calendars are free at http://rentors.org

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