Bookt Names Matthew Hoffman Senior Vice President of Sales

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 30, 2013

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Key Appointment Completes Global Leadership Team for Cloud Based Travel Software Firm

HOLLYWOOD, FL, April, 2013 – Bookt LLC, an innovator in cloud-based lodging technology, today announced the promotion of Matthew Hoffman to head-up and drive the company’s worldwide sales program, including responsibility for InstaSites – the vacation and short-term rental industry’s first mobile, social, global web solution specifically for rental professionals.

“Matt is a rock star!” said Bookt’s CEO Rob Käll. “Since he joined us two years ago our sales have quadrupled, and our surest measure of success – the number of nights our clients book per month has increased more than tenfold. Bookt’s cloud-based InstaManager App and Booking Engine drive revenue, manage resources, and provide business control for savvy lodging companies worldwide. The Short-Term Rental category is one of the fastest growing segments of travel. InstaManager makes it easy and affordable to get started.”

“Matt has three qualities I always look for,” Käll added. “He has a sharp analytical mind with an innate ability to quantify business activities and augment them for optimal output. Next, he has fantastic natural leadership abilities. Lastly he has shown a tremendous interest in becoming a resource for the short-term rental industry by serving on the Board of Directors for the Florida Vacation Rental Managers Association and sharing his wisdom, data, trends, and news openly with our industry. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @VR_Success.”

Bookt has announced an aggressive international growth plan and Hoffman will lead the sales effort with a goal of another tenfold increase in global clients and transactions by the end of 2015 via the InstaManager App, pioneered in 2011 as part of the game changing $1 Switch. InstaManager features powerful short-term rental manager software with tailored marketing distribution channels through TripAdvisor, HomeAway and others. With Matt Hoffman’s promotion and continual rollout of breakthroughs from InstaManager’s exclusive VR Labs, Bookt continues to gain market share and lead in the lodging technology space.

About Bookt

Bookt is a leader in cloud based services for the lodging industry. Our vacation holiday rental manager clients, called InstaManagers, compete on 6 Continents and in 85+ Countries with Millions of Vacation Rental Nights Booked via the Bookt system. More information is available at www.instamanager.com or contact info@bookt.com. Here are User Reviews from global InstaManagers.

How to Increase Your Bookings with Portals

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 29, 2013

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If you have a successful vacation rental agency or you’re a hard working vacation rental owner, you might wonder if your own vacation rental website and marketing efforts will be enough on their own to deliver the bookings that you strive for. Large-scale Online Travel Agencies (OTA) and vacation rental listing portal sites are an excellent way of driving more traffic volume to your properties and getting more bookings, all the while saving a lot of time and money in the marketing process, too.

Portals Have Large Marketing Budgets

One great advantage of portals is that they have huge marketing budgets, which mean they can bid on expensive short-tail keywords through Google Adwords, spend thousands on user experience and optimization and have huge sales teams to convert more bookings for your vacation rentals. They are a vital part of the online ecosystem; if you’re a medium-sized agency in Paris, for example, broad search phrases like “holiday in Paris” is going to prove very expensive, but if you list with Booking.com, for example, you can appear for this phrase through your listings with them.

It’s also worth looking at indirect competitors. Take the hotel industry; brands like the Accor group still advertise their hotels on Booking.com and hotels.com, even though they possess huge marketing teams with large budgets. This is because they see the value of reaching new markets and bringing in customers that they have no other means to reach; many portals also have huge, loyal user bases.

Build Your Referral List

Portals are also useful to expand your database. If you get inquiries from sites like HolidayLettings and HomeAway, you can use these email addresses to market-to again in the future with new deals and your best prices. Portals like these make an excellent way for agencies and owners to expand their database rapidly and effortlessly.

Portals Can Be Cost-Effective

Portals can also prove very cost-effective. Sites like HouseTrip and Only Apartments are actually free to list, they just add a small commission on to your existing prices and keep the difference, meaning that you take 100% of the booking value and don’t lose any commission. So not only do they expand your marketing reach and bring more bookings, they are also very cost effective, and in some cases completely free of charge.

As these sites get larger and larger, consumer behavior is also changing. Sites like Booking.com have become the site for hotel searches, with users searching for that site specifically before going on to book. Equally, TripAdvisor is also in a similar position of being a ‘one-stop-shop’ for reviews, a vital touch-point in the buying process. So as consumers become more habitual in their buying behavior online, it’s important to get visibility on as many sites as possible, and portals are the optimum choice to do just that.

The above points are just some of the reasons why listing and advertising on portal sites are a good idea; they are a cost effective way to reach new customers and explore new markets, while expanding your own marketing database and maximizing your online visibility. They can save you time, money and effort, while bringing a wealth of new bookings and customers.

Guest post by Anthony Dodd, Channel Relationship Manager at Kigo Vacation Rental Software.

Bookt Releases Revolutionary New Mobile Vacation Rental Technology

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 22, 2013

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InstaSites Are Most Advanced Short-Term Rental Booking Solution for Today’s Mobile, Global and Social World

Bookt LLC, an innovator in cloud-based lodging technology, today announced the worldwide launch of InstaSites – the industry’s first mobile, social, global web solution specifically for vacation rental professionals.

“You would never bring a knife to a gun fight, but that’s unfortunately what lots of vacation rental managers do today,” said Bookt’s CEO Rob Käll at a recent industry event. The Short-Term Rental category is one of the fastest growing segments of travel. While new companies like Airbnb.com have mastered the user experience of booking a unit directly from an owner, the majority of Vacation Rentals nights are booked through agencies and management companies. Most of them have woefully inadequate online booking solutions. “Over 30% of people shopping for a vacation today are using a mobile device and they will go somewhere else when your site does not showcase your units well.”

“InstaSites represent a breakthrough.” said Matt Hoffman, VP of Sales at Bookt. “Beyond mobile support and a fast, easy and secure booking engine that is PCI compliant, we also carefully considered the context of the booker, like: How much will the cost be in US dollars, if booking an overseas unit? How close will I be to popular attractions? How easy can I share this info with my friends, and how can I validate this accommodation through other people’s user reviews? ”. Hoffman concluded, “And the sites just look great, with large beautiful images that immediately evoke an emotional response with the guest!”

“Nothing is more gratifying than providing our demanding client base with technology that knocks their socks off,” said Ben Strum, Bookt’s CTO. According to Strum, “InstaSites have many new innovations like 1) responsive design that automatically adapts to the user’s device; 2) continuous visitor data collection that feeds Bookt’s ground breaking ‘Lead Insight’ technology; and 3) a content delivery system, rolled out in partnership with Amazon.com, that makes sure that a user visits a site with engaging, fast downloading images and videos, regardless where in the world they access it.” Strum added, “We have also made sure that the site is easy to edit and very expandable by basing it on the popular WordPress open source technology.”

InstaSites get their name from their ease of launch – a mobile web solution that you can get up and running, virtually instantaneously – and that the site is tied straight into the back office of the InstaManager App, pioneered in 2011 as part of the game changing $1 Switch. InstaManager features powerful vacation rental manager software with tailored marketing distribution channels through TripAdvisor, HomeAway and others. With the introduction of InstaSites and continual rollout of breakthroughs from InstaManager’s exclusive VR Labs, Bookt continues to gain market share in the lodging technology space.

About Bookt

Bookt is a leader in cloud based services for the lodging industry. Our vacation holiday rental manager clients, called InstaManagers, compete on 6 Continents and in 85+ Countries with Millions of Vacation Rental Nights Booked via the Bookt system. Bookt’s cloud based platform directly drives revenue, manages resources, and provides business control for savvy lodging companies and managers worldwide. More information is available at www.instamanager.com or contact info@bookt.com. Here are User Reviews from global InstaManagers.

10 Books Vacation Rental Management Execs Recommend Which Have Helped Their Success

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 13, 2013

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Book which inspire vacation rental executives

April 12, 2013 –VRMA’s Regional Western Conference in Westminster, CO, was an excellent resource for education, information, trends and networking (and maybe a little fun). I was fortunate enough to spend several hours listening to VRM executives discuss their businesses and the challenges they face. In this roundtable session, facilitated by Navis CEO Kyle Buehner, an interesting subject came up about books which have motivated and inspired these top tier vacation rental entrepreneurs to push past their competition and succeed in the industry.

1. Good To Great -by Jim Collins

Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world’s greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. Also recommended: Collins’s Built to Last

2. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You -by Jim Maxwell

If you’ve never read The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, you’ve been missing out on one of the best-selling leadership books of all time. If you have read the original version, then you’ll love this new expanded and updated one.

Internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author John C. Maxwell has taken this million-seller and made it even better:

Every Law of Leadership has been sharpened and updated
Seventeen new leadership stories are included
Two new Laws of Leadership are introduced
New evaluation tool will reveal your leadership strengths—and weaknesses
New application exercises in every chapter will help you grow

3. Eat That Frog -by Brian Tracy

The legendary Eat That Frog! provides the 21 most effective methods for conquering procrastination and accomplishing more. This new edition is revised and updated throughout, and includes brand new information on how to keep technology from dominating our time.

4. The Great Game of Business -by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham

In the early 1980s, Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation (SRC) in Springfield, Missouri, was a near bankrupt division of International Harvester. That’s when a green young manager, Jack Stack, took over and turned it around. He didn’t know how to “manage” a company, but he did know about the principal, of athletic competition and democracy: keeping score, having fun, playing fair, providing choice, and having a voice. With these principals he created his own style of management — open-book management.

5. First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently -by Marcus Buckingham

The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favorites. This amazing book explains why.

6. Great by Choice Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All -by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen

Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns withanother groundbreaking work, this time to ask: why do some companies thrive inuncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research,buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins andhis colleague Morten Hansen enumerate the principles for building a truly greatenterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous and fast-moving times. This book isclassic Collins: contrarian, data-driven and uplifting.

7. Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less -by Bob Fifer

One of the nations’ foremost financial consultants shares 78 proven ways to cut costs dramatically, send productivity through the roof, and, in just six months, double profits.

8. Rework -by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Rework shows you a better, faster, easier way to succeed in business. Read it and you’ll know why plans are actually harmful, why you don’t need outside investors, and why you’re better off ignoring the competition. The truth is, you need less than you think. You don’t need to be a workaholic. You don’t need to staff up. You don’t need to waste time on paperwork or meetings. You don’t even need an office. Those are all just excuses.

What you really need to do is stop talking and start working. This book shows you the way. You’ll learn how to be more productive, how to get exposure without breaking the bank, and tons more counterintuitive ideas that will inspire and provoke you.

With its straightforward language and easy-is-better approach, Rework is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs, small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs they hate, victims of “downsizing,” and artists who don’t want to starve anymore will all find valuable guidance in these pages.

9. Delivering Happiness -by Tony Hsieh

The hip, iconoclastic CEO of Zappos shows how a different kind of corporate culture can make a huge difference in achieving remarkable results — by actually creating a company culture that values happiness –and then delivers on it.

Pay brand-new employees $2,000 to quit
Make customer service the responsibility of the entire company-not just a department
Focus on company culture as the #1 priority
Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business
Help employees grow-both personally and professionally

10. Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks For a Better Life -By John Wooden

Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden and Jay Carty know that when it comes down to it, success is an equal opportunity player. Anyone can create it in his or her career, family and beyond. Based on John Wooden’s own method to victory, Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success reveals that success is built block by block, where each block is a crucial principle contributing to life-long achievement in every area of life. Each of these 32 daily readings takes an in-depth look at a single block of the pyramid, which when combined with the other blocks forms the structure of the pyramid of success. Join John Wooden and Jay Carty to discover the building blocks and key values—from confidence to faith—that have brought Coach to the pinnacle of success as a leader, a teacher and a follower of God.

You Must be Tripping! Metasearch for the Vacation Rental Industry

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 13, 2013

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April 15, 2013 – Wondering where the Kayak for the vacation rental industry is? It is here and -surprisingly -has gone slightly under the radar for the professionally managed vacation rental industry. Tripping.com is a metasearch platform which allows vacationers to search and compare vacation rentals from multiple sites in one, easy-to-use website.

Based in San Francisco, Tripping.com was founded by tech industry veterans from Expedia, Travelzoo and StubHub, and is a rising star in today’s vacation rental marketplace. The rentals on Tripping.com come from top vacation rental sites such as HomeAway, FlipKey, and Wimdu, just to name a few.

Former StubHub executive Jen O’Neal created Tripping.com out of her passion for travel and using her technology and business background to solve the needs of travelers around the world like herself. Founded in 2010, Tripping.com now gives vacationers access to over 850,000 vacation homes and is the largest direct aggregator of short-term rentals.

“By offering the full spectrum of home rental options, we’re giving travelers an easy way to stay in local neighborhoods and experience local culture,” said Founder and CEO Jen O’Neal. “We’re focused on bringing together the best selection of home rentals so all travelers – whether they’re backpackers, business execs, honeymooners or retirees – can find the perfect place to stay.”

As a metasearch platform, Tripping.com is a gem for guests trying to navigate the complex world of vacation homes, but the site offers much more. Tripping.com also has a robust social component with a community of travelers from 175 countries. This community offers a safe and easy way to engage in cultural exchange by connecting travelers and locals for coffee, conversation and free homestays around the world with the goal of transforming trips into meaningful, life-changing experiences.

With a huge attention to the user experience, a solid strategy of letting the consumer steer its viral growth, and access to over 850,00 vacation homes, Tripping.com is truly a game-changer in the vacation rental industry and a company to watch closely in the coming months.

Part One: A Look Back at How the Marketing and Competitive Landscape Has Changed for Vacation Rental Managers

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 6, 2013

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Measuring Performance for Vacation Rental Management Companies

Part One: A Look Back at How the Marketing and Competitive Landscape Has Changed for Vacation Rental Managers

For vacation rental managers who have been around long enough to remember an offline life, the marketing of vacation rentals “ain’t what it used to be.”

An office on the strip, branded signs on the homes, and a rental brochure were enough to light up the phones on January 1st, with vacationers trying to secure their favorite house for one of the few weeks of the season.

But change is inevitable, and the sales and marketing of vacation rentals is no different. The first part of this series of articles takes a brief look back at some of these changes and how they impact the determination of key performance indicators for today’s vacation rental management article.

General History of Vacation Rentals

After World War II, in Europe, a vacation system became popular which involved “vacation home sharing,” also known as “holiday home sharing.” European families would buy a vacation cottage/villa jointly and have exclusive use of the property for one of the four seasons. They rotated seasons so each family enjoyed the prime seasons equally. This concept was mostly utilized by families related to each other because of the trust factor involved in joint ownership and no property manager.

However, few families vacationed for an entire season at a time so owners found ways to monetize vacant periods, leading to the birth of the vacation rental and timeshare markets we know today.

The idea of vacationing in homes became widely accepted in the United States in the 1960’s. By the 1970’s and early 1980’s many property management companies emerged, largely as a by-product of real estate companies identifying additional revenue streams and securing client loyalty.

Interestingly, the first timeshare in the United States was started in 1974 by Caribbean International Corp., offering a 25-year “vacation license” rather than ownership.

Traditional Professional Property Management

Professional Property Managers initially offered comprehensive, full-scale services to vacation home owners, including but not limited to:

Accounting
Reporting
Marketing
Reservations
Maintenance and Services
Furnishing Services
Local Check-in/Check-out
Local Assistance
Housekeeping
Guest Services
Real Estate Services and Accounting

As technology progressed in the early to mid 1980’s, vacation-rental-specific property management systems were created to help VRMs manage these services, including Resort Data Processing (RDP) and AV Main (FRS). AV Main creator First Resort Software was instrumental in bringing VRMs together with the first user conference called “The Forum,” which later became known as RezFest after Instant Software’s acquisition of the company.

In 1985, the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) was founded, and ten vacation rental managers gathered in Lake Tahoe for the first Annual Conference, which featured sessions on marketing and advertising and a presentation from the California Department of Real Estate. The industry expanded rapidly.

By the mid 1990’s, the internet as a vacation planning tool began to transform VRMs, vacation rental websites with online booking components began to appear around the country, and web-based software developed.

However, many vacation destinations were located in areas with unreliable internet connections, so technology growth was sluggish. In addition, adoption of new software was painful and creating a successful online presence was costly. Consequently, the road was paved for 3rd party channels to sell and market vacation rental properties online.

Changing Marketing/Competitive Landscape

In recent years, the traditional Vacation Rental Management Company (VRM) has seen considerable changes in the competitive landscape:

The impact of 3rd party websites

From 1995 until 2008, multiple 3rd party vacation rental websites were born. However, during this period, the only 3rd party website causing disruptive competition for the traditional VRM was HomeAway’s VRBO.

Learning to navigate a distribution strategy related to VRBO.com was faced by VRMs with varying levels of success and angst. Many chose to place their own professionally managed properties alongside for-rent-by-owner properties on VRBO.com causing a consequential expansion of the source of competition. Other VRMs chose to pour their marketing dollars into heavy SEO/SEM initiatives to compete head-to-head with VRBO.com.

Simultaneously, TripAdvisor began compiling reviews which worried many VRMs who at the time lacked the ability to adequately respond to negative comments.

With the real estate market collapse, the number of rentals available to consumers increased; with easy access online marketing outlets, the number of rent-by-owner properties grew exponentially; and with double digit industry growth, the investment community got on board.

In 2008, TripAdvisor’s took a majority stake in Flipkey, HomeAway raised $250 million in capital, the 3rd party website competition began to increase, and new 3rd party websites were born. Some of these include Airbnb (with a current $2.5 billion valuation), HouseTrip (just received $40m in capital), and the metasearch platform by StubHub execs Tripping.com.

By 2013, the vast majority of VRMs have adopted:

1. A marketing strategy which incorporates 3rd party channels.
2. An operational strategy which handles inquiries and bookings from distribution channels.
3. A guest relationship strategy which converts one-time guests into long-term customers.

Search engine results

As vacationers turned to the search engines to plan their vacations, it became extremely important for VRMs to dominate the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). SEO/SEM experts such as Blizzard Internet Marketing, Blue Tent Marketing, and Visual Data Systems began dominating the programming lineup of industry conferences with the latest and greatest tips to achieving a listing on page 1 of Google for “[Your destination here] Vacation Rentals”.

VRMs were able to compete with each other for coveted keywords and fight the Google battle with strategies and marketing budgets. As the search engine algorithms changed and the distribution channels started increasing in traffic and page rank, VRMs struggled to keep up online. The large VRMs have been able to retain beneficial presence in SERPs, but small to midsize companies in competitive markets have been forced to get more creative in their online marketing strategies, while new companies find themselves more reliant on third party distribution than on SEM.

The increased competition from VRBO’s

Before technology and communications allowed remote management, vacation home owners were heavily reliant on VRMs to manage their properties. The full service approach was beneficial for property managers, home owners and guests which made the relationship a win-win-win for all.

The real estate collapse brought major changes to the vacation rental market place, bringing in thousands of homeowners who had not previously considered renting their homes. Airbnb was one conduit who capitalized on the phenomenon in major cities.

Christine Karpinski made Amazon’s Best Seller List with her book How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner, which supplied would be owners with rental policy and confirmation templates, marketing strategies and tips on maintenance and housekeeping accountability.

Looking back on some the services which traditional VRMs offered, many tools became available to homeowners:

Accounting and Reporting: QuickBooks Pro worked well for many VR owners, and there are services available which show owners how to use effectively.
Marketing: Distribution channels (VRBO.com, Airbnb.com, HomeAway.com. HouseTrip.com, Flipkey.com, etc.) and low cost website building tools allowed homeowners to effectively market their properties.
Local Check-in/Check-out: Keyless entry options became more advanced and affordable.
Local Assistance: Companies with hybrid business models sprouted which allow fee based services such as 24/7 on call service, housekeeping, maintenance and reservations.
Housekeeping: Housekeeping tracking services are available for owners.

In addition the distribution channels provide support, communities, forums, conferences, training, credit card processing and travel insurance options for VRBOs.

Awareness of other destinations as vacation options

Among vacationers who utilize vacation homes, for many years the trend was to visit the same place year after year and establish family traditions. Vacations were often longer than a week, and it was typical to stay in the exact same home each year.

Developments in technology, transportation, communications, and the family composition allowed travelers to think outside the box about vacation choices. With more options to explore with the click of a mouse or the touch of a screen, destinations all over the world became accessible for vacationers.

However, for the same reasons, more travelers are finding and using vacation homes as a lodging option, and there is still substantial room for growth.

Trends in 2013 and 2014

The competitive and marketing landscape is still shifting for VRMs, and the following trends are currently reshaping how traditional VRMs market to their owners and guests:

1. Mergers and acquisitions in the vacation rentals space (in management companies, technology and distribution channels)
2. Increasing online marketing costs for VRMs
3. Previously traditional timeshare inventory becoming available to the retail vacation rental market at lower rental rates
4. Emerging technology/tools becoming available to individual homeowners
5. An increased attention to data mining and usage
6. A surge in tools to manage the guest experience and remarket to the guest after their stay

Coming soon…Part 2: Metrics should be used to measure performance for a Vacation Rental Management Company

By Amy Hinote

Vacation Home Sales Continued To Rise In 2012

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 3, 2013

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Vacation Home Sales Continued To Rise In 2012, With Median Sales Price Up For First Time Since 2009, According To New Research From HomeAway And National Association Of Realtors.

Buyers Attracted by Potential for Rental Income and Price Appreciation, and Skew Younger.

AUSTIN, Texas, April 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The market for vacation home sales in 2012 showed continued signs of strength, with a 10 percent increase in sales from the prior year and a 24 percent increase in the median sales price, the first rise in three years, according to the 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).

As part of the survey, proprietary research commissioned by HomeAway, Inc. revealed 38 percent of vacation home buyers purchased a vacation property in 2012 primarily because of low real estate prices, which has grown 5 percentage points from 2011, while another 28 percent cited the desire for a family retreat.

According to the NAR survey, the median sales price experienced a rise for the first time since 2009, from $121,300 in 2011 to $150,000 in 2012, and the median buyer’s age was 47, with more buyers under age 45 entering the market.

Read the survey here

The survey also shows rental income still holds significant appeal for buyers of vacation homes. For nearly eight in 10 buyers (76%), rental income influenced their decision to buy last year, a 5 percentage point increase from 2011, and nearly all (92%) vacation home buyers plan to rent their property within the next 12 months to either long-term or short-term renters or a combination of the two. Approximately 60 percent of buyers believe they’ll make enough rental income to cover at least half of their mortgage.

Other vacation home buyers cited the following factors as the most important reason to take the plunge into vacation home ownership last year, according to the HomeAway® portion of the research:

— For future retirement (12%)

— Low mortgage rates (11%)

— Potential for price appreciation (7%)

— Other (4%)

“Although vacation homes prices are starting to rise, the cost is still incredibly affordable compared with prices 10 years ago,” says Brian Sharples, chief executive officer of HomeAway. “At the same time, the interest in vacation rentals by travelers in the United States remains strong, and the speed and ease with which owners can list and rent a home online has never been more favorable, making it the perfect time to consider the purchase of a vacation home.”

According to the NAR survey, 78 percent of vacation home buyers believe now is a good time to purchase real estate, and 27 percent say they purchased a vacation home in 2012 to use as a principal residence in the future, typically after retirement. Nearly half (46%) of buyers paid cash for their vacation homes last year, while slightly more than half took out a mortgage.

Of those buyers intending to rent their property, about 31 percent plan to make their vacation homes available for rent between one and eight weeks over the course of the next year; 36 percent plan to rent their properties between nine and 26 weeks per year; and 33 percent plan to rent their homes between 27 and 52 weeks per year.

Buyers aren’t limiting themselves to proximity to their primary homes when purchasing vacation homes. Nearly half (46%) of owners purchased vacation homes more than 500 miles from their primary residence.

        By the Numbers:
        Highlights from the NAR 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey
        553,000 - Number of vacation homes sold in 2012
        $150,000 - The median sales price of a vacation home in 2012, up 24% from 2011
        46 - Percentage of vacation home buyers under the age of 45, up from 38% from 2011
        $92,100 - Median household income of vacation home buyers
        46 - Percentage of vacation home buyers who paid cash for their property
        46 - Percentage of vacation home buyers who plan to own their property more than six years
        29 - Percentage of vacation home buyers saying they are very or somewhat likely to buy another property within the next two years

About the National Association of Realtors 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey

NAR’s 2013 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, conducted in March 2013, includes answers from 2,326 usable responses about homes purchased in the United States during 2012. The survey controlled for age and income, based on information from the larger 2012 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, to limit any biases in the characteristics of respondents. As a subset of the survey, HomeAway, Inc. commissions proprietary questions from the portion of the respondents who have purchased vacation homes and investment homes.

About HomeAway, Inc.

HomeAway, Inc., based in Austin, Texas, the world’s leading online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, with sites representing over 711,000 paid listings of vacation rental homes in 171 countries. Through HomeAway, owners and property managers offer an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with memorable experiences and benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy, for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations. The company also makes it easy for vacation rental owners and property managers to advertise their properties and manage bookings online. The HomeAway portfolio includes the leading vacation rental websites HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com in the United States; HomeAway.co.uk and OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; HomeAway.de in Germany; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; HomeAway.es and Toprural.es in Spain; AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil; and HomeAway.com.au in Australia.

In addition, HomeAway operates BedandBreakfast.com, the most comprehensive global site for finding bed-and-breakfast properties, providing travelers with another source for unique lodging alternatives to chain hotels. For more information about HomeAway, please visit www.HomeAway.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:Adam Annen, HomeAway, Inc.512-505-1548 or aannen@homeaway.com

April 30 -May 1 –Housekeeping and Maintenance Seminar in San Diego

By

VRM Intel Staff

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April 1, 2013

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Designed for company owners, general managers, executive housekeepers, and housekeeping coordinators, this Housekeeping and Maintenance Seminar provides the latest news, up-to-date information and education to take your housekeeping department to the next level and give your company the ultimate competitive advantage.

Check out the agenda below. Space is limited to the first 80 attendees.

When: April 30 and May 1, 2013

Where: San Diego Hilton Mission Valley. You can book online or by calling 619-297-5466. Booking code PRH.

Times: Continental Breakfast each day 8:30am. Class starts at 9am

Cost: Prior to April 14, 2013: $210 per person. After April 14, $260 per person.

To Register: Go to www.proresort.net and click on the seminar tab at the top of the page.

Day One Agenda

8:30-9am Continental (included in fee). Come see old colleagues and meet new friends.

9am-Noon The Twelve Fundamentals of an Effective Housekeeping Program.

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to build an effective housekeeping department from standard setting, piece rates versus hourly, subs versus employees and so much more. All attendees will get the PowerPoint of the session as well as many supporting documents.Hold on tight-we go really fast through dozens of topics!!!

Noon to 1:15 Buffet luncheon as group (included in fee)

1:15-4:15 Effective and Profitable Maintenance Programs and How to Achieve Them.

Learn how to achieve “zero based workorders” and issues with many workorder systems. See scheduling alternatives you may never have considered. Want to develop a maintenance plan to offer your homeowners? We will be doing that and much more.

Day Two Agenda

8:30 to 9am Continental (Included in fee)

9am to Noon: Housekeeping from A to Z

Adding a housekeeper or a subcontractor? We will discuss all topics from recruiting to hiring- even how to interview a housekeeper or sub- and then equipping and training!! As well as what is legal and what is not. This session alone is worth the attendance fee.

Noon to 1:15 Buffet luncheon as group (included in fee)

1:15-4:15 Linen Systems

You may not have a laundry but if you provide linens your losses are probably too high. We will explore all 5 linen systems and the advantages and disadvantages of each as well as the ways shrinkage occurs and how we can plug those holes. Pack-making and distribution tips, guest use and abuse of linens and more!!!

Hosted by industry expert Steve Craig of Pro Resort, these seminars are fast-paced and never boring. Here are just a few comments from his recent “Dream” seminar in Orlando, FL:

• Jim Kitts, Owner, Carolina Beach Realty: “Thanks again for a great couple of days. Lots of info and lots to digest. I really feel that we walked away with a lot of helpful info. Now, the important part is putting it into motion, using what we learned.”

• Nita Decker¸Georgia Mountain: “OH my gosh loved loved loved it!!! We left with so much info. Thank you. We are very interested in talking with you about coming here to help our housekeeping department. Steve, thank you.”

• Miller Hawkins, Booe Realty: “Wow! What a conference! I cannot say anything but rave reviews from the past several days spent at your conference in Orlando. You did a remarkable job.”

Zipinion Launches Market Research Tool for Real Estate and Vacation Rentals

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VRM Intel Staff

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April 1, 2013

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Austin, TX – March 29th, 2013 –Today Zipinion, a technology company with focuses in the market research and customer insight spaces, announced the release of its ground-breaking crowdsourced polling application. Real Estate and Vacation Rental Property Management companies, large and small, can now create an online poll/survey and get real-time feedback from a pool of over 500,000 respondents in just minutes. Zipinion’s platform is the fastest and most affordable way to ask questions and get valuable, reliable responses helping business make better decisions.

Zipinion is a valuable service offered to real estate sellers and vacation rental property managers giving immediate market research and customer insight regarding a specific topic of a poll. “Real estate professionals and vacation rental property managers are forced to make decisions every day for themselves and their clients, describes Zipinion’s GM/Partner Michael Gualano. Whether those decisions are internal marketing programs, graphic design, or how their client’s properties should be showcases online the choices are critical and detrimental to the bottom line.”

“Being a part of the online housing space since 2003 working with many of the top brokerages in the country and an early contributor of largest online vacation rental marketplace HomeAway Inc., I’ve been able to learn a lot about what RE and VR companies’ need. They’re require fast, effective and affordable results unlike what’s provided by traditional surveys and focus groups. We’re excited to announce Zipinion, which provides unbiased objective solutions that will literally reinvent how decisions are being made,” explains Michael.

With Zipinion, businesses gain access to a massive, on-line workforce of skilled workers who can complete tasks at remarkable speeds without sacrificing quality or accuracy. These tasks are questions that businesses ask to get instant crowdsourced feedback. Real estate brokerages and vacation rental property managers are providing this service to their customers, companies are using it to help with internal decisions and freelance individuals are taking advantage proving Zipinion can be used by any size organization.

Zipinion’s platform could be potentially disruptive to current consumer feedback industry. Traditional surveys and focus groups are expensive and slow. Zipinion makes external objective feedback fast, easy and affordable.

ABOUT ZIPINION

Zipinion is the fastest and most affordable way to get independent objective feedback. Simply upload your concept and watch the feedback stream in. You’ll get 100 objective opinions sourced from a pool of over 500,000 people in just minutes. It’s that easy, so don’t make decisions without getting Zipinions. For more information and samples, visit www.zipinion.com.

“Provide Wireless Access to Business Systems??” By Tom K

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VRM Intel Staff

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March 22, 2013

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By Tom K

I don’t recommend that you provide wireless access to your Business Systems… unless there is a definite business requirement and no other alternatives.

But if you REALLY NEED to provide wireless access to your Business Network, in this month’s newsletter I discuss potential pitfalls and Best Practices you should consider when you deploy wireless access to your Business Network.

I am, however, a big fan of setting up public wireless Hot Spots within your facilities to provide open Internet access to guests and to staff with personal smart phones and tablets. I have discussed this in detail in my newsletter, “Securely Implement a Public WIFI Hot Spot”.

The Pitfalls

Wireless is inherently unsecure.

Sure, you can (and should) use encryption and use a secure password within the Private Wireless Network. But anyone who has the wireless Key (password) can knock on the door of your business resources anytime, from inside the building, in the parking lot, or across the street. As a business owner, this definitely concerns me.

There is an App for that.

The wireless threat is no longer just laptops. You can get apps for tablets and smart phones that will allow you to work within a network environment. If my tablet can see the wireless business network, I’m one password away from being in a position to use my apps to access your company jewels. If I’m hanging out in the parking lot, or next door, my tools have all the time in the world to try to break in. Tablets and smartphones are inconspicuous, they are everywhere, and there are millions of them.

No Firewall.

When you provide wireless access to your business systems, access is direct… Just like from your wired PCs. All access occurs inside the firewall, so the firewall can’t offer any protection.

Best Practices

If you really need to provide wireless access to your Business Network, Read More…

About Tom K

Tom K, has been a senior level Business and IT Consultant providing exceptional solutions to business leaders for more than 26 years. His last eight years have been focused on the Vacation Rental and Real Estate industry. He has built strong relationships with all the major systems and services providers in our industry, regularly working with their principals and most senior personnel.

Are Banner Ads Working For You?

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VRM Intel Staff

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March 22, 2013

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There’s much debate over just what “native advertising” means. Talk to enough publishers, however, you’ll find agreement on one thing: it isn’t banner ads.

The banner ad is now 18 years old. It has become a symbol of all that’s wrong with online advertising. It is more often than not devoid of creativity; it stands out as an intruder on webpages; and it is mostly ignored by readers.

And yet it continues to be a bulwark of the online advertising system. Many publishers would like to change that. (See Buzzfeed cobbling together a network of like-minded sites to run its sponsored content posts.) Here are 10 facts about banners that might make you wonder if there’s got to be a better way.

1. Over 5.3 trillion display ads were served to U.S. users last year. (ComScore)
2. That’s 1 trillion more than 2009. (ComScore)
3. The typical Internet user is served 1,707 banner ads per month. (Comscore)
4. Click-through rates are .1 percent. (DoubleClick)
5. The 468 x 60 banner has a .04 percent click rate. (DoubleClick)
6. An estimated 31 percent of ad impressions can’t be viewed by users. (Comscore)
7. The display advertising Lumascape has 318 logos. (Luma Partners)
8. 8 percent of Internet users account for 85 percent of clicks. (ComScore)
9. Up to 50 percent of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental. (GoldSpot Media)
10. Mobile CPMs are 75 cents. (Kleiner Perkins)
11. You’re more likely to survive a plane crash than click a banner ad. (Solve Media)
12. 15 percent of people trust banner ads completely or somewhat, compared to 29 percent for TV ads. (eMarketer)
13. 34 percent don’t trust banner ads at all or much, compared to 26 percent for magazine ads. (eMarketer)
14. 25-34-year olds see 2,094 banner ads per month. (ComScore)
15. 445 different advertisers delivered more than a billion banner ads in 2012. (ComScore)

By Brian Morrissey03.21.2013

Blue Tent Launches Guest Comminucations Tool

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VRM Intel Staff

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March 19, 2013

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By Chris Swain–ACE is an Automated, Customized Email marketing solution developed specifically for vacation rental companies by Blue Tent Marketing. It’s fully integrated with industry-leading property management systems such as HomeAway’s Instant Software and Escapia. The ACE program delivers essential guest information throughout the entire customer life cycle. It’s all about improving your business and increasing guest satisfaction by delivering useful, insightful and actionable content to the right person at the right time.

By developing a custom API solution that communicates directly with your property management software, ACE does all of the heavy lifting and promises a first-class guest communication platform.

How to Handle Negative Reviews Of Your Vacation Rental Property

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VRM Intel Staff

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March 19, 2013

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Don’t let negative reviews affect your vacation property rental bookings. Use them as a powerful marketing tool instead.

By March 15, 2013 –You cannot please all the people all the time; even the best of the best receive negative reviews on their properties from time to time. Although it is hard not to get affected by negative reviews, there are many ways to effectively deal with them and turn those negative reviews into positive marketing opportunities.

Generally, those who write reviews are customers who are very happy or very unhappy. Unhappy customers aim at ensuring you are liable for the bad experience they had. They are able to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet, meaning they generally use harsher words than they would if they were face-to-face with you telling their problem. To make matters worse, the impact of a negative review far exceeds the impact of a positive review, making it imperative that you deal with these negative reviews before it affects your vacation rental bookings.

Respond to All Negative Comments

Silence is your worse enemy. If a customer writes a negative review and there is no response from you or your agency, it can be interpreted as either you don’t have responsive customer service, or that you have no response to the ‘truthfulness’ of their negative review. Many businesses shy away from responding to negative comments, unfortunately that is a luxury that established brands with large marketing budgets, like Apple, can afford. Small-to-medium vacation rental agencies and individual property owners who are establishing their brands often cannot afford to let these negative reviews shape their brand image. You may only have one chance to expose yourself to a potential-client: don’t let that one chance come from an unsatisfied customer.

Respond In A Timely Manner

Timing is everything. If you leave too much time between the negative review and your response, you will most likely lose the opportunity to turn the negative review positive for many potential clients who saw the negative review without your response. Read More…

New website choices make it easy for owners to have their own website

By

VRM Intel Staff

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March 14, 2013

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websites for vacation and holiday rentals

March 14, 2013 –Owners now have access to many tools which make renting their own property easier than ever before. Payment processing, travel insurance, housekeeping tools, and keyless locks have been finding their way to VRBOs for the last several years, but did you know the vacation rental website choices have been increasing as well? Alan Eagan of RentMoreWeeks.com recently researched some of the most popular website providers for VRBOs and breaks down their pricing and setup format in is article “Vacation Rental Marketing – A Place Of One’s Own.”

Here are his top 5 picks:

By Alan Eagan

1. Future Stay

Here’s a little of what they say;

With Futurestay you can now create a website for your property in under 10 minutes with online booking for free. Link your existing profiles on vacation rental listing sites (like vrbo & homeaway) back to your Futurestay website (at your own domain) to accept online bookings, simplify management and enhance your professional brand and image.

Here are just a few of the tools and features you get with Futurestay:

online booking (no merchant account or paypal needed)
guest management software
auto publish your property to 100+ listing sites (yahoo travel, lodging.com)
fully customizable layout and design
100+ marketing, management, and booking features

Photos

You can add as many photos as you like and they also display as a slideshow on your home page.

Templates

Check out some sample websites here

Pricing

Futurestay is totally free to setup and use.
You’ll never be charged anything for the website or hosting. When guests book your property through your site they pay the price you want to receive plus Futurestay’s 10% commission.

7 minute challenge

Take the 7 minute website challenge!

They bet you can set up your vacation rental website in 7 minutes or you get your money back. Actually, its free either way!

Disclosure

I should add that I am a partner of Futurestay’s and I will get fantastically rich should you sign up with them.

2. MyVR

Here’s some of their blurb;

MyVR is online software that helps vacation rental owners increase bookings with less time and less hassle. We accomplish that by doing three things:

We better showcase your home
We help you launch your own online and mobile presence for your rental with your own website, Facebook Page, and more.

We expand your marketing
We offer numerous options for you to expand your vacation rental marketing (including social, local, mobile, and more) so that you can get more bookings, but without a ton more work because we know you have limited time.

We simplify the management of it all
We give you a single, centralized dashboard at MYVR where you launch and manage all your vacation rental marketing. Get all your inquiries in one place, and keep your calendar, rates, photos and information up to date and in sync across all your marketing!

Photos

Photos are shown full screen and here at rentmoreweeks we are big fans of full screen photos.

Templates

You can see some existing website examples here

Blog

They also publish a very informative blog that’s well worth following.

Pricing

At present there are two pricing plans the first costing $12 per month, the second costing $25 per month.
Both come with a free 14 day trial so you can dip your toe in the water.
For more info on what you get for your buck visit this page.

3. Promote My Place

Here’s what they say;

PromoteMyPlace.com is specially designed for holiday rental owners like you. It offers everything you need to get a high-performing website for your holiday let, simply and quickly, at minimal cost to you.

Simple & easy to use – no technical knowledge required
Great choice of professional designs and colour schemes
Full ongoing support included – never get stuck again!
Quick and fuss-free – get online in as little as 1 hour
Cost-effective – no need to spend a fortune on website designers, developers and hosting companies
Annual hosting included – no hidden extras
Unlimited free updates – change your site yourself, at any time
Promote your site online – we’ll show you how
Lots of satisfied customers

Here’s a video review by Mike Bayer of renting for profit (.com)

Photos

You can upload as many photos as you like

Show Videos

You can add YouTube videos directly onto to your website quickly and easily.

Templates

You can see their templates here

Languages

Allows owners to display their website in 7 different languages – English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese. Very handy for the European market.

Blog

They also have a very good blog with all sorts of marketing tips

Pricing

Your website will cost you £69.00 (that’s around $103) which works out at about £5.75 a month.
They offer a 14 day free trial too.

You can get a £10.00 discount by entering the Promotion code shown below.

When you’re ready, simply register for your no-obligation 14 day free trial and enter the promotion code below. If you decide to continue after your free trial expires, your discount will be applied automatically.

Promotion Code: NMR10

4. Web Chalet

Here’s some of what they have to say;

If you currently advertise on HomeAway, Flipkey, or VRBO you can now also create a personal website for your vacation home in minutes—WebChalet websites sync with HomeAway and VRBO calendars.
Use your personal website to communicate with your guests and keep them there instead of sending return customers back to a directory with all of your competition! Isn’t a great domain name much easier to remember than a listing number?

Every website comes with a full suite of marketing tools, from formatted Craigslist ads to Facebook integration.

Photos

You can add unlimited photos at no extra charge.

Templates

They have 18 templates to choose from

Pricing

They offer a number of pricing packages from $149 a year for a single property to $1999 a year for an unlimited number of properties. There are also a couple of packages in between.
They too have a free 15 day trial if you want to try it out.

Webchalet are already providing over 2700 websites for owners which is pretty impressive.

5. Webmyhouse

Here’s some of what they have to say;

Easy-to-use solution to create your own website and publish your property on the web, both for renting and selling purposes. Lots of great, menu-driven functionality, such as multi language, choice of layout and colors, photos, connection to Googlemaps, what is nearby, property availability overview, property pricing, listing of events, email functionality and visit reporting. Great functionality and ongoing development for a minimum yearly fee, at a fraction of the cost of developing and maintaining a website!

Adjust your website any time of the day
Without needing programming knowledge
No estate agent, consultant or programmer involved
With the website address-extension you choose
Great functionality: availability overview, connection to
Googlemaps etc
Easy set up in 4 languages
In the format and colours you prefer
Portal functionality for owners of multiple properties
Easy to add any additional properties
Develop and maintain your own marketing community
No unsolicited reactions for renting
Ongoing development for more functionality and eye catching presentations
Publish your basic website for free
Full functionality for a minimum yearly fee, at a fraction of the cost of developing and maintaining a website!

Photos

Free version = 5 pictures on slider homepage, 2 pictures per room and 6 general photos
Paid version = unlimited images (within reason)

Languages

Produces your website in 4 languages – English, French, Dutch and German. This could be very useful to those villa rental owners in Europe.

Pricing

There are two types of website that you can create, the first type is 100% free but has some limitations whereas the second, premium website is priced at £64 per year for one property.
For full details visit the pricing page here.

Last Day for Early Registration for Destination Summit in Denver, CO

By

VRM Intel Staff

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March 9, 2013

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March 8, 2013 –Today is the last day to get early registration rates for the Destination Summit at the Magnolia Hotel in Denver, CO. Ryan Solutions and Inntopia are hosting the Destination Summit 2013, May 21-23, and the event is billed as, “the premier educational event for destination marketers. ”

The agenda focuses on industry specific content for destination marketers as well as best practices in web marketing, social media, mobile sales, direct marketing, sales agent training, and intelligent data analytics. Attendees are expected from premier vacation destinations in the US, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe.

More information…

About Inntopia

The Inntopia system is the leading advanced reservation platform in the destination industry, powering ski resorts, destination management organizations, tour operators, and travel suppliers. The Inntopia platform enables access to all of the travel related supply in a destination, and then offers a suite of sales and back office tools to efficiently manage a business.

About Ryan Solutions

Ryan Solutions is a Colorado-based marketing agency focused on the integration of resort transactional systems, marketing strategies, and direct and social media marketing. Their systems help you build, automate, and apply guest intelligence by creating one complete guest profile and communicating more effectively with each guest.

Sponsors:

Instamanager

By

VRM Intel Staff

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March 7, 2013

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Beach House Logos

By

VRM Intel Staff

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March 7, 2013

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Save $100 On Conference Registration for your Vacation Rental Management Company

By

VRM Intel Staff

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March 6, 2013

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April 1, 2013 –Don’t miss out on the chance to improve your property management company, meet and learn from other property managers, and provide valuable training for your team. Whether it is customer service, maintenance, housekeeping, laundry, marketing, sales, accounting, human resources and more, the Vacation Rental Managers Association Regional Conferences can help you increase rentals, improve operations and acquire more homeowners into your program.

Not a VRMA member? We are happy to offer a $100 discount to our non-member readers! Simply enter our coupon code(INTEL) when you register online to save $100 off the non-member rates.

And this year, each Regional Seminar will offer more hours of programming than ever before, including “train-the-trainer” sessions to give supervisors, mid-level managers and department leaders the tools they need to ensure excellence in their areas.

A special executive-level track provides owners and general managers with the specific information and resources they need to be more effective in this ever-changing industry.

The education, best practices and networking opportunities are sure to help your company and employees improve operations, increase sales and boost your bottom line.

VRMA Intel is a proud member of the VRMA, and we hope you’ll join us at one of the upcoming Regional Seminars:

VRMA Western Seminar http://www.vrma.com/?Western
April 8-9, Westin Westminster
Westminster, Colorado

VRMA Eastern Seminar
April 22-23, Savannah Riverfront Marriott
Savannah, Georgia

Not a VRMA member? We are happy to offer a $100 discount to our non-member clients! Simply enter our coupon code(INTEL) when you register online to save $100 off the non-member rates. (VRMA members still receive the best rates.)

For more 2013 educational opportunities for vacation rental managers…

RealTimeRental Vacation Rental Software Announces Payment Technology Partnership with VacationRentPayment

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VRM Intel Staff

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March 6, 2013

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March 05, 2013 —RealTimeRental Vacation Rental Software, the leading cloud-based software provider to professional vacation rental managers, announced today a new technology partnership with VacationRentPayment, the leading payment processing provider for the vacation home rental industry.

This strategic partnership provides RealTimeRental customers with a turnkey solution to accept credit cards and eChecks for online vacation rental payments by utilizing VacationRentPayment’s robust payment processing technology. Payments can be processed directly by a reservationist in the RealTimeRental software or online by travelers on a self-service basis.

“We are excited to partner with RealTimeRental,” said Matt Golis, CEO of VacationRentPayment. “By using VacationRentPayment, clients will be able to seamlessly integrate online payments with RealTimeRental’s vacation rental workflow for booking reservations, as well as its industry-leading trust accounting system for tracking payments and other transactions.”RealTimeRental is currently the vacation rental software solution for over 200 of the industry’s premier vacation rental management companies, providing services to over 135,000 vacation rental properties across North America and processing over $600 million dollars per year.

The addition of VacationRentPayment to the RealTimeRental (RTR) service provides multiple benefits:

Cost Savings: VacationRentPayment will offer RTR customers industry low flat-rate pricing and eCheck acceptance. No more tiers based on the types of credit cards used by travelers, or other hidden costs. The pricing is truly “what you see is what you get”—enabling property managers to budget their expenses with greater confidence and predictability.
Save Time: The VacationRentPayment/RTR partnership automates the online payment process so clients can focus on more important activities instead of the time-consuming, inefficient process of collecting checks and processing cards through a terminal for rental payments.
Maximize Bookings: VacationRentPayment’s online payment options make the vacation rental process easier and vastly more competitive with the hotel booking experience travelers are accustomed to, allowing vacation rental managers the ability to quickly and easily process credit cards, debit cards and eChecks online through their RealTimeRental software to book a reservation.
Payment Security: Secure credit card data with tokenization technology to mitigate your PCI compliancy risk.

“RealTimeRental is continuously striving to provide our customers with the most complete rental management software in the industry to streamline their administrative processes and maximize bookings,” said Sherry Tomasso, Co-Founder of RealTimeRental. “In that vein, we selected VacationRentPayment as our partner for online payments because of its strong reputation for providing the most advanced and secure payment processing technology in the market. We look forward to a great partnership with VacationRentPayment for many years to come.”

About RealTimeRental
RealTimeRental (RTR) is the leading web-based Vacation Rental Property Management System, designed for the professional manager, serving more than 135,000 vacation rental homes and properties in North America. For more information please visit http://www.RealTimeRental.com.

About VacationRentPayment
VacationRentPayment (powered by YapStone Inc), offers the most innovative and integrated online payment solution to the property management industry. Dedicated to providing the best combination of cost savings, simplified accounting, and superior technology, YapStone is the leader in online payment processing solutions for specialized vertical markets. YapStone’s payment service processes billions of dollars annually, with an on-demand platform that offers Web-based and mobile payment processing and seamless integration to its clients’ accounting systems and websites. YapStone has been recognized in Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies for the past 4 years and was most recently named to Forbes’ List of America’s 100 Most Promising Companies.

Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates Celebrates 45th Anniversary In Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

By

VRM Intel Staff

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March 1, 2013

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Kitty Hawk, NC – February 2013 — Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates, one of the original and most widely respected real estate sales and vacation rental companies on the Outer Banks of North Carolina is celebrating their 45th anniversary in 2013. Family owned and operated since 1968, Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates offers more than 550 vacation rentals as well as a full-service real estate agency in the Outer Banks through their office in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Joe Lamb Jr., Founder of Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates, had this to say about the company he founded reaching this milestone, “My wife, Ann, and I started renting cottages in 1968 at the 11.5 milepost on the “Beach Road”. During the last forty five years I have seen our company, the vacation rental business, and this beach change tremendously. The beach was one of the only attractions for visitors. The rental season was limited to the summer months of June, July and August. Today, with more travelers finding the off-season appealing, our rental season starts full swing by Memorial Day and now runs well into October. Our community too, has embraced the off-season traffic. Stores and restaurants are open and there are so many exciting events being held which support our community education foundations and support service groups. One of the things that being in the vacation business for years has taught me is that folks from all over the world think of our community as their own. They love to come here to participate in local events and show their support. They share an important part of their lives with us by coming back year after year and make us a small part of their family, we are extremely proud that they allow us to share in these special times.”

Today, Joe Lamb Jr. and Associates professionally manages over 550 vacation homes, townhomes and condominiums in such popular areas of the Outer Banks such as Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, South Nags Head and north to Southern Shores and Duck. These rental properties range from oceanfront to soundfront on what is known as the Northern beaches of North Carolina. Their extensive selection allows for a satisfying and memorable vacation for any family.

Dan Hardy, President and General Manager of Joe Lamb Jr. and Associates, credits their success to the personal relationships they have formed over 45 years with homeowners and vacationers, “We have been a leader in the real estate industry for over 45 years, and have built a solid reputation by establishing great relationships with our clients and they appreciate the personal attention our staff offers.”

While specializing in property management and vacation rentals, Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates also features a full service real estate agency dedicated to making the purchase or sale of Outer Banks property an efficient and professional experience. Their realtors, who are known for their personal touch, have experience and knowledge in residential, commercial and investment properties throughout the Outer Banks. Tim Moore, Broker-In-Charge is celebrating his 10th year with Joe Lamb Realty. He commented about his experience, “I began my career 30 years ago in a busy office with over 50 agents, in Fredericksburg, VA. Here at Joe Lamb I found an easy, relaxing, family–style business environment that I love. We are always accessible to address the needs of our clients and assist them in any way we can to make their real estate transactions pleasant, seamless and enjoyable.”

After 45 years Joe Lamb Jr. and Associates is a cornerstone in the community and is proud of their home. It is very important that they give back to their community through sponsorship and volunteerism for local charity and fundraising efforts. This year, they are an accommodations sponsor for a variety of sporting events, community sports competitions and fishing tournaments, as well as supporting many community foundation programs and events.

Since 1968, Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates has built a solid reputation and has established many long and mutually beneficial relationships by providing their clients a friendly staff, hands-on service and management committed to excellence. Open seven days a week, Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates offer clients the ease of contacting the team at their convenience. They can be contacted toll-free at 800-552-6257 or locally at 252-261-4444. You can also visit their user-friendly website, which features real-time online bookings at www.JoeLambJr.com.
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Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates Celebrates 45th Anniversary In Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

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About Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates
Celebrating their 45th year, Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates is a family-owned and operated real estate and vacation rental management company founded in 1968 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They feature over 550 vacation homes throughout the Outer Banks of North Carolina as well as a full service real estate agency. Joe Lamb Jr. and Associates is located at 4607N. Croatan Highway in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They can be reached via telephone: toll-free at 800-552-6257/locally at 252-261-4444; via email at info@JoeLambJr.com or via the web at www.JoeLambJr.com or www.JoeLambRealty.com. This press release was submitted by Visual Data Systems on behalf of Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates.
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For More Information:
Dan Hardy, President
Joe Lamb Jr. & Associates
252-261-4444