Farmer FAQs

Start by looking at our list of 10 questions under Starting a Farm Stay This should give you a good idea of the questions to ask yourself and your family before jumping into an endeavor such as this.

You can offer anything from camping to a 5-star guest house.  What suits your farm? What will your customer expect for the price you charge? Are you shooting for rustic, glamping, cozy, high-end?  Your guests will self-select by what you offer.  Nonetheless, whatever you offer, it needs to be clean and safe.

This varies with why they wish to stay with you.  Guests with children often hope to watch or partake in chores.  Couples often forego the chores for a relaxed afternoon on the deck with a good book and a glass of wine.  Are they there for the cattle drive?  Are they there to decide whether this is the lifestyle for them?  Are they there to re-connect with their family in a true vacation style?  It could be any or all of these and they will probably tell you!  If not, ask…so expectations are met.

We would suggest you look for a farm or ranch already running a successful business in your state and ask for suggestions, many of which will be state specific regarding regulations.  We may be able to provide a referral for a mentor farm. We ourselves are experienced farm stay operators and are more than happy to answer your questions if we can.

This depends on the size of your operation, the sophistication of your Internet connection, and the number of nights you book or expect to book.  If you are just starting out, email and/or phone calls may suffice, but there are many better options available these days that take less of your time and streamline both your calendar and your payments.

We would recommend Hipcamp or Airbnb to start, although reservation systems like Reservation Nexus and OwnerRez work well once you are a mature business and have return guests who are inclined to book right through your website.

We have found that our guests tend to be curious about what we do, friendly, not that familiar with country life, and interested in experiencing something totally different than their normal routine.  Some seek only a retreat from city life while others want to learn about our food systems or feel like a cowboy.  It really depends on how you market your farm or ranch opportunities since guests will self-select based on interests.

We have discovered that most accidents happen within the first 30 minutes of guest arrivals on the property.  Our suggestion is to take visitors on a tour to point out all the places where they are and are not allowed and areas that may be hazardous, like hay chutes, creeks and ponds, corrals. Wood stoves to heat should have child barriers, cleaning chemicals should be secured out of reach, and prized possession probably have no place in a guest room anyway.

No. Some locations offer a kitchen, but the guests have to bring their own food. Some farms supply the ingredients for breakfast, however, the guests still make the meal. This gets around the laws for food handling and commercial kitchens. States like California actually provide an exemption for cooking breakfast. Do whatever works best for your circumstances. Your guests will make their own decision based on what they are looking for.

Actually, you don’t, although you may want to upgrade to an Enhanced listing. We feel we have given your guests most of the information they need to contact you for more information or to book a stay. That said, it is never bad to have your own website because this will give you multiple channels to market your business.

Social media is free but it takes time so choose the platforms you enjoy. Facebook has the benefit of giving information about your farm or ranch, has reviews, and is widely used. Instagram is all about the photos you take because the content is limited. Twitter is short lived but you can tie it to your Facebook posts. Pinterest is for those with time. YouTube captures your farm in motion. Basically all these formats give you another place on the web to tell your story

Yes.  We ask that you fit our definition of a working farm or ranch. What we mean by this is that you sell your livestock and/or produce for income or you are a sustainable operation producing for your own use.   We also allow non-profit teaching farms that provide accommodations.  If you have a question, please feel free to contact us!

Click on the ‘Farmer Sign Up’ on the top right corner of the Home page of the site.  Fill in the fields requested which include a Username and Password. Your username will be your email address. Write these down somewhere in case you forget.  There is a recovery link if you lose this information.

Log in (if you have just signed up you will already be logged in).

– the tabs on the left of your screen will walk you through all the information needed for your listing

– when you are finished (last tab is Accessibility) you will click on the tab Submit for Review

– there are Helpful Hints on the right side of each page

– if you don’t have time to finish in one sitting, the program will remember through the last page you saved.

– once you Submit for Review, you will need to wait for us to approve your listing. This is our way to control spam and also make sure you fit our criteria

– once approved, you may log in at any time to edit or continue your listing

It usually takes us less than 24 hours to approve you. Once you get a message from us, you can Edit your listing at any time.

We will make your listing live on the site as soon as you let us know you are ready and have paid (or are taking part in a promo offer).

Most searches start with the state, unless guests know the name of your property.

With Find a Farm, even one word from your name will give a list with every farm and ranch that also has that word.  Maybe you will come up on a search that contains a town name, or maybe an activity that you offer.

There are a many ways to be found on Farmstay as every category is searchable using filters.

Our Enhanced listed farms will always float to the top of a Search above Basic. Enhanced members also have their farms show up on the Home page in a rotating fashion.

Within each membership level the farms list randomly and not alphabetically.

To become a Featured Farm, you need to sign up for the Enhanced  Membership.  This will put you on the Home page in a random rotation.

Enhanced membership has additional benefits. You can find a description of what you get by looking at the  Become a Member page found in the Farmer’s Guide right above these Farmer FAQs.

Similar to the Featured Farm status, you get more photos if you sign up for the  Enhanced (24) Membership.  Your listing will show the extra photos under the Photos tab. We can tell you that photos sell a property!

Photos need to be less than 2 MB in size.  If yours are larger, you will need to resize them, otherwise you will get an error message.

If you don’t know how to resize your images or don’t have time, there is a link in the Hints section to our Dropbox where you can upload them We will resize your photos for you and add them to your listing.

The first photo you upload is always your listing photo. You can change your photo order at any time by dragging and dropping

We are farmers promoting farmers. We feel that by banding together as farm stays, we help brand this new travel niche for Americans and make ourselves a recognized destination vacation model. Please look through our membership benefits and join us at a level that works for you!

Enhanced Listing: $395/year

+Featured farm/ranch and links on Farm Stay U.S. Homepage (minimum of one week
+Featured blog article
+Enhanced highlights in Search results
+Listed first in all Search results
+Featured in Regional Guide
+Included in all Search criteria (Basic, Enhanced, Map)
+All tabs display (Description, Units/Pricing, Photos, Map, Contact, Amenities, Activities, Allowed, Food, Guestbook)
+24 photos
+Hotlink to calendar/booking tools
+Promotion of your farm, ranch, or vineyard stay to appropriate media inquiries

Basic Listing: $195/year

+Included in all Search criteria (Basic, Enhanced, Map)
+All tabs display (Description, Units/Pricing, Photos, Map, Contact,  Amenities, Activities, Allowed, Food, Guestbook)
+ 12 photos
+Hotlink to calendar/booking tools
+Promotion of your farm, ranch, or vineyard stay to appropriate media inquiries