RE: What Does It Take To Be the Number One Vacation Rental in Your Area?
2.Partner with local businesses.
You've made a right point here. That's true and I would like to add my personal experience to make it more valid here.
Last month during my vacation trip to Kerala, India which called as "God's own country"
My plan was to have a houseboat stay for one night on backwaters with family at Alappuzha. As I am new to knew the place and also language. My host himself understood my requirement and he talked to his friends (local partner). He arranged us a beautiful houseboat to stay at very reasonable price $125/day. The boat is very near to our hotel a 2 mins walk.
Here is the same identical house boat of ours travelling beside to us (unable to get a full shot of our boat as we stayed in it).
That's a warm feeling I had experienced with my host. I would definitely visit again him and recommend him to others too.
As said above in this article, having some links with partners local area adds a great advantage and can create more happy customers. Just like my host made me to his list.