Frequently Asked Questions

Free memberships are limited to a single property listing. If you would like to add more, you must first upgrade to our Porchlight premium listing account. Porchlight subscribers may add up to 10 premium listings. Need more? Send a request to admin@secondporch.com and we'll be happy to help you.

We have designed our application for people to link their personal profile to their Second Porch listing for a few reasons: 1) so friends, and friends of friends can discover that they know people with great vacation homes 2) so if people you don't know find your home through our main search function, then they can see the owner behind the home and and the owner can see the renter behind the inquiry so both parties can get comfortable with the booking much more efficiently and comfortably and 3) so owners can see other owners they would like to trade homes with. This is certainly our recommendation of what you should do. Over time, we give you a platform to build a community on top of, centered around your vacation home.

But, that being said, you will find some people have created a personal Facebook page for their vacation rental and connected that profile to their Second Porch listing. So this will work, but it's less desirable for the reasons stated above. Also, Facebook does not want you to do this, so if they find it, they theoretically could claim it's against their terms of service, and delete this page.

Since we prefer to show the actual "person behind the home for more trust, credibility and comfort in transacting", we would rather have you and all owners be present. We think in this increasingly growing industry, one of the big benefits of vacation homes are the diligent, caring owners behind each home. We let that come forward as an advantage, and believe that over the long run, that will become a increasingly important booking factor.

Facebook has a number of important tools to help protect people's privacy and ensure that applications behave in ways their users expect and approve of. In order for Second Porch to share comments, status updates, and other messages you write, you must first grant permissions. Second Porch will request them as needed. You may see requests for the following permissions:

Allow the application—this lets Second Porch access your name, profile photo and friends

Publish to your wall and friends walls—this let's Second Porch use Facebook to share your messages with others

Read from your wall—this allows Second Porch to display your messages in both Facebook and Second Porch.

Send you email, share your email address—in order to send inquiries through Second Porch, you may be asked to grant permission to communicate with you via email.

Offline access—this allows Second Porch to show, maintain and display your property connections whether you are currently logged in to Facebook or not.

Here are some examples:

Seasonal updates: The weather is warming up and the summer here cannot be beat. Plan a weekend now and enjoy the long summer days and evening bonfires with the family.

Weather prediction: Lots of snow coming this month and we have some availability left, enjoy some sledding, skiing, or snowshoeing with the fresh powder.

Special event: The annual harvest festival is coming up in two weeks. Spend the evening sitting in the hot tub, not sitting in traffic, by staying at our place... just a 5 minute walk from the festivities.

One of the best and simplest ways to make others aware of your listing is to share it through Facebook. Sharing a listing publishes a thumbnail description to your Facebook profile page, and in many cases, to the profile pages of your friends as well. People viewing any of those pages have a chance to view your listing by clicking on the message to learn more. Even if they are not interested in renting right now, there's a greater chance that they will remember you when they are ready, or if they know someone who is interested now, they can easily share pass on the link to your listing.

When someone writes a comment or recommendation that you like, simply click the "Share" link that you see just below each comment at the bottom of your Manage Home page. That will open a form giving you the option of sharing the comment via your Facebook profile page (as well as the profile pages of many of the people you are connected to). This sort of content can be very influential in getting future guests interested in your home.

Comments and recommendations are increasingly important for both building credibility and trust with vacation homes, and their owners. With our "one-click" recommendation feature, gathering recommendations from friends and previous guests is easy. Because Facebook shows the person behind the recommendation, potential renters gain confidence that the feedback is real. Plus, any time someone sees that the feedback comes from a friend or mutual friend, the comment is even more influential. Properties with feedback are also ranked more highly in search results.

Fans give your home credibility and a feeling of community. Similar to feedback, fans show that other people have interest in your home, and that your listing can be trusted. The number of fans is one of the key variables used in determining your listing's position in search results as well. So inviting others to become a fan of your property helps out in several ways.

An availability alert gives your listing extra visibility in several ways. Your listing is highlighted directly below the search map; your listing appears at the top of the search results in the "list view"; a highlight bar appears across the top of your listing in all instances—on fans and friends "Your SecondPorch" page, and a special alert message is published to your Facebook profile page with an "available now" highlight.

Clicking the "Share" button will open a window with the link to your video and give you the opportunity to write a message about your tour. Clicking the "Publish" button will cause a message to be published on your Facebook profile page for your friends, and many of their friends, to see and share.

A connection is anyone that is connected to your listing, because a) they are one of your Facebook friends who has added the Second Porch application, or b) they have contributed content to your listing by becoming a fan, writing a comment, or contributing a recommendation. The number of connections to a property helps give others confidence that your listing is real, that it is a favorite of others, and in many cases, exposes friends or mutual friends that can be asked about their experience staying in your place. The more connections you have, the higher your listing is ranked in search results as well.

There are two easy ways to add connections by either "requesting feedback" or "requesting connections".

Take advantage of new awareness-building tools in your Manage Home Page with the Marketing Toolkit. Inquiries come from building awareness of your home, and the Marketing Toolkit offers 7 tasteful ways for you to improve awareness. It only takes 30 seconds a week to start building awareness-and the inquiries will follow.



For example, the most powerful way to get the word out is to simply write a News Update once a week, and 5 things happen automatically:

Your News Update publishes to your Facebook wall.

Your Second Porch Tab displays your latest news.

Your property detail page displays this latest news update.

Your search result ranking is higher and your news update displays in the List View summary.

And lastly, your friends can see your News Update published on their Your Second Porch pages.

The Marketing Toolkit also has 6 other features such as Last Minute Alerts for Porchlight Premium subscribers, which promotes your home with featured placement on the main map page, enabled by a single click:



The best way to discover how to use the Marketing Toolkit is to go to your Manage Home page and start trying each feature. Just about every single item can be tried and undone very easily if you don't want to keep it. Building awareness using the different features in the Marketing Toolkit gives you a variety of ways to promote your vacation home to an audience who is receptive to hearing about it. Inquiries will follow when you take control and start using the Second Porch Marketing Toolkit on a regular basis.

Now you can tastefully promote your home on your Facebook profile page by adding the new Second Porch Tab. We do all of the work to make your home listing look its absolute best right on your profile page. One click and a slide show featuring your vacation home starts to play! We also make it easy for your friends to "Share" your listing with their friends right from this tab, as well as click to navigate to see all of the details of your vacation home, and send an inquiry. Note that your recent News Update also displays on this Tab so make sure you have a current update written (go to the MANAGE HOME section and scroll to the Marketing Toolkit to write a News Update)

Take 30 seconds and add your Second Porch Tab to display your home on your Facebook profile page. Here's How to Add the Second Porch Tab

It's easy to add the Second Porch Tab and there are two ways to do so: add it from your Manage Home page inside Second Porch page by clicking the "add profile tab" link shown below:



You can also add the Second Porch Tab directly from your profile page. If you have recently used Second Porch, then when you click the + button, you should see Second Porch as an option. Simply click that, and allow it to load on your page:



Your Second Porch Tab is always and automatically in sync with your Second Porch listing. It will always display your latest News Update, rotate all of your latest photos in the slideshow, and your latest rates. The Second Porch Tab is another way we are giving you more visibility with your most trustworthy potential guests, and their friends too.