Embracing the end-to-end guest experience: How Leslie Preston built Bachcare, New Zealand’s largest property management company

March 4, 2019

bachcare vacation rental holiday home new zealand bach

In 2003, Leslie Preston bought a vacation rental home in Hahei, New Zealand, a small beach community in the Coromandel region. When she began looking for a property manager, she was surprised to find a lack of national companies that could meet the needs of both homeowners and guests. So, she created her own. “And we’ve never looked back,” Preston said. “We’ve been clear on our purpose since then and continue forward on that original path.”

By staying pointed toward her true north, Preston has grown her company, Bachcare, into the largest property manager in New Zealand and Australasia, with 2,000 properties, more than 150 locations, and 150,000 guests a year. (Bach, pronounced “batch,” is the New Zealand colloquialism for vacation or holiday home, similar to “bachelor pad.”) Much of this growth has been organic, with no shortage of baches in the country, but the company has recently forayed into acquisitions too, including its October acquisition of Te Anau Holiday Homes.

However, the success Preston and Bachcare have reached are just a milestone on the way to bigger goals. “Scale is incredibly important in our industry, more so than ever. Even though we are the largest company in New Zealand and in Australasia, we are still a fraction of the size we can be,” she said—20 percent, to be exact, and her sights are set on reaching 10,000 properties.

Regardless of which destination or bach guests choose, and regardless of how many they have to choose from, guests know they are staying with Bachcare thanks to its “brand DNA,” which codes every piece of the company’s anatomy. The DNA replicates across every touch point with the promise and empowering directive, “Find your happy place.”

Looking through Bachcare’s inventory, it is easy for guests and homeowners to find happy places in every corner of the country, including Preston’s start in Hahei, along the northern coast by Hot Water Beach; the lakeside Te Anau cottages in the south; and the stylish penthouse apartments in Christchurch and other major cities. Originally from New York, Preston found her happy place in New Zealand after she moved there with her kiwi husband, Stefan, whom she met while attending the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Hammock and view at Preston's original holiday home in Hahei, which she no longer owns — Hammock and view at Preston’s original holiday home in Hahei, which she no longer owns

About 100 community property managers and the company’s 50 full-time staff members in the Auckland corporate office make sure every step of the guest journey is filled with happiness—for example, booking on the cheery and playful Bachcare.com or sharing a cheeky wine meme on social media. Even loading pages on its website surprise and delight with an animated sketch of a smiling sun rising over the mountains to say, “One moment, please.”

Bachcare packs happiness into other unsuspecting places too, like its in-home guest welcome materials, employee training manuals, and proprietary software. Having this cellular-level brand DNA gives the distributed team a consistent nature and singular voice on and offline, but it also leaves room to leverage individuality and the unique characteristics of their varied locations.

Preston calls this owning the end-to-end guest experience to deliver the same personalized, on-the-ground, branded experience it did with just one home 15 years ago. “We want our guests to have a fully integrated and highly Bachcare-branded experience, from the moment they enter our website, through making a booking, arriving at our property, to our after-stay feedback process. It’s always been part of our DNA, and to be honest, always will.”

Owning the end-to-end guest experience plays a large role in the company’s selective use of OTAs.

Ian Bishop, Bachcare’s head of marketing, said, “One of the key things with Bachcare is that building a strong brand presence has been at the core of the company since way before my time (hats off to Leslie for driving the importance of that from day one.) The result means we have no dependence on the OTAs, which enables us to use them strategically as and when it seems to benefit and augment our already strong position, which year over year is around 75 percent direct bookings and shows no sign of any change.”

Due to the strength of the brand, Bachcare can drive direct bookings. One way it does so is through smart calendar management. “Of our properties on OTAs, we’ll often block important dates on those external sites because we know there is a very high chance the booking for key dates will come via our direct channel,” Bishop said.

The team also looks closely at domestic versus international travel and consumer behavior to decide whether and how to use OTAs. Although the brand is strong and well known in New Zealand, it must appeal to international inbound travelers through careful and focused spending overseas. This includes more OTA use for properties in areas popular with international tourists, such as Queenstown. The same applies to cities like Auckland and Wellington, where urban travelers are more likely to use OTAs.

140-year-old stone Gothic church converted to a luxury holiday home in Cromwell

However, it ultimately comes down to the owner. “Above all, we are constantly listening to our owners and what their rental goals are, which may therefore provide more sway for listing on some or all the OTAs we work with. The blend of all the above points helps us make calculated decisions to deliver the best outcome for our owners and the business,” Bishop said.

He added, “To be honest, it is the result of 15 years of dedication in building a strong brand that is trusted in the marketplace that enables all the above. I am simply in the privileged position of being the current guardian of that brand and continuing to drive it at a super interesting time for the VRM industry!”

This house-by-house, partner-by-partner strategy keeps OTAs at a healthy distance. It has served Bachcare well through HomeAway’s acquisition of the Kiwi platform BookaBach in 2013 and Airbnb’s rollout of experiences and Airbnb Plus in the country in 2018. One Stuff.co.nz article called Bachcare, “The Kiwi firm taking on Airbnb in its own game.” At 75 percent direct booking, Bachcare is winning.

In that same article, Preston called the competition with OTA giants both “a David and Goliath battle” and fun that keeps them on their toes. Fun is not a take-it-or-leave-it bonus for Preston—it is a requirement. In addition to a supportive family and sufficient capital to grow and weather the storms, Preston credits the company’s success to perseverance, resilience, hard work, and a lot of stubbornness. “Add in a bit of fun!” she added. “We’ve never lost sight of our founding purpose, principles, and values. It has been our guiding light since inception, and it continues to burn bright.”

Carrying the Torch: 5 Generations of Vacation Rental Hospitality

Alexa Nota

March 1, 2019

Cabins for YOU vacation rental gatlinburg tennessee georgia

When Walt Plimpton was 10 years old, his job was to tow a little red wagon from cabin to cabin collecting trash bins and dirty sheets. He brought the sheets home where his mother, Miriam Plimpton, washed them, hung them out to dry, and ran them through a mangle to smooth any wrinkles. Walt then trucked the clean and crisp linens back to the cabins where his older brother, Donald, made the beds.

“We didn’t have maids, we cleaned ourselves,” Walt said. This was 1940. Miriam and Walt’s father, Herbert Plimpton, had just opened New England Village in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. The collection of little “overnight homes,” as they were called then, were arranged like a miniature town. Some were even themed as Main Street mainstays. One was built to look like a church, another like a school, and a third like a doctor’s office.

Herbert Plimpton playing with a dog in front of New England Village

This wasn’t the family’s first venture into overnight homes. In fact, Walt was a third-generation property manager. His maternal grandmother, Eva Peterson, opened Peterson’s Cabins along Route 1 in Wells, Maine, in 1922. They had no plumbing, no running water, and no electricity. She charged $0.75 per person, per night. She housed her oldest daughter and her eight kids in a big farmhouse nearby, and they helped clean and take care of the cabins in return.

Miriam and Herbert Plimpton in front of New England Village

By the time the Plimptons opened New England Village, just after the Great Depression, the going rate had increased to $1.25 per person, per night, and electricity was more common. The big trend back then was to have a radio in the house—soon to be followed by three-channel televisions.

Despite the recovering economy, Walt made sure to seek additional revenue sources. When his wagon wasn’t full of laundry, he collected the little green glass Coca Cola and ginger ale bottles left behind by guests—then 7 cents apiece—and towed them down to the local country store to turn them in for a nickel each. On good days, he earned as much as 70 or 80 cents a haul.

He laughed as he remembered those days. The day before we spoke he had gone to see his barber, who was running a $10 haircut special. “I don’t have that much hair anymore,” he said, “but I remember when my mom would hand me two quarters to go get a haircut as a kid, and I had a lot more hair back then!”

Walt is now 88. He has spent nearly eight decades in the vacation rental industry, and he remembers every minute of it. He has watched as motor courts evolved into motels; as resort towns sprang up along Route 1, up and down the East Coast, and then moved west; and as various destinations succeeded and failed in their attempts to grow tourism.

During the mandatory nightly blackouts along the coast during World War II, his dad would skirt the rule against outdoor lights by cutting out “OVERNIGHT CABINS” from their cabins’ roll-down shades so people driving by could still see them. His mom would visit their competitors’ houses in the dark and count the cars in the driveway to track occupancy.

New England Village cabins covered in snow

After Herbert passed away in the early 1950s and her kids were off at college, Miriam began to rent out four rooms in her own home to New Hampshire state troopers. At the time, the state didn’t have local offices, so she housed them, and they helped keep her safe. She called them “her boys,” and they called her their “state trooper mom.” She was later recognized with an award from the department.

Walt has carried the hospitality gene with him ever since. When he and his wife, Joanne, honeymooned in Orange Beach, Alabama, in 1957, there were only a handful of old cabins there. “No stores, no restaurants, and none of the tourism development guests find there today,” Walt said.

In the 1960s, they bought their own vacation rental in the area. After it was destroyed twice by hurricanes, most recently Hurricane Ivan in 2004, the home was rebuilt anew with six bedrooms and building codes to withstand today’s storms. It books solid most of the year.

“He hasn’t gone without a rental in his 88 years,” said Greg Plimpton, Walt’s son, who helps take care of the home now.

Greg also takes care of hundreds of other homes around Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, with Cabins for YOU, the vacation rental management company he started with his wife, Debbie, in 2001. On their 20th anniversary, the two visited Gatlinburg from their home in Georgia and decided to purchase three vacation rental homes of their own. At the time, there were about 160 property management companies in the Smoky Mountains, and Cabins for YOU was the smallest.

Today, nearly a century away from his great grandmother Eva’s plumbing-free cabins in Maine, Cabins for YOU is now one of the top five management companies in the region. The company has 330 homes, 70 employees, 50 housekeepers, and 25,000 reservations a year. Most of their guests are families in the summer, honeymooners, and nearly everyone in the fall for leaf season.

Greg and Debbie manage the company from their Georgia office near their home in Cartersville, where they have lived for 15 years. True to Plimpton fashion, the company is now a fifth-generation family business. Greg and Debbie’s oldest daughter, Jessica Dewberry, is head of finance and human resources, and her husband, Marc Dewberry, is their chief marketing officer. Their second daughter, Emily Crumpler, does consulting for them to recruit new homeowners and owns seven homes herself.

Their fourth daughter, Rachel Shadle, works in owner care, and her husband, Matthew, handles their IT as well as the building and grounds management of all three offices and all family-owned real estate. Their youngest child, Seth Plimpton, is a finance major at Auburn University, and he says he wants to get back into the business after he graduates. He currently works on the company’s website from campus.

The Plimpton family at Rachel's wedding — The Plimpton family at Rachel’s wedding

Even with the large staff and support of their family and management team, Greg and Debbie are active in every area of the business. Debbie handles operations while Greg covers legal, marketing, and other areas.

Altogether, they focus intently on the needs of their owners. “Every decision we make points back to the real client—and that’s not the guest,” Greg said. “We respond to owners 24 hours a day. An owner gives us 65 bookings a year. A guest gives us one.”

Even with four full-time owner reps to serve their needs, Greg loves interacting with owners directly. “Owners energize you because they want investment advice, decorating advice, and sometimes they have legitimate complaints that you can help with.” His advice to other property managers is to find out what owners want and need, and communicate, communicate, communicate.

His advice has been tested over the past two years since the Gatlinburg fire in November of 2016. One of the largest natural disasters in the history of the state, the fire burned more than 21,000 acres and wiped out more than 2,000 buildings, many of which were vacation rental homes. Cabins for YOU lost 38 to the fire and another 32 that were purchased by residents after their own homes were destroyed.

The region is still recovering. There are burned out streets, and guests still cancel their reservations because they don’t want to stay next door to charred lots. The losses cost Cabins for YOU about $2 million in 2017, but this year they have regained about 12 percent of their lost inventory.

Greg credits much of the company’s resiliency and long-term success to its competitiveness. “If we see anyone doing anything that makes sense, we have a meeting about it.” They attend conferences and listen intently, take notes, and participate in discussions. Generally they take the lead with better flash sales, better contests, and other strategies. “If you want a successful business, hire very competitive people. They don’t come to work to just do the job.”

When they need to recharge their batteries, Greg and Debbie take time away to head to their own vacation rental or visit their third daughter, Simone Puccinelli. She’s the only one of their kids who is forging a path wildly different from property management, and her parents love what she does. She founded Simone’s Kids, a nonprofit organization in Uganda that supports orphaned and poverty-stricken children who are unable to afford an education. They try to visit her there at least once a year.

Rachel (Plimpton) Shadle and her daughter, Ava

Retirement isn’t on the horizon just yet for the Plimptons, but they are hopeful that when it is, they’ll pass the torch to the next generation—not just their children but their five grandchildren. If they stay in the family business, they will be sixth-generation property managers and great great great grandchildren to Eva Peterson’s cabins.

However, they will have to wait a while to find out if that will happen. In 2022, on the 100th anniversary of the original cabins, the youngest of the sixth generation, Ava, will be just four years old.

The Opportunities In Between: Capturing the Niche Markets Others Don’t

Alexa Nota

February 27, 2019

There’s an old Irish blessing that goes, “May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it” (or so the internet says). Real or not, many vacation rental managers are in a perpetual effort to “cast a wider net” for guests. But with the breakneck pace of VR tech innovation, the arrival of vacation rentals as a mainstream lodging option, and the ever-blurrier lines between accommodation types—all showing no signs of slowing down in 2019—it may be time for property managers to reevaluate whether their nets are getting too big and letting valuable fish get through their holes.

Perhaps now is the time to cast smaller nets to catch the millions of fish others miss.

I’m speaking, of course, about niche markets, narrowly carved subgroups based on interests, values, geographic fences, and micro demographics. It’s the difference between theme-park seekers visiting Orlando vs millennial parents taking young kids specifically to the Wizarding World and all things Harry Potter, or snowbirds vs. active retirees who want to spend a month in warm weather doing yoga, hiking, and being wined and dined all day with no kids around.

It’s understandable that some property managers may fear the idea of going after smaller groups, but serving niche markets opens the door to new traveler sets, smaller but more lucrative markets, groups with a ton of demand but very little supply, or all of the above. Focusing on one niche or a few niches also has the potential to supercharge marketing ROI as tactics become simultaneously cheaper and more effective with less competition.

The same applies to owners and properties as well. Serving a niche provides an opportunity to tailor inventory selection, more mindfully selecting the right homes and the right owners rather than simply taking anything and everything.

And just as property managers already have a huge upper hand on OTAs by being experts in their local markets, they can also create a major advantage for themselves by being the expert for a niche group of travelers. As we saw in 2018, OTAs are doubling down on being everything to everyone. Booking Holdings and TripAdvisor both bought tours and experiences companies. Airbnb bought French property management company Luckey Homes and introduced Backyard, among other investments in and out of the travel industry. The wider they get, the more independent property managers can go deep in capturing highly targeted audiences and driving direct bookings.

Take GoLocal Suites, for example, a new line of short-term rentals from Northeast Suites in Boston. GoLocal properties are stocked with 100 percent American-made products, from the furniture to the linens to the paper towel holder, and every item can be purchased from the company’s app and website. This patriotic niche does double duty as an additional revenue stream.

There are less intensive ways VRMs can pivot toward a corner of the market or create new product lines within their inventories. Some niche markets we hear about regularly, like ecotourism, gastro-tourism, or wellness travel. Others are more often overlooked, some even taboo. Here we explore five niche markets chosen for a combination of factors: a large underserved market, a lack of competition in vacation rentals or the broader accommodations space, and a higher degree of spending and/or loyalty.

Micro Geographies

OTAs boast that they reach millions of travelers with millions of properties for millions of booked nights. Translation: Guests and property managers must machete through a jungle to reach each other.

VRMs can cut a faster path to the right guests by zooming in closer on the geographic distribution of their marketing efforts. For example, rather than pushing Facebook ads to entire states or regions, vacation rental marketers can target ads to specific zip codes popular among existing guest records.

The best way to start here is to take a deep dive into your historic guest data and identify not only where most guests come from – down to the zip code or even neighborhood level – but to spot trends in feeder markets growing more or less popular. A more tech- and cost-heavy option is to hire a firm to do mobile GPS tracking research. Companies like Buxton can virtually geofence an area, such as a destination or nearby attractions, tag every mobile device that enters that fence, then track where those devices go inside and outside of the fence through their satellite pings. The data collected is anonymous but generates in-depth geographic and behavioral profiles of all visitors to an area, not just your guests, that can help laser focus target marketing.

Another option is to opt for regional or destination-specific listing sites, specifically those that feed direct bookings rather than hijacking the guest.

“While national websites like HomeAway and Airbnb deliver exceptional booking experiences and raise overall industry awareness, the hyper-relevant nature of geo-targeted niche sites is better equipped to deliver additional demand for specific localized markets,” said David Angotti, co-founder of SmokyMountains.com. “For example, high-quality video content that highlights a destination, combined with paid amplification through Facebook, can raise awareness for a specific market. This delivers additional demand and visitors that likely would not have visited the region absence this marketing approach. Smaller, niche websites excel at geo-local strategies like this. In addition to increased demand, the niche website increases the overall distribution health of a brand through channel and lead diversification.”

Many of these sites also give property managers more control over their listings and better opportunities to be the local expert. “VRMs want to be able to participate in the direction of their online booking sites by having more control over terms and conditions, data, fee structure, marketing, privacy, etc.,” said John Wellborn of Rent30A and a growing list of destination listing sites. “Regional and hyper-local sites afford this to the VRM while giving guests access to the two things they want most: access to all of the properties and the personal touch that only locals can give.”

Physical and Cognitive Disability

According to DisabilityStatistics.org from Cornell University, 12.8 percent of the US population has some form of a disability (hearing, visual, ambulatory, cognitive, self-care, or inability to live independently). That’s more than 319 million people for whom travel isn’t always an option. Unfamiliar locations, mobility limitations, lack of accessible spaces, distance from necessary medical facilities or providers, less disposable income due to high costs of care, and many other factors often keep would-be guests from traveling as much as they’d like or at all.

Most VRMs are probably already mindful of physical disabilities and mobility issues, particularly those in destinations with an aging traveler group. Step-free entries, elevators, roll-in and adapted showers, and wide doorways are all increasingly desirable if not must-have amenities. Airbnb recognized the value of and the need for this market too in its late 2017 acquisition of Accomable, an accessible short-term rental platform founded by two travelers with spinal muscular atrophy.

Tailoring vacation rentals for guests with cognitive disabilities, such as Alzheimer’s or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), or those with visual or hearing impairments isn’t discussed as often, but it’s equally important and doable. Orlando-based VillaKey began actively catering to travelers with ASD last year with its certification in autism travel from the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards and a growing collection of autism-friendly properties. These homes must meet certain requirements, including quiet location, soft lighting and colors, alarms on exit doors, full kitchens for cooking specialized meals, and pet-friendliness because many kids with ASD have service animals.

Plenty of opportunities exist for property managers to appeal to this underserved market, such as incorporating braille, installing strobing fire alarms for the hearing-impaired, and having someone on staff available to assist the families of guests with Alzheimer’s. One of the best things property managers can do is also one of the easiest: understand what guests with disabilities need; then provide thorough information on accessibility and relevant home features (including detailed photos) on their websites.

Limited Edition

In the fall 2018 issue of VRM Intel, Matt Landau shared his Theory of Limited Edition, which posits that independent vacation rental managers can differentiate themselves with exceptional things that don’t scale, such as having the only penthouse in a building. He likened this to the world of collectors’ items.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Landau’s theory aligns perfectly with the ever more powerful rise of millennials in travel. We’ve all heard it before: millennials seek unique experiences. As a window into this market myself, I seek superlatives when traveling: the firsts, onlys, last remainings, biggests, smallests, etc. In Ireland, for example, my husband and I didn’t want to go to any old pub; we sought the oldest pub in the country, the Brazen Head. When hiking historic fishing villages in Italy’s Cinque Terre, we stayed in a 500-year-old fisherman’s cottage.

Airbnb stats confirm this. Perennially among its most sought-after properties are those you don’t find just anywhere: off-grid cabins, tiny homes and refurbished Airstreams, open-air bamboo cottages, and treehouses. Converted properties, too, are gems for limited editions.

Property managers of any size can find ways to incorporate limited editions into their programs. Consider tapping local real estate agents to identify one-off convertible properties with a story to tell, like decommissioned lighthouses, firehouses, barns, factories, or mills. Or for those developing new, purpose-built inventory, there may be overlooked opportunities for some nontraditional listings.

In one development it’s building out, VTrips is incorporating treehouses and possibly glamp grounds (luxury camping properties). VTrips CEO Steve Milo said the purpose is twofold: to maximize lots on which traditional homes can’t be built and to have a variety of offerings that appeal to different guests. “It’s not taking one product over the other,” he said. “It’s creating an assortment of products so that you can allow a variety of different guests to visit. So, you have larger properties, smaller properties, niche properties all mixed together in an offering.”

Social Good and Corporate Social Responsibility

Consumers and travelers increasingly seek and value companies that demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) or a focus on the triple bottom line: profits, people, and planet. Travel research company Skift published Balancing Purpose and Profit: Why Doing Good Is a Competitive Advantage in the Travel Industry in July, exploring this ever more important trend. In it, several key stats from Skift’s 2018 Experiential Travel Survey emerged:

59 percent of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed that the destinations they visit say a lot about who they are, supporting the link between travel experiences and personal identity.
40 percent of respondents said they either agreed or strongly agreed that they were willing to pay higher rates or fares to use travel service providers that demonstrate environmental responsibility.

Additionally, a Tourism Cares study cited in the report said that 81 percent of millennials volunteered, 78 percent donated cash, and 83 percent gave in-kind when traveling during the past two years.

Using a CSR initiative is one way to corner a niche, but the challenge with leveraging goodwill in marketing to guests, niche groups or mass market, is authenticity. A brand has to eat, sleep, and breathe its purpose or its mission; otherwise, guests can sniff out a shallow marketing ploy. Done well and full-heartedly, CSR initiatives will inspire guests to want to spend more, engage with the brand, share its mission, become a loyal customer, or all of the above.

One way to demonstrate true commitment to a cause is to become a B-certified corporation. B Corps must go through a rigorous evaluation to earn the exclusive status of being a certified socially responsible company. Tour company Intrepid Travel became one of the travel industry’s first B-Corp certified companies in 2018. The B Corp directory lists 32 travel companies, but in the hospitality category, there are just five hotels or lodges. That category is just itching for a VRM to become the “first B-Corp certified vacation rental company in the world.”

Of course, B-Corp certification isn’t the only way to demonstrate CSR. Summit Mountain Rentals launched its own foundation, the SMR Foundation, and created a program for homeowners to donate a portion of revenue to the foundation that Summit Mountain Rentals would match up to 3 percent. In August, the company hit a $50,000 fundraising milestone for the foundation, which is dedicated to supporting four pillar needs in its community: outdoor maintenance, adult education, animal well-being, and workforce housing.

If you’re not sure what cause is important to your guests, there are some creative ways to find your perfect niche match, like the “World’s Tiniest Airbnb” campaign from Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, this past holiday season. In the bite-size model town of Knuffingen, you’ll find a classic German home decked out in tiny working Christmas lights, a glowing pink “A” logo, and a four-centimeter Christmas tree. Unless they’re ants, guests can’t actually stay there, but it’s available “for rent” for a $10 per night donation to Hanseatic Help, a German nonprofit that supplies clothes, shoes, and hygiene products to refugees and others in need of support in Hamburg. VRMs anywhere can use this model to “rent” dollhouses, sandcastles, igloos, gingerbread houses, Lego homes, or any number of things to support a local cause.

Cannabis Travel

One of the latest budding sectors (pun intended) of the travel economy is cannabis tourism. As the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana proliferates, so too do 420-friendly tours, shops, and accommodations. In April 2018, Forbes reported that Colorado cannabis tourism had grown 51 percent since 2014, attracting 6.5 million tourists in 2016 alone and raking in more than $5.2 billion in cannabis sales since the state legalized the drug in January 2016. In 2017, marijuana sales outpaced alcohol sales in Aspen.

Meanwhile, online competition for cannabis tourism traffic is relatively low. As Skift reported last year, DMOs and tourism boards generally aren’t promoting the sector, and travel platforms aren’t allowing some pot-related listings, partly because of complex advertising rules and partly out of sensitivity around the topic of marijuana use.

Still, travel industry members from every sector are getting in on the “green rush” now while demand is high and competition is low. Glowing Goddess Getaway is a social club for women that hosts cannabis retreats around the country: three days of socializing, classes, workshops, activities, and unlimited cannabis. Cannabis Tours offers wine and weed bus tours among many other experiences around the Bay Area. The Herbal Chef in LA delivers cannabis-infused fine-dining catering and private meals.

Vacation rentals may very well have the best competitive advantage here. Even in areas where marijuana is legal, many travelers have difficulty finding accommodations because marijuana use is still limited to private homes and facilities. Capture their search traffic by specifically identifying properties as “marijuana-friendly” or “420-friendly” and list on sites like BudandBreakfast.com. Go even further by offering infused gifts or reservation add-ons for cannabis tours, private cannabis chefs, or an edibles sampler set. Basically, anything wine or winery-themed can be done with weed products.

Cannabis tourism may not be your cup of tea or in your market yet, but experts predict the entire US will eventually legalize recreational marijuana within the next decade, so it’s something to think about in the years ahead. Of course, consult legal counsel on all the regulations in your area before jumping in.

Once you decide whether specializing in niche travel is right for your company and you know which segment you’d like to serve, check out Amy Hinote’s article Examining the Traveler’s Decision Process: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How Much? for a head start on how to catch those guests.

Niche Vacation Rental Listing Sites

Alexa Nota

February 27, 2019

As a landslide of new technology and OTA expansion barrels down the slopes of the vacation rental industry, some opportunities for growth become buried along the way. Vacation rental marketers who leave no stone unturned will find some of those opportunities in niche markets, narrowly carved subgroups based on interests, values, geographic fences, and micro-demographics.

Serving such tightly defined groups opens the door to new traveler sets, smaller but more lucrative markets, groups with a ton of demand but very little supply, or all of the above. It can supercharge marketing ROI as tactics become simultaneously cheaper and more effective with less competition, and it affords property managers the ability to more mindfully tailor inventory and owner selection for the best fit. Furthermore, zeroing in on a niche can also create a major advantage for property managers in driving direct bookings by being the expert for a niche group of travelers where OTAs can’t.

But, serving a niche only works when its members can easily find and book the properties and experiences that meet their needs, so VRM Intel has compiled the following list of niche vacation rental listing sites. This list is not comprehensive and suggested additions are welcome in the comments. Don’t forget to connect with associations and travel agencies that specialize in your niche, too.

By Geographic Market:

30AHomeRentals.com

AlabamaVacationHomeRentals.com

AlaskaRentalPlaces.com

AZVR.com

CaliStays.com

CapeCodVacationRentals.com

CarolinaVacationHomeRentals.com

COVacationHomes.com

EmeraldCoastByOwner.com

FloridaRentalbyOwners.com

GeorgiaRentbyOwner.com

GLRBO.com

HawaiianIslandsVacationRentals.com

HawaiiChee.com

MDRBO.com

NevadaRBO.com

NewYorkRentalbyOwner.com

RentMichiganCabins.com

RentMinnesotaCabins.com

RentMontanaCabins.com

RentNewYorkCabins.com

RentOrangeBeachAL.com

RentPanamaCityBeach.com

RentPensacola.com

RentTennesseeCabins.com

RentWisconsinCabins.com

RentSkiBreckenridge.com

RentSkiSteamboat.com

SmokyMountains.com

SmokyMountainsbyOwners.com

StJohn-VillaRentals.com

TexEscapes.com

TNRBO.com

USVIVacationHomes.com

UTRBO.com

VacationNewEngland.com

VAVacationRentals.com

VHRDirect.com

WeNeedaVacation.com (Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket)

By Value/Interest Market:

Autism Travel: AutismTravel.com

Boat-Friendly Travel: BoatFriendly.com

Business Travel: CorporateHousingbyOwner.com

Cannabis Travel: BudandBreakfast.com, GreenTripz.com, 420TravelSpots.com

Disability Travel: WheelchairTraveling.com

Family Travel: Clanventure.com

Gay and Lesbian Travel: MisterBandB.com, GayHomestays.com, IGLTA.org

Healthcare Travel: TravelingHealthcareRentals.com

Luxury Travel: DreamExoticRentals.com, Boutique-Homes.com, TimeandPlace.com

Multiple Niches: NicheEscapes.com, TheVacationRentalGuide.com, VillaRental.com

Pet-Friendly Travel: BringFido.com, PetsWelcome.com, TripsWithPets.com, PetsPyjamas.com

Social Responsibility: BCorporation.net

Sports Travel: TripMVP.com, SpringTrainingVacationHomes.com, RentLikeAChampion.com

Is Wyndham Destinations getting ready to spin off Wyndham Vacation Rentals North America?

Amy Hinote

February 26, 2019

Last year, as Wyndham Worldwide split into two publicly traded companies, Wyndham Hotel and Resorts (NYSE: WH) and Wyndham Destinations (NYSE: WYND), and announced that it had sold its market-leading European vacation rental businesses for $1.3 billion, industry observers wondered how long it would take before the company would search for a strategic alternative for its North American vacation rental business.

The answer? One year.

“We announced this morning that we are exploring strategic alternatives for our vacation rental business, the leader in professionally managed vacation rentals in North America,” said Michael Brown, president and CEO, Wyndham Destinations, in today’s earnings call.

Brown continued, “This is a great business with a collection of distinctive brands and a diversified national footprint. This opportunistic review is intended to allow us, over time, to more fully focus on other aspects of our company that are at the core of Wyndham Destinations’ identity. We will not be commenting in detail today on the next steps other than noting it is a full review of all value-creation alternatives. We hope to have more to share in the near future.”

Wyndham’s North American vacation rental business is the second largest vacation rental management provider in the US and includes 9,000 units in traditional vacation rental destinations, including beach communities in Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama, and mountain communities in Colorado, British Columbia, Utah, Idaho, and Tennessee.

Just two months ago at the Phocuswright Conference, we asked Wyndham Vacation Rentals vice president Lino Maldonado, “What do you think you learned from the European sale, and do you think that we will see a spin off of the North American Vacation Rental businesses, as well?

Maldonado replied, “That is a loaded question for a number of different reasons that, unfortunately, I can’t get too deep into. Our European business was a very different model than the US model. It’s more like a listing model in many cases, and the public-facing statements on why this spin off occurred have spoken for themselves. What happens in the US? Consolidation is absolutely prime right now. We’ve been in a different sort of focus mode with separating one large company to two publicly-traded separate companies. We’re just coming out of the dust settling from that.”

When asked if Wyndham Vacation Rentals would be more acquisitive in 2019, Maldonado responded, “We have quite the pipeline. That’s one of my areas of responsibility at the company, and we have quite a good pipeline sitting on the desk ready to get into our next mode.”

Wyndham Vacation Rentals letter to employees, February 26, 2019

Fast forward to today’s announcement when Brown was asked about what prompted the review of the vacation rental segment, he replied, “The reality is prior to the separation we began to just talk about what’s the best way to integrate this into Wyndham Destinations. We began to really look at where the synergies could lie not only cost synergies but revenue synergies. And again, with three huge transactions happening together, La Quinta, European Rentals, and the separation of the two entities, it wasn’t the right time to make a thoughtful decision.”

Brown continued, “So we’ve actually been looking at what was the right strategic fit for the vacation rental business for almost a year now. It’s only in the last few months that we’ve decided to put it through a strategic review alternatives to really look at how to maximize the value of this business. And we’ll see where that review takes us. But it’s a great business. It’s that 9,000 units in North America. And the timing of it simply is a matter of when–as the new Wyndham Destinations, we felt coming out of the gate, it was the right time to do that proper review.”

Wyndham CFO Michael Hug also weighed in, “I do really like this business. And if you were to go back to our separation with three large transactions happening at the same time (we have the separation of the company, the acquisition of La Quinta and the sale of the European rental business), we really wanted the opportunity to evaluate all strategic alternatives post spin, because there are some real natural synergies between the vacation ownership and exchange business and the vacation rental business. And that’s why we wanted to have a thoughtful chance to evaluate it instead of in a rush fashion. And that’s really the process that we are in at the moment.”

Hug added, “We will review all strategic alternatives and make the right decision at the end of our process to determine what ultimate action we’re going take. This is an opportunistic review and we think it’s the right time early in Wyndham Destinations’ life cycle to have this review.”

Potential Alternatives

Last year, while looking for a buyer for Wyndham’s European vacation rental businesses, in addition to Platinum Equity (who won the bid), there were at least two other qualified buyers at the table who had performed due diligence and had put together plans for the transition and long-term success. According to multiple sources, Airbnb was a part of one bid for the company, while another included an equity-backed team of seasoned vacation rental operators, experts and analysts.

And then there is Vacasa, which has been teasing an IPO. Keeping in mind that former Wyndham Vacation Rentals president Bob Milne currently serves as COO at Vacasa, could we see a Wyndham-Vacasa-mashup IPO? Or even a PE-funded Wyndham-Vacasa-TurnKey roll up?

Let the speculation begin.

The 2019 Vacation Rental Management Web Store

Amy Hinote

February 26, 2019

2025 vacation rental e-commerce website web store marketing

Vacation rental management websites have come a long way in the past decade. The addition of quotable rates, professional photos, advanced filtering, comparison shopping, mobile-friendly design, new security requirements, and live chat have turned rental websites into dynamic, fully integrated e-commerce platforms.

Few people in the vacation rental industry know more about creating conversion-based, relevant websites than Bluetent president Peter Scott, InterCoastal Net Designs (ICND) owner Brandon Sauls, Bizcor CEO Josh Guerra, and Q4 Launch founder Matt Bare.

We reached out to these industry leaders for their recommendations on must-have elements to help vacation rental managers ensure their websites are meeting the needs of consumers in 2019, from functionality to content to building trust and thought leadership.

*Source: Ashley Harbaugh, 14 E-Commerce Website Requirements*

Functionality

As property managers review their company websites, these leaders advise not forgetting to incorporate the following functional elements.

Mobile for Browsing versus Booking

With more and more traffic and booking originating via mobile devices, it is critical in 2019 that websites are optimized for mobile for both browsing and booking. Bluetent’s Peter Scott asks his clients, “Now that most of your visitors are on mobile, how often do you test the booking experience? And users can browse your site on mobile devices, but is your site ready for mobile bookings?”

Scott added, “Next step in 2019 is preparing for mobile transactions.”

Cart Abandonment

“We see it often, guests browse websites for the perfect rental, get distracted, and leave the booking page or website altogether,” ICND’s Brandon Sauls said. “This provides a crucial marketing opportunity for vacation rental companies: cart abandonment. With a website footer bar or email campaign, guests can easily be reminded to complete their vacation booking. While cart abandonment marketing isn’t new to the industry, these products remain a website must-have in 2019 because they generate revenue that would otherwise go untapped.”

Calculated Pricing in Results

According to Bizcor’s Josh Guerra, displaying total calculated pricing eliminates confusion and expedites the customer path through the booking process. “Instead of showing ‘starting from’ or ‘average nightly rates,’ show total out-the-door price if dates are entered,” he said. “It will reduce the feeling of being deceived, if you have extra fees or if the original dates selected fall within two seasons.”

Remind Me to Book

Incorporating a “remind me to book” option allows guests to set their own reminder so that your company doesn’t fall out of the decision funnel. “The majority of website traffic tends to come from mobile device users,” Sauls said. “More traffic is great, but oftentimes mobile users can be distracted or not ready to complete a purchase. Our Remind Me to Book feature allows guests to schedule a reminder email, which will then prompt them to return and complete the booking. This feature provides a great opportunity to increase direct online bookings, lead captures, and overall brand awareness.”

Upcoming SEO Changes in 2019

Q4 Launch’s Matt Bare advises, “Be prepared for a lot of Google change.”

“We’re expecting some big changes in search engine optimization in 2019,” he said. “Our customers see 50 percent of their direct bookings coming from Google organic search, so it’s a huge thing to pay attention to. Continuing to evolve your website and improve your user experience will be key to succeeding in 2019. Additionally, we’re making a big push for Google My Business reviews.”

Website Content

Much of what makes a vacation rental management website a relevant, user-friendly conversion machine does not require any new technology at all. It is content.

2019’s most successful vacation rental websites need professional content, and lots of it, including photos, descriptions, eye-catching property titles, searchable amenities, reviews and area information.

Revisit Your Brand Story and Website Content

To differentiate your company in today’s ultra-competitive vacation rental world, consumers need to understand and connect with your brand,” Bare said. “Yet most vacation rental managers we talk to are not telling their brand story with their website and have not updated their core website content in years! Our content team has driven considerable success increasing our customers e-commerce conversion rate by rewriting a lot of core content with a fresh perspective.”

Photos and Reviews

“Reviews, reviews, reviews, and some fresh photos, “said Bluetent’s Tom Kenyon, vice president of product. “It’s ironic with so much talk around cutting-edge technology and features, that reviews and photos are still what matters most to your guests. 2019 is the year for guest-centric features, not bells and whistles.”

Photos and reviews make more of an impact than any other feature on a website. Kenyon recommends that property managers ask themselves the following:

When was the last time you updated your photos?
How often are you checking reviews?
Do you engage with reviews? Are you responding to all quickly and thoughtfully?
What is your review generation strategy?

Amenities and Features

In each market, amenities and home features are key factors for travelers as they choose a vacation rental that meets their needs. Guerra shared that communicating property features and amenities using advanced filtering options is critical, and property managers can boost conversions using property tags and ribbons in on-site search results. “Using property tags and ribbons, you can quickly identify amenities that mean the most to prospective guests,” he said.

Marketing and Value Proposition

Our experts said a successful vacation rental web store should communicate what sets the company apart and why consumers should trust the company. Scott suggests asking the following questions:

Are you communicating why travelers should book with you?
Content strategy: Are you blogging valuable content that doesn’t bounce people?
Are you truly creating content people want to consume and inspiring them to dive further into your website?
Are you considering your value proposition in all your marketing initiatives?
Are you letting people know how much they can save by booking direct?

Guests are Important, but Don’t Forget Homeowners

Vacation rental management websites have two customers: guests and homeowners. While much attention is placed on the guest-facing elements of the website, these experts were unanimous in that websites must also sell a company’s thought leadership and management services to homeowners.

“Gone are the days of boring informational pages,” Sauls said. “If your property management page includes text and contact information only, it’s time for an upgrade. Property owners need to know why they should work with your company and the unique experience you offer. Statistics, images, videos, and testimonials are all strong selling points to include on your property management page. Succinct messaging and an eye-catching design may just be the push you need for stronger homeowner acquisition.”

Guerra agrees and believes it is important to use search marketing campaigns to reach homeowners. “If you plan to run on aggressive online marketing campaign in the vacation rental industry, then it’s vital to develop a landing page dedicated to owner acquisition.” He also recommended more value-added content to drive leads from owners and improve on-site inventory acquisition efforts (i.e., how to make more money on your vacation home, property care checklists and best practices, market statistics, and industry/company reporting).

Owner-targeted content designed to provide resources and education for homeowners helps companies build a position of thought leadership, demonstrates knowledge and transparency, aids in paid online marketing efforts, and has an added benefit of improving search engine visibility.

Security and Trust

Our experts also told us that online security and trust in vacation rental management websites are must-haves in 2019.

Bluetent asks property managers, “Are you building security and trust with your guests? Does your website meet accessibility standards and standards of the American Disabilities Act? Is your booking engine PCI compliant and are you accredited?”

“We’ve seen a strong influence in Google’s E-A-T principle as it pertains to organic rankings,” Sauls said. “E-A-T stands for Expertise-Authority-Trustworthiness. What changes can be made directly on your website to reflect this? A strong ‘About Us’ page. Your vacation rental company has a story. Use your website to convey your unique team and history to instill trust in your visitors.”

Looking to the Future

According to our experts, building a website that is adaptable for the future is one of the main things a property manager can do to achieve long-term success.

“Think for the future,” Bare said. “With the pace of change in technology right now, most websites are outdated the day they launch. We believe websites need to evolve and function more like software where they are consistently getting new features, updates, and fixes without the vacation rental manager having to think about it or ask for it. Driven by a strategic look into the future, your website continually gets better and is never out of date again.”

Self-Care in an Industry of Service

Ali Cammelletti

February 25, 2019

self care hospitality vacation rental management

Having grown up in the hospitality industry, I was taught to always put the guest’s needs first. This mindset eventually led me to put everyone’s needs before my own and included positive communication skills, such as watching my tone and words to ensure that I was never offending anyone. Examples included not saying “you should” or “you need to” when talking with people. After all, who likes to be told what to do?

This also led to working too hard to ensure guests’ expectations were surpassed. Early in my career, I observed that many coworkers were moving to new companies every few years because of burnout. In parallel, my efforts to ensure everyone else was taken care of first meant that I forgot how to take care of myself. Obviously, I am capable of simple hygiene and ensuring that I appear professional, especially in guests’ eyes. However, I am talking about emotional care. Many years later, after repeatedly hearing staff members share that they cried because of the way customers talked to them, I knew that I needed to give them some tools to help prevent them from repeating the cycle I went through early in my career, when I had to leave great organizations because I burned out quickly.

The first area I want to focus on is not taking things personally when encountering a challenging customer or someone else who decides to take a bad day out on the next person he or she encounters. For years I had been beating myself up, wondering what I could have done differently to ensure people liked me, just like the employees.

In the end, it wasn’t about me. I think it is easy for us pleasers to fall into this mindset. I have found, during recent years of coaching team members, that the world of hospitality attracts givers and high-functioning empaths like myself. We want to make people happy. We believe that doing so makes us happy, and yet conversely, when things don’t go positively, we feel we are failing. Twenty-plus years into my career, I have decided to take care of myself first, so I can set boundaries and be okay with not pleasing everyone. After all, if you have worked with people long enough, you know that not everyone will be happy 100 percent of the time.

A book I have found to support my efforts at both ensuring self-care and giving top-notch service to everyone is one I use as the basis of my work in the hospitality industry. This oldie-but-goodie book by Don Miguel Ruiz is called The Four Agreements. The agreements include the following:

Be Impeccable with Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your words in pursuit of truth and love.

Brene Brown touches on this concept when discussing building trust in relationships. Some people think gossiping is a way of connecting. This is not the case. Gossiping builds the opposite of trust.

Don’t Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is directed wholly at you. What others say and do is often a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

We are in a challenging world right now, and people are more distraught than ever. A recent article I read stated that empathy has been on the decline since 2000, when technology started to become more prevalent.

Don’t Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

I have indicated in service points for salespeople, as well as for guest and owner service staff, that it is best to ask two questions. One question isn’t enough. Two questions make people feel you care and want to understand their needs or their situations completely.

Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy from the way it is when you are sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Often employees will create negative self-talk because they weren’t able to get to all their responsibilities that day. I suggest they focus more on connecting with their customers in meaningful ways, letting that drive good feelings when they leave at the end of the day.

Ruiz’s book has been the base of relationship building in the work I do today. I have found that people who are quick to judge others are often truly hardest on themselves. Once I was able to have empathy for others, I was able to stop judging them as well as myself. Since I have been practicing the Four Agreements daily, as well as having empathy for people, for the last five years, I have felt emotionally healthy and confident that I am giving the highest level of service I can give. I believe that service is a way of life and that we can share our service through our work in the hospitality industry and our everyday actions.

Another book by Don Miguel Ruiz is called The Mastery of Love. It has changed my life and has formed one of my values, which I call “all actions out of love, not fear.”

This can be practiced by having honest conversations, even when it feels scary. I recently had a coaching session with a guest services representative for whom it was early in the coaching process. In our session, I could feel her pushing back against the scoring methods as well as the recommended communication techniques. It was not going well, and so I said, “I want to ensure our time spent together is valuable to you. Is there anything I can do to ensure you look forward to our coaching sessions and are open to the communication techniques we discuss?”

She said she didn’t feel she was prepared because she didn’t get her homework done. I empathized with her, and I understood that being prepared is important to her. I still felt the disconnect between us, and I reminded myself that I was still building trust, so I should be patient with the process. Later that day, she sent me an email apologizing for her anxiety and frustration at the beginning of our coaching session, explaining that it had nothing to do with me. If I hadn’t acted out of love and asked her what I could do, that email might never have been sent, and she wouldn’t have been vulnerable enough to allow us to build trust.

Being in the hospitality industry requires a good amount of energy and a giving nature, so it is crucial that we are mindful of how we are feeling and communicating because the body keeps score. If you are getting sick often or feeling bouts of depression, here are some methods I suggest.

Define self-care more broadly. Understand what you need to be your most constructive, effective, and authentic self. This might include setting healthy boundaries.
Take out the word “should.” Let self-care flow from the intention to stay connected to oneself and one’s overall mission.
Operationalize self-care in your day-to-day work.
1. Cut yourself a break.
2. Value time, money, and resources.
3. Take a victory lap.
4. Surround yourself with good people.
5. Update your workspace.
6. Recharge and reboot.

Self-care is a constant practice. When you notice you are slipping, revisit those self-care tools that helped you originally. Another favorite practice I personally perform is gratitude journaling. When I notice myself getting negative about life, I write something I am grateful for every day, for 30 days. It is said that gratitude journaling can have the same effect as taking an anti-depressant. Research shows it is searching for something to be grateful for that makes the mind shift. I will say that if I am not diligent about doing this every day, I don’t reap the same rewards. If I am disciplined about the practice, it is like a reset button, and I look at everything with appreciation and gratitude.

“Self-care is a priority and necessity, not a luxury, in the work we do.” — Unknown

How to Sign More New Homeowners… and Keep the Ones You Already Have!

Doug Kennedy

February 25, 2019

As I often say in on-site workshops, “If you want to get as much business as everyone else gets, then do the things that everyone else does.” Until recently, that approach ensured that any given vacation rental (VR) company would get its fair share of the market. To find new owners, all one had to do was check real estate transaction reports, send postcards to solicit new owners, and bribe top realtors into forwarding their leads. Likewise, keeping existing owners was fairly easy; just return phone calls and emails reactively, and keep a revenue stream coming in that at least covered the owner’s mortgage payment.

However, like most other industries, the VR business experienced a significant and sudden disruption in the marketplace. Suddenly, long-term owners of top-tier inventory were giving notice of exiting, while responses from new owners to the old marketing efforts slowed to a trickle. Established companies have found their legacy models disrupted by new start-ups purchasing existing VR companies. These disruptors are backed by seemingly unlimited venture capitalist funding, enabling guaranteed rental streams and lower commission structures. If you are not yet experiencing disruption, it is only because they have not found their way into your market just yet, but they are coming one day soon.

What can locally branded companies do to fight back? The following are some of the best practices that I recommend for our VR client companies.

How to Sign New Homeowners

Personalize correspondence. Rather than a generic postcard, reference something special and specific about the new home. Reference the names and addresses of other homes you represent nearby.
Sell the advantages of being a local brand. Include a picture of a property manager(s) and a group shot of your operations team. If you have in-house maintenance, laundry, or housekeeping, mention that too.
Be diligent and timely with follow-up. Rather than sending one postcard, use a drip-style campaign, again personalizing the messaging. Continue even if they sign elsewhere.
When homeowners inquire about changing but do not switch, stay in touch with personalized messages every two or three months. Vary the media used from handwritten notes to emails to video emails and camera phone pics, but when the season draws to a close, place a phone call.

How to Keep Existing Homeowners

Organize a process for connecting with every homeowner every four months. Start by entering all homeowners into a lead tracking system. If necessary, start with an Excel or Google Docs spreadsheet, or use one of many excellent cloud-based CRM tools. (I like ZoHo.com, which runs about $12 per month.) Trace each owner for a four-month follow-up. If you end up connecting sooner, retrace them after another four months. Vary the medium; for example, first make a phone call, next an email, then a handwritten note, and so on. The message should be brief but personalized. For example, comment on how well an upgrade or improvement is being received; share a recent positive review; give an update on their community or neighborhood. Rather than sending birthday messages to owners, how about sending an anniversary card of the date they joined the program?

Close the loop on upgrades and repairs. When a major replacement or repair is complete, have maintenance take a picture. For upgrades, look through recent reviews for comments relevant to the change. (This can count as one of your four-month touches.)
Convey that you are personally engaged with their home. Most VR companies seem to use an annual inspection checklist; be sure to share it with the owners. While in their home, take a picture or send a video email message to let the owners actually see their main contact there.
Let owners know your company is working on their behalf. Let them see pictures of your staff at educational sessions, training workshops, and industry conferences. Share “frontline hero” stories during which your maintenance and operations staff resolved difficult guest situations and emergencies. Talk about new tech you are implementing.
Make annual reviews more engaging. Make them easy to schedule by using an online tool (I like Calendly.com, which is about $10 a month.) Once scheduled, ask the owners to be by a computer if possible so you can use an online meeting tool and screen share to show what you are covering, such as guest reviews, contract terms, revenue reports, and so on. Use a highlighter tool to circle or underline key points discussed. Have your owner relations rep share his or her webcam; ask the owners to share theirs too. Even if they decline, this makes for a more personally engaging conversation. Sort through reviews to find those that are actionable and tied to improvements that can help increase rents. (Copy and paste actionable reviews into your CRM as the year progresses for quick access.)
Send personalized thank-you notes and messages. Finally, when despite all your best efforts an owner still leaves, be helpful with the transition. Send a thank-you note or personalized message (again a picture or video email). Then put the owner back in your trace system, and reach out again every four to six months to invite him or her back.

Is it Time to Update Your Social Impact Strategy?

Lynn Thurston

February 21, 2019

When a guest is considering renting a vacation home, purpose, cost, and location remain top considerations.

Increasingly, however, guests, owners, prospective employees, and regulators are also interested in how your company contributes to the community and makes the world a better place. A recent Cone Communications survey revealed that 87 percent of Americans will purchase a product because a company supports an issue they care about.[1]

Have you considered developing a well-defined social impact strategy that resonates with your guests, owners, and employees? According to a study by Deloitte, having one can help you accomplish the following:

Create new market opportunities.
Transition regulatory relationships from reactive to proactive.
Attract and retain top talent.
Enhance brand value with key stakeholders.
Build resilient, sustainable supply chains.[2]

What if you partnered with a local environmental group to help resolve a pressing issue in your community? Could that open an entirely new market of potential guests and owners who care passionately about the environment?

If you helped Rent by Owners (RBOs) address noise-related complaints, could you reduce the risk of angry neighbors lobbying for rent restrictions? What if you decided to focus your efforts on low-income owners who are not direct competitors? Could you be viewed as a company that works to alleviate poverty?

Prospective and current employees want to work for a purpose-driven company. As Deloitte and others make clear, millennials, baby boomers, retirees, and Generation Xers are increasingly seeking opportunities to pursue social impact work in the corporate sector. This isn’t just a millennial issue. In a tight labor market, or even one that isn’t that tight, providing meaningful work is important. Do you have purpose-driven initiatives that truly engage current and prospective employees?

Is your supply chain socially responsible? If you give your owners and guests gifts, are the gifts locally sourced? Are your linens and cleaning products environmentally sustainable?

If you’re seriously interested in developing a social impact strategy, it’s important to understand that yesterday’s community support isn’t today’s social impact.

The History of Social Impact

For many business owners, social impact has evolved from a pure public relations play, in which a company might make a one-time charitable donation, to an important part of business strategy aimed at protecting the company.[3] Recently, social impact has also embraced the establishment of “social first” companies that at the outset, are designed to “do good” but also make money.

Charity

We all understand charitable giving. It usually takes the form of a donation of money or time. Donating money to United Way or volunteering to help clean up a local beach are examples of charitable giving.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

CSR has its roots in the financial crisis of 2008, the Take Back Wall Street Movement, and large-scale environmental disasters.

In response to calls for greater accountability, transparency, and a more positive contribution to society, companies have embraced the concept of sustainable economic, social, and environmental development, particularly in the communities where they conduct business. Some companies, for example, have started paying higher wages through fair trade agreements, whereas others have developed new technologies to reduce their environmental footprint. Companies such as Coca Cola have launched programs to ensure clean water, in part to ensure continued success and in part to support the need for clean water in communities around the world. CSR has become a strategy for conducting a company’s core business in a more socially responsible way. Decisions about where to invest CSR dollars have been closely aligned with a company’s overall business strategy.

Social Enterprises

The latest addition to the mix is social enterprises. These companies launch with the explicit goal of solving a social problem while making money. They’re a blend of social and for-profit, with profits reinvested to scale the business to serve more people. One company commonly cited is Patagonia. The company’s mission is to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

“Social first” companies, as well as many companies pursuing CSR strategies, are addressing a wide variety of issues, many of them aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Figure 1: The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030

Social Impact Investing

Alongside social enterprises and CSR, a social impact investment sector has developed. This sector attracted $114 billion in 2017 to invest in social enterprises and companies engaged in CSR, a clear indication that people are interested in supporting businesses that contribute to solving social and environmental problems.[4] By comparison, charitable giving reached $390 billion last year. Although charitable giving still outweighs social impact investing, new approaches are gaining traction.

What’s Happening in the Vacation Rental Industry?

In some respects, it’s hard to tell. An analysis of 130 randomly selected websites owned by VRMA members around the world found that only four had anything to say about their social or community involvement.[5]

We have, however, seen some recent social impact initiatives promoted in the vacation rental and accommodations industry.

In 2016, Airbnb established a partnership with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India, a nonprofit organization of poor, self-employed women. Airbnb is committed to helping SEWA provide training and support for low-income women interested in hosting travelers. Working with the Indian government, Airbnb signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that clearly signals a commitment to inclusive job creation and to working in partnership with government officials. Airbnb is also working with low-income communities in Cape Town and other communities in rural, underdeveloped locations to expand tourism opportunities. This aligns with its goal to expand its cadre of new owners (hosts) and open new locations for travelers to explore.
In 2017, Booking.com announced a Booster Accelerator Program for start-up businesses. This competition supports the scaling of any new businesses making a positive contribution to sustainable tourism. The winner that year was Backstreet Academy, whose CEO, Jamon Mok, I interviewed in Singapore last year. Jamon started Backstreet Academy to connect low-income artisans in Southeast Asia to travelers interested in local experiences, such as learning how to make a copper bracelet or a bamboo bicycle. One of this year’s top winners of Booking.com’s competition is Sakha Consulting Wings: Women on Wheels. This is a social enterprise that offers safe transport solutions for women by women. These competitions raise Booking.com’s profile, expand activities for travelers seeking local experiences, and address pressing social issues.
In the United States, some vacation rental companies are helping rent-by-owners (RBOs), some of whom are low-income accommodation providers, improve their operations. The primary goal is to reduce neighbor complaints and regulatory pressure on the industry.
Purpose-driven initiatives are also being launched that can enhance brand recognition and employee engagement, such as the Feed North Carolina (NC) Project. This project, supported by Topsail Realty, Bluewater, Sloane Realty Vacations, Outer Banks Blue, Resort Realty, and Intracoastal Vacation Rentals, collects nonperishable food products left behind by guests and distributes them to food charities.[6]

Developing a Social Impact Strategy

Deciding on a social impact initiative that aligns with your business strategy isn’t easy. Many well-intentioned initiatives have reached train-wreck status because the extent of the commitment was underestimated, an internal champion at the senior level of the company was not onboard, too few resources were allocated, employees weren’t given the time and space they needed, communication strategies were not well defined, and the development of new partnerships was poorly understood or nonexistent.

Along the way, however, some best practices have evolved.

Start with an assessment of your strategic challenges. Are you facing rental regulations or hoping to prevent them from gaining momentum? Has your owner growth stalled at a time when you’re trying to grow? Are you having a difficult time attracting and retaining good employees? Is a key natural resource you depend on under threat, or are natural disasters increasingly threatening your community?

Because you want your social impact initiative to inspire your entire workforce, along with potential owners and guests, seek input from others about the challenges they are facing. Document and prioritize your challenges. Pick one that is critical to your continued success.

Ask, “How might we develop or participate in a social impact initiative that also helps us overcome this challenge?” Generate as many ideas as possible.

Select one idea to review in detail. Assess whether your company has the leadership commitment, skills, resources, and partnerships to engage in the social impact initiative you have identified. Leadership from the top is essential, even if the initiative is driven by others. Choosing a social issue that is totally outside your area of expertise, even if it’s an important one, is risky. Also, check your assumptions about those you are hoping to help. Interview community members and subject experts. Use human-centered design strategies developed by organizations, like IDEO and Acumen. Keep selecting ideas to review until you find one that is a good fit.

If you partner with other organizations, clearly understand their goals, and make sure they understand yours. In writing, outline the goal of the initiative, resource requirements, roles and responsibilities, and the deliverables and timeframes.

Decide how you will evaluate your initiative. Measuring social impact can be tricky, so it’s important to set specific goals and identify three to five quantifiable, high-level metrics. Focus on measuring the one thing you are seeking to accomplish. Measure outcomes, not inputs.

Implement your strategy.

Evaluate your results and make changes, as necessary.

Revise your marketing to include your commitment to social impact.

When All Is Said and Done

Developing a social impact strategy can make good business sense. Perhaps more importantly, it’s the right thing to do. As this year’s President Club winner, Tim Cafferty, shared, “Members of VRMA make so many positive contributions to their communities. They are truly wonderful people who are committed to helping others.” People need to know what you stand for. Developing a social impact strategy will make it clear.

Notes

1. M. Peretz, “Want to Engage Millennials? Try Corporate Social Responsibility,” Forbes, September 2017. See also “Corporate Responsibility: Losing Faith in Business,” Harvard Business Review, November–December 2018. The authors report on a survey of 10,455 millennials in 36 countries who have increasing doubts about whether businesses are really helping society, and fewer than half of respondents think companies behave ethically.

2. “Driving Corporate Growth through Social Impact,” Deloitte Consulting LLP, 2015.

3. “Driving Corporate Growth.”

4. “How Impact Investing Can Put a Profitable Spin on Charity,” Forbes, December 13, 2017.

5. Park City Lodging has a section on social responsibility that includes nonprofit partnerships and sustainability initiatives on its website under About Us. La Jolla Vacation Rentals also has information about the charities they support under About Us. Island Realty has a community outreach link on their home page, and Cobblestone Creek has a home page section called Cobblestone in the Community.

6. Involving employees in social causes has been shown to enhance employee retention and morale. See, for example, Kathleen Kelly Janus, “Employees Will Stay Longer If You Involve Them in Social Causes,” Quartz at Work, January 16, 2018.

Coming to a City near You: As vacation rentals grow in popularity, so do the regulations to stop them

Alexa Nota

February 20, 2019

The 2018 legislation season brought the vacation rental industry some high highs, low lows, and everything in between. Cities that had been embattled for years made big moves, communities issued bigger petitions and bigger votes, and they all made one thing clear: the war is not lost, and the battle is only heating up.

“The regulatory landscape has become a tale of two cities: those that have embraced fair and effective policies and those that have turned their back on logic in order to appease special interests,” said Philip Minardi, director of policy communications for Expedia Group, which owns HomeAway. “The industry—platforms, managers, owners, travelers, and partner businesses—has shown more this year than ever before what can be accomplished when we work together. We should take pride in our efforts to win at the ballot box in Palm Springs, California, and in building a coalition to push back against, and eventually overturn, the San Diego ban.” He also highlighted the ordinance the Seattle City Council approved at the tail end of 2017 and the policy San Antonio passed in November.

Despite these bright spots, there has been an increasing tide of proposed bans or effective bans, Minardi said. “Cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas have passed policies not based in compromise or compliance, but in capitulation to anti-vacation rental voices.”

Here are some of the biggest stories from 2018 and what the industry is watching in the year ahead.

Key Moments in 2018

States Protect Short-Term Rentals

Last spring, Indiana became the fourth state to protect short-term rental owners’ property rights at the state level, joining Idaho, Florida, and Arizona. Indiana’s new regulations prevent municipalities from banning short-term rentals but allow them to regulate noise, safety, permitting, and other things at the local level. Tennessee followed shortly with a bill that protects existing short-term rentals in municipalities but does not stop cities, towns, or counties from banning future rentals. Nebraska would have joined the group too, but its governor vetoed the bill.

On the other end of the spectrum, New Hampshire and Maryland considered bills to give municipalities more power to restrict short-term rentals, but neither was moved forward.

What to watch in 2019:

Texas: The state senate passed a preemption bill in the spring of 2017 but it stalled in a house committee. The topic is expected back on the docket in the next legislative session.

Georgia: A bill to prevent localities from regulating or banning vacation rentals has surfaced in the state house before, and some expect it could make the rounds again in 2019. With the session starting January 14, there won’t be any changes before Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl on February 3, but the event could play a role in the debate. The Super Bowl has been a popular weekend for new hosts to list their homes on Airbnb for the first time, generating $1,000+ nightly rates. According to data from Airbnb in December, it estimates hosts on the platform will house 3,829 guests and earn $1.35 million between January 27 and February 3.

Palm Springs Voters Struck Down Vacation Rental Ban

On June 5, Palm Springs, California, voters turned down Measure C, a proposition to phase out vacation rentals in single-family neighborhoods in the city over the next two years. The measure was brought forth by the Palm Springs Neighbors for Neighborhoods group. It was struck down by a wide margin, with 6,764 votes (69 percent) against it. The victory has been held up as a model of what vacation rental markets can accomplish.

New Orleans Halts VR Permitting and Heads Toward Vacation Rental Ban

In April 2017, News Orleans passed strict regulations around short-term and vacation rentals. One year later, the council issued a moratorium on new permits in most districts while it tried to figure out whether the ordinance was working. Affordable housing advocates and the hotel lobby claim it is not. A city planning commission study released in September recommended a ban of nonowner-occupied short-term rentals (STRs) in all noncommercial districts. Councilmember Kristen Gisleson Palmer released a proposal endorsing just that as the clock wound down on the year.

What to watch in 2019: The council will consider Palmer’s proposal in January.

San Diego City Council Passes Vacation Rental Ban, But a Petition Overturns It

In July, the San Diego City Council adopted regulations allowing a host to be issued one short-term rental license for a primary residence and one additional license for an accessory dwelling unit on the same lot as the primary residence, effectively banning the traditional second-home vacation rental in which the owner does not live on site. Following a referendum petition led by Share San Diego, HomeAway, and Airbnb that collected 62,000 signatures, the city council was forced to either put the issue on the ballot in 2020 or rescind the ordinance. They voted 8–1 to rescind it in October.

What to watch in 2019: The San Diego City Council will head back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, Councilmember Lorie Zapf, the only no vote in rescinding the ordinance, called for “enforcement to begin robustly and in earnest immediately.”

San Antonio Passes What Many Consider Model Legislation

On November 1, the San Antonio City Council voted 8–2 to pass regulations on short-term rentals in the city. The ordinance went into effect immediately and includes licensing, density limits, tax collection, and other rules based on two types: hosted rentals in which the owner or occupant remains on site during the guests’ stays are Type I, and unhosted rentals are Type II. Both types are allowed in most zoning districts, including residential areas, but Type II STRs will be limited in density to one property per eight per block face. Several prominent short-term rental advocates consider this fair and balanced legislation that can be successfully modeled in other cities.

South Lake Tahoe Becomes Known as the “City of $1,000 Parking Tickets,” then Bans Vacation Rentals

South Lake Tahoe was already one of the most strictly regulated markets in the country prior to a petition calling for a ban of vacation rentals outside the tourist core, a move that would eliminate 75 percent of the city’s 1,800 rentals by 2021. Under the previous rules, violations of things like parking or hot-tub use carried minimum $1,000 fines to both the guest and owner or property manager, leading the popular destination to become known as the “city of $1,000 parking tickets.” Just months after the tightened rules had been put in place, the Tahoe Neighborhoods Group certified a petition to put the ban on the ballot. It passed by just 58 votes. On December 18, a group of local property and business owners filed a lawsuit against the city stating that Measure T is unconstitutional and unenforceable.

What to watch in 2019: The case will be heard January 24. In the meantime, the city has hit pause on implementing the measure.

The Vacation Rental Industry Loses Ballot Initiatives around the Country on Election Day

In addition to South Lake Tahoe, Pacific Grove, California; South Portland, Maine; and Maui County, Hawaii, all lost ballot initiatives. In Pacific Grove, Measure M received more than 58 percent of the vote to ban and phase out short-term rentals in residential areas outside the coastal zone within 18 months. In South Portland, residents voted to uphold an ordinance passed by the city council last summer to ban unhosted short-term rentals in residential areas. Though there are fewer than 300 short-term rentals in South Portland, its ordinance could influence legislation for 750 short-term rentals in Portland, the state’s largest city and a popular tourist destination that sits just across the Fore River.

In Hawaii, Maui County residents voted on an initiative to amend the county charter on penalties. Nearly 52 percent of voters favored increasing the fines of operating a transient accommodation unit without a permit from $1,000 to up to $20,000 plus $10,000 per day the operation continues. Heavy penalties like these have popped up elsewhere in Hawaii, including Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s proposal that includes fines from $25,000 to $100,000 per day, which even he calls “draconian.”

Massachusetts Enacts Statewide Short-Term Rental Registration and Taxes

On the last working day of the year, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed Bill H.4841 requiring short-term rental operators to register with the state and pay state excise tax in addition to local taxes and fees, among other regulations. Licensed properties will be listed in a public, searchable online registry. The law will go into effect July 1, 2019.

What Else to Watch in 2019: Your Backyard

Short-term rentals are coming into focus for legislators around the globe. From little-known corners like Cook County, Minnesota, which is considering taxing generations-long family vacation homes as commercial properties, to nationwide urban bans like Ireland’s to address its affordable housing shortage, new vacation and short-term rental legislation lands on council and commission agendas almost daily. And although it may seem insignificant or too far away to matter, every new ordinance is a domino teetering over onto another . . . and another, and another.

David Krauss, short-term rental advocate and cofounder of Noiseaware, sees a negative pattern emerging. “Unfortunately, the pendulum is swinging away from pro-short-term rental regulatory outcomes,” he said. “I believe this is an indication that communities and elected officials, at this point in time, do not yet view short-term rentals are compatible with their vision of their neighborhoods. Paradoxically, the consumer demand and satisfaction with short-term rentals as an accommodation option continues to increase.”

Looking ahead, Krauss sees a more data-driven, sophisticated conversation happening. “Much of the debate these days is emotionally and anecdotally driven,” he said. “Strict ordinances and ‘bans’ will start to get their report cards in 2019, and I don’t think they will get a passing grade. Elected officials will have to ask themselves, ‘Did the legislation we passed achieve the intended outcome?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then they will have to look into an approach that is more focused on regulating, monitoring, and enforcing reasonable rules versus prohibition as a strategy.”

“I think 2019 will be another year of limbo and uncertainty,” he added. “I think it will be two or three more years before there is a generally accepted, effective framework for regulating short-term rentals.”

His top advice for property managers is to go to city hall and meet elected officials ASAP. “You will be facing them at some point,” he said, “and the battle lines will be drawn by the time the topic of STRs is on the docket. In cities where there has been an engaged, organized STR community, the regulatory outcomes have been better. It’s easier for the opposition to rally around fear and NIMBYism, so getting a head start is the best option. A good offense is the best defense and we, as an industry, are on defense by and large.”

Minardi believes getting involved in public policy is a critical way property managers can protect their businesses. “If you think someone else will do it for you, you’re wrong,” he said. “If you think bans or onerous rules won’t impact your city or business, you’re wrong. If you think your voice won’t matter, you’re wrong.”

Journey Mapping: Attract and Retain Employees by Mapping the Employee Experience

Sue Jones

February 19, 2019

employee journey mapping vacation rental property management

In today’s economy, when unemployment is at a 30-year low, the biggest challenge employers face is just how hard it is to attract the right people. Then when they do find them, the prospects end up ghosting the company—agreeing to interviews but failing to show up, never to be heard from again. Candidates are pickier than ever. To attract the right people, it’s important to revisit employee experiences to be confident they accurately reflect the value of working for your business.

From employees’ first interactions with the employer brand through their exit from the company, understanding their experience is key. When culture and employee experience come into sync, property managers will see a positive impact on engagement, business results, and recruitment. This typically starts with identifying the gaps between what the employer promises and what the employee expects. One way to start is to apply principles from homeowner and customer experience strategies to human resources practices. Marketing and operations teams have this nailed down.

Employee experiences should be designed around what motivates and drives the person, not simple demographics and generalizations based on job title, rank, department, or location. This is important because not everyone wants the same development opportunities, benefits, or recognition. To learn more, I suggest thinking about staff members in groups differentiated by their experiences. See the following examples:

Employee engagement: detractors, observers, participants, and promoters
Generational diversity: traditionalists, baby boomers, Generation X, Generation Y (aka Millennials), and Generation Z

Each of these groups has different needs employers can reach with targeted initiatives and programs designed to improve their experience, and employers can use their insights to improve key points across the employment life cycle.

One tool that companies are starting to use more frequently in human resources to uncover these insights is journey mapping. Just as we can map out homeowner and guest experiences, employee journey mapping creates a visual of each stage of an employment life cycle:

The purpose of mapping the different stages is to identify the gaps between what the employer promises and what the employee expects. It helps validate that a company is spending resources wisely on what truly matters to its team. Additionally, it provides the following:

An appreciation for what each person is doing, thinking, feeling, needing, and wanting
A better understanding of how to help employees in each stage of the process
Steps to improve the employee experience

Journey mapping provides clear, tangible benefits. A brand that does what it promises attracts better talent and increases employee engagement and retention. It’s a challenging task and requires a lot of effort, but the rewards are too tempting to ignore.

So how do you get started?

Define the stages of the employee experience at your company. An example might be recruitment, onboarding, engaging, and separating. Recognize that within each stage of the journey, there will be cascading stages to identify on the journey map.
Map it out. For each stage, describe the process the employees go through. Then describe what they are doing, thinking, feeling, needing, and wanting to strengthen their connection to the company.
Identify the gaps and come up with solutions. Once a whole picture is formed, employers can identify ways to improve the employee experience.

The following example shows an onboarding stage of the journey map. At a high level, each stage identifies the processes new hires go through and what they are seeking from the company along the way.

Sample Employee Journey: Onboarding

Completes new-hire paperwork: Employers introduce company policies, the handbook, I-9s, and payroll forms. New hires want to get through this “painful” process quickly.
Goes through orientation: Employees learn about the company and are excited to be there. New hires want to obtain the information they need so they can feel confident their skills are valued.
Meets the team: Employees meet the team and formulate their own views about the company and their coworkers. New hires want to feel welcome and understand what is expected of them.
Receives training: Employees learn about their responsibilities, how to do their jobs, available resources, and how to be successful. New hires feel overwhelmed at this point and are looking for encouragement and clear direction.
Completes new hire survey: Employees provide feedback on their new-hire onboarding experience. New hires need assurance that all feedback is welcome. When answering questions, they may feel pressured to be more polite than honest depending upon the survey mode (anonymous versus face to face).

The last phase in this employee journey mapping exercise is to identify steps to improve the new-hire experience during onboarding. Based on the example above, I have listed potential improvements at this stage to build stronger connections with the company:

Providing new hires with electronic forms, the employee handbook, and other company policies to review and complete before the first day can lessen the “pain” of spending several hours completing new-hire paperwork on site.
Mix up the delivery of information during orientation. Using welcome videos and bringing in key leaders to share more about the culture, vision, and purpose of the company broadens the employees’ experiences during orientation.
Assign coworkers times to meet with new hires to explain their roles in the department and how they will work together.
Provide a variety of training resources (e.g., video, policies, and on-the-job training (OJT)) including mentors to help ensure the new hires feel encouraged and not overwhelmed.
Identify the frequency of surveying new hires face to face or anonymously. Thirty, 60, and 90 days seem to be the most common frequencies for gathering new-hire feedback.

Understanding the importance of personnel engagement is one thing, but knowing how to go about it is another. That’s why journey mapping is effective. It helps create empathy and greater understanding of how staff might be feeling, the challenges they face, and how this affects their employment with you. Remember, as culture and employee experience come into sync, you will see a positive impact on engagement, business results, and recruitment.

Everyone is dealing with low unemployment, a hyper-competitive job market, and increased levels of productivity. It is now more important than ever to take time to learn more about your employer brand and how employees actually feel about working for your company. Here’s to becoming the employer of choice in your marketplace—the one that is attracting the right people.

Ascent Processing Inc. Launches Vacation Loan Product: ASCENTpay powered by Uplift

VRM Intel Staff

February 19, 2019

Ascent Processing Inc., the 22-year leader in vacation rental/lodging payment processing in North America, today announced the official release of their consumer travel loan product called ASCENTpay powered by Uplift. The company, which prides itself on being the originator of vacation rental specific payment processing, has partnered with Uplift, the provider of short-term travel financing software, to develop ASCENTpay powered by Uplift, a cost-effective financing product specifically tailored for the short-term vacation rental market.

“We are thrilled to have partnered with Uplift to bring this innovative payment option to the vacation rental industry,” said vice president, business development and partner programs, Dawn Yeskulsky. “Our expertise in the VR payments industry, coupled with Uplift’s technology, has allowed us to create a game-changing payment alternative that solves a multitude of issues for property managers and lodging providers while providing a new payment option to guests. Instant financing is a widely accepted payment alternative in the retail and e-commerce markets. We worked behind the scenes for months talking with property managers to find out what they wanted and needed in a product like this. What we discovered was for instant financing to work for Ascent, we needed to create a solution that would remove liability for chargebacks and fraud from our property managers, while significantly increasing both direct bookings and revenue, which we are able to do by partnering with Uplift. The fact that we pay our property managers 100 percent of the full amount of the total reservation immediately at the time of the booking, that is just an added bonus.”

The company will be revealing ASCENTpay powered by Uplift to the industry at the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb 20^th at 10:15 am CST in New Orleans, LA. Yeskulsky added, “Being a women-owned company, we believed the Women’s Summit was the perfect venue to announce ASCENTpay powered by Uplift, a product designed by women.” The presentation will also be livestreamed via the VRM Intel Facebook page starting at 10:15 a.m. CST.

“Ascent is a leader in payment processing for lodging and rentals, and our partnership will provide an immediate positive impact for the company’s property managers throughout North America,” said Tom Botts, chief commercial officer at Uplift. “We’re thrilled to deliver instant financing within Ascent’s own offering, which enables the company to increase their value to their property managers within a seamless customer experience.”

Ascent Processing Inc. will add ASCENTpay powered by Uplift to its established merchant service offerings. “The response from our industry partners has been nothing short of amazing. We are very excited to have already contracted with many of the VR industry tech companies, such as Bizcor, ICND, RealVoice, Bluetent, and Janiis, that will be offering the service to their clients, with more partners being added weekly,” Yeskulsky said.

To learn more about the product or inquire about a partnership feel free to visit www.ascent-pay.com.

In the Eye of the Storm: Lessons Learned in the Wake of Hurricanes Florence, Michael, and Others

Alexa Nota

February 18, 2019

Destruction in Canal Park in Mexico Beach, Florida on October 26, 2018, two weeks after Hurricane Michael made landfall

Hurricane Florence

Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, on Friday, September 14, then inched its way west into South Carolina as a tropical storm later that day. By Saturday morning, more than a million people were without power across NC and SC. The immense size and slow speed of the storm dropped a record 33.9 inches of rain on areas around the Carolinas over the next few days.

Flooding continued nearly a week later as some rivers had yet to crest, and 750 roads remained closed, including sections of I-40 and other major thoroughfares. Wilmington remained largely waterlocked by the Cape Fear River, thousands of its residents left without power. Meanwhile, the floodwaters swept dangerous bacteria and toxins out to sea, causing several beaches to issue swimming advisories for poor water quality.

All along the Carolinas’ coastlines, unclear timelines in the effort to restore power, water, and other utilities had many property managers unsure of when they could reopen, and, in some cases, if they’d even have rentable properties to return to. News coverage and drone footage of the hardest-hit areas showed roof damage, flattened oceanfront dunes, and splintered decking.

Kure, Wrightsville, and Carolina Beach began recovery slightly faster than Wilmington, and access reopened to the public throughout the week after the storm, but according to many of their updates, property managers were still in the dark.

South of Wilmington, Oak Island Accommodations was among the companies that had to close without any idea of when they could reopen. Its September 19 website update read:

Our entire office building was flooded during Florence and at this time we have less than 10 staff members in the area. There is a shortage of food and gas on Oak Island and surrounding areas, which is also delaying efforts to begin assessing homes.

Those staff members who have been able to return from evacuation areas worked today to begin the clean up process in our office. As soon as we have an operational office and our full staff are able to return after rivers have crested and routes are less hazardous, we will begin the assessment process. Once the assessment process is complete we will reach out to guests by email with further updates.

Oak Island Accommodations vice president Melaney Robbins said, “We are working remotely in all corners of the state, updating our Facebook pages, website, OwnerWeb, and answering voicemails and emails as best we can.” She evacuated her family to Boone, NC, and as of Tuesday the 18^th, she had not yet been able to return to the island.

Sewer service was fully restored on September 28, the swimming advisory was lifted on October 2, and Oak Island’s guest services team was able to begin taking check-ins back in the main office on October 17.

Areas farther away from Wilmington, including the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach, were spared the brunt of the storm. Sloane Realty Vacations in Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach, about 30 miles west of Oak Island near the NC-SC border, reopened after a seven-day evacuation. “Due to the significant flooding and road closures, some guests were unable to return or arrive immediately after the storm passed. However, we are fortunate that many guests were able to find open routes to our area to enjoy their vacation,” said Whitney Sauls, the company’s general manager.

Moody’s Analytics estimated that Florence caused $17–$22 billion in damages.

Hurricane Michael

Less than a month later, Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the United States. The fast-moving category 4 storm carved a path of destruction through Mexico Beach and Panama City, wiping out entire neighborhoods before moving into Georgia as a category 3 storm and into the Carolinas, where it dumped more rain on still-soaked ground. As many as 1.2 million people in the Southeast lost power, and the widespread damage is estimated to have cost $14.6 billion.

As Thanksgiving approached a month later, VRM Intel spoke with Annie Holcombe, director of account management for BookingPal and a Panama City resident. At the time, the power grid still hadn’t been fully restored, and cell connectivity was hard to come by. She hadn’t yet been able to reach any of her property management clients.

Holcombe was one of the lucky residents, having moved into a newly built neighborhood the year before that withstood the brunt of the storm. Others weren’t as fortunate; some residents were living in tents or cars because their homes had been condemned or razed off the map entirely. Although it had been weeks since Michael made landfall, FEMA was quick to leave and contractors were slow to arrive—crews were still working to clear roads and stabilize power lines. With every day that passed, more homes were condemned, leaving families with no place to store their belongings. The community rallied around its members, and Holcombe initiated a bin drive to help those families store their treasured belongings.

By November 12, she had helped more than 50 families and distributed more than 400 bins, each one coming with a mandatory hug. “I’ve hugged more total strangers in the last month than I could have ever imagined. I’m getting as much out of it with just a hug as they are with bins,” Holcombe said.

Six weeks after we spoke, Holcombe and other members of the hardest-hit communities were still posting daily with recovery questions, needs, and bits of positive news to keep spirits up. In Mexico Beach, three restaurants had reopened with limited capacity, a temporary welcome center had opened next to its original office, and crews were focused on structural repairs rather than stabilization.

In early January, nearby St. George Island was mostly cleaned up. “Overall our local market fared relatively well, especially given the disastrous impact on our neighbors to the west,” said Cutler Edwards, marketing director for Resort Vacation Properties of St. George Island. “Most of the damage to inventory in the area was relatively minor: roofs, soffit, vinyl siding, windows and doors, staircases, and flooding in ground-level rooms and homes, or sand underneath that had to be removed. There were only a few homes that experienced catastrophic structural damage. We were very lucky here.” About 80 percent of their inventory is available for rent, and they expect the majority of the remaining 60 properties to be ready for spring break guests.

“The island itself is quite resilient,” Edwards said. “One local landmark, Harry A’s, is still rebuilding with a target of opening in March, but the other restaurants and shops are all back open. Cleanup is largely complete, and the Dr. Julian G Bruce State Park, an important part of the Island, is making great progress to reopen in early February. Our neighboring communities of Apalachicola and Eastpoint, although not without damage of their own, are back in full swing too, with fresh seafood on the tables, cold drinks pouring, and boutiques and galleries open.”

Still, recovery just a few miles west in Mexico Beach and Panama City will be long and slow. At the time this article goes to press, Holcombe may still be waiting on her roof repairs.

Lessons Learned

Hurricanes are nothing new in many coastal vacation rental markets. But as vacation rental managers and DMOs learn new lessons with each storm, the industry’s response in the aftermath evolves.

Missy Zak, marketing and account manager at Ascent Payment Processing, was in property management with Meyer Vacation Rentals when Hurricane Ivan hit Florida and Alabama in 2004. The company had emergency management protocols in place to assess and handle damages as well as keep as many new and existing reservations as possible, but losing 400 homes in the storm was a significant blow. In the company’s efforts to get revenue coming in again, the timing of marketing messages may have been clouded by perspective.

“Because we saw the damage from ‘ground zero’ on a daily basis, any improvement was noted by us—the locals,” Zak said. “So, when infrastructure started getting reestablished, we started renting to construction and FEMA workers. As more progress was made in the first few months after the storm, we were so excited, as locals, to welcome our guests back. In our eyes, it was such an improvement that even with steady construction we thought the area was ready to receive guests. I believe we were a bit premature with marketing that the beaches and area were ready to host guests—because it looked like such an improvement to us but still looked like a construction site or war zone to others.”

The effects of this lasted for years. Zak said that even as they tried to accommodate as many of the loyal snowbirds as they could, they didn’t set the right expectations. In the years following, the company noticed that the same group of visitors tended to split their time between multiple destinations. “We learned quickly that we needed to paint the most accurate picture possible.”

In addition to not letting a numbness to reconstruction impair your assessment of whether or not the area is truly ready to host guests, Zak advises property managers now to be the resource. “Communicate with your owners, your guests, the media, the community, but most importantly, your team. Provide scripts and update as needed, depending on the status of your inventory. You must all be on the same page and tell the same story as accurately as possible.”

Mike Harrington, founder of Carolina Retreats, is in the midst of this process now in Topsail, NC. While the local businesses and government entities bounced back relatively quickly after Florence, home repairs remain ongoing. “Overall, everyone is taking it one step at a time with an eye toward being back at full strength by next spring,” he said. This time of year, most of the inquiries they get are no longer about area conditions, so now his company’s focus is on painting the right picture for the season ahead. “The vast majority of our guests understand the process, and we are only marketing properties at this time that we know will be in tip-top shape by the time the season rolls around.”

Harrington’s takeaway from Florence is about minimizing risk ahead of time. “While market diversification was always in the back of my mind, this has revealed a real case for not having all your eggs in one basket,” he said. “Since the storm, we have expanded to an adjacent market about an hour away through a couple of acquisitions. That market did not see anywhere near the damage Topsail Island saw during Florence. It goes to show that with hurricanes, which are our main natural threat, 30 to 40 miles between markets can have an enormous difference with potential damage. Our take, especially now, is that finding ways to spread inventory around through adjacent or semi-adjacent markets is a new reality in risk management for our business in the long run.”

For the team at Resort Vacation Properties of St. George Island, Hurricane Michael reinforced the importance and strength of their existing disaster response protocol, but also gave them an eye-opening look at how much worse the disaster could have been. “Hurricane Michael largely reinforced things we already knew and confirmed the importance of the disaster response protocols we have in place, but nothing we had in place would have been effective had the eye come 25 miles closer. We will be developing scaled responses based on strength and impact for our upcoming storm season,” Edwards said.

He noted the importance of proper preparation, not just of property management teams and processes, but of homeowners and vendors, too. “Working with property owners ahead of time to keep up-to-date information on insurance policies and agents, and whether an owner wants RVP to coordinate repairs or will handle it personally, gets recovery happening much more quickly. We did not have in our plans who would coordinate the repairs after the storm. This will now be added,” he said. “Of course, it’s important to nurture strong relationships with contractors and vendors so that when everyone in the area is clamoring for help and repairs, we can rely on our trusted partners. And for homeowners – get storm shutters installed and have them serviced twice a year.”

Edwards also stressed properly prioritized communications. “It’s also crucial to have clear, consistent communication with both owners and guests throughout the storm, and email, phones, and social media all play a role. Change your messages and web site daily with updates, but don’t feel you have to start answering your phones unless you are ready. Owners have to be taken care of first and will need a direct line to call in on to reach you. Guests can wait. Only worry about guests who are due in right away, and call or email them. Direct everyone else to your website. We tried to take care of everyone at the same time and that just does not work. You need to be in control, not your owners and guests.”

Herb Malone, president and CEO of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism, has seen hurricane recovery play out in cycles since Hurricane Frederic hit the Alabama–Mississippi line in 1979. At the time, he was on a local volunteer fire department, but when Ivan hit, he had been the head of the tourism organization for 15 years.

Typically, hurricane recovery is a four-year process, he said. “You get hit in year one. Year two, you rebuild. It’s year three before the destination is fully open for business and the tourists start to come back…You can say in year four, ‘We’re back bigger and better than ever before.’”

His long-term view lends itself to optimism. He sees storms as a “mass urban renewal” as older homes get wiped out and replaced by new and modern properties with better values and better yield. He’s watched as communities have been strengthened more by reconstruction than by tourism, and he’s seen a net population gain as contractors and other workers who came temporarily decide to stay permanently.

Malone’s lesson is simply to be open to lessons. “We always do a critique afterward. We know there will always be a next storm; we just don’t know when. Develop disaster plans—operational and marketing. Plans have to be fluid because there’s always something new that you didn’t dream would happen, but it happens.”

Podcast Roundup: VRMs Light Up the Airwaves with Direct Booking Discussions

Alexa Nota

February 6, 2019

podcast book direct vacation rental management

Although the Second Annual #BookDirect Guest Education Day is winding to a close, vacation rental managers, homeowners, and industry influencers are keeping the discussion going year-round. New resources pop up daily to help property managers build or maintain their OTA independence.

Among those resources are podcasts, many of which are becoming a popular primary source of continuing education for industry professionals. Here, VRM Intel rounded up several of these series and a selection of their episodes focused on driving direct bookings. All of them can be found on most podcast apps or directly on the websites listed in this article.

Unlocked

In the Unlocked podcast series, host Matt Landau of VRMB interviews property managers and other industry professionals in short episodes on one stand-out strategy or practice or longer episodes that dive deeper into the guts of their businesses. In episode 17 released today, Landau interviews Jeremiah Gall of Breezeway, a property care software. Gall also founded FlipKey and sold it to TripAdvisor, giving him an exclusive take on OTA independence. As Landau says in the episode introduction, “I got the chance to challenge Jeremiah with a pointed question that I had always sort of dreamed of asking a listing site executive. True to form, his answer flipped the next steps – the ‘where do we go from here’ – back on me.”

Listen to the episode here.

Vacation Rental Ninjas

One of the newest podcasts on the block is Vacation Rental Ninjas produced by ICND. Co-hosted by Paul Hanak, director of marketing, and David Thompson, director of social media, the series covers marketing, SEO, social media, website development, and other topics for vacation rental managers in half-hour segments. Episode two focuses on strategies to drive more direct bookings. One of their top recommendations (of many) is to focus on booking engine interface and interaction.

“This is probably the best tool you have in your arsenal for booking direct,” Thompson wrote in his show notes for VRM Intel. “You want the booking process to be as streamlined and easy as possible for the consumer. If you want to check out how well your booking engine works, get on your phone or computer and try and book a property. Or have someone else do it. See what steps you have to complete and ask yourself if the consumer would understand these steps.”

Listen to the full episode here.

Sarah and T

Sarah Bradford and Tim Cafferty have discussed marketing and distribution in several of the half-hour episodes in their podcast Sarah and T, but one episode from season one is entirely dedicated to four OTA independence strategies. At the time the podcast was recorded, Cafferty, who owns Outer Banks Blue in NC’s Outer Banks and Sandbridge Blue in Virginia Beach, said his OTA use was virtually nonexistent, whereas Bradford, who owns Winter Park Lodging Company and Steamboat Lodging Company in Colorado, was getting around 30 to 40 percent of reservations from OTAs. Together they provide balanced viewpoints on why driving more direct bookings is important for managers at any level of OTA independence. In this episode, they go through four main strategies:

Identify your independence or dependence by taking a close look at your data and non-OTA marketing strategy effectiveness
Encourage OTA leads to book directly with you by leveraging the branding opportunities the OTAs allow
Create a “book direct for lowest rate” campaign
Don’t let guests return to the OTAs and create loyalty

Listen to the complete episode here.

Vacation Rental Success

Many of Heather Bayer’s Vacation Rental Success podcast hour-long episodes cover marketing and distribution strategies to help drive direct reservations, including episode 271 released today. In this episode, she speaks with Annie Switzer of the Say No to VRBO Service Fee Facebook group and Joe Godar of ivacationonline.com vacation rental software and regional listings sites Emerald Coast by Owner (ECBYO.com) and DestinFlorida.com. Together they discuss ways to reduce reliance on OTAs, such as focusing on making the direct booking process as easy as possible.

Additionally, the previous episode 270 covers seven alternative ways to promote a vacation rental business. Though they cater more to small or new property managers and individual homeowners, Bayer tips and ideas can serve large professional managers well, such as how to start their own podcasts.

Listen to both episodes on VacationRentalFormula.com.

UK Agency Addresses Misleading OTA Sales Tactics

Alexa Nota

February 6, 2019

Updated February 6, 2019 with statements from Expedia and Booking.com.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced today it has taken action against Expedia, Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels.com, ebookers, and trivago to correct issues like pressure selling, misleading discount claims, the effect that commission has on how accommodations are ordered on sites, and hidden charges. Though not all six companies were found to have engaged in these practices, all voluntarily agreed to comply with the CMA’s transparency requirements.

“The CMA has taken enforcement action to bring to an end misleading sales tactics, hidden charges, and other practices in the online hotel booking market. These have been wholly unacceptable,” CMA chairman Andrew Tyrie said in a statement. “Six websites have already given firm undertakings not to engage in these practices. They are some of the largest hotel booking sites. The CMA will now do whatever it can to ensure that the rest of the sector meets the same standards.”

Although the authority uses the word “hotel,” a CMA representative confirmed with VRM Intel that the investigation and actions apply to all accommodations listed on the OTAs, including vacation and holiday rentals, independent B&Bs, serviced apartments, hostels, etc.

The CMA’s probe began in October 2017 following concerns that the way the sites were ranking listings and the information they were – or weren’t – displaying could mislead consumers and potentially be in violation of the UK’s Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

The investigation examined four key practices, as specified in the case document:

Search results: how hotels are ranked after a customer has entered their search requirements, for example to what extent search results are influenced by other factors that may be less relevant to the customer’s requirements, such as the amount of commission a hotel pays the site.

Pressure selling: whether claims about how many people are looking at the same room, how many rooms may be left, or how long a price is available, create a false impression of room availability or rush customers into making a booking decision.

Discount claims: whether the discount claims made on sites offer a fair comparison for customers. For example, the claim could be based on a higher price that was only available for a brief period, or not relevant to the customer’s search criteria, for example comparing a higher weekend room rate with the weekday rate for which the customer has searched.

Hidden charges: the extent to which sites include all costs in the price they first show customers or whether people are later faced with unexpected fees, such as taxes or booking fees.

The CMA did not produce a finding on whether the sites breached the consumer protection law (only a court can do this), but as a result of its findings and the voluntary compliance of the six sites in question, the authority set forth the following standards for which it will monitor their compliance:

The OTAs must make it clearer how hotels are ranked in search results and tell consumers when the results rankings have been affected by the amount of commission the hotel pays the site.
The OTAs cannot give a false impression of the availability or popularity of a search result or otherwise rush consumers into booking decisions based on incomplete information. For example, if a site shows that other consumers are looking at the same hotel, they must make it clear that those consumers may be searching for different dates. According to its press release, “The CMA also saw examples of some sites strategically placing sold out hotels within search results to put pressure on people to book more quickly. Sites have now committed not to do this.”
The OTAs must be clearer about discounts and promote only deals that are available at that time, as well as use similar properties and price periods in comparisons. According to the release, “For example, some sites were comparing a higher weekend room rate with a weekday rate or comparing the price of a luxury suite with a standard room.”
The OTAs must display all mandatory charges, including taxes, booking fees, or resort fees in the headline price. They may show such charges individually in a price breakdown, but the total cost must be shown up front.

The six sites have until September 1 to comply. The CMA will also write to other major OTAs, meta-search engines, and hotel groups to warn that they must also meet the same standards. The full case can be read here.

A spokesperson for Expedia provided the following statement:

We have a two-decades’ old commitment to putting travel data and details in the hands of consumers, knocking down barriers to searching, planning, and booking, all with the best interests of consumers in mind – to make travel easier, more attainable, more accessible and more enjoyable. This mission is core to what we do on our Expedia, Hotels.com, and ebookers sites here in the UK. That’s why over the past few months we have invested significant time and energy into working closely with the CMA to create a helpful industry standard for all UK booking sites offering accommodation search and booking services.

We gave commitments to the CMA on a voluntary basis, and the CMA, in turn, closed its investigation in respect of the Expedia Group with no admission or finding of liability. We continue to believe our practices did not breach any consumer laws. That said, we are surprised and disappointed in the CMA’s description of our partnership with them in the CMA’s press announcement, which we believe mischaracterizes the collaborative and good faith approach taken in establishing industry standards which are new and result in more transparency for consumers than in offline markets. We are, however, pleased the CMA has been clear that it views this new standard as one applicable to all participants in the industry, whether online travel agents, search engines and metasearch sites or the direct sites of accommodation providers.

A spokesperson from Booking.com provided the following statement:

We are pleased that the CMA has closed its investigation, without finding admission of infringement on behalf of Booking.com. We are constantly optimizing the consumer experience on our website and mobile apps in an ongoing effort to deliver a best-in-class experience for our customers. We test many iterations of content as part of this optimization process to ensure that the information displayed to users is relevant to their booking experience. Many of the commitments named by the CMA are already in place for Booking, but we have agreed to test and implement new commitments, like pricing inclusive of all fees.

Vacation Rental Marketing: The Book Direct Blueprint

Alan Egan

February 5, 2019

Reinventing The Wheel

#bookdirect day won’t bring you direct bookings – This article will.

Tomorrow (February 6th) is #bookdirect day but there’s a lot more to getting direct bookings than sharing an image on your website or social media once a year.

In this article, I outline a strategy that you can adopt that will bring you direct bookings.

I also share a case study and real data that shows that this strategy works.

And I share why this is the only viable option going forward.

In many cases, vacation/holiday rental businesses are unlike other businesses.

The majority of owners already had a second property that they used as their own vacation/holiday home before they decided to rent it out.

They read about the possibilities of earning extra income by joining the likes of VRBO and before they knew it, they were in the vacation rental business.

How we got to where we are now…

The first evolution of the wheel

As I said, most owners had a home and decided to list with a listing company. It was that simple five or ten years ago – List it and they will come. People literally did just that. They joined VRBO, Stayz, or Ownersdirect, paid the subscription and waited for bookings. And booking came. “All you had to do” was deal with inquiries, meet and greet, handle cleaning and changeovers and you were in business.

The thing is, this isn’t really a complete business model. All of the marketing was done through the listing site and if you don’t control the marketing you don’t control the business (as many have come to learn).

You can see this in the graphic below

The wheel represents the business and it’s supported by a single spoke (in this case just one listing company).

Any wheel with just one spoke is vulnerable to bumps and potholes along the road, and when Homeaway/VRBO introduced “best match” and traveller service fees, a lot of owners ended up with a bit of a business wobble caused by a buckled wheel.

The second evolution of the wheel

Owners quickly reevaluated their marketing strategy and they spread their offering by signing up with other listing sites and supplemented that with some social marketing.

These additional spokes made the marketing wheel more stable and less prone to catastrophic bumps in the road. They had spread the marketing risk but still didn’t control any of the marketing itself. The marketing was just handled by more platforms.

This wheel was also pretty unsafe and as the big listing sites increased costs, added their own cancellation fees and took control of the money the wheel started to shake. Again, it became unsafe and it caused problems.

The third evolution of the wheel

By this stage, owners were beginning to see that this model of marketing was posing a danger to their businesses so many, if not most, started to add more and more spokes in order to spread the risks posed by any one platform changing its rules or model.

The wheel below shows where many owners are today

The above wheel shows a mixture (clockwise from 12 o’clock) of Facebook marketing, email marketing (to past guests), booking(.com), Pinterest marketing, VRBO, Houfy, local listing sites, Tripadvisor, Twitter, Airbnb, nurturing guests (with content marketing, extras, and offers) and HomeAway.

Because this is a more stable wheel (with more spokes) it’s a much safer to use than the two previous versions but it has a major flaw, and that’s the hub.

The hub is the most important part of any wheel. It connects all of the other parts. It holds those parts together. It’s where the power comes from.

The hub of any online business (and we’re all running online businesses) is its website, and, believe it or not, around 50 percent of owners still don’t have a website. The bad news is that even for those that do have a website the above wheel is flawed in a major way.

A lot of the spokes point outwards in a marketing sense and the main listing sites do everything in their power to stop any traffic arriving to your site.

Reinventing the wheel

There is a relatively new type of wheel that lends itself perfectly to this analogy. It doesn’t have spokes and it has built in suspension that make rocky roads less bumpy.

It’s called the Loop Wheel, and whereas spoked wheels are constantly under tension, this wheel is relaxed and much more flexible.
Just as before, the hub is the most crucial part, and without it the wheel will fall apart.

As you can see, by using the Loop Wheel approach we’ve broken the marketing channels into four sections. An owner’s or manager’s website is the hub of the marketing wheel. Nearly all of your other touchpoints point back to your website. This is key.

Your marketing channels break down into 3 categories.

Guest Nurture (GEO)

The most important of the three categories, by far, is the guest nurture category. After all, it’s the guests that pay the rent.
I see lots of owners and managers talking about search engine optimisation (SEO), but very few are spending their time on GEO (guest experience optimisation).
GEO covers the pre-stay, in-stay, and post-stay aspects of the entire guest experience. Most owners and managers currently spend their time chasing bookings through third parties and very few focus their attention primarily at the guest, and this is a big mistake.

Pre-stay

Pre stay marketing takes the form of content marketing. Owners spend their time creating articles that answer potential guests frequently asked questions. Once these are added to the website they sit in the search engines and drive traffic back to the site.

These can then be shared on our own Vacation Soup where we collect, collate and syndicate them for much-increased exposure (see the case study below for evidence of how this works).

In-stay

In stay nurture takes the form of great customer service. This can take all forms from a stocked fridge to an extra change of bedding half way through the booking. You can provide fresh flowers on arrival or an interactive iPad guide. The simple idea is that you simply offer a higher service level than your competitors.

If you are on Vacation Soup, then you can refer guests to the content on your website and they can access your recommendations through a map-based experience while they are out and about (see here for an example of how this works).

Post-stay

The cheapest cost per guest marketing is repeat guests. So up your game by sending regular newsletters that tell guests about new content on your website, last minute discounts and what upcoming events are taking place in your region. These also point back to the website and keep past guests engaged with your brand.

Adopt some form of customer relationship management (CRM) system and send Christmas cards, birthday cards and the like.

All of this keeps you and your property front of mind.

Social Platforms

The second part of the wheel applies to getting your message out on the social platforms. Each of these also point traffic back to your website.

I spoke about Facebook in a previous post so won’t cover it here.

YouTube is much underused by owners and managers, but you don’t need to be a big marketing agency in order to leverage traffic from it (it’s the second biggest search engine).

We all carry a smartphone that can take video, so consider shooting short recommendations (less than three minutes) when you are out and about. Just include a “For more information visit (yourwebsite).com” – Add the videos to your website content.

Pinterest is another great source for driving traffic back to your site. Create a business account (this is quick and free to do) and create boards for your location. Base your board titles and content around things to see, things to do, places to eat, photos, guides, etc. Include your destination in each board’s title.

Every time that you share your website content to a board, Pinterest will automatically add a link back to the article on your website.
You can drive a surprising amount of traffic this way.

Third Party Sites

I recommend trying to wean yourself off of the big listing sites due to over saturation, fees, cancellation policies etc. That, and the fact that, in reality, they sit outside of the marketing wheel as they bring no traffic to the hub.

Local sites generally offer fewer properties, so you have better odds of getting a booking. Many, if not most, don’t add service fees so you will appear to offer better value, and most allow direct communication with potential guests.

Many new sites like Vacation Soup, although we aren’t a listing site per se, provide direct links back to your website. The same goes for Houfy, Florida Rentals by Owner, Emerald Coast by Owner, and others also link back to the owners’ websites.

Proof Is In The Pudding

A case study

Meet Laurie.

Laurie and her husband, Jeff, own a condo on Maui.
Before we go any further I should mention that there are over 21,000 competing rental properties on Maui, and the island isn’t even 40 miles long.
There’s a hell of a lot of competition.

Anyway, Laurie has adopted the Loop Wheel approach to her marketing and she created a website via our free website giveaway and video course.

She then followed our destination marketing course and started adding great articles to her website.
Laurie has been kind enough to share her results with us and you can see them below.

First off, let’s look at some examples of what she’s been doing.

Laurie’s Post Views On alohacondorentals.com

Laurie’s most popular post has been read 1,879 times in the last six months.
Her five most popular posts have bought 5,878 visitors to her site in that same time.
All of her posts have resulted in over 18,000 site visitors

Laurie’s Post Views On Vacation Soup

Laurie’s top five articles on Vacation Soup have also been read another 3,150 times in the last six months.

So, just her top five posts on her site and the Soup have been read over 9,000 times.

It’s also worth noting that the average time spent reading each post is over eight times longer if it’s read on Vacation Soup.

You can also see (below) how traffic to these articles is growing, month on month, as the articles rise in Google’s organic search. This graph shows traffic for the “Best happy hours, Maui” article which currently sits on the first page of Google in +/- fifth place.

Laurie’s Overall Traffic For The Last 90 Days

Here are Laurie’s stats for the last 90 days. Once again, you can see how this is growing.

Site Visitors

Here’s a list of site visitors by channel.

As you can see, aside from Google, there is a lot of direct traffic.
As a brand grows this direct traffic grows as people search directly for the site by name. This is the advantage of building a Loop Wheel with everything pointing to your website.

You can also see good numbers coming from Pinterest and Facebook underlying the value of these social channels.

People coming from Vacation Soup spend more than double the time on the site than the average visitor. These leads have already been browsing Vacation Soup, and have looked at her property, so by the time they come through they are genuinely looking to book.

Bookings

Here’s the proof that all of this works.

Laurie doesn’t list with any of the big listing sites.

Laurie’s had 46 Bookings in 18 months from a standing start

Laurie’s website was launched 18 months ago today.

Here is the breakdown of bookings taken, by channel.

You can visit Laurie’s Maui Guide here.

The real reason that you need to do this…

You don’t need to adopt this method because I say so.
You don’t have to adopt this method because it works.
You have to adopt it because the method that you are currently using is failing – and it’s going to get a lot worse.
I’m not scaremongering here, this all comes down to simple math(s).

When I started a villa rental company in Algarve, Portugal in 2003-4, there were 3,000 competing properties in the area.
There are now 59,000.

That’s a 20 fold increase in competing properties in 15 years.

Tourism to Portugal has “only” doubled in that time.

The fact is that only five years ago there were between 3 and 6 million rentals worldwide (depending on which data source you believed).

There are now 16 million rental properties listed on HometoGo alone.

I think it fair to say that that number could well double again in the next five years, so no matter how you look at it, that’s going to result in fewer and fewer bookings per property.

There is NO escaping this fact.

In Summary…

Those of you that don’t have your own website really need to do something about that. You’ll really struggle to get direct bookings without one.

If you have your own site then make every effort to point all of your marketing back to it.

You can’t get direct bookings without traffic – Traffic doesn’t just arrive at a website, you have to drive traffic, and the most successful way of doing that is to produce great content. The more traffic that you drive to your site the more booking you’ll get.

Don’t focus on SEO too much because as you add more and more content to your website, the SEO will come with it.

Pay attention to GEO instead. Great GEO will bring direct bookings, repeat bookings, and social word of mouth.

This article originally appeared on VacationSoup.com.

Property Managers Discuss Their OTA Distribution Strategies

Alexa Nota

February 4, 2019

property vacation rental manager OTA distribution strategy book direct

Strategic distribution has become one of the hottest topics in the vacation rental industry. As the speed of OTA technology and policy changes increases, property managers are reaching crossroads in their distribution strategies at an ever-faster pace. Property managers who have gone through those crossroads and consciously decided to remain or become OTA independent shared their perspectives ahead of #BookDirect Guest Education Day on February 6.

Ali Breaux, Sun Realty

Sun Realty is one of the largest property management companies on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with more than 1,000 homes. Ali Breaux, president, shared with VRM Intel why the company chose to remain OTA independent from the start.

“Sun Realty is fortunate to be in an area (the Outer Banks of NC) that is a widely recognized and established vacation destination with an established vacation rental home market. We have the benefit of vacationers’ familiarity with renting a beach cottage or condo. We decided early on to remain focused on promoting the Sun Realty brand because turning our hard-earned inventory and, with it, owner and guest relationships over to a third party to generate reservations would eventually mean reliance and a lack of control. We were never comfortable with this model.

“We have retained OTA independence through a combination of strong brand recognition, an annual multi-channel marketing plan and investment to maintain awareness, a commitment to hospitality excellence to build loyalty and repeat guests—and, of course, a priority of owner support and service, as those relationships are key. There are no secrets. We just never gave in, and never surrendered our independence, even when it seemed like everyone else was benefiting from OTA bookings. I’m glad we made the decisions that we did. We have zero barriers in our booking process or our communication with guests. The benefit is a direct rapport that builds that lasting relationship we all want with our guests.”

Michelle Hodges, Meyer Vacation Rentals

Michelle Hodges, president of SH Enterprises, the parent company over Meyer Vacation Rentals, spoke with Sarah Bradford and Tim Cafferty in the “No More HomeAway” episode of Sarah and T. In the interview, she shared how and why her Gulf Shores, Alabama property management company decided to remove its 1,150 homes from HomeAway and VRBO in May of last year. At the time, less than 10 percent of the company’s reservations and revenue were coming from the OTAs.

“For us, it came down to the realization that we just didn’t want to be a victim of short-term thinking. We really wanted to be intentional about where we’re headed, and to be mindful of the decisions that we’re making and how we’re going to get there…

“You really have to think about what you value most. So, for us, this was beyond immediate revenue generation. It didn’t have anything to do with ease of access, API connections or accessibility. For us, it all boiled down to, again, that long-term stability, long-term growth, where we were going. And as long as I can remember, longer than I’ve been here, our mission has been to build lifetime relationships with our customers and communities while balancing service, relationships, and profitability.”

Regarding HomeAway’s match back policy:

“So, I have 1,150 owners, my own specific example here. Not all of them want to be on HomeAway or VRBO, and not all of them allow promotions in their properties. So it was very difficult for me to say that I could agree to charge an owner who upfront told me they weren’t interested in the platform and did not want promotions on their units to be responsible for a commission if a guest ultimately chose that property instead of the one they had initially inquired on.”

“Every owner has their own rationale, but I will share with you probably in all of this, after I thought through the process, it was an easy decision for us to make. My struggle, my concern was around the expectation of my owner base and what their perception was of the value that the HomeAway network brought them, and a lot of the direct feedback I got after I communicated our decision with my owner base to pull off the network was overwhelmingly supportive.”

Leslie Preston and Ian Bishop, Bachcare

The following is an excerpt from “Owning the End-to-End Guest Experience: How Leslie Preston Built Bachcare, New Zealand’s Largest Property Management Company” in VRM Intel’s Winter 2019 issue. Founded by Leslie Preston 15 years ago, Bachcare is New Zealand and Australasia’s largest full-service property manager with 2,000 properties. Around 75 percent of the company’s bookings are direct.

Owning the end-to-end guest experience plays a large role in the company’s selective use of OTAs. Ian Bishop, Bachcare’s head of marketing, said, “One of the key things with Bachcare is that building a strong brand and brand presence has been at the core of the company since way before my time (hats off to Leslie for driving the importance of that from day one.) The result means we have no dependence on the OTAs, which enables us to use them strategically as and when it seems to benefit and augment our already strong position, which year on year is around 75 percent direct bookings and shows no sign of any change.”

With the strength of the brand, Bachcare can drive direct bookings. One way they do so is with smart calendar management. “Of our properties on OTAs, we’ll often block important dates on those external sites because we know there is a very high chance the booking for key dates will come via our direct channel,” Bishop said.

Christina Casas and Natalie Binder, Exceptional Stays

Exceptional Stays manages a collection of 127 luxury properties in its Telluride, Colorado headquarters as well as Mexico, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Switzerland, and Spain. About 85 percent of their reservations are booked directly. Founder and CEO Christina Casas and vice president Natalie Binder shared their take on strategic OTA use in “Exceptional Stays Drives Direct Bookings with the Human Touch.”

“OTA independence is essential to our business strategy,” said Christina Casas, founder and CEO of Exceptional Stays. “We decided long ago that we had a choice to make: use OTAs, or use the money OTAs cost to do our own marketing and customer outreach. We believed we have an edge because of our team who has strong backgrounds in digital marketing and sales, and the ROI of our marketing efforts outweighs the ROI of relying on third parties to do our bookings.”

“I think a lot of people take comfort in knowing we have an amazing team and knowing that they’re going to get the same kind of service and see some of the same team members year after year after year,” [said Natalie Binder, vice president]. “We’re really lucky to have a lot of loyalty where a high percentage of our clients aren’t necessarily shopping around or looking around. They’re coming directly to us and asking ‘What do you have? We stayed here last year, but do you have something different or new?’ It becomes really important to offer that consistent service each time so that people don’t feel obligated to go through those OTAs. They know what to expect, they know what they’re going to get, they’re not afraid of missing out on something by not looking on those sites.”

“Even though technology is an amazing thing and is doing amazing things for this industry that are moving very quickly, you still can’t forget the basics, especially in luxury,” Binder said. “I think that’s about human touch and human connection, and a lot of that has to do with how quickly you can respond to emails and phone calls and your follow-up and your ability to execute. There’s no amount of OTAs or distribution or marketing or anything that can replace those things.”

Claire Reiswerg, Sand ‘N Sea

Founded in 1974, Sand ‘N Sea Properties in Galveston, Texas had decades of experience leading up to its OTA crossroads in 2007. Looking back 12 years later with 20/20 hindsight vision, owner and manager Claire Reiswerg saw clearly that it was the right decision for her company to make.

“I am surprised that a decision we made back in 2007–to decline posting our properties on listing or booking sites–turned out to be the right one.

Over the years we sometimes agonized, and always analyzed, our decision, and we debated joining the many companies who were doing it. Instead, we stuck with direct bookings.

In the end, our business model has saved untold amounts of technological and policy headaches and of course, it has saved us lots of money. It also made us better at our primary job: keeping guests happy and coming back to Sand ‘N Sea.”

Vince Perez: The Rise of Direct Bookings in the Vacation Rental Industry

Vince Perez

January 30, 2019

book direct vacation rental ota independence

In the past few months, I have had the privilege of sitting on industry panels with some very smart people who represent different approaches to success in the vacation rental industry. The most rewarding part about attending these events is speaking with hardworking people at different inflection points in their respective businesses. These companies reinforce the commitment that has built this multibillion-dollar industry.

For those just starting out or who have smaller operations, fear not. Whether you have two or two thousand properties, when it comes to the OTAs, you face the same challenges. There is one common thread that defines success: ability to adapt to market change.

Working with, not for, the OTAs

For years I have been advocating that companies use their distribution wisely, be it OTAs, listing sites, or any other partnerships. There are many points of quality distribution that serve our industry. It is important to understand (a) what the benefits are, (b) what goals are being accomplished, and (c) what constitute your trade-offs. Having this understanding will allow you to scale your business intelligently and adjust to any policy changes that could affect your business. For our vacation rental business, it is very straightforward: harness the power of distribution . . . but we always lead with our brand first.

As an established vacation rental business, we always favor sites that will promote our brand and are transparent with the traveler. This may not bring us as many bookings in the short term. However, it will bring us quality leads and brand visibility that we will convert to bookings in the future.

Goal: Reduce Dependence and Elevate Your Brand

For companies that are just starting out, you will most likely be OTA heavy. And that is the correct approach, as long as it is not the only approach. Be sure to keep track of any and all contacts with your business for the future. Acquiring new guests will be very expensive in the long run. Drive as much positive traffic to your business while building your brand.

At any stage of the business, it is critical that you have a retention strategy and the ability to measure the performance of your distribution. We measure not only OTAs’ performance but also any outbound touch points (for example, newsletters, social media, off-line communications) or inbound touch points (walk-ins, phone calls, website contacts, or chats) to our brand.

Take Advantage of the Chaos

For those who remain as independent operators, you have an excellent opportunity to grow your inventory (plenty of RBOs are getting out and looking for property management expertise), elevate your brand, and increase the value of your business.

Adopting new strategies and finding ways to work with other successful vacation rental managers is a solid formula to stay competitive and add value for the long term. There are powerful regional groups that are benefiting from their collective power, messaging, and sharing of data that will in turn benefit the traveler as well as their respective businesses, and elevate our industry. These groups include independent thinkers who understand the value of their collective strength.

#BookDirect Is Real and Growing

It’s not just hotels that can win at this game. We are witnessing solid momentum in #BookDirect initiatives. NorthwestStays.com is a perfect example of a marketplace that places travelers’ needs first. NorthwestStays.com and similar marketplaces coming online are driven by committed vacation rental professionals who see the value in a community approach, be it local firms, regional associations, or subject domain groups with vertical expertise.

When looking at the rising costs of OTAs and loss of ability to communicate with guests who want to book on these sites, these groups understand the cost of acquisition. Although OTA bookings are still (for now) booked directly through the VRMs, the brands are still losing value compared to organic bookings, where 100 percent of the revenue goes to the VRM. These groups understand that you can pay $1,000 in advertising to get $5,000 in direct revenue and brand visibility through OTA alternatives, or you can generate $5,000 in OTA bookings and pay $1,000 in commissions.

This by no means argues against using the OTAs. It indicates a level of awareness that using the OTAs can represent incremental growth for your business and that investing collectively in the group’s brands keeps the traveler engaged and informed by taking advantage of the brands’ collective strength.

Unlike OTAs, these marketplaces provide the names, email addresses, and history for recurrent marketing that benefits the brands—whereas the OTAs are retaining that information for their own marketing, phasing out your brand, rate parity, etc. Transparency on both ends of the transaction is what makes for a successful vacation rental experience.

Investment in these marketplaces is a great long-term strategy. Although the ROI is not immediate, it will prove to be a wise investment because travelers are already organically deciding to #BookDirect. These efforts are strengthened by customer excellence and messaging that reminds the traveler of the value of booking direct!

How Hotels Push Direct Bookings and Seek OTA Independence

Alexa Nota

January 30, 2019

hotel no vacancy direct booking OTA idependence

As property managers and homeowners rally to promote direct bookings and build OTA independence, so too are the vacation rental industry’s comrades in the battle: hotels. Triptease, a direct booking software provider for hotel accommodations, is one of the key players in the hotel #BookDirect movement. The company’s Direct Booking Summit last fall provided an inside look at the hotel industry’s perspective on OTA independence, which revealed some similarities and some striking differences from that of vacation rentals.

Generally speaking, the summit made clear that third parties are here to stay for hotels, and hoteliers largely accept them as a standard and necessary part of their marketing mix – a “necessary evil,” as many of them said. Hoteliers also acknowledged that direct bookings may not always be the best bookings. Many are willing to let some OTA guests continue to book through third-party sites as they weigh the costs of OTA commissions against the primary and secondary costs of direct bookings, including websites and booking engines, staff salaries, and others.

Still, direct bookings are important to hotels, and at the summit, they looked at driving more direct bookings through four main lenses:

Looking at data in different segmentations and with better visualization
Removing the silos that keep data and knowledge from being shared between marketing, sales, revenue management, operations, and other departments
Leveraging their strength in local, expert content on their properties and destinations
Focusing ever more closely on guest experience and customer service to compete with third-party channels and win repeat guests

Ahead of 2019’s #BookDirect Guest Education Day on February 6, VRM Intel spoke with Lily McIlwain, Triptease’s head of content, to dive deeper into the direct booking movement from the hotel industry’s point of view.

What is the current state of the hotel industry in direct booking?

Lily McIlwain: The hotel industry is in a very different space to where it was a couple of years ago. Many hoteliers are actively pursuing book direct strategies like managing their parity, introducing exclusive offers, and optimizing their websites to ensure booking direct is an attractive proposition for potential guests.

Many hotels still see their commissions to online travel agencies (OTAs) growing every year, squeezing their budgets and making it more difficult to spend time and money on the guest experience. OTAs have vast data scale, which makes it hard for hotels to compete when it comes to acquiring and converting their high-value guests. The direct booking movement has come a long way, but for many hotels, there is still further to go until they reach their optimal business mix.

Is there an industry standard ratio of direct to indirect bookings that Triptease recommends? How can hotels increase their direct booking percentage?

LM: The optimal business mix will be different for every hotel. The most sophisticated hotels are analyzing their channels to see how guest type and value varies across them, then tweaking their channel mix accordingly. There is an in-depth webinar on this topic available on the Triptease website. This type of analysis should be ongoing across different periods. As a general rule of thumb, OTAs should be used to reach and convert guests that a hotel would never be able to convert themselves – e.g. in a geographic area that they don’t market to. An unhelpful OTA balance is one where OTAs are cannibalizing bookings that hotels could convert themselves. For example, previous guests.

Where are hotels getting stronger with direct booking and where are there still challenges?

LM: Hotels are increasingly aware of the need for parity management and ensuring that they always have the most compelling rate for guests. Many are investing in tools like Triptease’s parity management software to track their disparities and rectify them on their OTAs. However, a major challenge in maintaining parity comes from the practice of OTAs (often smaller sites without partnerships with the hotels whose rooms they sell) buying wholesale rates and selling them onto guests without the knowledge or consent of the hotel. This means hotels are often undercut significantly online, which is a particular issue on metasearch engines where guests are primarily making comparisons based on price. A major challenge for 2019 will be for hoteliers to regain control of their downstream distribution.

What is the outlook for 2019? What is Triptease keeping an eye on or looking forward to?

LM: Metasearch is going to be a major focus for many hotels in 2019. Google is investing heavily in its metasearch option, which means there is an increased opportunity for hotels to reach guests when they’re just beginning to plan their trip. The best hotels will expand their book direct strategy to include metasearch advertising and invest in solutions that allow them to provide a full-funnel direct booking experience to high-value guests. Hotels must align their on-site conversion efforts with their top-of-funnel acquisition strategy if they are going to win back bookings from OTAs. At Triptease, we’re looking forward to our three Direct Booking Summit events in Singapore, Paris, and Miami where we’ll be bringing the hotel industry together to discuss strategies, compare case studies, and push the direct booking movement forward.

For more on metasearch, check out Triptease’s recently-launched Hotel Metasearch Handbook.

Read more about Direct Booking Summit insights: Are Hotels Obsessed with Direct Bookings?

Exceptional Stays Drives Direct Bookings with the Human Touch

Alexa Nota

January 29, 2019

casa aramara exceptional stays punta mita mexico luxury vacation rental

Casas founded Telluride Rentals in Telluride, Colorado in 2001. Today, the company manages 75 luxury homes and operates under the Exceptional Stays name, along with two other rental companies: Punta Mita Luxury Rentals and LuxuryBarcelona. Altogether, Exceptional Stays manages a collection of 127 properties in the company’s Rocky Mountain hometown as well as Punta Mita and Tulum, Mexico; Cap Cana, Dominican Republic; Marrakesh, Morocco; Gstaad and Scoul, Switzerland; and seven destinations in Spain, with more international markets in the pipeline.

Casas has carried the OTA independence strategy through every market. Around 85 percent of their reservations are booked direct.

Granted, guests of luxury properties are, by nature, more likely to book directly than through a third party. While “luxury” can mean different things to different people, Exceptional Stays defines it as homes that are, well, exceptional. Some are simply interesting or rare, some are in high-end locations or have a high-end designer name, some have a unique story or history, and some are loaded with the ultimate amenities, like a full-time staff of 15 available 24 hours a day at the push of an ANYTHING™ button. Similarly, some of their homes are treasured family estates or massive celebrity-owned properties, like a €200,000-a-week hunting property in Spain, that rent only once or twice a year. Guests must be thoroughly vetted before being approved to stay in properties like these.

Vacations in an Exceptional Stays home can run into the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars per night. Making such a reservation is less about the property and more about the team behind it as staff must earn guests’ confidence and, more importantly, their trust. Part of this means being knowledgeable and confident themselves. New staff members are required to visit each property in their area and truly get to know them by completing a task, like verifying website listing accuracy, before they can even pick up a phone. In Telluride, that process alone can take three weeks.

Once they’ve earned this trust, many of their guests return year after year. “Our bread and butter is our repeat database,” said Natalie Binder, vice president. The team makes sure they keep earning guests’ trust and loyalty by showing them loyalty in return with personalized notes and gifts, outbound calls on booking anniversaries, and the opportunity to book first. They also offer full concierge services to make reservations at restaurants or local activities, customize meal planning, shop for groceries pre-arrival, and other conveniences.

Staff longevity helps, too. “I think a lot of people take comfort in knowing we have an amazing team and knowing that they’re going to get the same kind of service and see some of the same team members year after year after year,” Binder said. “We’re really lucky to have a lot of loyalty where a high percentage of our clients aren’t necessarily shopping around or looking around. They’re coming directly to us and asking ‘What do you have? We stayed here last year, but do you have something different or new?’ It becomes really important to offer that consistent service each time so that people don’t feel obligated to go through those OTAs. They know what to expect, they know what they’re going to get, they’re not afraid of missing out on something by not looking on those sites.”

The same loyalty applies to owners. Exceptional Stays won’t take on a new home that competes with an existing one if the latter isn’t at its highest occupancy. “What we don’t want is to take on too many of the same properties that might compete with our existing owners,” Binder said. “That’s always really important to us, that we take on the right mix of inventory.”

Not only does this loyalty on both sides earn the company valuable referrals for both direct guests and new homes, but it also builds strong relationships in which OTAs cannot compete.

That’s not to say OTAs don’t have their place in Exceptional Stays’ marketing strategy. The team is conscious of the marketplace and knows they must have exposure on every channel.

“All of the properties we manage are exclusive to us, and we find that OTAs are effective in booking certain markets that we don’t have such a powerful reach or certain lower season times when we can use a boost,” Casas said. “Most of our properties are unique in size, luxury, or location, and in a high-demand market. It is easy for us to do direct bookings, so we don’t use OTAs. On the other hand, in markets that are more competitive and where our product is not so distinguished, we need OTAs to help fill those gaps.”

Still, for Exceptional Stays, it comes back to the human touch. “Even though technology is an amazing thing and is doing amazing things for this industry that are moving very quickly, you still can’t forget the basics, especially in luxury,” Binder said. “I think that’s about human touch and human connection, and a lot of that has to do with how quickly you can respond to emails and phone calls and your follow-up and your ability to execute. There’s no amount of OTAs or distribution or marketing or anything that can replace those things.”

Drop the Mic: A look behind the scenes with VRM podcasters Sarah Bradford and Tim Cafferty

Alexa Nota

January 28, 2019

sarah and t record podcast vrma recap episode sarah walker luxury vacation rentals

Over the past year and a half, Sarah Bradford and Tim Cafferty have become household names in the vacation rental industry, thanks to their popular podcast, formerly known as Sea to Ski with Sarah and T (more on this later). Each episode has one mission: to give property managers information they can use to make their businesses better.

At the time this article was written, the duo had published 36 episodes over two seasons, covering everything from OTA independence to vacation rental décor to conference takeaways to interviews with other leading figures. Each episode comes packed with insights and “pull-over moments,” nuggets of information important enough for listeners to pull over on their commute and jot down for later, plus recurring segments of “Rapid Fire” Q&As and “Not-So-Hot-off-the-Press” headlines.

The pair’s relatable knowledge, familial banter, and clear passion for the series bubble out of every episode seemingly effortlessly, but behind the scenes, it takes hours of hard work to make each episode happen. One 30-minute episode may take three days to prepare, hours to vet interviewees, an hour to record, and several hours to edit. They dedicate this time on top of their already busy schedules spearheading their own property management companies. Tim owns Outer Banks Blue in the NC Outer Banks and Sandbridge Blue in Virginia Beach, managing 295 and 76 homes, respectively. Sarah owns Winter Park Lodging Company with 153 properties and Steamboat Lodging Company with 20 properties in Colorado.

While Sarah and Tim make no money from the podcast venture, the series has brought significant value to the vacation rental community and its members. Of the 400 to 500 weekly listeners they know about (some podcast apps don’t provide listener stats), many approach them at events to let them know how much they love the series and share their favorite episodes. In the VRMA International Conference takeaways session, where they recorded a podcast live with the audience, one superfan property manager, Sharon Walker of Walker Luxury Vacation Rentals in Austin, shared how much she had wanted to be in the podcast and that she offers a $100 bill to the staff member who listens to a new episode first.

tim cafferty sarah and t podcast vrma recap episode — Tim Cafferty recording the 2018 VRMA International Conference recap episode of “Sarah and T”

Soon, new and longtime fans will have to adjust to a change in the episodes ahead: The podcasters have changed the name of the series to simply Sarah and T. In October, the pair received a cease and desist letter from another company in the industry for using the original name and logo in violation of its copyright. “We don’t understand the whys and wherefores, but neither of us have the energy or the dollars to file a federal lawsuit for copyright infringement,” Tim said. “We personally believe that we’re not infringing on anybody and can’t really understand the motivation.”

“I am hurt more than anything,” Sarah said. “All the effort we put into it and the knowledge and everything we’re sharing is in an open and honest spirit . . . It’s silly to me.”

An attorney with the Wrona Dubois Law Firm representing the property management company issued the following statement on behalf of its client: “They’re going to protect their trade name and their trademark. They’ve spent years and years investing in that trade name and trademark, and they’re going to vigorously protect it.”

But despite the blow of the cease and desist letter, it’s clear that Sarah and Tim have no plans to slow down. “We told each other when we started that when it stopped being fun, we’d get off the merry-go-round,” Tim said. “Our rapport is great. I consider her a sister, and she pokes me, I poke her, we make fun. At the bottom line, it’s out of love and respect. I think that’s what makes us successful, and I think people hear that. So as long as that’s the case, we’re going to keep on pressing forward.”

sarah bradford sarah and t podcast vrma recap episode — Sarah Bradford recording the 2018 VRMA International Conference recap episode of “Sarah and T”

VRM Intel turned the mic on Sarah and Tim to learn more about how one of the most popular series in the industry came to be and what makes the work worthwhile.

Alexa Nota: How did the podcast originate?

Tim Cafferty: Sarah and I didn’t really know each other very well. We were introduced by a mutual friend, and we hit it off very well from the start. I was picking her brains on things, and I think she actually listened to a couple of things I said, which is a very big step for her. [They both laughed.] We get along very well. Sarah said something about always wanting to do a podcast, and I said, “Yeah, we ought to do that.” I was serious, and I didn’t know if she was, but I called her a week later and I was like, “I was serious, we’ve got to do that.”

Sarah Bradford: And I was like, “You are? You want to do a podcast?” I thought it was a lot harder to do a podcast than it really turns out to be, although we struggle with the audio sometimes, and you know you have to have the right technical equipment. I think that Tim and I are passionate about this industry. We’ve done this for a while. We’re passion about sharing, and instead of always having to have someone come to a conference and sit in a room and happen to listen to us or share ideas, we thought this was another interesting forum and a way to share best practices in the industry.

AN: Had either of you done anything like podcasting before?

TC: I have a master’s degree in journalism, broadcast journalism, from the University of North Carolina. I worked for the Tar Heel Radio Network for four years, then I went to NBC Sports and Mutual Broadcasting System and found out when I was 23 that it’s a great hobby but not a great career. And also I have a face made for radio. TV didn’t work out. So, when I was 22–23, I was living out of a suitcase, traveling around the country doing Final Four reports or covering the Masters. I was doing the 5:25 sportscast on NBC, which taught me about promptness, because the 5:25 sportscast starts at 5:25 whether or not you’re there. So, I had some background in radio editing, things like that, and it all came back pretty well once we did this. I’ve also broadcast high school football games for the past 35 years.

SB: I have no experience. I was just a high school teacher at one point.

AN: How do you decide what topics to cover?

SB: Whatever I want to do. (I’m kidding.) You know, I would say one thing is when we started doing the podcast, we would talk about a specific topic, and then we’d go off on a tangent and say, “Oh my gosh, we have to do a whole other podcast on that.” So, it’s almost like the topics have evolved as we’ve talked about other topics.

TC: Well, I do think we typically have a plan, and we will talk about it. At one point we had a call every week. We talk about where we think we ought to go. She’s correct; as we’ve gotten into things, we find we need to do a whole podcast on that. As I was driving across the state, I listened to some of the old stuff, and I can hear when we mentioned something, and then we actually did another podcast on it.

Of course, we’ve changed the format. This year we’ve done more interviews, and we’ve done a lot of vetting on that. What do you think of this guy? Is he going to be entertaining? Can he be fun? Can he give you short, punchy answers? Not every idea we’ve come up with and not every person we’ve thought of has made the cut. I don’t think it would be as entertaining, which is part of it as well. There’s certainly an informational factor that we want to get in there, but there also needs to be an entertainment factor.

SB: The other thing I’d say is we’ve had some listeners suggest topics, and then we’ve done those topics. And we try try try to keep it at 30 minutes, what would be someone’s commute, ideally, that they’re listening to in the car. Also, we really, really try to make the podcast have a lot of meaty content with takeaways that someone wants to listen to again. [We want to] have specific things they could do in their business versus just discussing, “I don’t know, what do you think of Airbnb? Blah blah blah.” What can you do with this information to make your business better?

AN: What did you picture for the podcast when you started? Looking back 18 months on, has it met your expectations?

SB: I wish I could tell you we had a grandiose vision. I personally didn’t. I just thought, “Let’s try this,” and we have not put much money into it all. We’ve made zero money, to be clear. And we have really been surprised by how many people are listening. I am personally surprised. I have strangers come up to me at the conferences specifically saying, “Oh my gosh, I’ve listened to every single one of your podcasts.” And that’s kind of crazy. That’s how famous people feel, I guess. It’s been pretty exciting to see the adoption of listeners.

TC: That’s happened to me over the course of this year. Just today [at an event], I’ve had five people come up to me I’ve never seen in my life and say they listen to every podcast and can’t wait for the next one.

SB: In fact, just now at work, one of my staff members came up and said they just got off the phone with one of my owners . . . and he’s listening to every podcast, and he loves it and thinks that “Sarah just totally knows what she’s doing!” And I’m thinking, “Oh my God, what have I said that that owner heard?” Even our owners are listening. It’s kind of crazy.

TC: It is. It was interesting—at first, we thought the only people listening were our competitors, but that’s proven not to be the case.

AN: How has the fact that your competitors are listening influenced your discussions?

TC: I think we’ve been wide open from the start.

SB: For the most part, I have found that, competitors or noncompetitors, this podcast has made other companies want to share with us. So, I’ve gained personally and professionally, too. Professionally, people are sharing ideas and thoughts and things with us, because when you share, the natural response is to share back. I would say it’s made my relationship with competitors stronger.

AN: What are your favorite episodes?

TC: Sarah and I were together in Chicago one time, and we had spent a long day on some professional development. I said, “We’ve really got to record a podcast,” and she said, “I don’t know if I can do this.” So, I went and got a bottle of rum.

SB: Oh, yeah!

TC: So, we did one episode pretty much in the tank.

SB: I forgot about that!

TC: It was a lot of laughs on that one. And then my second favorite one was the one we did in the back of an Uber. That was also in Chicago, actually.

SB: Yeah, we even interviewed the Uber driver. My favorite is a serious one, the John DiJulius one because I love him almost as much as I love Tim. He just dropped so many good knowledge nuggets, it was hard to even write fast enough.

RAPID FIRE

AN: What pull-over moment has stuck with you most?

SB: Mine is that your employees are not born with service aptitude; you have to teach them.

TC: Mine would be anything Clark Twiddy said.

AN: What’s your favorite week of the year in each of your markets?

SB: May 15th.

TC: Mine would be the last week of July, because we are full, and we are hummin’ as a company.

SB: So that shows how different Tim and I are, because May 15th is the deadest week for us.

AN: What’s at the top of your travel bucket lists?

TC: Australia.

SB: Skiing in Japan.

AN: If you had one piece of advice for owners, what would you want them to know?

TC: It’s a business, not your home.

SB: Bears on any décor on the property are tacky! But honestly, I want them to know how dedicated and focused and hardworking we are as we try to rent their home better than anybody else could rent it. I think that they can’t always see that, and it kills me.

The Winter 2019 VRM Intel Magazine Issue is Here

Amy Hinote

January 27, 2019

Coming to a mailbox near you, the Winter 2019 VRM Intel Magazine issue is here.

Here are some of the articles you will find in this issue:

Behind the Scenes with VRM Podcasters Sarah Bradford and Tim Cafferty
Gatlinburg’s Cabins For YOU: Carrying the Torch Across 5 Generations
Bachcare’s Leslie Preston is Embracing the End-to-End Guest Experience in New Zealand
Coming to a City Near You: Vacation Rental Regulations Update
Be a Friend to Your Mayor and Create Good Regulations By Matt Curtis
VillaKey is Making Vacations Accessible for Families with Autism
How to Sign More New Homeowners and Keep the Ones You Already Have by Doug Kennedy
Journey Mapping: Attract and Retain Employees By Sue Jones
Self-Care in an Industry of Service By Ali Cammeletti
In the Eye of the Storm: Lessons from Hurricanes Florence and Michael
Is it Time to Update Your Social Impact Strategy? by Lynn Thurston
Safety in Vacation Rentals Should Be an Expectation, Not an Option by Sean Miller
2019 Must-Haves for Vacation Rental Webstores
The Opportunities In Between: Capturing the Niche Markets Others Don’t
Maximize Revenue with Transactional Content
Distribution Strategies: The Big Picture by Michelle Marquis
The Rise of #BookDirect by Vince Perez
Choosing Cleaning Products for Vacation Rentals by Durk Johnson

Are You a Modern Elder? Vacation Rental Owner Keren Cinzio Discusses Former Airbnb Exec’s Book and Putting Wisdom to Work

Keren Cinzio

January 26, 2019

My husband, Ken, and I recently finished reading Chip Conley’s book, “Wisdom @ Work, The Making of a Modern Elder”. It was good timing as my husband was on a three-week break between consulting jobs and we had the time to read it together in what became our “story time.” In the book, Chip Conley takes us on a journey that will help the aging workforce (over 50) learn how to put their knowledge and life experiences to good use. This workforce has great insight to share due to the amount of time they have spent on earth. Their perceptiveness offers Gen Xers a view that they just have not been around long enough to understand or recognize. It is a keen ability to recognize patterns and then apply their experience and knowledge to offer great advice in an elder, mentor role.

“Facilitating individual growth can lead to a new level of self-sufficiency and satisfaction.”

We are both of the age that is discussed in Chip’s book. My husband, Ken, lost his job a year ago due to the sale of the company, where he was VP of Operations. He was now in the job market looking at what opportunities were available for a senior executive. He tapped into his network and soon came up with some consulting work. Although his previous roles in consulting were that of strategist or technical expert, he soon found that he was in the role of the “Modern Elder” that Chip discusses in the book. He brought with him his library of self-help books for the senior management team and, with the aid of his 36 years in the industry, was able to help transform less-experienced leaders and staff into higher levels of performance and team leadership.

He also learned quite a bit from these folks along the way, like he was the “intern” soaking up as much as possible in his first assignment with the company. By the time he had finished the project, the senior level staff had become independent, confident, and stronger in their roles. It reminded me of the quote, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish and he can feed himself for a lifetime.” Facilitating individual growth can lead to a new level of self-sufficiency and satisfaction.

Being an avid gardener I connected with the term “Perennials” that Chip discusses in his book. It was his friend Gina Pell who coined that term and used the phrase, “Perennials are ever-blooming, relevant people.” I think this is crucial in order to bring value to an employer. If you stop learning, you stop growing. Perennials do need to be tended to by removing weeds, maybe even splitting them up so they will thrive in a new environment, and of course a little plant food. It’s also important to be aware of the weeds around you and remove them so you can thrive.

Last fall, I noticed a tomato plant was growing in my front yard. I found that odd because I had not planted any seeds there. My guess is that a bird dropped it there after eating a tomato from my backyard garden. Despite the fact that I had not tended to this free tomato plant, it was healthy and producing tomatoes. Gives credence to the quote, “Bloom where you are planted.” The plant was among shrubs and bushes and around it were some weeds, too. I removed the weeds to allow it to get more nourishment, and to my surprise, I saw that the weeds were actually holding up the free random tomato plant. I then had to go in and put a plant stake beside it and tie up the plant. Coincidentally, I found similar advice in the book: Sometimes the removal of weeds can cause someone to fall, despite that fact they were amongst the weeds. But, with proper support in transition, you can help them flourish. I saved the seeds from that “little tomato plant that could” and will see if they can grow and prosper next season. Continue to plant seeds and tend to them. You never know when the harvest from those seeds will be harvested.

“The workforce has dismissed you and your abilities by offering ‘your’ position to a less salaried/seasoned person.”

Being a substitute teacher for 14 years allowed me to mentor and advise many students. Topics included everything from academics to life in general. At the time, some students may not have put my advice into action, but I believe they filed away the information in their brain somewhere and will pull it out when it is needed. When you are a substitute teacher versus a classroom teacher you have the freedom to have a little more time to spend with the students. It was rewarding to help them with time management and organizational skills. It was easy to spot who needed the most help, as they would have their papers falling out of those handy dandy Trapper Keepers. It helps to at least close the zipper on those tools…(smile)

“Remember, wisdom is most powerful when it is exchanged freely across the generations.” – Chip Conley

Chip offers a myriad of opinions from many experts and gurus from corporate America. That insight was very helpful to be able to drive home the points of the book. There was also a positive uplifting voice throughout the book. Being a certain age does not mean it is “all over” for you in the world of work and any future career options. In fact, Chip lays out many examples of how you can contribute well after the age of retirement when it is easy to feel like the workforce has dismissed you and your abilities by offering ‘your’ position to a less salaried/seasoned person. Wisdom @ Work also resonated with me due to the many references to the vacation rental industry which I have been a part of for 18 years. The appendix offers a plethora of resources that will be very helpful to those seeking to further their work lives.

Reading this book was well worth the investment in ourselves. We will spend some time to figure out how to reinvent our “Modern Elder” version so that we can wake up each day and feel like we have a sense of purpose and can contribute somewhere. The word wisdom appears in the title and many times throughout the book. Mr. Conley was kind enough to share his wisdom with us, and one quote sticks with me the most: “Remember, wisdom is most powerful when it is exchanged freely across the generations.” Thanks, Chip, for taking the time to share your experiences and insights in this book. It will be of great help to so many.

As Ken and I start a new transition period in our lives, we will take Chip’s advice that he offers in chapter four and that is to evolve.

Here’s wishing that a new, fantastic role is coming for Ken where he can serve as a “Modern Elder,” and a bonus job for me as H.O.P.E. (Head of Philanthropic Endeavors.)

Who will you inspire today?

Be a Friend to Your Mayor and Create Good Regulations

Matt Curtis

January 26, 2019

friend mayor good regulations vacation short-term rentals

The late, great Boston mayor Tom Menino once told me, “Hey, Matt, we’re drinking from a fire hose with a straw. If people give us a good solution, we’ll probably take it because time is not on our side.”

This is true for all local governments.

I served as a deputy to the last two mayors of Austin, and we faced issues of increased growth, community change, and new innovations while working to maintain the character, culture, and unique nature of our community. We faced all these challenges while addressing the daily needs of the city and the budget constraints that limited our actions.

And time was not on our side.

Mayors everywhere are faced with the significant changes occurring as more people are quickly moving back to cities; the paradigms of “live, work, play” are changing, and the significant advancements from the “innovation economy” are bringing new, emerging technologies to people everywhere.

One innovative change in our daily lives is the increased ability to find a vacation or short-term rental, often described by one company name: Airbnb.

And just as Mayor Menino said, local government could use suggestions on how to address the issue because officials don’t have enough time to fully understand everything about the industry and examples of regulations.

Local elected officials across the country and around the world have struggled with how to create effective regulations for vacation rentals and online marketplaces such as Airbnb for nearly ten years. Because of the lack of good regulations, most cities don’t achieve a reasonable level of compliance among rental owners and managers. And since the first well-publicized examples were discussed in 2010 and 2011, these bad rules have been copied from one city to the next, and local budgets have been totally exhausted attempting to provide enforcement.

How do you keep this from happening in your community? Be a friend to your mayor, get involved early, and promote a solution.

Local government leaders are juggling hundreds of agenda items in any given week. They’re faced with emergencies, unexpected problems, and a daily battle to operate within a balanced budget. They start work early and end work late, and in between, they deliberate about everything from the important to the mundane.

To make things worse, local government meetings are a forum for the more colorful community characters to use up the leaders’ limited time. Just watch a “Citizens Communication” or “Open Communication” segment of a city council hearing, and you will see neighbors who spend their few minutes singing carols or grousing about age-old frustrations.

By meeting with your mayor and local government leaders, you can hear what would help them make a good decision. Be a friend to them and they will be a friend to you by building on the good recommendations that you make.

When you become friends with your mayor and local government leaders, they will often help you understand what will make their jobs easier. They will often tell you to organize the local vacation rental stakeholders into a coalition and make a strong recommendation for regulations that could help them address community concerns.

They may just say to you, “All this is good, but can you do something to address the parking complaints?”

Typically, what people call Airbnb regulations will be reviewed and discussed by a local government for six months or more before a local vacation rental manager gets involved. Don’t wait; be your government leaders’ friend now and help them solve their problems while educating them on the nuances of the industry and the positive impact you bring to the community.

Walk into your mayor’s office this week and start building a relationship.

Ask the mayor if they’re hearing anything about vacation rental regulations and let them know you’re there to help.

Over the last few months, our Smart City Policy team has held Best Practice Summits in the Poconos with elected officials and local government staff. Vacation rental managers and owners met with concerned neighbors, homeowners’ associations, and code enforcement directors. Our goal was to educate the group on the wide array of bad examples of regulations that dominate cities and towns everywhere and to discuss the elements of good rules that, when combined, could create an effective local ordinance.

During our Best Practice Summits, we met vacation rental managers who were making great strides with their local governments by organizing coalitions of stakeholders and agreeing to a set of principles and suggested regulations that addressed community concerns. While many of these regulations were tailored to specific issues in various communities, they all maintained similar elements: registration, a single point of contact for nuisance concerns, insurance, notification to the traveler of local rules, noise monitoring systems, documentation of inspection information and any maintenance to the property, and background checks on travelers.

At the same time, we heard these vacation rental managers’ self-regulating solutions: that owners with a history of nuisance problems should be removed from the program, that all operators should ensure that they acquire the necessary insurance, and that a single resource for reviewing and potentially auditing tax remittance should be available.

These recommendations from vacation rental managers and stakeholders were thoughtful. They addressed the concerns of the community regarding nuisances, experience, and taxes. And most of all, they included strong rules to get all vacation rental operators to register in the program and provided a path to remove registrations from bad actors.

One recommendation came up that could be an answer for communities everywhere: that anyone operating a vacation rental for any length of time must engage a professional vacation rental property manager who is registered with the city. This recommendation could narrow the sea of different rental contacts some cities must document to a reasonable number of professional managers.

We spoke about our Best Practice Summits this fall at the National League of Cities, where mayors and council members consistently told us, “We don’t hear from vacation rental managers or owners until it’s too late.”

We also spoke about our Best Practice Summits during the annual Phocuswright Conference to an audience of travel and technology leaders, where we consistently heard another response: “We don’t know how to speak to local governments.”

The answer lies in the following responses: “Get involved early, promote a solution that works for you and your group, and be a collaborative partner with your mayor and council members.”

Start by becoming friends with your mayor. Help them by understanding their concerns and giving them a good solution.

Becoming a friend to the mayor will help you become an effective community leader rather than an embattled industry opponent.