Booking.com Affirms Commitment to Quality with Minimum Cleanliness Score Requirement

November 18, 2020

For the last two years, Booking.com has been working steadily to ensure the quality of short-term and vacation rentals listed on its platform with initiatives like the star-based classification system it implemented in 2019.

However, today, Booking.com is taking a giant step toward guaranteeing quality stays in home rentals with the launch of a new required Minimum Cleanliness Score Commitment for short-term rental listings.

The phased initiative will require rental managers and homeowners to maintain a Minimum Cleanliness Score of 6 out of 10 in order to remain on the platform. After a successful pilot program launched earlier this year, Booking.com is partnering with Properly to provide guidance, standards, tools, and technology to help rental providers improve the quality of the home and the guest experience.

According to Booking.com, a property’s cleanliness score is “an average of the cleanliness review scores you receive from all your guests. It’s an indicator of the comfort you provide guests, which is why we require all our partners to score at least a 6 on cleanliness. A property that’s doesn’t meet these cleanliness standards will be notified and put on a warning list.”

The partnership with Properly serves to coach its rental providers as they work to improve and maintain their cleanliness score using detailed guidance which includes Properly’s best-practice cleaning protocols. These custom checklists are designed to give rental managers and owners easy-to-implement directions to meet Booking’s guest expectations for cleanliness and create actionable guides to help improve guest experiences.

The resources draw on Properly’s experience providing quality management frameworks for property managers and hosts around the world. Additionally, through the partnership Properly offers Booking.com partners an exclusive discount on access to its mobile app that allows hosts to distribute, monitor, verify and certify the use of standard operating procedure protocols. Booking.com partners can also find qualified cleaning providers through Properly’s global network of service providers.

According to Eric Bergaglia, global head of Booking.com’s homes and apartments business, “Cleanliness and comfort have always been important factors in a great stay, and today even more so than ever. With use of the words ‘clean’ and ‘hygiene’ increasing by over 60% on our platform since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and alternative accommodations representing one third of all new bookings during the third quarter, the introduction of our Minimal Cleanliness Score Commitment reflects our continued commitment to ensure traveler peace of mind.”

How it Works

Properties that do not maintain a Minimum Cleanliness Score of 6 out of 10 will be notified by Booking.com and put on a warning list. Once on the warning list, rental providers are required to agree to the Minimal Cleanliness Score Commitment. They will have six months to give guests a better cleanliness experience and earn better reviews that raise the cleanliness score to a 6 or higher.

If a rental manager/owner will not commit to improving their cleanliness score Booking.com will remove the property from Booking.com. According to the site, “This is in accordance with our General Delivery Terms, which give us the right to restrict or suspend properties for repeated poor ratings or reviews.”

If the rental manager/owner doesn’t respond, the property will be deranked in search results.

“During the six-month probation period, we’ll be monitoring guest feedback for clear proof of cleanliness improvements. Once your new cleanliness score reaches an average of 6, we’ll remove your property from the warning list. If it doesn’t improve to at least 6, we’ll remove your property from our platform.”

A Win for Guests and the VR Industry

This Booking.com initiative is a strong move in the right direction for the professionally managed vacation rental industry that is consistently working to maintain superior quality and provide top-tier guest experiences. Weeding out low-quality rentals helps everyone.

“As many travelers begin to choose alternative accommodation for the first time, it has become even more important that they find quality and comfort,” said Alex Nigg, Properly CEO and longtime advocate of establishing cleanliness standards in the short-term rental industry. “A recent survey of Properly partners found that when hosts are provided with long and complex protocols, the result is often low compliance. With this highly targeted and responsive program, Booking.com focuses on those partners that can most benefit from help and provides them with tools to help them succeed.”

Booking.com’s Bergaglia added, “Alongside other key product updates made this year to make it simple for properties to navigate evolving traveler preferences, we are excited to work with Properly to bring this tailored support to alternative accommodation properties as they commit to improve their cleanliness score.”

Airbnb is Finally Going Public: Takeaways for Property Managers from IPO Filing

Amy Hinote

November 17, 2020

Airbnb filed for its long-awaited public offering on Monday, shedding light on its past performance and trajectory.

According to its S-1, Airbnb has 4 million hosts in 220 countries listing 5.6 million “active listings” on its platform, with 29% of its “Nights and Experiences” and 41% of its revenue coming from North America.

As of September 30, 2020, Airbnb has 5,465 employees in 24 cities around the world after reducing its workforce by approximately 1,800 in May 2020.

Airbnb is the third US company in the short-term rental industry to go public, preceded only by ResortQuest (1998) and HomeAway (2011). Both companies were purchased within 6 years of their IPOs.

The filing provides a highly anticipated show-and-tell of Airbnb’s performance, including its financials, listing counts and calculations, risk assessment, and strategic position.

The Numbers

Airbnb’s revenue dropped 32% between January and September 2020, losing $697 million through the first nine months of the year, more than twice as much as it lost in the year-earlier period. However, Airbnb reported that it was profitable in Q3 2020 largely due to the seasonal nature of the industry and after COVID-19 forced it to slash expenses and cut a quarter of its staff. Q3 revenue fell 18% to $1.34 billion from the same period a year earlier, with a profit of $219 million.

Without breaking out fees, Airbnb’s Gross Average Daily Rate by Month shows an 18 – 21% YOY increase in Q3.

In 2019, Airbnb generated Gross Booking Value (GBV) of $38.0 billion. Its GBV of $38.0 billion in 2019 consisted of $31.3 billion in host earnings, $5.3 billion in service fees for Airbnb, and $1.4 billion in taxes, consisting primarily of lodging taxes.

5.6M Active Listings; 76% booked at least once in last year

While Airbnb has boasted over 7 million listings for the last year, its filing shed light into its listing calculation.

“Our hosts had 7.4 million available listings of homes and experiences as of September 30, 2020, of which 5.6 million were active listings.”

Airbnb defines an active listing as a space or experience that “is viewable on Airbnb and has been previously booked at least once on Airbnb (excluding Hotel Tonight).”

Note: Airbnb combines stays and experiences in all of its reporting. In January 2020, Airbnb shared that it has 40,000 experiences on the platform.

Its $31.3B in host earnings translates to an average of $5,589 in annual host earnings per active listing on Airbnb. In comparison, a 2019 survey by HomeAway found the average owner who rents out a second home collects more than $33,000 a year in rental revenue on Vrbo.

Additional listing insight from Airbnb

Approximately 76% of active listings had been booked in the twelve months ended September 30, 2020.
To flip this KPI, 24% of active listings (1.27 million) did not have a single booking in the previous year.
As of December 31, 2019, 90% of Airbnb’s hosts were individual hosts, and 79% of those hosts had just a single listing.
As of December 31, 2019, 72% of nights booked were with individual hosts.
While the category of one to 27 nights (short-term stays) was down 81% year over year in April, long-term stays were down only 13% year over year and saw year-over-year growth from May through September 2020.
In 2019, 63% of revenue was generated from listings outside of the United States.
Active listings are available listings that have been previously booked at least once at any time since Airbnb’s inception.

Potential Risks

Airbnb’s filing detailed a long list of potential risks facing the company, including competition, Google, safety, regulatory issues, legal challenges, racial discrimination, and many others.

Regarding safety, Airbnb stated, “In addition, we have not in the past and may not in the future undertake to independently verify the safety, suitability, location, quality, compliance with Airbnb policies or standards, and legal compliance, such as fire code compliance or the presence of carbon monoxide detectors, of all our hosts’ listings or experiences.”

If reference to Google, “How Google presents travel search results, and its promotion of its own travel meta-search services, such as Google Travel and Google Vacation Rental Ads, or similar actions from other search engines, and their practices concerning search rankings, could decrease our search traffic, increase traffic acquisition costs, and/or disintermediate our platform. These parties can also offer their own comprehensive travel planning and booking tools, or refer leads directly to suppliers, other favored partners, or themselves, which could also disintermediate our platform.”

Market Opportunity

One of the more shocking sections in Airbnb’s filing was its calculation of the sector’s opportunity in the addressable market, as the company showed numbers our industry has not previously identified:

We estimate our serviceable addressable market (“SAM”) today to be $1.5 trillion, including $1.2 trillion for short-term stays and $239 billion for experiences. We estimate our total addressable market (“TAM”) to be $3.4 trillion, including $1.8 trillion for short-term stays, $210 billion for long-term stays, and $1.4 trillion for experiences.

Airbnb Doubles Down on “Home sharing” in future strategy

We expected to see Airbnb expand its focus to include professionally managed short-term rentals, hotels, and flights, especially after emailing guests in April encouraging them to book a hotel instead of a home stay. Instead, Airbnb affirmed its singular focus on home sharing and defined itself as the creator of a “new category in travel” :

Airbnb has enabled home sharing at a global scale and created a new category of travel. Instead of traveling like tourists and feeling like outsiders, guests on Airbnb can stay in neighborhoods where people live, have authentic experiences, live like locals, and spend time with locals in approximately 100,000 cities around the world.

According to an included letter from the founders, “When the pandemic hit, we knew we couldn’t pursue everything that we used to. We chose to focus on what is most unique about Airbnb — our core business of hosting. We got back to our roots and back to what is truly special about Airbnb — the everyday people who host their homes and offer experiences. We scaled back investments that did not directly support the core of our host community. This focus came at the right time. People are feeling increasingly disconnected in the world, and loneliness is pervading our society. The opposite of loneliness is belonging — the feeling of deep and genuine connection to a person, a place, or community. It’s the feeling of being ‘at home.’ The feeling of being known and loved.”

What can Property Managers expect from a Public Airbnb?

While we will have many opportunities to discuss Airbnb’s actions from this point forward, based on our experience when HomeAway went down this path, we can expect to see:

Increased monetization of the site and an effort to increase transactional take rates
Increased efforts to limit/block communications between guests and hosts

The difference between HomeAway and Airbnb is that HomeAway’s executives were actively engaged with the VRM community. In contrast, many of the largest vacation rental property managers have never had the opportunity to have a conversation with Airbnb’s C-suite. Airbnb hasn’t demonstrated any concern for the needs of its professional suppliers, and its filing shows no intention to cater to this supply sector of its business.

Listing professionally managed vacation homes on Airbnb will mean playing by their rules.

Additional Questions Raised from Airbnb’s Filing

Will the post-COVID traveler relate to home sharing? While much of the industry has moved to keyless locks and contactless check in, Airbnb is doubling down on the idea of connection and shared spaces, but will the 2021 traveler want to have up close and personal interactions with a host?

Will Airbnb engage its professional suppliers in a more meaningful way? Is the “peace, love, and an extra bedroom” message conveyed yesterday a sustainable service line, or will we see Airbnb pivot its branding direction to a more professionalized accommodation experience?

Will guests coming from the Airbnb platform be the kind of guests that top-tier homes want to attract? We regularly hear from PMs that the guests coming from Airbnb do not behave as well as guests booking directly or through other platforms. In contrast with hotels, professional PMs have a need to ensure guests can function as good neighbors.

Will Airbnb be able to follow through with launched initiatives and standards for guests? For example, what happened to Airbnb Plus? And with its Enhanced Cleaning Protocol, according to Properly’s Alex Nigg at the Vacation Rental World Summit, only 15% of hosts say they are complying with the standards. We’ve seen lofty standards introduced by Airbnb with no enforcement or follow through.

What PMs know they can expect is that changes are coming to Airbnb.

Airbnb plans to trade under the symbol “ABNB” on the Nasdaq. Read the entire S-1 filing here.

The Dreaded Software Transition: To import or not to import data?

Carlos Corzo

November 15, 2020

You have spent months looking for the perfect new, modern software solution that can take your company to new heights. But wait! What are you going to do with years’ worth of data? What about your future reservations?

For a property manager, one of the scariest parts of moving to a new software solution is the migration of data. As one prospective Streamline client put it, “I would rather poke my eyes out than have to do a software transition.” As you might guess, many of our new transition-ees have felt the same way. Unfortunately, although the process is indeed daunting, the benefits of having the right software with a stronger suite of functionality far outweigh the challenges implicit in a software transition. So, transition is a must. But what about that pesky data?

The Problem with a Full Transfer

Although your first instinct may be to try and transition all your data, this is extremely problematic, particularly if it is automated. Remember, no two software systems are built the same, meaning any programmatic transfer would require accounting for a multitude of potentialities. Each brand of software has its unique way of dealing with fees, whereas their units and owners have different overall data structures. Even scarier, software often can have different ways of calculating taxes and dealing with rounding on percentage-based fees. Even a slight miscalculation or mistransfer could leave you in the worst spot of all: having your accounting be out of balance from day one.

So, is there any chance to programmatically import all your data, including room revenue, taxes, and fees?

The answer, of course, is yes. However, this is an involved project that would require the collaboration of senior engineering teams from both companies. I would go so far as to say an import of this level should be done by a company that specializes in data transitions. The reason for this being that by the time your unique import project has been designed and implemented and QA is complete, you may have spent as much or more money than you would going through all the reservations by hand. And, even if your business is at a point where the investment is feasible, you have to remember, if it is not 100 percent accurate, you will be haunted by accounting balancing issues for the remainder of your time with your new software. In other words, it can be done, but is it worth it?

The Case for Selective Data Imports

There’s an old saying that garbage in equals garbage out. Put simply, trying to transition every last scrap of data when you do an import is not the right way to go about it. In fact, a software transition is your opportunity to clean the slate and draw a line in the sand. This does not mean that your old data are not useful, but in terms of how you will move forward after your software transition, “cleaning” your data is smart for your business.

With this in mind, here are some insights for property managers going to new software, including what data are important and what – unfortunately – you may want to leave behind. It’s not an all-or-nothing decision. Having done this for 15 years, I have experienced enough import variations to provide some valuable advice.

Throughout the transition, remember that moving to new software provides the perfect chance for a new start. Take advantage of the import process to validate your new system functionality and tidy up data.

Approach it as an audit on your data. You may not like some of these recommendations―especially considering how precious clean data sets are in this industry―but you will find that these recommendations are sure to save you a lot of time and hassle.

Data Pool Transfer Recommendations

Owner Data with Historical Information (Owner Statements!)

Owner imports often match up well across software systems. In this situation, simple .csv files can do the trick. However, there are also components critical for an owner, such as historical statements, that cannot be ignored. Owners will want access to that information. Of course, like all data groups you’ll find in different property management software, these data sets too have their warts when it comes to transition.

Owner imports tend to bring in old and outdated information. You can run into unique situations in which commission distributions have changed over time. This can create a problem during an import if the commissions from old reservations are not represented correctly. This comes down to the way your software stores and calculates commissions. The last thing you would want would be for your owner to log into a portal where the commissions shown differ from those shown in past statements.

Furthermore, some software solutions allow owners to run reporting from past reservations or fees paid to owners. This can be challenging because, when companies transition software systems they have used for 10-plus years, some older fees may not even exist anymore. Given that you will be forced to map these old taxes/fees to your new fees, this data could be completely useless to your owner.

Recommendation: Even with these minor complications, importing owners is still fairly simple. The key is to take the time to review the data in your .csv import file before doing the actual import. Many times, we provide a specific template that must be followed, and the data that come back are a bit shocking. From years of using the old system, much of the data points being transferred are extremely poor and inaccurate. Take this time to update your owner information. It will pay dividends.

Other Things to Keep in Mind

As far as statements and past reservations are concerned, I would recommend showing only owners’ future reservations from the day you start on the new software. This is due to any possible commission split discrepancies from trying to import old reservations.
Historical statements and reservations should be shown to the owners by uploading PDF files generated from your old software system. Ideally, you would have an owner module or owner app that allows owners to access uploaded files.
You may consider doing this with old 1099s and 1042s, as well as with the 1099s and 1042s for the part of the current year in which you used your old software.
Don’t try to replicate past owner statements or recreate previous 1099s or 1042s in your new software. You will spend all your time researching why they don’t match.

Guest Data

This is your bread and butter. Guests represent your marketing arm, and they make up the one thing that you always need to export from your old software. There is no reason to enter these by hand; as long as you have an email, you will be able to send marketing materials.

When clients dump out data from one system to another, much of the guest data can be poor. As explained, at the very least, have emails in place.
Historical reservations are often difficult to match up because you can have the same name with a new email. There is also the possibility for errors during data entry by your reservationists. This would essentially create a different guest profile, so there are challenges involved in crediting reservations to an exact guest. This comes in handy when you are trying to identify the guests who have spent the most money with you in the past.

Recommendation: Guest imports are a must. They make up the easier set of data to import and are extremely important to have. If you need to go back and do some clean up to make sure that the right reservations are credited to the right guest, you want to make sure to find software that will allow you to merge reservations under one profile after your import. If they don’t have this option, I would recommend spending some time sorting the data to look for variations of names, phone numbers, and emails that could be merged before you import.

Maintenance Data

Maintenance data is perhaps the most difficult pool of data to transfer when starting with a new property management software. This is where you will see the most variation in the logic used from one software to another, making full automation extremely challenging. This is especially true if you, like so many others, want to import labor and parts. You are now getting into the possible tax implications of parts, vendor payables, and special blocks on work orders in addition to matching the way vendors are managed and upcharge calculations. With all this, you can see how difficult transferring the data might be.

Recommendation: There comes a point where the import of old data is bringing in information that is not useful for reporting purposes. This is one of those points. Of course, in some cases, you may be able to take advantage of integrations with third-party software that already has your historical information and simply change the source of the data moving forward. This way you won’t need to worry much about maintenance data.

Otherwise, my recommendation is to import the work order title and the responsible party (owner, guest, management company) and use the instructions area to merge all other fields that would be important to you if you needed to reference this work order in the future. Take any labor, parts, taxes, or anything critical needed from your old system, and merge that data into one entry that would become your instructions section. Instructions tend to be a global attribute among software providers.

Review Data

We definitely want to be able to import reviews. I am a big believer in the idea that more reviews bring creditability and trustworthiness to your product. However, once again, not every system treats reviews the same way. In some cases, the reviews are done through stars. In others, the reviews are done through a numbering system. The trick is to identify the right mapping from the review scores in one system to the review scores in another.

Recommendation: Reviews are must-haves because of their impact on conversions. I would make sure you can generate a .csv file with the minimum information needed for a review in your new software solution. What tend to be common and most important for your website are the reviewer name (if available), review, and rating.

Accounting Data

In an ideal world, you could have your new system mirror all accounting transactions from your old system for past and future reservations. Clients often change software because of challenges and discrepancies with accounting. This strongly suggests that historical accounting transactions should be left behind.

Recommendation: You should try to work something out with your old software so that you can continue to have access to your old data. You would not be using any of the technology moving forward, except for running some reports. For cloud-based systems, this is often a great way to have easy access to historical accounting information.

If this is too pricey, you will have to download all the historical reports that would allow you to provide information on a possible future audit. You should never expect that an import into new software will clean up bad historical data from your old system. Remember, if you had garbage in the past and you bring that over, it will continue to be garbage. Leave the bad data behind, and start anew with your new software!

Reservation Data

This was by far the hardest lesson for me. I insisted on moving clients from one software to another while matching the structure of their pricing exactly through imports. After all, we have the technology to do so!

Still, something always came up; one little issue during an import would invalidate everything we did. My breakthrough came a few years ago. One of our employees with many years of experience with multiple software systems told me this: “You should not import taxes/fees. It is a big mistake, and it will cause the client to be off balance from day one.”

I thought she was crazy.

And yet, as it turns out, she was absolutely right.

Transferring reservations is a challenge, but matching up the taxes and fees in the exact manner of your old software is almost impossible. It can also be quite problematic, even if done correctly.

After all, even a small rounding error can compound infinitely, depending on a variety of factors. For instance, it is extremely common for companies to have hundreds of taxes/fees that they created to get around limitations in their old system. If you are not aware of all those taxes/fees and how they functioned historically, you can run into problems when trying to modify a future reservation because your new system will not understand how these calculations were made if it doesn’t know the logic behind the taxes/fees. Does that structure have the same behavior as your new software? Does it round taxes/fees the same way? Does it calculate the taxes/fees in a certain order? All these questions can be extremely difficult to answer, and what’s more, you shouldn’t even need to answer them.

Importing old reservations from your old system means you are trying to conform your new system to the logic and restrictions of your old system. Instead of doing this, embrace the new freedom your new software offers, and ditch the old tax structure problems (as well as the headache you’ll undoubtedly get by trying to match everything up perfectly).

Recommendation: Moving over data is your opportunity to clean your system, train your staff, ensure you don’t run into any early disbursements that were not accounted for, and most importantly, ensure that your tax/fee configurations work exactly like your old system. Put simply, out with the old and in with the new.

The ideal solution is to create reservation shells with payments. In some cases, you can enter the room revenue, and the system will divide that by the number of nights. After the shell and the room revenue are imported, you allow the system to calculate the remainder of the price of the reservation. Once that is done, you can compare the new calculated price to the exact price that was in your old system. This is where you are able to fine-tune your new system.

In addition, this allows you to look for any early disbursements that were done in your old system in relation to future reservations. Most common is travel insurance or taxes on certain fees. For those who want to have the nightly pricing match your old system, you would again let the system calculate the reservation pricing and compare that to your old system. This is also a great way to make sure your pricing setup is correct. This is an additional layer of work but essential if you review historical nightly rates for revenue management.

This begs the question, why import any pricing? Import the shell and compare the individual values that were calculated by your new software, given the rules that are in place for pricing, taxes, and fees. This is doable for future reservations. However, it is not likely to work for past reservations, and you will spend most of your time doing modifications.

Conclusion

Overall, starting with a new software means you have an opportunity to make sure that your system is running exactly the way you expect it to run.

Yes, it is possible to move all your data the way you want it―and Streamline will surely do this, if you simply cannot part with your data.

However, starting fresh can solve training issues, reporting issues, pricing strategies, tax/fee accuracy, and charging rules verification. It may seem difficult to part with your old data, but if you truly want your business to grow, and you want all reporting to be simple and easy going forward, this is the way to do it!

New Customers Bring New Demands: Evolving to Meet the Needs of New Customer Avatars

Nancy McAleer

November 14, 2020

As vacation rental providers are experiencing firsthand, consumer behavior in the travel sector has changed dramatically in 2020.

In a recent interview, Google’s head of vertical travel search, Laura- Marie Arens, shared that vacation rental accommodations are recovering faster than hotels, adding, “Vacation rental is perceived safer, easier to practice social distancing, and you can manage your own food.” (“Google says private accommodation is recovering faster than hotels on a global scale,” Phocuswire, October 1, 2020)

However, that does not mean it is business as usual, as the short-term rental industry has experienced a whirlwind of change in customer behavior within that time.

If you have not already identified several emerging traveler avatars yet, you’d better hurry up, because second waves of the pandemic are being experienced around the world. New patterns in consumer behavior and ensuing new traveler avatars look like they may be here to stay, at least for now. Capitalizing on these changes will help rental managers and homeowners more quickly acclimate to this brave new world.

Emerging Vacation Rental Guest Avatars

Newbies

A new and widespread perception of the vacation rental as a safer choice for accommodation over traditional hotels has resulted in an influx of first-time vacation rental guests. Inexperienced guests coming from urban multifamily dwellings to stay in private vacation homes must learn to manage new amenities, such as pools and hot tubs. This creates a need for structured protocols to educate these “newbies,” as well as vendor maintenance protocols arising from more wear and tear. If expectations are properly set and met, these new customers can turn into repeat guests who give glowing referrals to their friends; and a recent study from Nielsen showed that 92 percent of travelers trust travel location referrals from people they know.

Digital Nomads

The working world suddenly moved away from brick-and-mortar offices and schools to “work-from-home” and “web-learning” environments. With the ability to work from anywhere, a new group of vacation rental traveler was born, and longer stays have become common. However, this guest avatar has the need for high-speed internet, easy-access charging outlets, and workplace areas in the home. As a result, vacation rental providers are switching up marketing to showcase more in-demand amenities, such as home office spaces, free Wi-Fi, and high-speed ratings to meet the needs of the Digital Nomad.

Students Co-Living as Digital Nomads

We can include college and university students in the Co-Living Digital Nomad mix; they are socially banding together in their own bubbles to learn remotely by day and enjoy an incredible vacation rental by night. YOLO!

Digital Nomad Families on the Move, Including Pets

The rise of remote working and web-learning has created a new guest avatar: Digital Nomad Families opting to travel off the beaten path to rental homes, enjoying their time self-isolating, which includes bringing along the entire family, including their pets! A recent US Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey reveals “the share of households with kids stands at 27 percent, while the share of households with pets is at 68 percent.” (National Association of Realtors)

Don’t rule out this opportunity to increase your income through pet premiums of up to 30 percent the rental rate.

Family Bubbles

As families have had to sit back and take stock of what is important, there is an increase in demand for larger homes used for “family bubble” accommodations. This includes the extended family that has sheltered together.

First Responders and Frontline Workers

Typically, this avatar is most prevalent during weather crises such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and forest fires. The 2020 pandemic forced frontline workers to isolate from their families and also forced first responders arriving in high COVID-19 zones to look for vacation rentals for short- and long-term periods.

House Partiers

The absence of nightclubs, bars, and event venues has opened up the eyes of event promoters to the possibility of using vacation rental homes as bases for their special events. These large house parties are often illegal under COVID-19 restrictions and sometimes result in disturbances. Rental managers and owners need to review their event policies (minimum age, maximum occupancy, parking, events allowed, damage deposits), and educate booking agents as to suspicious bookings (e.g., a renter booking a home, with a residence in the same city, for a short weekend stay). Smart home technology can help deter overoccupancy and parties with outdoor video cameras, noise monitors, and cell phone/Wi-Fi usage monitors.

New Demands

Demand for New Technology

Pandemic safety protocols, combined with a new generation of vacation rental guests, have increased the demand and requirements for new technology. Instant and mobile booking with flexible payment options on all booking platforms is now expected. In addition, on-the-ground technology, such as keyless entry, noise monitors, and size-of-party monitors.

Increased Demand for Cleaning Protocols and Accreditation

Destination Analysts reported in its September 2020 survey that just 29.9 percent of average American travelers have confidence that travel is safe. Another national tracking poll survey revealed, “Lodging properties with cleaning and hygiene programs are sought by 55 percent of travelers, and mask-wearing requirements and/or social distancing policies are desirable for 47 percent of those planning their U.S. trips.” (“COVID-19 Travel Sentiment Study,” Longwoods International)

The pandemic has forced both property managers and owners to come together with government agencies to develop actionable cleaning standards. Independent accreditation is on the rise, demonstrating to consumers and municipal and state governments that the vacation rental industry is professional and ensuring that vacation rentals are a safe option during a pandemic.

Note: Check out VRMA’s SafeHome Campaign.

Fluid Situations Increase Demand for More Flexible Cancellation Policies

As community spread pops up in one area and is fully under control in other regions, travelers are looking for special COVID- 19-flexible cancellation policies as an easy way to protect their vacation investment.

Price Comparison and Book Direct Demand Rising

The unemployment rate in the United States was an astonishing 14.7 percent in April 2020, flattening out to 7.9 percent in September, when it historically hovers around 3.5 percent. Money is tight, and the average American traveler is more price sensitive than ever. Similar effects are evident across the globe.

Price comparison shopping for vacation rentals is increasingly common. Once travelers decide on a rental home, they then search the internet for the best price for that home. Diversification in marketing portfolios will meet this demand with more distribution on book-direct regional sites, price aggregation sites, and business sites with rate/quote calculator information readily available.

Expect consumers to ask for discounts; they assume the vacation rental industry is desperate for bookings after government shutdowns of short-term rentals earlier in the first quarter.

New Behavior

Domestic Travel Skyrockets

Border closures are common in 2020, as are travel restrictions within countries, so consumer behavior has completely reverted to domestic travel. Savvy owners and managers have collected data on their client zip codes to produce heat maps so that they can change marketing and advertising strategies to suit each new client.

International Travel Remains Bleak

The International Trade Commission‘s data reflect a 93.6 percent decrease in international nonresident traffic into the United States from March to August 2020. As the United States continues to battle the pandemic, the international traveler stays away.

International travel is based, of course, on country recuperation and border reopenings. Rental accommodation owners may start seeing increases in travel as things slowly start to open in COVID-19–low and COVID-19–free countries.

Shortened Booking Window

In regions where bookings typically take place one year in advance, short-term rental stakeholders are now experiencing more last-minute bookings. Travelers are looking at the latest COVID-19 statistics to see if they want to visit an area. The lesson here is not offering last-minute discounts too far in advance.

Travel Insurance

Consumers are looking for more detailed information on travel insurance such as how it works and what policies are covered during the pandemic. It is falling on the shoulders of the rental owner and manager to educate the traveler. Savvy stakeholders have incorporated some type of affiliate relationship into their booking processes to lower their risk and increase income in this category.

Longer Stay Demands

With the increase of the new digital nomad avatar, the demand for longer stays remains evident. Florida Rental By Owners, a regional book-direct listing site, experienced a huge increase in longer stay searches year over year from March to September 2020: a whopping 135 percent increase in searches for vacation rentals offering one-month stays or longer. Do not rule out longer stays, specifically for urban market recovery.

Traditional Seasons Become Blurred

Where the fall 2020 season would typically be considered low season for many areas, changes to home and school environments raise the demand for off-season travel. Interestingly, VRBO reported new family travel data this fall with a rise in the number of families booking trips in the third and fourth quarters. Florida Rental By Owners has also reported a 71 percent increase in inquiries year over year since vacation rentals reopened.

There is no doubt that the short-term rental industry has experienced disruptive changes to traveler avatars, preference, and behavior. 2020 has demanded an evolution among vacation rental stakeholders.

Rental guests are now looking for low-risk, predictable, and trusted local options. This includes the most important item on most of their lists: health and hygiene. The fear of potential quarantines and lockdowns alongside concerns about social distancing and masks will guide consumer behavior in the coming months. Innovation and new technology make up the impetus stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The good news is that many of the challenges and changes in traveler behavior of 2020, when analyzed carefully, can be converted into opportunity—and ultimately the building blocks of a stronger future for the vacation rental industry as a whole.

Photos and Descriptions: How Best Practices Have Changed in 2020

Rebecca Lombardo

November 14, 2020

An article titled “Being Extra-Ordinary” in the Summer 2020 issue of VRM Intel shared photographs of clean, open interiors with decluttered surfaces and white bedspreads. Its purpose was to provide guidance amid COVID-19 concerns on how to communicate cleanliness to potential guests.

These tips, it turns out, might not be so temporary.

According to an article from USA Today published August 26, 2020, “STR and Tourism Economics said recently that it expects average hotel occupancy of 40 percent this year, slowly climbing to 52 percent in 2021. That’s down from a healthy 66 percent in 2019.”

Meanwhile, some vacation rental companies in beach locations are booming at 80 percent occupancy during a shoulder season where they would normally be at 50 percent on a good year. In fact, one vacation rental company reported being at 140 percent of revenue from 2019 by mid-September. There doesn’t appear to be the same “slowly climbing” trend for property managers.

Best practices in photography and descriptions took a back seat to last-minute bookings, hard-to-find cleaning crews, chargebacks, and the sunsetting of V12 (which probably felt like the cherry on top of the apocalypse). And who could blame property managers for this when many of them spent their nights and mornings Cloroxing toilets and sinks themselves?

For those coming up for air, right now is a great time to think ahead and employ these best practices to stay ahead of the curve.

Best Practices in Photography

In one sense, best practices for property photography haven’t changed and won’t change even in this strange new world. If anything, these recommendations will continue to be emphasized in the future:

Clarity: Crystal-clear photographs that plainly show details within the room and clear views out the windows convey cleanliness and transparency, which builds trust—and trust wins bookings and increases revenue. It also prevents misunderstandings. This type of quality can be achieved using HDR photography and DSLR cameras.

Color: Hues and saturation within a photograph must be consistent, and that consistency ideally should continue throughout the property/properties. Imagine ordering food based on photos where the rice and chicken looked grimy. That’s the same visceral response guests have when they see yellowing tile in a kitchen or dark gray in a bathtub when those colors shouldn’t be there.

Composition: Although nicely framed-out shots are always important, one slight change recently has been to angle the camera’s view to capture how it would look to actually be there. In other words, take photographs where the viewer can easily imagine sitting at the kitchen table and admiring the views out the window. Instead of just photographing objects within the space, trigger an emotional response that transports the viewer into that space.

Best Practices in Descriptions

People who had never (or rarely) booked a vacation rental property were suddenly searching feverishly online for any with availability within a five- to eight-hour drive of their homes. There was such a spike in demand that most TruPlace tour analytics saw a 25 percent surge in view counts during May. One property manager advertised a $40 discount for first-time Airbnb guests.

“Drive-to” traffic wasn’t just a thing, it was the thing in May and June as families who were quarantining together wanted to escape their homes without getting on an airplane. Savvy PMCs, like one based in the Florida panhandle, increased their digital marketing spend by double last year’s amount. They bought Google Ads, boosted Facebook posts, and added specific keywords to their emails and website pages that helped their SEO.

On a Super September Florida VRMA panel discussion, Brian Hamaoui of Love Rentals recommended optimizing property titles for OTAs that feature amenities that draw in guests seeking a reprieve rather than factual descriptions like “Two Bedroom, Two Bath with Pool.” He advised leveraging the property’s unique aspects at the first opportunity.

Separating the Wheat

During times of crises (or chaos), it’s not uncommon to see ambitious business owners jump on opportunities while others take cover; not many managers can stomach doubling their marketing spend while the economy is crashing. Historically, though, those who do usually gain an advantage.

What has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic thus far is that some companies have improved their brand equity and competitive position by prioritizing quality photography and updated property titles and descriptions, while others have struggled, having been swamped and short on workforce.

Property managers have had 99 problems since COVID-19 hit, but photography wasn’t one. As competition increases next year because more properties were purchased and brought online, it will be interesting to see which companies are smart enough to reinvest in these visual marketing tools.

Vacation rental companies in drive-to locations without a heavy dependency on foreign travel (sorry, Orlando) will look back on 2020 and see it as the Gold Rush. The trick for 2021 will be keeping that momentum going, which can be easily fueled by quality visuals and smart descriptions.

Fernie Direct & StayFi

Arthur Colker

November 6, 2020

At the 2019 VRMA International New Orleans, Ryland Nelson was looking for a solution that would take his direct booking strategy to the next level. Ryland runs FernieDirect, an 80 unit short-term rental manager located in beautiful Fernie, British Columbia.

With a new website launching, Ryland needed a way to ensure that frequent Fernie travelers came and booked with him directly, not with one of his competitors through an OTA. When he came across StayFi, he knew he found a solution that would deliver reliable, repeat guest bookings.

With StayFi, Ryland was able to quickly create his own custom-branded splash page through their online portal. Now all of his guests, no matter what OTA they booked on, are introduced to the FernieDirect brand when they log onto the WiFi for the first time. In addition, StayFi is collecting an average of 6 guest emails per booking, instead of just 1 or 0.

In early 2020, FernieDirect & StayFi partnered together to do an analysis of StayFi’s results and a survey of past guests. Here is what they found:

Not only did over 90% of respondents indicate they would want to book direct for their next stay, many commented how much relief they felt booking directly with a reliable business vs. booking an unknown on an OTA.

When Covid struck, Ryland was grateful he had a list of 1000s of past guests he could go to and advertise his units as a much-needed escape from the nearby city of Calgary. In addition, his proprietary guest list has given Ryland a leg up in attracting new homeowners to his rental program.

One added benefit Ryland did not expect is the drastic reduction in calls about WiFi issues in his rental units. There is now one set of WIFi instructions for all his properties, and all of the WiFi networks can be checked remotely on the cloud.

For us at StayFi, we are grateful to work with fantastic rental managers like Ryland, and are looking forward to launching new products to further enhance his book direct business.

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9 Key Revenue Management Basics

Lee Knauer

November 5, 2020

The economic landscape for short-term and vacation rentals is swiftly changing, bringing new challenges each day. The industry experienced a screeching halt in demand caused by the global pandemic and in many leisure markets, a summer with a blossoming revitalization of demand.

It’s easy to get off course with moving targets, unpredictable scenarios, and multiple versions of your unit or portfolio’s 2020 budget. Getting back to basics with revenue management fundamentals and reframing all of the levers available during periods of quickly shifting demand will help you regain your stride and plan for a solid close to the year.

1) Use Historical Performance

Review and analyze occupancy and rate performance for your portfolio by season, event, and day of week periods. Compare and benchmark against your historical trends and relevant market performance data. Determine if there is an opportunity to increase revenue for future periods by driving occupancy, rate, or both.

2) Analyze Current Booking Activity

Significant changes in booking pace can be caused by overall supply/demand volatility, a shifting booking window, the shrinking/extending of traditional seasonal periods, or some combination of these. Analyze your pace and that of the market to determine if your pricing and availability are deployed optimally to address changing conditions.

3) Determine Supply Changes

Establish a process to periodically review changes in the amount and quality of supply in your market. Analyze relevant changes in competing destinations that may affect your local market and adjust strategies accordingly.

4) Leverage Your Systems

It may sound obvious, but if you’ve invested in technology to optimize performance, utilize those systems. Leverage the capabilities in your chosen property management system (PMS) and/or revenue management system (RMS) by spending time to configure your settings and enable automation properly, event triggers, alerts, and data that drive AI pricing/forecasting engines. Strike a balance between providing inputs that your system can’t learn on its own, against constantly overriding recommendations, which run counter to having the system in the first place. Strive to become a superuser as you will find that the most successful revenue managers in any organization are usually also the top system experts.

5) Review and Update System Settings

Configuration settings and automation in your PMS and/or RMS should align with your strategies and tactics, which will drive performance. However, don’t fall into the trap of “set it and forget it.” Establish a process to frequently review comp set definitions, stay restrictions, pricing rules, policies, discounts, and promotions to ensure that they correctly apply to high and low demand periods.

6) Understand Your Pricing Power

Analyze each home’s baseline pricing as it relates to location, bedrooms, amenities, ratings, and overall quality for your market. Conduct a price/value exercise versus your competitive set to guide your ideal positioning. Define and apply varying premiums for your unit attributes during high and low demand periods.

7) Manage High Demand Periods

Ensure your pricing and stay restrictions will protect your peak nights and drive production to your shoulder and gap nights. Compression caused by special events, holidays, and local demand drivers are opportunities to maximize the rate as market availability decreases. Hold rates appropriate for the surge in demand, and position your units to sell later rather than earlier compared to your competitive set. Remove any length of stay or affiliate pricing rules that apply discounts, and peel back from less profitable channels.

8) Manage Low Demand Periods

Market your units attractively by having compelling rate value, reduced stay restrictions, and the most lenient cancellation and deposit policies your business model can support. Enable discounting by activating promotions from third-party channels that will turn on tagging, utilize slash through pricing, and help promote a higher sort ranking. Configure discount pricing rules that encourage both early bookings and last-minute deals. Provide availability on as many channels as possible while maintaining a profitable rate structure.

9) Forecast

To quickly and clearly understand when strategies should be adjusted, consistently reforecast using current data. Relevant levers that affect pricing, availability, promotions, marketing, and distribution should be on standby and ready to activate should thresholds in your forecasts be triggered. Whatever tool you have for forecasting should be easy to adjust and read, especially when sharing with other stakeholders within strategy and performance discussions. Invest time and effort in establishing forecast tools that work for you and not the other way around.

There will always be market leaders and laggards. To seize the opportunity of maximizing rates while capturing your fair share of occupancy for your unit or portfolio, be nimble and invest the time to review your positioning.

The fundamentals are simple, yet it is easy to be led astray in times of uncertainty. We have an opportunity to lift the industry—if we collectively invest in analyzing the data and adapt our strategies to align with these times of massive change.

Forecasting the Winter Season: Forces at Play in a Pandemic Economy

Insights Collective

November 4, 2020

7 Key Drivers of Destination Travel Scenarios

How can destination resorts plan and prepare for the upcoming Winter 2020/2021 season when there are so many unknowns and so few reliable data sets or precedents?

They begin by understanding where things stand for seven key drivers, which will then inform and shape the three destination travel scenarios.

Forecasting for the Winter 2020/2021 season is one of the key challenges that Insights Collective, a pandemic economy think tank, reported on during VRM Intel’s recent Data and Revenue Management (DARM) Conference in a special presentation sponsored by Laird Sager and Red Sky Travel Insurance.

We focused on the essential drivers of supply and demand, the two variables upon which revenue management is based and the keys to understanding pricing power during an unprecedented disruption of the economy.

To best project where things stand and where they might evolve, let’s define and discuss the seven key drivers for 2020/2021 scenario planning:

1. Virus Tracking and Management

In both feeder and destination markets, this information will determine visitation ability and restrictions.

2. Reopening: Return of Demand Economics

This will drive travel and may override local or feeder market conditions but may create fulfillment, image, brand, health issues, and ramifications of pent-up demand.

3. Changing Consumers and Impacts

Particularly in the consumer marketplace, behavioral and demographic changes will create uncertainty on the fulfillment side and are not easily foreseen this time around.

4. Local Sentiment

Destination residents who are “somewhat” or “highly” resistant to outside visitation will push back against publicly funded entities marketing the destination, having an impact on previously more independent destination marketing organization (DMO)/government directives.

5. Paradigm Shift for DMOs

The pandemic will change how—or if—destinations make a call-to-action, which will change fulfillment volume, branding, and competitive advantages.

6. Federal Funding

Funding has played a major role, from PPP to various loan guarantees. However as debt grows, the future is less certain.

7. New Realities

Migration/urban exodus, changes in schooling, and working from home are prompting changes to visitation behavior within both local and feeder markets, creating opportunities.

To understand why forecasting is difficult, we begin with how the crisis is categorized (i.e., a black swan event). An event of this type is disproportionately high profile, hard to predict, and rare; perhaps it is beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, or technology.

Pandemic Economy

The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences are unprecedented.

Reliable data sets are not available. Results to date imply disruption beyond conventional business norms, but the new reality has yet to become clear.

We can start to make sense of things by looking at the current economic situation. The most helpful lens is found in data for unemployment, consumer confidence, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Key Economic indicators: 2019-2020, Courtesy: Inntopia/DestiMetrics

The Dow Jones has rebounded since the early spring arrival of COVID-19 in the US—a leading indicator that suggests Washington’s response was appropriate. Unfortunately, consumer confidence fell and has not yet recovered. Moreover, unemployment has increased; sharply at first, and now remaining at recession-level numbers. Wall Street cannot continue to climb while Americans are out of work and feeling lousy about their prospects—can it?

Virus Tracking

The University of Washington’s forecasting model projects 410,000 US deaths by end of year, nearly double the approximate 200,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 by the end of September 2020. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has forecasted that 12 states and territories will see decreasing numbers of new cases per week, while virus spokesperson Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts we all need to hunker down this quarter, be mindful of flu season, and accept the reality that a vaccine will not be in wide use until the third or fourth quarter of 2021.

With virus tracking, the first traces of predicting the winter season come into focus. Management and mitigation of local cases will differentiate winning destinations from losing destinations. For example, at the time of publication, in western ski destinations, Jackson (Teton) and Park City (Summit) lead the pack in terms of new cases. Crested Butte, Bend, and Steamboat, by comparison, show the least number of new cases. Destinations that become known as “hot spots” are at risk, while those with well-controlled local caseloads will be better positioned.

Consumer Trends and Considerations

While there is inherent demand for leisure travel (21st century Americans consider it a birthright), taking cues from the economy has been difficult. Among the suggested recovery curves (V, U, L or W), a newly formed K is in play. In a K-shaped recovery, some segments will head upward seeing robust growth opportunities, and other segments will face a declining economic situation.

As in any scenario, there are early adopters for travel, but at Insights Collective, we’re seeing pent-up demand as something that is now behind us; it has already occurred. New demand will depend on consumer trends and considerations.

KŰbler-ROSS model

To appreciate consumer sentiment trends more fully, we turn to the Kübler-Ross Emotional Response to Change scale. This scale tracks morale and competence across seven phases: starting at shock and concluding with integration. At the six-month milestone, consumers are shifting out of phase four, anger/depression, and toward phase five, experiment. Society is well past phase one, shock. We are a long way from the integration of phase seven. Changes are not yet understood or accepted, and there is not yet a renewed sense of normal.

What factors are helping to influence the consumer’s decision to travel for ski vacations?

First, we look at the top three concerns of mountain travelers: safe air travel protocols, potential COVID-19 hot spots, and the ability to maintain social distance once at the destination. Personal financial situations are a factor for only approximately one in ten travelers. This supports the K-shaped economic recovery model while acknowledging the increase in the unemployment rate.

If those concerns are mitigated, resorts can then focus on providing the top two pieces of information that would induce travelers to visit a resort: health and safety measures implemented on property and in the destination and the ability to cancel trip reservations without penalty. Taking this approach can shift the demand/supply equation and help return pricing power to the property.

Conclusion

We have outlined and expanded upon three of the seven primary drivers. Taking all seven together, potential scenarios for a particular destination starts to form. As forecasts become more clear, resorts need to focus on tactical responses—management and mitigation—to earn the trust of travelers until a widely available vaccine neutralizes the effect of the pandemic on our industry.

Insights Collective is an industry think tank focused on leading resorts and destinations through the new realities of management, marketing, and positioning. It is made possible by contributions from other civic-minded organizations, including Red Sky Travel Insurance.

Jane Babilon spent 10+ years working for DestiMetrics (later Inntopia Business Intelligence) in a variety of roles but primarily as an Account Manager focusing on Southeast clients. In this role she worked to ensure that clients were getting the most value out of their lodging research programs.

Ralf Garrison is a destination travel industry veteran, generally recognized as a thought-leader, innovator and a serial entrepreneur resulting from the various businesses that he has founded over the years.

Brian London is a respected research consultant, economist, and editor-in-chief of Travel Industry Indicators – Trends, Outlook, and Commentary.

For further information, our resources can be found at: theinsightscollective.com.

How To Get Work Done In Chaos

Margot Schmorak

November 3, 2020

“Our task is not to bring order out of chaos, but to get work done in the midst of chaos.”

– George Peabody, American financier and philanthropist

In the short-term rental industry, chaos has reached a fever pitch.

First it was the tsunami of industry change driven by the rise of Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo. Then it was the headwinds of anti-vacation rental regulations fueled by hotel lobbies. Now, we are in the midst of a global pandemic with practically no flight travel, coupled with a fiery political climate. No matter where you stand, you simply cannot avoid the chaos.

I thrive in chaotic and high-adrenaline situations. As a young girl, I used to daydream about being an EMT and rescuing people from crazy accidents (unfortunately, I am not athletic enough to do this).

Now, I am the CEO and cofounder of Hostfully, a fast-growing startup, while also a mom to three young kids. It is a busy, chaotic life, and I love it. But I’m weird.

Most people do not like change and chaos. It is unnerving and scary. So, in the first few weeks of lockdown, my company and I spent a significant amount of time thinking about how we could best support our customers and employees. It all came down to this: We will do whatever we can to help other people know what to expect. In a chaotic world, knowing what can be expected is a source of solace and security and is thus how we can help other people do their best—by helping them know more about the future.

Telling people about the future might seem grandiose and “Steve Jobsy.” But in actuality, everyone knows a little more about the future than we typically share.

At Hostfully, we started small, by creating lists of “what we don’t know” and “what we do know.”

Examples of what we did not know:

How many people would be so severely affected by COVID-19 that they would sacrifice their desire to travel

How and when local regulations might affect how vacation rentals could operate

How many of our customers would close down because of financial reasons

Examples of what we did know:

People love to travel.

Vacation rental accommodation would be more desirable than hotels.

Many customers found our products valuable whenever they had bookings.

Future bookings rates, while depressed, would not be zero.

Consumers were still hopeful that they could go through with their travel plans.

We started sharing the “what we do know/what we don’t know” lists more broadly. (They were included in “How Travel Will Be Forever Changed and Why Vacation Rentals Will Bounce Back First” in a blog called Strange New Normal.) We told our team, our investors, and our customers. We even found data partners— Beyond Pricing and All the Rooms—and began analyzing future bookings across the United States. More people started reading, reacting, and doing more planning.

Everyone started feeling better, even in the midst of the 2020 chaos.

Here is what we generally can expect for US vacation rentals in the next two quarters:

Domestic travel will continue to be strong.

1) Occupancy rates will be slightly down compared with last year (–2 to –10 percent).

2) Average length of stay will be up versus last year (+10 to +20 percent).

3) Average daily rates are about 5 percent lower than last year.

4) Travelers will want to know more about the safety of their experience.

5) Travelers will prefer a contactless experience.

All in all, the US market will earn approximately 4.5 percent less revenue than in previous years. Travelers will want a more hands-off but information-rich experience. That is what we can expect. That is the future.

You can tell the future, and you should.

Help your staff and your owners by sharing the future you see.

Make your own lists of “what we do know” and “what we don’t know” about the future of your company. Use these lists to make decisions more quickly about a plan. Explain how and when you will reconsider your plan. Tell your employees about it. Tell your owners, too. Create two or three scenarios and use the more conservative one to define your staffing plan for the rest of the year. This will help your team and owners know what to expect, and they will appreciate the sense of security.

Don’t forget about telling your guests about the future, too.

More than ever, guests need extensive information about what to expect in the bookings process and in the rental.

Communicate up front any cancellation policies you have. Tell guests about any changes or updates to protocols that you have made to enhance their safety and security. Give many details about what they should expect when they arrive at the rental, including what you can and cannot provide. Explain what new limitations are in place. Give them a way to access additional information or to have their questions answered without being in person.

On the Hostfully digital guidebook platform, we have seen a big shift in how and what property managers are sharing with guests. Here are a few examples of what they are doing:

Sharing information focused on cleaning protocols—before the guest arrives

Adding creative videos instructing guests how to use a remote lock

Instead of a three-ring binder, having a QR code to scan with a mobile so that guests touch as little as possible (similar to what restaurants are doing with menus)

These special touches are forms of “future-telling”—otherwise known as setting expectations. These are the details that help managers convert the booking lead, build confidence in what to expect, and assuage the concerns of a nervous guest.

Even if it is not all rosy, your understanding of the future is a gift that you can share with others this year. Let’s do more of that to help each other get the work done in the midst of chaos.

Customers Behaving Badly: The Psychology of Changes in Guest Behavior

Paula Caballero

November 2, 2020

After the flood of COVID-19 cancellations abated, property managers felt a renewed sense of hope as guests began to rebook vacation rentals destination by destination as lockdowns ended across the country.

But once they arrived, the guests seemed different. Some were fussy with ongoing demands, whereas others were destructive and aggressive.

“We have seen a 247 percent increase in the number of party-house related complaints at short-term rental properties (this summer) versus the same months last year,” said Ulrik Binzer, general manager of the Host Compliance division of Granicus.

Stories range from guests defecating in sinks and hot tubs, to overloading properties with illegal events, to becoming irate at small problems such as leaves in the pool or a short outage of cable TV service.

Guests may have thought the change of scenery would help soothe their mental state after months of home-bound monotony. But, psychologically, many found out there wasn’t an escape, even in a new environment.

“There is a lot of free-floating anger,” explained Margaret J. King, PhD, director of the Center for Cultural Studies and Analysis. “When you travel and are away from your home base, there is a lot of permission to express [emotions]—that’s one reason people travel. But part of the anger expression is that there’s no way to get away from [COVID-19]. There’s no place to go.”

As a result, rule-breaking behavior abounded in ways few were prepared for.

“The guest mentality has changed, in that they feel entitled,” explained Jennifer Mucha, president of Arrived vacation rentals, which manages more than 300 properties in locations such as Palm Springs, Hood River, and Kauai. “They feel like the rest of life is hammering them, so this is their one opportunity to control something. They feel entitled to get whatever they want out of it.”

This guest mentality was likely complicated by some airlines’ leniency to give credits and refunds, and the policy of platforms like Airbnb, which provided automatic refunds to guests, overriding existing host cancellation policies.

“Rules had been relaxed, so even though we were in quarantine, there were still other things that were now permitted,” King said. “Financially, relaxation about eviction, relaxed credit, you don’t have to go to work, you can work at your own home, you have a certain kind of autonomy.”

King also hypothesized that people traveling during this time might be the most depressed, most strung-out, or most in need of an escape. Thus, they are most likely to act out when reaching their destination.

Binzer said that rural locations have been particularly overwhelmed by this phenomenon. Small towns with just a handful of vacation rentals recently have seen exponential growth in listings in their towns—and exponential problems, too.

“People who used to go to Europe and Hawaii are now traveling closer to home,” he said. “A lot of people who live in big cities are traveling to rural areas and then acting like they are in Cancun at an all-inclusive resort when they’re actually in a residential neighborhood,” Binzer said.

And while industry professionals are well-versed in taking care of demanding guests and offering high-touch hospitality, the needs and behaviors during this period have caused many managers to retool their protocol for vetting and educating guests.

Paul Becker, president and founder of Bluewater Property Services, which handles luxury vacation rentals in the San Diego area, saw their already-strict processes failing. He worked with staff to create a higher level of screening to help avoid problems.

Requiring signed rental agreements, copies of government-issued IDs, and the names, ages, and emails of all guests to receive the rental rules are now required on every reservation.

Becker added that managers must also remember that the guest profile has changed. Many are first-timers to vacation rentals. He has staff send those guests additional information to give them a better idea of expectations.

“They don’t know much about what their behavior should be because they have never stayed in [a vacation rental], so it’s up to us to educate them,” Becker said. “You can’t call every day for new towels; you can’t call at all hours of the night like at a hotel. They won’t have the freedom that makes them feel like ‘no one is watching me’ like at a hotel.”

Mucha echoed Becker’s sentiments but said even with personal phone calls to all guests they have been exceedingly “sneaky.” She said that, although her company never allowed events at even their most spacious properties, guests tried to bring large groups to properties when their event venues were canceled due to COVID-19.

“When weddings were canceled because they couldn’t have more than 10 or 20 people in their group, people began thinking, ‘Oh, we can schedule a private residence!’ Well, private residences can’t handle that. Just with parking and neighbors alone, you can’t have 30 cars coming in without making neighbors upset.”

She said they began making it their mission to protect against events. They contact guests by phone and add strong, visible verbiage about no events in the booking confirmation, advertisements, check-in instructions—everywhere and anywhere guests could see the rules.

She said it was successful sometimes, but nothing is foolproof.

“This year, it wasn’t enough. They were pretty clever. They say they were just meeting up with some family for the weekend, and then they show up with 300 people.”

Many managers also named outdoor cameras of all types and noise-monitoring devices as required tools this year to help monitor occupancy issues.

“You hope to prevent [an event] before the other guests show up,” Mucha said.

Yet, as complex as this COVID-19 travel period has been, it hasn’t exclusively been filled with problem guests.

Susan Doull, the owner of Commendable Rentals, said that while she did have more damage this year than previous years, she also saw more gratitude expressed by guests when they could reschedule their trip for future dates without penalty. Many asked for the option to reschedule from the start and never demanded a refund.

“Their gratitude was a nice statement about humanity, kindness, and consideration,” Doull said. “I don’t want that to be wiped out by the people who did travel and were careless.”

Julie Davies, author of Vacation Rental Management 411 and educator of short-term rental certification, agrees, and she hopes these COVID-19-related experiences will not permanently tarnish the professional reputation of vacation rentals agencies and professionals.

“Please just don’t judge our industry by the last six months,” she said. “The entire world is crazy right now.”

Let’s go tech shopping! DEMO DAYS (recordings)

Amy Hinote

October 18, 2020

Tech for vacation rental and short-term rental managers

While vacation rental managers have been dealing with pandemics, fires, and hurricanes, the short-term rental industry’s technology companies have been busy developing and launching new features. And since we can’t see them in person at conferences this year, VRM Intel hosted Demo Days on Thursdays, starting Sep 24th and going through the end of October.

This is a great opportunity to see what is new without committing to a one-on-one appointment. Click on the links below to access each recorded Demo.

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Thursday, September 24, 2020

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Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

See Guesty’s Property Management Platform in Action
With 2020 being an unprecedented year for every company in the travel space, short-term rental property management software Guesty focused on providing technological advancements, new resources, and increased platform flexibility to support users during this period. In this live demo, Joseph Binestock will showcase the platform live, highlighting users’ favorite features, including the Unified Inbox, Automation Tools, the Multi-Calendar, and more. This session will also cover the product developments that Guesty has made since the beginning of the year to help vacation rental managers navigate COVID-19 in order to maintain business stability and ultimately longevity, such as enabling extended stays of 28 days or more, supporting digital rental agreements, and giving users more flexibility than ever before. Register to learn more.
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[su_spoiler title=”TravelNet Solutions / TRACK” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Transforming the Future of Vacation Rental Property Management Software Together

Join John Stokinger to See how TRACK helps leading short term rental companies to consolidate applications, improve operational efficiency and financial performance. Learn how to book more and spend less with 0% commission fees with direct connections to VRBO and Airbnb.

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[su_spoiler title=”Rentals United” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

LIVE DEMO: Advanced Channel Management with Rentals United

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Specifically intended for DARM attendees, get a deep dive into how a specialized channel manager can boost your revenue. Today more than ever it is crucial to have a well-balanced marketing mix with superior API connections. That’s what we do for more than half of the world’s largest property managers. Don’t sit back, don’t relax, we’re ready for your questions – including technical ones. With Matthew Luzaich

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[su_spoiler title=”Streamline” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

Streamline – Gold Standard for VR Software – Now and Future

Join CPO Brett Parry and Software Consulting Director Kyle Holmes as they explore the power, direction, and experience of vacation rental industry’s True all-in-one solution.

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[su_spoiler title=”StayFi” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

StayFi – Vacation Rental WiFi That Collects Valuable Guest Data

Join Founder & CEO, Arthur Colker, to learn more about cloud-managed guest WiFi. We will explore a real customer account and discuss email marketing and other direct booking strategies to maximize the value of guest data.

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Thursday, October 1, 2020

[su_spoiler title=”ICND” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

BRAND NEW: First-to-Market Features to Maximize Revenue

At ICND we’re highly focused on delivering first-to-market features to help VRCs maximize revenue directly on their websites. In our Demo Day discussion, we’ll do an educational session on how to tie revenue management, gap management, and booking abandonment into a seamless user experience. We’ll take a deep dive into three of our newest offerings – Cancellation Notifications, Price Alerts, & Extend Your Stay emails as well as talk about some of our features that are tried and true. Learn how these three products can help you quickly fill canceled reservations, convert price shoppers into bookers, and sway your guests to stay longer.

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[su_spoiler title=”NoiseAware” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Be in the Know and Rental Ready Year Round

With people going a bit COVID-Crazy, we are seeing the parties moving to short term rental properties and with them, the problems. Recent months have seen an average of 47% increase in YoY noise events – levels of noise loud enough to bother neighbors and indicative of activity that frequently leads to damage. The best way to stop it is to know when it starts. NoiseAware, the inventors of noise monitoring software, provides a real-time understanding of guest activity without ever sacrificing guest privacy. And in this case, like many others, knowledge is power. Power to stop trouble before it starts. And protection from the damage that costs you money and missed rental days. Learn how NoiseAware can help you stay rental ready, protecting property and profits.

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[su_spoiler title=”PointCentral” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

An Exploration of PointCentral’s Keyless Entry and Property Automation Solutions

Demand for keyless entry and property automation (smart home) solutions has never been higher, due in part to Covid. Guests want to social distance and are concerned about touching keys. Property managers are looking for ways to improve efficiency and streamline operations. Homeowners want to make sure their assets are protected and that they aren’t losing bookings due to a lack of amenities that guests have come to expect. In this session, we’ll explore PointCentral’s platform and its capabilities, as well as what makes this product so unique. We’ll leave plenty of time for questions at the end. Please be sure to register, and we look forward to speaking with you soon!

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[su_spoiler title=”Beyond Pricing / Signal” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Keep more of the money you earn through your direct booking strategy

With OTA fees increasing and budget-conscious travelers on the rise, Beyond Pricing’s Signal team discusses how you can take control of your direct booking strategy. With Julie Brinkman

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[su_spoiler title=”Breezeway” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

The Time is Now: How Breezeway Can Transform your Property Care Programs

At Breezeway, we believe that increased attention to the preparation and service at properties is the critical point of success and failure for vacation rental managers. The pandemic has underscored the importance of cleanliness and safety, so much so that the majority of managers think property care software will be the most impactful technology for their business moving forward (from our r 2020 Property Operations survey) Join us on Demo Day to see how Breezeway’s platform can automate your operations, bolster your property care programs, and deliver high-quality and safe properties in today’s travel climate. With Koryn Okey, VP of Client Experience

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[su_spoiler title=”BeHome 24/7 & Dormakaba” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

Secure Properties and Efficient Operations: Demo day with dormakaba and Behome247

Have you had enough of keys? Travelers are demanding keyless entry and remote check-in. Are manual processes and multiple platforms wearing you down? Now is the time to evaluate solutions that provide convenience to both you and your guests, while improving your bottom line. Join us on Demo Day to find out how dormakaba and Behome 247 can help you go keyless, automate your property, and simplify workflows that result in secure properties and efficient operations. Smart access begins at dormakaba. As an access control leader, dormakaba pioneered short-term and vacation rental access management with Oracode keyless door locks. Oracode provides guests with remote check-in, so they can go straight to the property. Oracode door locks simplify guest arrival and departure.
Founded in 2008, Behome247 is the only enterprise property management platform focused on smart home technology as well as day-to-day property operations. One solution, no matter the property. Behome247’s unmatched, tested technology will seamlessly handle every aspect of operations, guest management, and communications. All from a single platform. With Marc Chami, Lino Maldonado

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Thursday, October 8, 2020

[su_accordion][su_spoiler title=”Xplorie” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Xplorie Enabled Voice Assistant Demo – Guest Experience Reimagined

Xplorie and Amazon Alexa have teamed up to take your properties to the next level in guest experience.
Now more than ever the world is turning to virtual solutions especially when it comes to travel. With Xplorie, you can equip your properties with an Xplorie Enabled Voice Assistant (XEVA) powered by Amazon’s Alexa that can answer not only questions about your Xplorie Activity Program but also can be customized to answer specific questions about your property. A customizable concierge that provides the personal touch you want when you can’t be there in person. https://xplorie.com/partner/xeva/

[/su_spoiler]

[su_spoiler title=”AirDNA” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

How to Invest, Price, Benchmark, and Manage Your STRs All in One Place

AirDNA helps hosts, property managers, and investors make the most of the short-term vacation rental market by turning rental data into actionable analytics. In this demo, we’ll dive into our flagship tool, MarketMinder. MarketMinder is a one-stop-shop for all things market intelligence, revenue management, investment, pricing, and benchmarking. We’ll dive into the entire short-term rental journey from finding your property to onboarding your listing and positioning it for success.

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[su_spoiler title=”NEC / GuestView Guide” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Digital Concierge: Earn More From Every Guest Stay

GuestView Guide – the wall-mounted digital concierge to wow your guests and your bottom-line. Earn more, reduce your support burden, and delight guests.

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[su_spoiler title=”Bluetent” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

The digital ecosystem: Grow your vacation rental business online

Tune in with Team Bluetent to discuss the key components to a vacation rental company’s digital ecosystem. Learn how specific tools can help your business increase direct bookings and capture new audiences.

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[su_spoiler title=”Silicon Travel” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

WiFi for the New Era in Vacation Rentals: Work. School. Vacation. Together!

Now more than ever, it is so important that your Rental’s Internet Service and Support is on point. During this interactive demo with Silicon Travel’s Mike Harvey, you’ll learn more about: • How Silicon Travel saves you countless time and money with our on-call Wi-Fi service and support team
• How Silicon Travel leverages internet terms of service agreements with each guest to protect your company and property owners from internet misuse and fraudulent claims
• How Silicon Travel helps promote your brand as well as your vacation rentals with an interactive guest site that is customizable for each property
• How Silicon Travel collects valuable information on each guest (not just the ones making the reservation), like email addresses, survey results, device usage, and CTRs to your site as well as local businesses and attractions
• How Silicon Travel seamlessly connects your properties Internet Service with WiFi Tools that help Managers better monitor Internet Connectivity, Turnover Times, Over Occupancy Issues and Workforce Efficiency.

[/su_spoiler]

Thursday, October 15, 2020

[su_spoiler title=”Booking.com” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Attract new guest segments with Booking’s new long-stay rates

The verdict is in – longer stays are here & now! Our search trends reveal that various types of travelers are increasingly looking to stay in a single place for longer, bringing them the opportunity to experience a destination in a whole new way. From business bookers and digital nomads to expatriates and students – these guests are all looking to stay longer at your property. Innovating to respond to this growing demand, Booking.com recently introduced an easy way for its property partners to implement weekly and monthly rate plans to attract these travelers. Join us, to find out how you can drive long stay occupancy for your properties – and the benefits of getting guests to stay a little longer.

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[su_spoiler title=”Key Data Dashboard” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Ramp up your Revenue Management with Key Data

At Key Data, we are about helping property managers get the most out of their business at all times. In this webinar, Key Data’s Business Development Manager, Taylor Hill, will go over key features of Key Data including a dive into benchmarking & pacing insights as well as our rental projection and OTA supply data – highlighting tools that will help improve your business. Let’s provide better data together!
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[su_spoiler title=”Rented, Inc.” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

The art and science of Revenue Management

Find out how Rented uses the best data available along with the best team of revenue managers in the industry to maximize your revenue.

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[su_spoiler title=”PriceLabs” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

Give your pricing wizards a good wand!

PriceLabs’ sophisticated revenue management solution helps some property management companies apply their strategies quickly and improve revenues!

[/su_spoiler]

[su_spoiler title=”Beyond Pricing” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

You Are Your Best Revenue Manager

With Beyond Pricing’s dynamic pricing and market insights tool, you have all you need to be your own best revenue manager.

[/su_spoiler]

[su_spoiler title=”EZcare” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording – Coming Soon

Real Tools for Superior Property Care!

Thought about operations as a profit center? We have. EZcare has spent a lot of time listening to clients and prospects, then building tools that create efficiencies to help you run your housekeeping, Inspections, Maintenance, Inventory, Linen, and Invoicing at peak performance…and savings. What’s more, we integrate with over 12 PMS partners to help you never duplicate data entry again. Join us on Demo Days and let’s explore real property care solutions!

[/su_spoiler]

[su_spoiler title=”TruPlace” open=”no” style=”default” icon=”plus” anchor=”” anchor_in_url=”no” class=””]

Watch Demo Recording

Properties with Virtual Tours Have Higher Revenue: Tru or False?

A case study on properties with virtual tours vs. those without shows access to more guests and a big difference in revenue.

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Women Need to Raise Their Voices . . . Just A Thought

Zandra Wolfgram

October 13, 2020

What is your story? What do you do? Who do you do it for? And how do you do it uniquely?

These questions and more were posed yesterday by author/speaker Amber Hurdle, CEO of Amber Hurdle Consulting, to 261 attendees of Growing as a Thought Leader—the first of three consecutive 30-minute weekly sessions created as a free supplemental professional development series launched by VRM Intel and the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit.

Vacation rental industry professionals logged in eager to polish up their personal brand with pointers from Hurdle who began her session entitled “Why Your Thoughts Are Needed in the Vacation Rental Industry: A Woman’s Guide to Thought Leadership” with her story—a very personal one at that.

Click here to view the first session of the series presented by Amber Hurdle.

She shared her “fall from grace” after becoming a pregnant teenager, her “failure forward” juggling four jobs at one point, and her heroic comeback to become a successful business consultant working with international celebrities, executives and, Fortune 100 companies.

Enrolling her audience in “You University” for the day, Hurdle urged attendees to self-reflect, saying, “Today, I want you to find your grit. Today, I want you to say, ‘This isn’t about self-promotion. It is about stepping more into who I already am.’”

Her reason was simple: “The more people understand what you’re about and the value you add, the more opportunity you have to serve other people,” she explained.

After asking attendees to “look back at the bread crumbs of your life,” she encouraged each person to take a moment to list and celebrate the “body of accomplishments of all the roles we play.”

Hurdle challenged the group to unleash their “limitless female energy” in all they do.

Because, she says, female silence speaks volumes.

“It’s quite a shame that most Thought Leadership is consequently male,” she taunted.

Before passing out “homework” and detailing how to create content in 24 hours, the author of The Bombshell Business Woman: How to Become a Bold, Brave Female Entrepreneur, insisted there is one label more women should own—that of expert.

“You have experience, and I want you to bring that to the table,” she coached.

VRM Intel founder Amy Hinote introduced Hurdle as a “powerhouse of the talent optimization world” who “gets us.”

And by “us” she meant women—the very industry professionals who inspired the series.

Hinote, who launched the industry’s inaugural Vacation Rental Women’s Summit in 2019, developed the series to create yet another forum to give voice to women in the vacation rental industry.

Voices, Hinote knows first-hand, are all too quiet.

While reviewing articles submitted for the upcoming 2020 Fall Issue of VRM Intel Magazine, Hinote was frustrated about how few were authored by women, and she wondered why . . . and so she asked in Facebook and LinkedIn forums. And women in the industry were quick to respond.

Being too busy, not feeling like a true expert, not wanting to be perceived as self-promoting, unsure of writing ability, and wanting to be asked were some of the reasons women in the vacation rental industry were reluctant to present a session or write an article.

As she is known to do, Hinote felt the best way to begin to remedy this industry-wide issue, is to put it on the table and talk about it.

“Currently, no university offers a degree in vacation rental hospitality. None of us got straight As in vacation rental management courses because there weren’t any, and there are still very few best practices that can be easily applied across destinations and types of accommodation,” she said. “As a result, we have to rely on what we’ve learned from our own experiences and from each other to improve, grow, and adapt to the onslaught of industry changes.”

When Hinote turned to Amber Hurdle to help, Hurdle listened, and answered the call by developing the series, “Growing as a Thought Leader.”

Hinote points to VRM Intel Magazine, VRMintel.com, VRM Intel Live!, SecondHomeHQ.com, and the company’s special events, as “outlets for women in the industry to start sharing their experiences, show others how to avoid pitfalls, and provide information and insights that can help others improve their businesses and services.”

Coming up next in the series:

Oct. 20 — How to Thrive in Change: Leading Through Dynamic Market Conditions

Learn the stages of The Change Cycle®.
Discover where you are in the cycle, where your team members are in the cycle, and what that means for the strength of your business.
Learn ways to increase your agility and flexibility to set you up for success (and sanity).

Oct. 27 — Create Content Fast! The Quick and Easy Formula to Create Articles, Blog Posts, Social Media Posts and More

Learn the processes the professionals use to produce months of content in a single day.
Find the time to invest in your thought leadership without stressing your other obligations.
Become known as an expert by carefully curating a body of work that supports your expertise.

These sessions are free to attend, and *EACH LIVE SESSION IS HELD AT 2:00 PM ET OR 11:00 AM PT.

Vacation Rental Women’s Professional Development Series: Thought Leadership with Author and Speaker Amber Hurdle Part 1 from VRM Intel Live on Vimeo.

A Room-by-Room Guide to Being Extra-Ordinary: Now may be the perfect time for vacation rentals to be a little “extra”

Amy Hinote

October 7, 2020

photo credit: Stay In Tamarindo Vacation Rentals, Photos by TruPlace

“She’s so extra!”

Now that we’ve all been exposed to Netflix-driven multigenerational dramas, you’ve likely heard the term “extra” being used to describe someone who is over the top and maybe a little dramatic, doing more than the situation calls for. Urban Dictionary defines this Gen Z use of “extra” as “Doing the absolute damn most. For no reason.”

For vacation rental managers determined to thrive amid the current challenges posed by COVID-19, finding ways to be a little extra isn’t such a bad thing.

In May, organizations (e.g., VRMA, Breezeway, AHLA, Vrbo, Airbnb, hoteliers, and property management companies) began publishing augmented cleaning guidelines to adapt to a changing world’s expectations for lodging safety and cleanliness. Although a handful of these guidelines are in themselves a little extra, the bulk of them are on point, and some are long overdue in the vacation rental industry. While individual homeowners may be a little slower at adapting to new protocols, professional vacation rental managers find themselves at a pivotal moment with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come together as an industry and blow the socks off the hospitality sector.

Let’s take a look, room by room, at what is old, what is new, and what is extra.

It’s always a little fun to start in the bedroom.

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Old

Aged, patterned sheets and bedspreads

Laundering bedding in the unit/home between stays

Small area rugs and excessive throw pillows

Ultra-dim lamps and lighting

Outlets hidden behind furniture

Unwashed extra blankets in closets

Homeowner items in unlocked closets or drawers

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Walker Luxury Rentals, Photos by TruPlace

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New

Professionally laundered bedding

Mattress and pillow protectors

Smart TVs with universal and disinfected remote control

Easy-access outlets

Professionally laundered extra blankets in closets

Clean closets with extra hangers

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Extra

Bedside power stations for phones and tablets

Black-out window treatments

Upgraded and bright, tiered lighting

Matching clothes hangers

Triple sheeting

Hospitality blankets, comforters, duvets, and top covers for professional laundering

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Pro Tip: We have been hearing from several PMs who are moving to hospitality blankets/covers/duvets that mills are overloaded with demand. If you are moving in this direction, order ASAP as many popular coverings are backordered for months.

Creating a hospitality standard for vacation rental bathrooms

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Old

Laundering towels in the unit/home between stays

Bathroom rugs

Old shower curtains and liners

Countertop accessories

Owner items in the cabinets, drawers, or linen closets

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New

Anti-bacterial liquid soap and hand sanitizer

Augmented schedule for shower curtain liner replacement

Cleaning inside drawers and cabinets

Professionally laundered towels and bath mats

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Newman Dailey Resort Properties, Photos by TruPlace

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Extra

Professionally laundered shower curtains and liners

Branded hand sanitizer

Cleaning seal on toilet

Extra toilet paper

Makeup remover wipes

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Pro Tip: Design-folding towels into shapes is a step that can be eliminated as it indicates to guests that more hands have been on the towel.

With more guests opting to cook instead of dining out, expect detailed reviews about the kitchen.

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Old

Old and mismatched dinnerware and flatware

Scratched and foggy glasses

Charred, chipped, and scraped utensils, pots, and pans

Knives that don’t cut

Old coffee maker

Leftover canned goods, condiments, and spices

Cluttered surfaces

Dirty oven mitts and potholders

Pre-setting dining tables

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New

Uncluttered and spotless surfaces

Matching and organized glassware, dishes, flatware, utensils, pots, and pans

Stored appliances (except coffee maker)

No food, condiments, or spices—unless provided in an amenity package or gift basket

Paper towels, dish soap, disposable sponge(s), dishwashing detergent, and hand sanitizer in an amenity package

Professionally laundered kitchen towels

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Aspen Luxury Vacation Rentals, Photos by TruPlace

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Extra

2-Way Brewer (Coffee Maker and Single-Serve Combo)

Packaged salt, pepper, and spices

Branded hand sanitizer

Standardized kitchen packages

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Pro Tip: Homeowners have been notorious for sending old kitchen items to their vacation rentals as they replace things in their primary residences. This coronavirus challenge provides a unique opportunity to talk to owners about the importance of replacing kitchen items with new products.

Pro Tip: Wholesale potholders are priced under .30/piece. In-house housekeeping teams can have these on hand to replace as needed.

Pro Tip: VRMs that standardize kitchen packages easily replace items as needed when all properties have the same glassware, flatware, dinnerware, utensils, pots, and pans. These companies’ cleaners count the items as part of their checklist, report what is missing, and the inspector replaces. There is an additional benefit in housekeepers spotting problem areas in cabinets and drawers when counting.

Living rooms and common areas hold hidden challenges. Eliminate as many hurdles as possible.

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Old

Small Area Rugs

Clutter and over-accessorizing

Excessive throw pillows

Multiple remote controls

Toys and games (If you keep them, you have to clean and organize them.)

Guestbooks . . . maybe

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Note: I read the guestbook in every rental I have stayed in as it offers a special connection and a glimpse into the lives of the people who have stayed there before, and have often dreamed of writing a book based on the guestbook stories of families who have stayed in the same vacation home. I hope that creative VRMs go beyond online reviews and find a way to reimagine guestbooks in a germ-free way. We are going to crave connection more and more, and there is an extra idea for guestbooks waiting to happen.

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Vacation Homes of Hilton Head, Photos by TruPlace

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New

Fewer small accessories. Think large utilitarian—and easy to clean—accessories instead (e.g., trays, large bowls, game boards)

Professionally laundered and packaged sleeper sofa bedding

Cleaning under furniture and under cushions

Universal and disinfected remote control

Higher frequency fan cleaning and air filter replacement

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VRMA Guideline:

“Using a pressurized pump sprayer to distribute a sanitizing product across all soft surfaces is best.” And “Use disinfecting products on all major surfaces and pay attention to all high-touch areas, including door knobs (inside and out), lockboxes or electronics lock panels, elevator buttons, stair railings, telephones, light switches, remote controls, arms of chairs, refrigerator door handles, sliding door handles, toilets, faucets and knobs, clothes hangers, touch screens, and play sets/toys, to name a few.”

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Extra

Performance-fabric upholstery, slipcovers, and pillow covers

Smart TVs with at least one streaming service account like Hulu or Netflix

Power stations and Hybrid USB/conventional outlets

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Resources for hospitality guidelines:

Breezeway: breezeway.io/standards

VRMA: vrma.org/page/covid19

AHLA: ahla.com/safestay

Special thanks to Breezeway CEO Jeremy Gall and TruPlace founders Suzi and Bob Cusack

Vacation Rental Women Professional Development Series: Growing as a Thought Leader with Author and Speaker Amber Hurdle

Amy Hinote

October 5, 2020

VRM Intel and the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit are presenting a supplemental professional development series in partnership with author and speaker Amber Hurdle titled, Growing as a Thought Leader. These 30-minute classes will be held live on three consecutive Tuesdays (October 13, 20, and 27), at 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT, and they are free to attend.

Click here to register for the free series: Growing as a Thought Leader

Oct 13 — Why YOUR Thoughts Are Needed in the Vacation Rental Industry: A Woman’s Guide to Thought Leadership

How to position yourself as the expert you are (No, really! You are!)
Why more women need to step into their authority
Discover ways you can fit in personal branding activities without stressing your already-full days.

Oct. 20 — How to Thrive in Change: Leading Through Dynamic Market Conditions

Learn the stages of The Change Cycle®.
Discover where you are in the cycle, where your team members are in the cycle, and what that means for the strength of your business.
Learn ways to increase your agility and flexibility to set you up for success (and sanity).

Oct. 27 — Create Content Fast! The Quick and Easy Formula to Create Articles, Blog Posts, Social Media Posts and More

Learn the processes the professionals use to produce months of content in a single day.
Find the time to invest in your thought leadership without stressing your other obligations.
Become known as an expert by carefully curating a body of work that supports your expertise.

*Each live session is held at 2:00 pm ET or 11:00 am PT.

Formerly with Marriott, Amber Hurdle helps leaders confidently define and position their value so they can maximize their influence, focus and results. As a dynamic professional speaker and CEO of Amber Hurdle Consulting, a multi-award-winning talent optimization firm, she pioneers using both science and marketing principles to strengthen brands and leaders from the inside out. Amber personally understands what it takes to accelerate success as a former teen mom who evolved into a powerhouse businesswoman, having worked with international celebrities, executives and Fortune 100 companies alike.

Why we’re hosting this series

Over the last five years of hosting industry events and publishing industry news and content via VRM Intel, we found that women in the vacation rental industry are less enthusiastic than their male colleagues about speaking, writing and sharing their knowledge. So we reached out to find out why and collected some interesting responses and insight.

Being “too busy” topped the list of reasons why women in our industry were hesitant to volunteer their time to prepare presentations or write articles. Other reasons were not feeling like a true expert, not wanting to be perceived as self-promoting, feeling unsure of writing ability, and wanting to be asked. In addition, several women said they would be more comfortable being interviewed or being on a panel rather than present a class or session or write an article. So we reached out to professional speaker, talent optimization certified consultant, author, and podcast host, Amber Hurdle, to put together a 3-week series for women in our industry about the benefits of growing as a thought leader, time management, change management, and how to create content quickly and authentically.

Currently, no university offers a degree in vacation rental hospitality. None of us got straight A’s in vacation rental management courses because there weren’t any, and there are still very few best practices that can be applied across destinations and types of accommodation. As a result, we have to rely on what we’ve learned from our own experiences and from each other to improve, grow, and adapt to the onslaught of industry changes. This need we have as an industry to learn from each other is why we reached out to Amber Hurdle to provide this professional development series.

With VRM Intel Magazine, VRMintel.com, and SecondHomeHQ.com, and our events, we have outlets for women in the industry to start sharing their experiences, show others how to avoid pitfalls, and provide information and insights that can help others improve their businesses and services.

Click here to register for the series: Growing as a Thought Leader with Amber Hurdle

Fetch My Guest Announces Stays Group Vacation Rental Network in Support of #Bookdirect Expansion

Vince Perez

September 30, 2020

Stays Group is the largest non profit network of Independent Vacation Rental Professionals working together as stakeholders in our cooperative marketplaces that drive direct bookings and reduce OTA dependencies.

Fetch My Guest Inc, the leader in marketing automation services for independent vacation rental professionals announced the release of the Stays Group. In partnership with well respected vacation rental associations, Stays Group represents regional vacation rental marketplaces that serve vacation rental travelers in North America.

Stays Group network members have been serving the vacation rental community for an average of 20 years. The industry leading standards developed by the membership are time tested and have always put the vacation traveler first. Stays Group members offer the vacation rental traveler clean and well maintained properties, on the ground experts with local knowledge and the industries only best price guarantee. Stays Group members distinguished themselves during the pandemic as the exclusive providers of each property in our marketplace. Exclusivity plays an important role to vacation rental travelers as they understand the importance of having flexible cancellation policies, real time local information and of course, the best price guarantee.

“Today, our members have taken a big step towards creating their own cooperative platform and distinguishing their vacation rental businesses as they lead the future of #bookdirect for the coming generations. For the past few years, many corporate backed interests have interfered with the valued relationships we have nurtured with our guests and our local communities. I am proud to work alongside our membership as we continue to grow and find innovative ways to give the guest unfettered access to our respected brands. Stays Group represents a trusted network of quality brands dedicated to one singular mission; to continue to serve the best interest of our guests and local communities.” said, Vince Perez, CEO of Fetch My Guest, Partner, Beach House Rentals and Stays Group Member.

To learn more about our exclusive membership, schedule a call with one of our members.

Sep. 24 Demo Day: Guesty, TRACK, Rentals United, Streamline and StayFi

Amy Hinote

September 23, 2020

VRM Intel Demo Days start today, and here’s the lineup:

SEPT 24 LINEUP (DESCRIPTIONS BELOW)

10:00 am ET: Guesty
11:00 am ET: TravelNet Solutions / TRACK
12:00 pm ET: Rentals United
1:00 pm ET: Streamline
4:00 pm ET StayFi

10:00 AM ET, SEP 24, GUESTY

See Guesty’s Property Management Platform in Action
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iQ-KFyq4RzeGNx47I9PEdA
With 2020 being an unprecedented year for every company in the travel space, short-term rental property management software Guesty focused on providing technological advancements, new resources and increased platform flexibility to support users during this period. In this live demo, Joseph Binestock will showcase the platform live, highlighting users’ favorite features, including the Unified Inbox, Automation Tools, the Multi-Calendar and more. This session will also cover the product developments that Guesty has made since the beginning of the year to help vacation rental managers navigate COVID-19 in order to maintain business stability and ultimately longevity, such as enabling extended stays of 28 days or more, supporting digital rental agreements, and giving users more flexibility than ever before. Register to learn more.

11:00 AM ET, SEP 24, TRAVELNET SOLUTIONS / TRACK

Transforming the Future of Vacation Rental Property Management Software Together

Link: https://tnsinc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqcO-vrj8rHtMa_ecX8M1XjEPluNo6YbKf
Join John Stokinger to See how TRACK helps leading short term rental companies consolidate applications, improve operational efficiency and financial performance. Learn how to book more and spend less with 0% commission fees with direct connections to VRBO and Airbnb.

12:00 PM ET, SEP 24, RENTALS UNITED

LIVE DEMO: Advanced Channel Management with Rentals United
Link: https://lu.ma/uevqd5ay
Specifically intended for DARM attendees, get a deep dive into how a specialized channel manager can boost your revenue. Today more than ever it is crucial to have a well-balanced marketing mix with superior API connections. That’s what we do for more than half of the world’s largest property managers. Don’t sit back, don’t relax, we’re ready for your questions – including technical ones. With Matthew Luzaich

1:00 PM ET, SEP 24, STREAMLINE

Streamline – Gold Standard for VR Software – Now and Future
Link: https://streamlinevrs.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016008173485/WN_Wz4PFWOnRla9XPm0ofaC-Q
Join CPO Brett Parry and Software Consulting Director Kyle Holmes as they explore the power, direction, and experience of vacation rental industry’s True all-in-one solution.

4:00 PM ET, SEP 24, STAYFI

StayFi – Vacation Rental WiFi That Collects Valuable Guest Data

Link: https://hubspot.stayfi.com/stayfi-demodays-webinar
Join Founder & CEO, Arthur Colker, to learn more about cloud-managed guest WiFi. We will explore a real customer account and discuss email marketing and other direct booking strategies to maximize the value of guest data.

Last Chance to Register for the Upcoming Live Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference

Amy Hinote

September 13, 2020

The Second Annual Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management (DARM) Conference starts on Tuesday, Sep. 15, and the early ticket price ($299) expire at 3 ET / 12 PT on Monday, Sep. 14. After that, the registration fee is $349.

The live conference is being held Sep. 15 – 17, and is divided up into three general sections: data, strategy, and implementation/technology. All of the sessions are live. However, we are recording all the sessions (except the software breakout sessions), and videos will be available through March 2021.

The discipline of revenue management in the vacation rental industry is still in its infancy, and we do not yet have best practices and formal education. However, this conference is designed to take a big step in that direction For vacation rental companies, these sessions provide an understanding of market and internal data, revenue management fundamentals and strategies, a broad comparison between the hotel and short-term rental industries, technology tools, pricing on channels, and an overall view of where we are as an industry when it comes to revenue management.

Check out the DARM conference workbook:

Join us for the Second Annual Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference.

360 Blue Acquired by Natural Retreats

Amy Hinote

September 9, 2020

Today Natural Retreats announced its acquisition of Florida-based 360 Blue, doubling its inventory to 1,500 vacation home rentals across 17 destinations.

Founded in Santa Rosa Beach in 2008 by Jason and Jeremy Sprenkle, 360 Blue grew quickly to manage 325 high-end vacation home rentals on the Florida panhandle before acquiring St. Joe Club & Resorts’ prestigious vacation rental program in late 2017, adding 235 homes to the company’s portfolio.

In May 2019, 360 Blue expanded again by purchasing BookBreck in Breckenridge, Colorado. With 575 home under management, the company continuing to grow organically, adding another 175 luxury rentals in 15 months.

“360 Blue is one of the best regional VRM operators in the U.S. and completely aligned with Natural Retreats in terms of vision, high standards, company value, and a strong commitment to homeowners and guests,” said Chris Holden, CEO of Natural Retreats. “This acquisition helps solidify Natural Retreats’ position as the leading national brand in high-end vacation rental management.”

With the objective of being “the preeminent luxury vacation rental brand,” Natural Retreats has purchased multiple vacation rentals along the way, including Big Sky Rentals (60 homes) in Montana in 2016, and Resorts West (125 homes) in Park City in 2017. At the time of the Park City purchase, a press release reported the company completed 13 acquisitions between 2015 and 2017, employed 500 annual team members, and managed “over 1,400 retreats in 35 stunning destinations across the US, UK and Europe.”

Currently, Natural Retreats employs 350 people across 17 markets. According to 360 Blue, CEO and former co-owner Ashley Horsely will continue to lead the Florida panhandle’s operations. When asked if the 360 Blue’s employees will remain with the company, a Natural Retreats spokesperson said, “360 Blue is an exceptionally run organization and we are seeking to grow, not contract.”

Is Natural Retreats pursuing more growth via acquisition? According to the company’s spokesperson, “We are focused on the successful integration of a rather large acquisition right now . . . smart growth opportunities are evaluated on a case by case basis,” and added, “We will continue to consider evaluating great VRM operations in choice vacation destinations.”

Even though Jason Sprenkle is leaving 360 Blue, he will continue to be a prominent face in the vacation rental industry as CEO of Key Data Dashboard and will be presenting 2020 performance data next week at the annual Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference, Sep. 15 -1 7.

Course Outline for Upcoming Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference, Sep 15-17

Amy Hinote

September 9, 2020

The Second Annual Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference is only a few days away, and we’ve finalized the schedule. You will find session details with times, presenters and descriptions on the VRDARM.com agenda page, but below is a brief outline of the classes that will be offered.

The conference is divided up into three general sections: Data, Strategy, and Technology. This is shaping up to be a master class in short-term rental revenue management.

Tuesday, September 15: Understanding Internal and Market Data

2020 Vacation Rental Performance with AirDNA, Key Data, and STR (Part 1, Eastern North America, UK, EU)
Terminology and KPIs (+ Industry Debate: Getting on the Same Page with RevPAR)
12:30 pm ET: Data Tool Demoground – *Free* Session (Click here to register)
Segmenting Properties and Building Comp Sets
Internal Demand Data: Using Website and Call Center Data in Revenue Management Strategy
Utilizing Property Data in Dynamic Pricing Decisions and How Property Data Affects Rankings
Winter Resort Markets: 2020/2021 Outlook in a Pandemic Economy
2020 Vacation Rental Performance with AirDNA, Key Data, and STR (Part 2, Western North America, AU, NZ)

Wednesday, September 16: Revenue Management and Pricing Strategies

What the $@$% is Revenue Management?
Hotel Strategies vs Vacation Rental Strategies
How Low Can You Go in VR? Understanding Profitability at the Company and Home Level
Proven Vacation Rental Pricing Strategies
Deeper Dive: Translating Daily Rates into Weekly, Monthly Stays and Understanding the Booking Window
Homeowners: Contracts, Communications, Reporting

Thursday, September 17: Going from Strategy to Implementation

Pushing out Pricing to Channels: Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, and Other Channels
11:00 am ET: Changing Pricing in Your Software – *Free Session (Click on your software below)*
- Barefoot
- Escapia
- Guesty
- Streamline
- TRACK
Cost per Acquisition with Kalibri Labs
12:45 pm ET: Pricing Tool Demoground – *Free* Session (Click here to register)
In-house vs Outsource: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Evaluation
Using Your Website and Call Center to Communicate Pricing Changes
Additional Sources of Revenue

This agenda will be presented live in a rapid-fire format with 25 sessions and 60 presenters.

However, all sessions are being recorded, and attendees will get a supplemental conference workbook and have access to recordings and presentation materials for six months following the conference. The registration fee is $299, and if you need convincing, one or two additional reservations gained from attending the conference would justify the cost.

For vacation rental managers and revenue managers, you’re not going to want to miss this one! Join us, Sep. 15 -17, for the Second Annual Vacation Rental Revenue Management Conference.

New Association for Vacation Rental Homeowners Launches This Week

Amy Hinote

September 7, 2020

A new association for vacation rental owners, the Association for Short-Term Rental Homeowners (ASTRHO), is launching this week to “bring together like-minded individuals and companies with a shared interest in offering safe, legal, and successful short-term rentals for owners, guests, and vendors.”

As a not-for-profit, ASTRHO was created for homeowners seeking to find education and resources related to marketing, operations, and investment, and it welcomes existing and aspiring short-term rental homeowners, corporate solution and service providers, and academic experts in hospitality and relevant disciplines. The association serves short-term rental homeowners who are:

Seeking to invest in a short-term rental or vacation home,
Self-managing a short-term rental or vacation home, or
Selecting a property or hospitality management company.

“While the lodging industry has professional development and trade associations for hotels, resorts, and other lodging sectors, short-term rental and vacation rental homeowners are now a segment of their own,” said Heather Richer, ASTRHO board president and former RedAwning, and Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants executive. “There are an estimated 10 million short-term rental homeowners globally, and they need a professional community. We’re looking forward to playing a role in the further advancement of this lodging segment.”

In addition, the association’s website, ASTRHO.ORG, offers eLearning courses, local and regional community discussion boards, relevant news updates, and networking opportunities. It also serves as an aggregator of the fragmented information, tools, and solutions available to short-term rental homeowners. The cost for homeowners to join this association is $10 per month or $100 per year, and they are offering homeowners a free 14-day trial period.

“We’ve identified three trends to watch,” Richer said. “First, approximately 50 percent of short-term rental owners choose to self-manage, and technology advancements will further empower these entrepreneurs and small business owners, making profitability and operational success even easier. Second, we’ll see more branded opportunities. There will be both new entrants and traditional hospitality management companies, like we’ve seen with Marriott Homes and Villas. Finally, with COVID-19, guest demand for second-home rentals has increased. Whether seeking a place to vacation away from crowds or working remotely, travelers are considering vacation home stays now more than ever before.”

Richer added, “According to AirDNA, year over year, between May and June, US vacation rental bookings were up 20 percent.”

ASTRHO will host a virtual launch event on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at 12:00 pm ET, 9:00 am PT. At this membership drive, homeowners will get an overview of the community and the organization’s purpose, and ASTRHO will spotlight homeowner members and introduce supporting industry leaders and experts.

To learn more about the launch event or to become a member, visit https://astrho.org/.

Hotel and Vacation Rental Experts Come Together to Discuss Revenue Management at Upcoming Forum

Amy Hinote

September 7, 2020

For decades, the travel industry has bobbed in and out of speculative attempts toward what many believe to be an inevitable convergence of the hotel and short-term rental industries.

Historically, there were missteps along the way dating back to ResortQuest’s founding and sale to Gaylord and then to Wyndham. Accor wrote off $288M in losses related to its purchase of OneFineStay, and we watched Hyatt and Accor trade losses with Oasis before the company was essentially gifted to Vacasa in 2018. In 2019, hopes of bringing the two industries together got a second wind as Airbnb purchased HotelTonight, Marriott launched Homes and Villas, STR began tracking short-term rental data, and Skift introduced its Short-term Rental Summit.

Next week, several recognized hotel and resort industry veterans are speaking alongside 40 short-term rental experts at the upcoming Second Annual Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management (DARM) Conference, including Cindy Estis Green, cofounder and CEO at Kalibri Labs; Kelly McGuire, author and former senior vice president of revenue management, distribution and direct marketing for MGM Resorts International; Breffni Noone, revenue management and hospitality professor at Penn State; Ralf Garrison, founder of Insights Collective and founder and former CEO at Mountain Travel Symposium and Destimetrics; Cara Goodrich, vice president of sales and revenue, Castle Hotels and Resorts; and Heather Richer, HSMAI Revenue Management Advisory Board member and former and vice president of revenue management and distribution at Kimpton Hotels. From STR, chief strategy officer Elizabeth Winkle and vice president of research and development, Patrick Mayock (former editor in chief, HotelNewsNow), and senior associates Lyse Perrigo and Will Sanford will be discussing market data with short-term rental data leaders AirDNA and Key Data.

The DARM Conference, Sep. 15 – 17, will present data comparing and contrasting 2020’s hotel and short-term rental performance, and one in five attendees registered for the event are coming from hotels, resorts, and OTAs, including Booking.com and Expedia.

In a post-COVID travel environment, whole-home rentals in drive-to leisure markets surged as travelers escaped city centers; and with professionals working remotely and schools moving online, families are taking advantage of increased ability to stay in vacation homes for longer stays and in off-peak seasons. One coastal vacation rental manager said this week, “We could close down for the rest of the year and still be ahead of 2019.”

“While hoteliers and short-term rental operators historically have struggled to find common ground in service and operations, we’re discovering much more commonality in revenue management, distribution, and direct marketing,” said DARM Conference founder Amy Hinote. “When we realized we had to move this conference online, it gave us an increased ability to pull in experts from multiple sectors. As we bring vacation rental operators, technology providers, hoteliers, and academics together to discuss the revenue side of the business, it will be interesting to learn from each other and uncover where these sectors truly intersect.”

The content at the conference is divided into three general sections with the first day focused on data, the second day discussing revenue management strategies, and the third day centered on technology and execution.

Carolina Retreats Continues to Grow with Second Inn Purchase on NC Coast

Amy Hinote

August 27, 2020

Based in Surf City, North Carolina, Carolina Retreats recently announced its acquisition of the Island Resort and Inn located on Oak Island, along with a rebrand of the hotel to The Beach House at Oak Island

Founded and operated by vacation rental industry leader and former VRMA president, Mike Harrington, Carolina Retreats is rapidly growing and now includes the full-service management of 300+ vacation homes, Topsail Realty by Carolina Retreats, the Loggerhead Inn, and the Island Resort and Inn.

The Island Resort and Inn, originally constructed in the 1960s, and then added on to in the early 80s, consists of 22 total rental units. With direct ocean views from each room, the Island Resort and Inn features ten units that are double occupancy motel style rooms, perfect for a couple looking to getaway for a weekend; and twelve that are one- and two-bedroom apartment-style units featuring mini kitchens, separate bedrooms, and large living spaces.

Guests can currently enjoy an onsite swimming pool with convenient beach access and walking distance to the oceanfront Lazy Turtle Bar & Grill and the Oak Island Pier.

“I am extremely excited for the opportunity take the Island Resort and Inn into the future as its next owner”, stated Mike Harrington, CEO & Owner of Carolina Retreats.

“When we stumbled upon the Island Resort and discovered it was for sale, I immediately fell in love with the property. From the location, the guest room layout, and the history, it checked all the boxes of not only a successful business opportunity, but the potential to leave a legacy and turn it back into a prized asset for the community of Oak island. We’ll be planning a phased renovation of the entire property as soon as the season ends, making improvements over time and as needed”, Harrington added.

About Carolina Retreats

Carolina Retreats is a specialty lodging, vacation rental management, and real estate consulting company headquartered in Surf City, NC. Through our local brands and affiliates, we provide unrivaled property management and hospitality services to over 300 property owners by utilizing high-tech tools, modern online marketing, and an unparalleled team. Our singular focus is on creating unforgettable, authentic experiences for our valued guests, and protecting our owner client’s hard-earned assets while maximizing their income and occupancy potential.

Matt Landau Expands Footprint with New Podcast Featuring Dana Lubner and Sponsored by TRACK Software

Amy Hinote

August 27, 2020

Matt Landau, founder of VRMB and host of the online series The Vacation Rental Show, is expanding his toolkit of resources for short-term rental companies with a new podcast featuring Dana Lubner, director of sales at Effortless Rental Group, based in Denver, Colorado.

Sponsored by TRACK software, the podcast, titled How To Save Your Vacation Rental Business, is a 10-part educational series hosted by Dana Lubner that will teach short-term rental managers how to solve the greatest looming threat—unfair regulation—from the ground up.

The rise in popularity of short-term rental platforms like Airbnb has prompted neighbors and lawmakers around the world to ask, “Where do alternative accommodations fit in our community?” And without active participation from professional stakeholders, the sector’s bad apples are threatening to ruin the bunch.

Dana Lubner knows this all too well. Her company Effortless Rental Group, which according to the company website, “specializes in maximizing exposure on platforms such as Airbnb, Vrbo, and the Expedia Partner Central Network,” was in danger of being shut down due to several problem operators ruining the image of Denver’s hosting community. The hosts in question were sent affidavits, and some were even charged with felonies when legitimacy of primary residency was in question. The news headlines were weaving a story that made the community at large view hosting as a crime, when in fact it’s not.

As a result, Lubner organized the Good Neighbor Summit: a first-of-its-kind event designed to unite local professional hosts under one roof and establish standards. The Good Neighbor Summit sparked a series of collaborative successes, which have created what Lubner calls a “narration shift” showcasing the good side of the local hosting community. But the learning process wasn’t easy.

“The one thing I always wished we had in Denver was a how-to guide on better advocacy practices,” says Lubner. “Most people have no experience in this kind of leadership, so learning what works and what doesn’t really speeds up the process. It can literally save a vacation rental business.”

To fill this need, Lubner teamed up with Matt Landau to produce “How To Save Your Vacation Rental Business,” a ten-episode masterclass into the world of vacation rental advocacy. The series will feature a variety of the nation’s most vocal participants: from Public Affairs and policy experts to leading vacation rental managers, and even to neighborhood advocates rarely included in pro-short term rental conversations.

“We’ve been thinking about ways to get more involved in this advocacy challenge,” says Landau. “Dana has proven herself to be such a courageous leader locally in Denver, we were honored for the chance to expedite her research and amplify her findings with the greater community.”

The chance to help shape the evolution of the vacation rental industry and be a part of shaping the narrative moving forward is what led this season’s sponsor, TRACK Hospitality Software powered by TravelNet Solutions, to join in the initiative. “As a supporter of our vacation rental community, we think responsible participation by vendors is more important than it’s ever been.” Said Ryan Bailey, CEO of TravelNet Solutions. “The topic of advocacy, an experienced voice in Dana, and an industry advocate in Matt is the perfect combo to drive this discussion forward.”

Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management “Master Class” Coming Sep 15 -17

Amy Hinote

August 25, 2020

You’re invited to the Second Annual Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management (DARM) Conference, Sep 15 – 17.

This is more than a conference. It’s a Master Class.

Once we accepted that we would be unable to host DARM as an in-person conference, we set out to reimagine this event and create something new . . . a high-level educational curriculum that brings property managers, revenue managers, academics, and technology providers together to help the vacation rental industry discover the enormous gains that can be derived from understanding performance data and implementing effective revenue management strategies.

Over the last few months, since COVID-19 rocked the travel world, the vacation rental industry was able to tap into the value of real-time market data and use dynamic pricing tactics and tools like never before. Using data tools like AirDNA, Key Data, and STR—along with revenue management and pricing tools/services like Beyond Pricing, PriceLabs, Rented, and RevPARTY— hundreds of property managers were able to gain a competitive advantage by pivoting strategies to maximize revenue. In contrast, others sat still with static pricing, leaving money on the table or rental homes empty.

Most concerning, too many vacation rental managers do not yet know that they could have used these strategies and tools to forecast demand and maximize revenue. And even more do not yet know how to evaluate pricing performance.

This is our why.

We want vacation rental operators to have the knowledge, tools, and technology to turn lemons into lemonade or make a good situation even better. We want PMs to feel confident in assessing performance data and utilizing pricing strategies to maximize revenues for their homeowners and for their companies.

As a result, we went deep.

With the help of 50+ contributors, we’ve crafted a three-day, deep-dive Master Class for vacation rental data and revenue management. The cost to attend is $299, and the curriculum is divided into 3 sections: Data & Basics, Revenue Management & Pricing Strategy, and Technology/How-To.

Tue, Sep 15: Data & Basics

2020 Vacation Rental Performance
Terminology and KPIs
The Great RevPAR Debate
Segmentation and Competitive Sets
Comparative Market Data
Internal Data (Website, Call Center, Property)

Wed, Sep 16: Revenue Management & Pricing Strategy

Revenue Management Components
Hotel Strategies vs Vacation Rental Strategies
Profitability: Understanding Costs, Risk, and Breakeven
Proven Short-term Rental Pricing Strategies
Translating Daily Rates into Weekly/Monthly Stays and Understanding the Booking Window
Working with Homeowners: Contracts, Communications, and Reporting

Thu, Sep 17: Going From Strategy to Implementation

Pushing Pricing to Google, OTAs, and Other Channels
Master Rates and Rate Rules in Your Software (Breakouts with the Leading PMS Providers: Barefoot, Guesty, Escapia, Streamline, TRACK)
VR Pricing Tools
Using Your Website and Call Center to Communicate Pricing Changes
In-house vs Outsourced Revenue Management and Evaluating Performance
Additional Revenue Opportunities

This event is designed for serious vacation rental companies looking to the future.

And a huge thank you to these sponsors! Each of these companies is going over and above by contributing thought leadership, data, talent, resources, and time to ensure that this DARM Master Class is relevant, educational, current, and value-driven.

Plus: New Sponsors, STR Global and Yapstone/VacationRentPayment

Click here to register for DARM, Sep 15 – 17, 2020.

None of us know all there is to know about revenue management for vacation rentals. This is a dynamic space. But this event will push us forward as an industry.

To quote the musical Hamilton, this is the “room where it happens.”

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