Maine Property Management

Why List Your Property With Us?

Cottage Connection Makes Owning a Vacation Rental Easy for Homeowners
NOW LISTING FOR 2025!

Salt Water Lodge Living room view of water
captains quarters ariel view

Marketing

Who knows better how to market your vacation home than a professional manager? We live here, we participate in our communities, and we are involved in tourism efforts to promote the region. Local events, holidays, and seasonal opportunities are promoted to guests year-round. We maintain and market to an established customer base of thousands of guests who often return year after year as repeat customers and refer their friends and family to Cottage Connection.

  • Digital Marketing: We understand digital marketing, including Search Engine Optimization and Management. Our websites are attractive, easy to navigate, and up-to-date, using real-time web-based technology for both our reservation availability and booking calendar. We know how to help guests easily find their Maine Vacation Rental online when planning a vacation in the area. We manage email marketing to past guests, utilize social media marketing, listing sites like Flipkey and TripAdvisor, and various other digital marketing strategies that will lead browsers to our website and guests to book vacation rentals.
  • Promotion: Print, Internet, travel writer familiarization tours, email blasts, Facebook and Twitter, pre-arrival and post-vacation emails and direct mail, guest surveys, contests, television shows (the Cottage Connection/Boothbay episode of Getting Away Together on PBS was filmed at one of our vacation rentals), promotional trades, quiet season promotions, brochures and rack cards….as professional managers we are hospitality focused and promote our region and your home.

Guest Services & Home Maintenance

From reservation inquiries to secure online booking, from check-in to repair calls, from concierge services to housekeeping, home and grounds maintenance, and inspections, Cottage Connection takes care of guests and vacation homes 24 hours a day.

  • Reservations Are Easy: In person, over the phone, by cell phone, via email, or online – whether paying by check or credit card – Cottage Connection makes it easy for guests to book your vacation rental home in a secure, professional environment. Rental and refund policies are clear and professional. Guests receive detailed confirmation emails upon booking your vacation home. Additional Services: Travel insurance, security deposit protection, additional housekeeping services, tickets for the Botanical Gardens or boat rides, and much more…Cottage Connection offers guests everything they need for a great vacation.
  • Housekeeping & Inspections: We contract with trained, skilled housekeepers who keep your vacation rental home cleaned to hospitality industry standards. Inspectors, as well as housekeepers, maintenance technicians and office staff, are in your home before and after every guest ensuring consistency and quality and keeping everything in order.
  • Maintenance: We make sure all vacation homes are in good shape – safe, clean and in good repair. We offer professional maintenance services with a timely response to problems and after-hours requests for emergency services 7 days a week with our Basic Maintenance Plan. We use reliable vendors (electricians, plumbers, appliance specialists, chimney cleaners and so on) who are qualified, trained and licensed to handle practically any situation, even on weekends and holidays when the job goes beyond the scope of our staff. The damage waiver protection plan purchased by guests covers the cost of accidental damages during a guest’s visit.
  • Consumer Confidence: Booking a professionally-managed vacation rental through Cottage Connection gives the guest’s confidence. As a member of the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) booking is a seamless process because nearly all members offer secure phone and internet reservation systems, and members have made a commitment to quality hospitality, professionalism, and industry excellence.
merwick cottage aerial

Owner Services

  • Money: As professionals, we help maximize the return on your investment property, earning you money when you aren’t using your vacation home. Professional marketing and excellent customer service earns guest loyalty and repeat visits. Records: We keep the records – from revenues to repairs to 1099s – you’ll receive professional, monthly accounting of what is happening at your property. We offer online owner access so information is available anytime, from any computer. Homeowners can review account information, rentals and revenues, make owner reservations and more.
  • Communication: We let you know what’s happening – from property repairs and marketing initiatives to local issues and industry standards. We know the vacation rental industry locally, nationally and internationally and we’ll keep you informed.
  • Security: As professional property managers, we are the constant “eyes and ears” for your property. Instead of sitting empty, vacation homes are lived in, checked and maintained continuously. We prefer to meet your guests upon arrival in our office and whether they come to our office or not we communicate with them throughout their visit as needed to assist with travel plans, recreation, where to eat and if a problem arises.
  • Accountability: As your agent, we are primarily accountable to you, the property owner. All guests are required to sign a detailed guest (rental) agreement and review the policies. We primarily rent to families and adult groups over the age of 25. We do everything we can to protect your home.
  • Time: Cottage Connection saves homeowners time. We do it all so you can enjoy your vacation home when you come to town!

Community Involvement

We maintain relationships with local officials and agencies – including the Maine Office of Tourism and the Boothbay Harbor Chamber of Commerce. We are constantly making sure our homeowners and guests are top of mind in our community. Audrey Miller, the co-owner of Cottage Connection, is the first president of the Vacation Rental Professionals of Maine – VRPOMe. This is the statewide association of rental managers providing a voice for vacation rentals in Maine. Melba Gunnison is the first chairperson of the VRPOMe’s governmental affairs committee.

  • Good Neighbors: Professional property managers understand the importance of being good neighbors. We maintain connections to property owner associations and your neighbors; we keep guests informed about neighborhood rules as well as local laws. We patrol our vacation homes in order to enforce policies that do not allow overcrowding of your home, house parties, parking violations or similar concerns.
  • Local Advocacy: Cottage Connection always considers homeowners’ best interests. We advocate for protecting and respecting our environment, participate in local Chambers, and participate in focus groups at the State level and other local and tourism-related organizations. We also sponsor and volunteer for local events and activities that have a positive impact on tourism.

    For more information, please contact Audrey Miller: 
    207-633-6545 or [email protected]
     


    What Our Property Owners Say

    First of all the cottage is spotless! Thank YOU! It is such a pleasure to come into such a clean house…..thank you for all your help. I feel much more at ease now that my cottage is in your hands.

    Sally J

    I really feel that our cabin gets better care than if we were trying to do it ourselves. You see what needs to be done and you know how to get it done while being cost-conscious at the same time.

    Kathryn I.

    Being a cottage owner and working for Cottage Connection was a real eye-opener. I had no idea how much work goes on behind the scenes, before, during and after your clients plan their vacations. From helping a renter find a cottage that best suits their needs and wants, to all the equipment maintenance and small repairs and all the cleaning that gets done, it is more work than I could have imagined. I now know that I would not rent our cottage to strangers without the knowledge and support from the CCM staff. Your dedicated employees go the extra mile to meet or exceed customer expectations.

    J. Frazer

    After 3 years of utilizing your services for the rental of our property, we want to express to you our gratitude for another year “well done”. Your guidance of us in our efforts to make our property more attractive to potential renters has resulted in financial gain for both you and for us. Our follow-through with your many suggestions provided us with a 100% increase in our rental activity since the first year of rentals.
    We have made improvements in the property that were not expensive but did take some energy on our part. It was truly worth it as we now are enjoying a productive rental season. We hope that you will continue to think creatively so that both you and we can benefit from our arrangement.

    Andy and Alice M

    …we use a NON-realtor agency called COTTAGE CONNECTION.  They have been managing our cottage/house since 1998 and we love them.  They are indeed a FULL-service agency with the highest standards we have seen.  A leader in the vacation rental industry, they also have offered leadership to protect the cottage owners from excessive state government intrusion into regulating the industry…

    Robert & Maria D

    What Our Guests Have To Say

    Memories of our stay at the cottage will never fade. Your staff tended to every last detail. It was great!

    John and Mary M.

    I really want to thank you again for the high level of service you have provided. I am a hospital president in a small community hospital, so I really appreciate it when great customer service is being provided.

    Bill C.

    What a wonderful vacation! Your service makes everything so easy. That is what makes it a vacation! I really liked the combination of professionalism with a personal local touch.

    From a Guest Survey

    I just wanted to let you know again how much we appreciated and valued our week at Newagen Cove Cottage. Everything was, in a word, perfect (which is not a word I use lightly). Beginning with the website which was easy to navigate and which accurately depicted the remarkable array of cottages you offer to the warm, competent and accommodating staff who patiently answered all our questions….And a return to Maine, through the kindness of Cottage Connection, will be what keeps us going through the coming year.

    Felice K.