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streamline vacation rental software power i

By Brett Parry, CMO, Streamline Vacation Rental Software–Many of us have heard “Do what you love” or “Follow your passion.” For most people, these remarks represent a fantasy that is not achievable. This sudden realization can turn a smile into sour disappointment. One of the most striking things I have experienced over the past thirteen years in the vacation rental industry is that we are here because the industry stole our hearts, and we love what we do. It is an industry packed with growth, innovation, exploration, independence, opportunity, community, and more. As our industry evolves, it is important that we fight to protect it. Entrepreneurial spirit has been the fire igniting our success, and the same fire and sense of community can ensure this industry thrives.

Inspire

Our ultimate mission is to inspire people to travel and to book vacation rentals. We are changing travel around the world. We offer a new and valuable travel experience for many people, especially families and groups. The traditional hotel stay is great, but it is limiting, and it’s only one possibility within the entire travel sector. Over the past several years, vacation rentals have become mainstream. Our actual market size is expanding, but we need to continue spreading the word while elevating the guest experience.

Infrastructure

As with any sector, quality infrastructure can mean the difference between success or failure. In our industry, we need to identify the most effective organizational and community structure to combat current and future challenges. There are powerful, large-scale forces aligned with local grassroots movements that threaten the very existence of vacation rentals. This is a fight we should all be in together. Reversing legislation is more difficult than establishing favorable legislation. We need to form and support the appropriate networks and associations to protect the industry and to win local battles. The best possible approach is to be proactive instead of reactive. We need organized, coordinated efforts—both internally and in our communities—to take on this issue.

Influencers

It is time for our people to step up and lead. It is critical that industry voices collaborate to refine messaging and organization. Our ability to react and adapt to any situation needs to become more sophisticated, and that will only happen through proper leadership. The influential companies in our industry must align for the greater good. We compete on many levels within the industry, but we also compete against other industries and agendas.

Innovation

As the world progresses technologically and customer expectations increase, the vacation rental space must innovate at a rapid pace. We are competing for a larger market share of the overall travel segment. Technology is at the forefront of helping property managers stay efficient and provide an optimal experience to travelers. We can elevate the overall quality of a vacation rental stay through innovation. We must be diligent because competing against traditional travel accommodations requires a reconditioning of the traveler’s mind. Beyond technology, property managers need to be innovative in their overall offering and traveler experience.

Independence

At the heart of our industry is the professional property manager, and it is important they diversify and stay independent. While the OTAs provide our industry with excellent value, it’s important that we all place emphasis on the local property manager. Local companies are essential to building relationships with travelers and delivering a special vacation rental experience. On top of the booking experience, guest services, and general stay, there is the daunting task of on-site operations. Providing optimal housekeeping and timely maintenance is especially important to travelers choosing vacation rentals for their travel experience. We need companies to be healthy, sturdy, and valued. We encourage property managers to build their brands, build their guest and owner relationships, and evolve their brands in every way.

Information

In our industry, we are gaining access to usable data for statistical analysis like we never have before. Converting this data into usable information will become more important as we make decisions on how to communicate and move forward. There are entire companies that utilize, distribute, and interpret data. We should leverage this data influx to optimize the direction of our space and our businesses. It’s important that we be responsible with data and protect it in every way we can.

International

Among the many remarkable elements of our industry, its vastness is possibly the most exciting. Most of us in the vacation rental space love to travel, explore, and experience new things. Connecting to the world through travel is really something special, and we have the privilege to do so. Beyond this, the opportunity to expand our market size is virtually limitless. The global nature of our industry offers spatial, product, and technology expansion because every market has different demands. We have become more sophisticated, but as we continue to evolve, it will be interesting to speculate on how international markets, processes, and technologies will collide.

Integration

Consumers, especially the millennial group, are looking for instant gratification. Delivering real-time responses to every consumer is paramount. Integrating technology, from property management systems to the OTAs, distribution channels, CRM systems, and any ancillary service, is a big part of what will make us successful. This integration will help us become more efficient and will help companies stay lean and face upcoming challenges.

Inventory

Vacation rentals as an accommodations alternative are one of the most impressive products sold in the worldwide economy, including cars, clothing, technology, art, food and beverage, movies and more. There is something special about a vacation home. Home is where the heart is, and unlike other travel and accommodation options, you really do get to experience a home away from home in a vacation rental. This is true for condos, villas, and cabins alike. Being in a property with your family that was individually decorated by a private homeowner is something unique. Remember, the true keeper of the inventory is either a direct property owner or a professional property manager. Our product is unique, dynamic, and versatile.

Inflate

At the recent 2018 Streamline Summit, we used the hot air balloon to symbolize “rising up” as a metaphor to represent our market size. Everybody knows the industry is growing, but it may fly under the radar that our balloon (market) has a ton of room for expansion. The major brands in our industry have done a great job of increasing awareness, but the expansion has only just started. We are taking market share from the general travel space, and we are growing the market by attracting new travelers. Branding our industry is key to accomplishing this.

Investment

The last topic in this article is investment, because the amount of money pouring into the space is astronomical. We have seen many acquisitions over the years, and the trend is not slowing. We see the acquisition of property management and technology companies and a general movement toward consolidation. With the influx of capital, the level of sophistication in vacation rentals has potential to rise. This is excellent for the overall vacation rental experience, but it’s essential that companies keep up with technology while evolving internal processes and procedures.

Brett Parry Streamline VRS Chief Marketing Officer — **Brett Parry, Streamline VRS chief marketing officer**

About Streamline and the Power of “I”

Streamline is a visionary technology company revolving around people and their talents, needs, and passions. The power of “I” is our culture that brings individual talents, knowledge, and brilliance to the forefront in a dynamic collective setting. Every individual, whether a Streamline team member or a valued Streamline customer, is empowered to contribute to the evolution of its solution-focused technology.

Baltimore City Council Issues Final Vote to Pass Strict Short-Term Rental Limits

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December 7, 2018

Baltimore city council voted 10 – 3 to issue final approval a bill limiting short-term rentals to primary residences. One additional dwelling unit per owner may be grandfathered under the new limitations only if it was purchased by December 31 and has successfully executed a booking transaction by the same date. Both will require licenses to operate.

The bill also includes the requirement that short-term rental operators and hosting platforms collect and remit the hotel room tax of 9.5 percent, which goes into effect on December 31, 2018.

All other license requirements will take effect on December 31, 2019. Licenses will cost $200 every two years and require that operators post their license numbers in advertisements, provide emergency contacts to guests, and other rules.

Hosting platforms must verify hosts have valid licenses before listing their properties on the platform and display the license numbers in listings.

Rachel Indek, owner of Bmore At Home Properties and founding member of the Baltimore Hosts Coalition, posted in the organization’s Facebook group after the vote, “It’s over… For now! We lost! It was a good run. We shall recoup and figure out our next step.”

“It’s disappointing that city council would pass legally unsound regulations that negatively impact Baltimore City residents,” an Airbnb representative said in a statement. “Home sharing is a financial lifeline that helps families pay their rent, mortgage, and other bills. This law will only take money out of the community and help hotel executives further take advantage of the city.”

Baltimore’s department of finance estimated that the primary plus one license limit would reduce short-term rentals in the city from 2,105 to 1,478 and that those remaining could generate between $587,000 and $1.01 million annually in hotel room tax revenue.

Council members Bill Henry, Zeke Cohen, and Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer voted against the bill, and Shannon Sneed and Mary Pat Clarke abstained.

Las Vegas City Council Bans Vacation Rentals

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December 7, 2018

las vegas short term vacation rental ban

Las Vegas city council voted 4 – 3 on Wednesday to ban non owner-occupied short-term rentals and limit hosted rentals to those that have no more than three bedrooms and are at least 660 feet away from nearby rentals, among other rules. The city will not accept requests for exemption.

Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian, whose term limits are up next year, sponsored the bill. Council members Cedric Crear, Michele Fiore, and Stavros Anthony opposed it.

“The vote was very disturbing,” said Julies Davies, a local short-term rental advocate, educator, and manager. “We had commitment from five council members to vote against the effectual ban (and full ban), but it shifted the night before the meeting.”

She cited political deal-making and unspoken rules in the city government, opposition from Culinary Workers Union Local 226, and negotiation derailments from outside advocates as contributors to the loss. “If the city were to simply meet with stakeholders and allow us to give input into the bill production and in a significant way, we could clear up misinformation, find common ground with the opponents, and stabilize the situation here,” she said.

Airbnb policy director Laura Spanjian submitted a letter and overview of Airbnb hosts in the city to the council ahead of the meeting. “We have observed in other cities that bans and partial restrictions result in exacerbated problems, and simply do not work. However, limits and strong enforcement, coupled with a robust partnership with platforms, do work,” she wrote.

The letter made recommendations including simplifying the rules, requirements, and registration process; creating a tiered system for owner-occupied and non owner-occupied homes with reasonable limits; and involving stakeholders in creating a compromise ordinance. The full letter and overview can be read here.

Philip Minardi, director of policy communications for HomeAway, said in a statement that the legislation was a step in the wrong direction for the city’s travel and tourism economy and called it “a dangerous ban over fair and effective policy.”

“Mayor Goodman stated that this is only a first step in the creation of a better ordinance. HomeAway remains at the table to help shape that ordinance,” Minardi said. He shared the company’s Whole-Home, Whole-Community policy recommendations it provided to the city council, which include a per-night fee to go toward a Las Vegas housing fund, a willingness of HomeAway to collect and remit room tax, and a limitation on the number of units in large multi-family buildings that can be rented out short term, among other stipulations. The full policy document can be read here.

Davies said other efforts to fight the regulations are being considered but may not take place until after the election in the spring.

Election Officials Confirm Vacation Rental Ban in South Lake Tahoe

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December 6, 2018

South Lake Tahoe Resident Group Submits Petition to City Council to Ban 75% City’s Vacation Rentals

On Tuesday, El Dorado County’s official election results confirmed that South Lake Tahoe’s Measure T has passed by just 58 votes, 3,517 to 3,459. The measure bans vacation rentals in residential areas, phasing out nearly 80 percent of the 1,800 short-term rentals in the city by 2021. The around 400 that remain in the tourist core will face harsher restrictions.

The vote margin is narrow enough to qualify for a recount, which must be requested within five days, but there has been no indication that that will occur. Stu Roberson, a partner at RnR Vacation Rentals, said local short-term rental advocates are considering other options to fight the regulations, but they are not yet announcing specific actions.

The city council is expected to accept the results at its meeting on December 10, and the ordinance will go into effect on December 20. The city estimated the ordinance will cost more than $4 million in lost revenue.

The day after the election when the margin was wider, Roberson said he wasn’t surprised about the results. “We could have done more sooner. That would be the advice I give to others: If there’s an inkling of something like this, it won’t go away. Deal with it sooner.”

Airbnb Addresses Professional Vacation Rental Managers: “PMs are an indispensable part of Airbnb’s success.”

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Amy Hinote

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December 5, 2018

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Airbnb wants professional property management companies to know its aim is to work more closely with the professionally managed community. Below is a message from the company to vacation rental managers:

As the travel industry has evolved, Airbnb has grown along with it. What began as a platform for individuals to share their homes has expanded into an inclusive hosting space that embraces property managers (PMs). Together, hosting experts and Airbnb created a dynamic vacation-rental landscape, following a journey from listening to conducting extensive research and working with the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA).

The ever-changing future of travel was on the minds of so many who attended VRMA International in October. At the conference, we hosted multiple conversations with PMs, and a handful of key observations came to the forefront. Here are our insights:

The industry is evolving — and quickly

We noticed the same thing PMs did at VRMA International: the growing presence of venture capital groups, private equity firms, online travel agencies, and global travel industry consultants, among the 1,700 attendees in Las Vegas. With so many new faces, PMs were curious to know what Airbnb’s intentions were: “What type of future are you thinking about? What are your motives behind where this is going?” one PM asked.

PMs have been in the vacation-rental business for generations and deserve to take part in shaping the industry for the future. Airbnb’s role is helping them do this, by sharing research and information the company has and providing insights on the shifting industry. We view the future as an opportunity to help PMs grow their businesses and partner directly to define this future together.

Property managers and OTAs

PMs have made it clear: online travel agencies (OTAs) have greatly impacted business — for better or worse. One PM described OTAs as a “necessary evil, in a way, but it’s part of business… we do see the benefit of guests booking directly through us, rather than an OTA, because we make more money that way.”

There’s a growing reliance on OTAs and third-party listing sites. On one hand, they help showcase properties to a larger audience. On the other hand, many take large commissions for doing so. Airbnb believes in strong, long-lasting partnerships, and that includes welcoming PMs into its global community. We strive to be a partner—not just a distribution channel—and to help PMs grow their businesses.

Trust is key

PMs want a trusted partner, not a boss. “We’re handing over, in a lot of ways, the keys to our business, and it’s an important partnership — we rely on your policies,” a PM told us. Many PMs shared stories of OTAs making changes without notifying them, and that influenced whether PMs would work with them again.

PMs are an indispensable part of Airbnb’s success. We have deferred to PMs’ expertise to evolve our platform and better support hosts with multiple listings. In every great partnership, communication is crucial. A PM at the conference said it best: “Don’t just roll out new terms and conditions, add a new little widget somewhere. Tell us, hey, you heard us… and then close the loop.” That’s good advice — and we plan to stick to it.

Growing concerns of commoditization

The vacation-rental industry was built on local expertise and unique experiences, but it can be difficult to stand out in an increasingly crowded space. “Help me set my properties apart from all the rest,” one PM told us.

Airbnb was built around properties with a point of view, design, and entrepreneurship — a natural fit for small businesses and PMs. Our shared passion and mission to provide distinct guest experiences make Airbnb all the more committed to help individual brands shine. We’ve launched programs like Airbnb Plus to showcase professional hosting amenities, created the ability for PMs to create customizable pages, and provided merchandising opportunities.

Technology can improve operations (if only it were easier to use!)

One PM told us that the main challenge with technology lies in “the amount of time it takes to integrate, and the amount of time it takes just for us to take advantage of some of the tools that are on Airbnb when you are an integrated manager.” We know PMs have multiple systems to connect, and so far there’s no one software that meets all of their complex business needs.

Airbnb is invested in developing a better solution: we have already created a suite of professional tools that integrate with a global network of software providers. And we’re focused on building more tools and features that are not only easy to use, but also meet the complex business needs of property managers.

What you can expect next from Airbnb

“I’ve watched you guys grow up; I’ve grown up with you. That has been a fairly recent shift, but I’ve noticed it, and I do appreciate that,” a PM said. As much progress as we’ve made towards understanding the industry and evolving our platform to better support the needs of PMs, we know there is more we can do to become even better partners.

Transparency and authenticity are important to us — and Airbnb will be sure to keep PMs in the loop, listen to concerns, and work with PMs to ensure Airbnb’s platform works for them. Together, Airbnb and PMs can build an ecosystem to adapt to growing businesses and evolve with the ever-changing travel industry.

Resort Realty Acquires Elan Vacations on NC’s Outer Banks

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December 4, 2018

Resort Realty announced today that it has acquired Elan Vacations. Founded in 2001, Elan Vacations specializes in vacation rental management and is based in Powells Point, NC. Resort Realty was founded in 1987 and is based in Nags Head on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

“Resort Realty’s business has seen tremendous growth over the last five years, and adding Elan’s inventory of Outer Banks vacation rental homes furthers our reach by providing Outer Banks vacation rental guests with a larger offering of vacation rental homes,” said Stuart Pack, CEO of Resort Realty. He said Resort will keep a majority of Elan’s full-time employees and offer employment to all seasonal staff.

The acquisition will add approximately 100 properties to Resort Realty’s portfolio, now totaling nearly 650 homes from Corolla to Hatteras Island. The acquisition is a part of Resort Realty’s long-term strategy for local growth by expanding its current portfolio.

VRM Platform Hostaway Raises $1.45 Million Seed Round

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December 4, 2018

hostaway vacation rental property management software platform

Vacation rental software company Hostaway recently announced a seed funding round of $1.45 million. The round was led by Finland-based Vendep Capital Fund, which invests primarily in Finnish B2B software startups, with participation from Business Finland. The company provides management software for professional property managers with 20 to 5,000 properties.

Hostaway was founded three years ago by Finnish tech professionals CEO Marcus Räder, CTO Saber Kordenstanchi, and Mikko Nurminen, originally as channel management software. Based in Helsinki and operating from additional offices in Toronto and Barcelona, the company has since grown to a full-service management software platform that includes operations automation, payment processing, guest messaging, reporting, and other tools.

Hostaway’s goal is to become one of the largest software providers in the industry. “We want to be the Salesforce of property management software,” said Robert Hoogendam, VP of operations. One of the planned uses of the seed funding is to grow its team from 30 to 60 or more employees by early 2019. The company is looking for developers, sales staff, and others.

“Our focus on diversity and global culture as key values, is ultimately what has helped us achieve the success we have today,” Nurminen said in a release.

Hostaway will also use the funding for product development, both increasing the benefits of its current software and bringing new products to market, Hoogendam said. The team is working on improving its integrations with Airbnb, Booking.com, and others.

The company now has 10,000 properties in its portfolio. Most of them are in North America and Europe, but they are seeing a growth spurt globally in South America, India, Asia, and Australia, Hoogendam said. “What we want to focus on is the high end of that market, property managers who look for high-end delivery software.”

The company has raised a total of $2.7 million from private and institutional investors, including a $795,000 round in February. Hostaway is also supported by Toronto’s DMZ, a tech start-up accelerator where the company is currently headquartered.

Is Texting the New Email for Vacation Rental Managers? Giving Great Service While Texting

By

Ali Cammelletti

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December 4, 2018

Communication via texting is rapidly increasing as we all see every day. Now when I dine out at a restaurant and I am waiting for a table, no longer am I handed a device that buzzes when my table is ready; now I receive a text letting me know to be at the lobby in five minutes to be seated. I really like the additional five minutes, just in case I need to pay a beverage tab or use the restroom before going to the table. I also get texts letting me know when a pharmacy prescription is ready or when a prescription needs to be refilled, as well as reminder texts for dentist appointments and payment reminders from my cell phone provider.

Texting is likely the most prevalent form of communication today and deserves a much more prominent role in business communications. For example, we can send mass texts to guests, such as those concerning weather disasters, but we can expand to handle other communications with the immediacy and personalized tone that we do with all relationship-focused communications.

It is important to satisfy today’s experience-seeking customer. If you offer a better—and more immediate—experience than your competitor, consumers will buy from you. Texting is an easy way to give your customers the assurance they are seeking. Are you sending out a text when the home is ready for check-in, or are guests expected to call to see when it is ready? Texting is quick and convenient and can easily provide a high level of service if done correctly. Often, companies are not able to program a specific number that shows who the text is coming from and have a character limitation. Are you stating the company name first, so guests know who it is coming from? Are you using templates that are the correct number of characters and are still coming across as warm, allowing employees to make small changes to customize them? Maybe the notification that a home is ready states, “Hi, Smith Family! Your oceanfront home is ready at 200 Seaside Lane with a door lock code of 3333. Reminder that your sunset view this evening is 8 p.m. Amazing Rentals hopes you enjoy your time.”

Statistics say that eight trillion texts are sent every year with an open rate of 99 percent, and a typical response time of less than three minutes; 33 percent of Americans prefer texting to any other form of communication. It is also the most used form of messaging for Americans under the age of fifty. As an industry, we have already experienced a huge increase in website bookings; for some companies, it has reached up to 70 percent of all bookings. Often, when rental agents ask customers to view the home together on their computer, callers say they will be able to when they are done with the call because they are on their phones. Consumers are not spending the time to open a computer to view the homes together because they rely on their phones so much for vacation rental searching and booking. I recently had a friend tell me she used VRBO for her European bookings because it was easy to access on her phone during travels.

Now that we understand how popular texting is and why we should be using it in our businesses, let’s start off with some basic guidelines for how to text for business purposes.

Spelling, Grammar, and Respect

Spell out words instead of abbreviating like you might when texting to a friend or family member. Even if the person you are texting with starts abbreviating, remain the professional service provider by spelling out your words and using correct spelling and punctuation. Just because they might not capitalize an “i” doesn’t mean you should do the same. Imagine that you are texting a colleague; it often helps to keep it professional. Part of being human is that we are often judged, and texting is another line of communication that guests will make judgments on. Keep in mind the Platinum Rule and treat others how they want to be treated. If I am moving fast when texting—as we all usually are—I might misspell or use the incorrect word, but that doesn’t mean that I am OK with a company doing the same when texting me.

Tone

As with email, it is crucial to watch your tone while texting so that communication isn’t misinterpreted. Take time before responding so that you don’t come off as flippant or harsh. Entrepreneur.com recommends using polite touches like “please” and “thank you,” as well as rereading every message before sending it to help double-check your tone.

When to Text and When to Call

Address serious topics with a phone call. If you are talking about cancellations of any kind, finances, or what might be interpreted as bad news, take the time to call.

Building Trust

You can build trust with frequent communication, but if you overcommunicate via text, you could annoy someone. I recall the last time I was interviewing a renter for a studio we own, and we were texting about references and details. The renter filled my phone with long, detailed texts right up to 10 p.m. at night. I finally stopped responding. The next day, he said something about blowing up my phone and I responded with, “Yes, you did.” We both laughed about it, and he never did it again.

Unplugging

On an internal business note, take breaks from technology occasionally. I hear about managers who are receiving texts on their days off and sometimes even owner-relations employees doing the same. I understand we are in the hospitality industry, and it is focused on pleasing people, but I spend a good amount of my coaching time helping people create healthy boundaries so they don’t become burned out or need a month off to rejuvenate. If we are going to give with all of our hearts and build healthy relationships in business, we need downtime so we don’t get snarky or annoyed.

Communication Times

One of the bigger points that I find to be extremely important is to watch when you are sending texts. I recommend 9 a.m.–5 p.m. for business texts. With that said, if you are texting about an update on a maintenance issue that is pressing, I feel it is appropriate to text as late as 7 p.m., but I wouldn’t recommend any later. If you are communicating due to an after-hours call, ask permission for how late you can communicate via text or if the guest would prefer another form of communication.

Inc.com wrote a great article about why texting increased Dirty Lemon’s revenue by 1,400 percent. The first reason was due to personal communication via SMS, which optimized the direct-to-consumer experience. I completely agree with this because I tend to make quite a few purchases through Facebook Marketplace, and I like the quick and easy transactions.

It is said that understanding consumers drives smarter product development. The ability to track what consumers want and the areas that your company is not delivering in allows for business changes that meet and even exceed their needs.

Texting speeds up consumer communication and eliminates lengthy phone calls or email queries that sometimes never get answered or mistakenly end up in the spam folder.

It is time to embrace texting communication in business if you haven’t already.

“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.”

-John Maxwell

HomeAway Software Has a New Interim GM: Ryan Hutchings

By

Amy Hinote

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December 3, 2018

2018 #BookDirect email examples

HomeAway Software announced today that it has named Ryan Hutchings as its new General Manager, replacing Cliff Vars. In this role, Hutchings will oversee support, technology, marketing, and integrations for HomeAway’s software products, including Escapia, V12, and Glad To Have You.

Hutchings joined HomeAway in 2015 to head up marketing for BedandBreakfast.com, and six months ago, he was promoted to GM of BedandBreakfast.com. Before joining HomeAway, Hutchings led marketing for VacationRoost and LeisureLink.

“I am very excited to step into this role and continue working in the software side of the business,” said Hutchings in HomeAway’s release. “It’s an exciting time for HomeAway Software; the company is committed to these solutions and delivering more to our valued customers. I have always felt that if we focus on the customer, we all win.”

Cliff Vars will remain at HomeAway and will manage the technology integration for Pillow and ApartmentJet, platforms which Expedia recently acquired to help grow into urban markets. According to HomeAway, “Pillow makes it easy for multifamily community owners to give residents the ability to list their apartment units as short-term rentals without violating their lease restrictions. Additionally, ApartmentJet enables owners to help visitors enjoy guest suites at their properties. Both solutions enable owners to know exactly who is staying in their buildings and to set limitations on short-term rentals in their buildings, such as limiting the number of total rental nights per year for units or for an entire building.”

“I am thrilled to remain a part of the HomeAway family, and I look forward to staying close to my HomeAway Software roots,” said Vars. “I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Ryan over the past several months, and have full confidence in his ability to lead this incredible group moving forward. Ryan has the right combination of industry experience, software expertise, and is relentlessly focused on helping customers be successful and grow their businesses.”

2nd Annual #BookDirect Guest Education Day Set for February 6 — Let your guests know it pays to book direct, book smart, and book local

By

Amy Hinote

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December 2, 2018

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The Second Annual #BookDirect Guest Education Day, recurring on the first Wednesday in February, is set for February 6, 2019. With a multitude of new travelers searching for vacation rentals, vacation rental managers and homeowners will join forces for one day with a singular message to let travelers know that there are many advantages to bypassing third-party channels and booking directly with management companies and homeowners.

On February 6th’s Second Annual Guest Education Day, managers and owners are encouraged to:

Use the hashtag #bookdirect on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to bring attention to the many advantages of booking vacation rentals directly with the manager or homeowner instead of on third-party channels.
Send out an email campaign to their past and prospective guests with a message about the value of booking direct, booking local, and booking smart.
Work with local and feeder-market media sources to educate consumers about the best ways to book a vacation rental.
Encourage local destination marketing organizations (i.e. CVBs, chambers, and state tourism organizations) to join in promoting their direct connections to lodging providers.

Last year, the inaugural #BookDirect Guest Education Day reached an estimated 3.5 million travelers with direct email campaigns and had a social reach of over 24 million consumers.

Some of last year’s messaging included:

When travelers book on large vacation rental websites like Airbnb, VRBO.com, and TripAdvisor, they are paying substantial fees to use these sites.
Many of the best vacation homes are not listed on these websites.
Managers and homeowners know the properties and the area better than anyone, can better match travelers to homes, and can help plan a better vacation experience.
Travelers can find out about special offers that can’t be found on the big websites.
Managers and owners can better help guests optimize dates and budgets to fit their needs.
Travelers with special needs and requests can work directly with owners and managers in a much more personal way to create a guaranteed amazing vacation for their family or group.

Check out Outer Banks Blue’s video from 2018.

There is power in numbers, so join us as we provide valuable education to guests and promote the industry to a broad range of vacation rental travelers.

Instant Gratification and the Five-Minute Golden Window

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December 2, 2018

instant gratification five-minute golden window sales customer service response time

In 2007, Dr. James Oldroyd’s Lead Response Management Study found that agents who responded to a lead within five minutes of the inquiry submission were 100 times more likely to make a successful contact, and the lead was twenty-one times more likely to enter the sales process than if the agent had responded thirty minutes after the submission. Success rates further declined sharply when the response time lengthened from minutes to hours to days. These statistics have held steady over the past 11 years, and responding to a lead within five minutes is still a gold standard in the sales world.

Vacation rental guest leads are no different, and if you feel like guest impatience has gotten worse lately, you’re not imagining it. A 2017 YouGov study that Fetch Media commissioned found that 40 percent of UK and US consumers say they are more impatient than they were five years ago. It’s only going to get tougher from here—over half of 18- to 24-year-olds answered the same way.

It should come as no surprise because seemingly everything around us is increasingly designed for instant gratification: Netflix on-demand streaming, Amazon Prime and same-day delivery, digital voice assistants, Seamless and other food delivery services, subscriptions for everything from meals to wardrobes to cleaning supplies, or chatbots. Heck, some companies are built with bot-based assistants at their core, such as Trim and Cleo.

When it comes to general customer service needs, what customers say are acceptable response times varies by channel. The Social Habit research found that of the respondents “who have ever attempted to contact a brand, product, or company through social media for customer support, 32 percent expect a response within 30 minutes. Further, 42 percent expect a response within 60 minutes,” writes founder Jay Baer for Convince & Convert.

A Kissmetrics study found that 50 percent of respondents who submit their question via email expect a reply within a day. But given Oldroyd’s study and the ultra-competitive nature of the vacation rental industry, these “acceptable” response times don’t cut it.

“Nowadays a ‘real time’ response is not just a nice feature—it’s an expectation,” wrote Paul Comaroto in Glip’s blog post “How to Ace Customer Service in the Age of Immediacy.” “For many issues, there are plenty of fast and easy ways to access what we’re looking for, from a quick online search to AI, chatbots, and other automated responses. The point is speed, not nuanced customer service and niceties.”

Expediency is a nonnegotiable, especially for prebooking questions but also the in-home, I-can’t-work-the-toaster ones, as guests’ experiences during their stay are part of the sales process for future reservations. Property managers have no choice but to keep up on both sides to compete with each other and maintain a huge upper hand against the OTAs.

The Downside of Autoresponders

Autoresponders have helped alleviate some of this pressure, particularly with a first quick response. Many companies leave autoresponders at the “We’ve received your message and will respond to you as quickly as possible” default reply. Others may process the request or question through support software that routes the inquiry to the most appropriate person or department, sometimes pushing out status updates to the customer along the path to resolution. Some companies employ a chatbot to help with initial triage of a question and provide an immediate answer when possible.

These tactics are good for letting customers know they’ve been heard, but they do not meet the golden target of five minutes for a human response. Too often they are simply a stopgap between a question and its answer, akin to calling and being put on hold for hours at a time. The benefits of a quick first response are negated if it takes an unacceptably long time to get the answer, and the risk that the lead will abandon the company for its competitors increases dangerously with each minute that passes.

So, too, are automation and autoresponders ineffective when they attempt to find a solution and fail, such as the sites or chat tools that ask customers a series of questions to suggest an irrelevant FAQ article before connecting them with humans. Of course, even the best systems won’t be 100 percent accurate, but to improve overall service rather than add frustration, these must be deployed with extreme care and be better at finding answers than the customer is. I have yet to find a tool like this that supplies the answer I needed. That’s why I’m trying to connect to a live person—after all, I’ve already done the search myself and didn’t find the answer.

“Once the customer isn’t getting the answers he or she wants, the next step is to speak to a human being. And often, that customer is now frustrated not just with the problem but also with the time and effort it’s taking to find the solution,” wrote Comaroto.

Speed to the Right Answer to the Right Question

The key is that not only is speed important but also speed to the right answer to the right question is the ultimate objective: instant gratification. Speed and quality are not independent of each other. In fact, improving one by nature improves the other. The higher quality your support tools are, the faster a guest can get the answer he or she needs. The faster guests can get solutions, the higher quality the service is to them.

When property managers take a hard look at lead response times, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction data, and find a pattern of slow or ineffective service, it does not mean that all guests should call in for every question and that property managers should put all staff eggs in the call center basket. It may simply mean the tech + people + operations equation needs some rebalancing. Improvements will depend on what’s causing the problem.

Looking at the macro level, Ventana Research reported that the top customer service challenge is communication channels managed as silos. Vacation rental management is a prime environment for this to occur. Marketing handles social media messages, reviews, and comments; guest services or reservations take incoming calls, emails, and chat requests; maintenance and housekeeping receive requests and complaints in the field. Without a centralized system for managing all this, things can easily fall through the cracks. Shoring up these systems is a good place to start improving response speed and quality.

Reduce Stress on the System with Self-Service

A major benefit of successful self-service options is keeping non-sales inquiries from clogging sales channels. However, you should not design self-service support with your company’s efficiency in mind. Build it with guest satisfaction and convenience as the foundation, prioritizing both speed and effectiveness for them.

B2C self-service support takes the form of an FAQ section on a website, interactive voice response phone trees, messenger bots, or other tools that funnel a user to an answer without human intervention. The information they typically provide, however, only goes so far. “Do you have pet-friendly homes?” “Should I get travel insurance?” “Where is the nearest grocery store?” Sure, these FAQs are legitimate, but asking reservationists, housekeepers, and maintenance techs what else they answer on a regular basis can reveal a much deeper well of questions that can be answered with self-service tools.

In addition to building a helpful self-service information library, property managers will benefit from ensuring that guests who prefer to get help this way can do so—quickly and from a mobile device. Chances are guests and potential guests will be looking for information from a smartphone. Kissmetrics reported that 75 percent of customers ages 35 to 44 and 77 percent of those 18 to 25 use their mobile devices for customer support at least once a month. The company also reported the top challenges consumers encountered when doing so:

Incorrect displays or difficult navigation (90 percent)
Unhelpful search results (75 percent)
Slow load times (40 percent)

The mission here is to refine your system’s user-friendliness with a focus on mobile and easy navigation until most questions can be answered in two to three steps.

You can also leverage tech to prevent excess service volume by anticipating guests’ needs before they ask—send pre-arrival emails and social media to distribute area guides, how-to’s, checklists, and so on. Data dives may also reveal FAQs for specific homes or groups of properties. For example, if a condo complex has a tricky gate, or homes with a certain TV provider frequently have guests calling for help with channel listings, use targeted emails to just these guests with pertinent information.

Low-tech, in-home options can be ideal, too. For example, small signs above each sink and toilet informing guests of the delicacy of that neighborhood’s plumbing and septic systems and kindly asking them not to flush or drain food, paper towels, or other toiletries can cut down on calls for clogged toilets or worse.

The more effective self-service and preemptive support are for guests, the more efficient property managers’ overall customer response can be.

Make Five-Minute Agent Response Possible

Even with the most robust self-service tools and perfect automation, people will always need to talk to people. Kissmetrics found that 79 percent of customers still prefer to call when they need help, followed by 33 percent by email, and 12 percent by web chat.

Getting to a five-minute lead response time can feel like a herculean task, particularly when strapped for time, money, staff, or all the above.

An InsideSales study found that the most common barriers to address include the following:

Poor distribution of sales leads based on geography and “fairness”
Retrieval of leads from a CRM database daily, rather than continuously
Sales reps focus on generating their own leads rather than reacting quickly to demonstrated customer interest

Streamlining all pieces of the lead response process can help free up the necessary time agents need to provide solutions and get to the next lead faster. In addition to correcting the above problems if they exist, other strategies include these:

Studying incoming requests to see when and where people need to talk to a live person, and then schedule staff accordingly.
Giving reservationists a quick-reference information library to cut and paste (and personalize!) natural human responses to common questions in email and chat.
Automating CRM to instantly direct inbound leads to reservation staff; it’s even better if they can be directed to the first available person.
Outsourcing lead response during off hours or during the times reservations or guest services staff will be busy, such as the July 4th check-in weekend.
Assigning agents to channels based on strengths. For example, some agents may be better able to juggle multiple chat conversations than others, so put them on the live chat front lines rather than on the phones.

Responding to leads and requests in near-real time is no longer optional. Property managers can avoid being left in the dust in the race against each other and the OTAs with persistent, incremental steps toward the five-minute golden window. How will your team be first off the line?

VillaKey Becomes First Certified Autism Center VR Company

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November 29, 2018

Last month, VillaKey became the first vacation rental company to become certified in autism travel by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES). The company is now a certified autism center, and its staff members are certified autism travel professionals.

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control published a report finding that about 1 in 59 children were found to identify with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a range of developmental disabilities that can cause behavioral, social, and communication difficulties. Travel is particularly tough for many families with autistic children because they may have trouble adapting to change in their surroundings and routines, can become quickly overwhelmed by sensory input, could wander off in an unfamiliar location, and other challenges.

VillaKey is primarily a marketing platform with around 1,200 homes listed across Florida and Colorado. Over the next few months, it will expand inventory into additional vacation rental markets including San Diego, Pigeon Forge, and Myrtle Beach, areas with attractions that appeal to families with autistic children.

“One of the reasons I was so excited to take this certification is that it applies exceptionally well [to vacation rentals],” said Alice Horn, VillaKey founder and CEO. “In the vacation rental industry, we do have the opportunity to control the environment for a family with an autistic child much more so than in a hotel.”

Horn said many of the families VillaKey staff speak with have never traveled before because of these risks. “We felt that for the autism families one of the big issues is trust,” she said. “It’s really important for them to know that this is a solid opportunity and that the team behind VillaKey cares enough to learn about their needs, and part of that means certification.”

“Our program competencies are based on the training content as it relates to various settings, so applicants have a broad-based view of not only what autism is and some common signs or needs individuals on the spectrum have, but also ways they can enhance the travel experience,” said Meredith Tekin, president of IBCCES. “Organizations like VillaKey and our other certified destinations are going above and beyond to say ‘autism-friendly’ isn’t enough. They wanted an independent, evidence-based program and have made a commitment to serving guests with all needs.”

In addition to the autism travel certifications, VillaKey helps guests overcome their unique travel challenges with a growing collection of about 200 homes designated as autism-friendly. The company works with its homeowners and property managers to identify and upgrade homes with features like a quiet location, soft lighting and colors, alarms on exit doors, full kitchens for cooking specialized meals, and pet friendliness as many kids with ASD have service animals.

“When you walk into a home, its welcoming, it’s calm, it’s familiar,” Horn said. “A lot of kids have a challenge with change, but a home environment makes it much easier for the whole family.”

The company has further stamped its mark on autism travel with pre-arrival educational materials for parents and kids as well as VillaKey Cares, a program in which VillaKey donates 10 percent of net profits to help support travel expenses for families impacted by autism with limited resources.

According to a 2014 study “Costs of Autism Spectrum Disorders in the United Kingdom and the United States,” about 1 percent of the world population, including 3.5 million Americans, has ASD. Autism services cost US citizens $236-262 billion annually, or an average of $2.4 million per person with an intellectual disability over the course of his or her lifetime.

Read more about VillaKey, autism travel, and niche travel in the Winter 2019 issue of VRM Intel.

Hawaii County Passes Strict Short-Term Rental Limits

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November 28, 2018

Last week, the Hawaii County council voted 6–1 to pass short-term rental regulation Bill 108, which blocks new non-owner-occupied short-term rentals, limits where they can operate, and requires registration with the planning department. The ordinance will go into effect on April 1, 2019.

The ordinance permits non-owner-occupied short-term rentals in only resort-hotel districts, general commercial districts, village commercial districts, residential and commercial districts within the general plan resort and resort node areas, and multifamily districts for multifamily dwellings within condominium properties. They are not permitted in most agricultural zones because of a state law regarding overnight accommodations in these areas.

Related article with more on this bill: Hawaii County Advances Short-Term Rental Bill

Hawaii County was the only county in the state that hadn’t adopted any regulations on short-term rentals. Council and planning commission members acknowledged Bill 108 is a framework and will need to be amended over time.

“Although it’s been a very long process, I believe we have come to a point where we’ve set up a very fair and balanced approached to provide visitors the opportunity to stay in this type of vacation rental while also, at the same time, preserving our residential neighborhoods and housing for the people who live and work on the island,” said council member Karen Eoff, who introduced this bill with council member Dru Mamo Kanuha.

Council member Eileen O’Hara was the only member to oppose the bill. “It’s hard for me to support this, especially since about 95 percent of the testimony coming through–my email, anyway–opposes this,” she said. O’Hara represents the eastern half of Puna where the Kīlauea volcano eruption and lava flow earlier this year wiped out many vacation rentals. Much of this region is also zoned for agricultural use.

Vacasa Adds Multifamily and Community Association Management Programs

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November 21, 2018

mutifamily apartment buildings community association management

As Vacasa snaps up property management companies, it’s also creating an ecosystem of secondary service offerings that have come with the acquisitions, most recently launching multifamily management and community association management programs. These services follow the addition of a real estate arm this summer.

The company announced its community association management program earlier this month but has been building it since February following the acquisition of Accommodation Services and its two community management contracts in McCall, Idaho. Today, Vacasa manages 16 associations across Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and Costa Rica. The company also provides property management services for 66 short-term rentals within these associations.

Led by COO Bob Milne and Meghan Lutterman, director of homeowner associations, the program provides association boards of directors with governance and state and local law compliance, onsite management of community areas, and optional accounting services. They are looking to expand the program to communities around the country with high concentrations of short-term rentals, currently focusing most on the Florida Keys and Panhandle.

“Our goal is to support individual community association managers and homeowner associations by understanding the unique needs of having short-term rentals within communities,” Lutterman said. “Our hope is to become the short-term rental manager of choice for each association.”

Days after the community association management program announcement, Vacasa announced its multifamily program which partners with developers and multifamily property managers to fill vacant units with short-term rentals. The program marks further injection into urban markets following its high-profile October acquisition of Oasis Collections, an urban short-term rental company with previous investments from Hyatt and AccorHotels, as well as its 2017 purchase of apartment and condo rental complex Chicago Premier Suites and a similar company in Boston.

“Within [these acquisitions,] we realized we have a portfolio growing in urban markets that’s different in a number of subtle ways that requires its own management,” said Josh Viner, senior manager of multifamily for Vacasa. His team has to think differently about things like elevator access, building security, noise, and other good neighbor practices, and other factors determined by the units’ proximity to the community. Vacasa works with NoiseAware, Point Central, and Virtual Key in its multifamily properties.

The program currently operates in Boise, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Portland, San Antonio, and Seattle with 150 total rental units. “There are a number of other markets we’re exploring, but [Vacasa founder and CEO Eric Breon] is hesitant to commit ourselves to new markets in the late stage of a bull market,” Viner said. “We’re taking a very measured approach to this segment.”

The program’s expansion will also be limited by regulations. The regulatory landscape around the US has been changing rapidly in recent years, most often with ordinances that severely restrict or ban short-term rentals in popular urban travel destinations. One such destination is Boston, where Vacasa is currently moving its multifamily operation out of the city.

“Regulations coming into play is something we take seriously,” Viner said. The company joined the National Multifamily Housing Council to work with them on creating sensible legislation for short-term rentals.

In cities and neighborhoods where regulations are favorable, Viner and his team look for buildings with a 6 to 8 percent vacancy range that allow corporate rentals and are interested in providing short-term rental opportunities to tenants and their families as well as Vacasa guests. The company also wants to partner with developers on purpose-built complexes.

“Our mark on this space is long-term stability,” said Colin Carvey, senior vice president of growth. He said the multifamily program will be only 5 to 10 percent of Vacasa’s total business, an augment to its core property management service and a diversification of the portfolio to reduce risk.

Adding so many programs in parallel to property management has some wondering if Vacasa can be all things to all people, particularly in community association management.

“It’s often times a thankless position and can be extremely difficult,” said Ben Edwards, president of Weatherby Consulting. Edwards owned and operated an association management company with more than 2,000 properties under management. “I see the opportunity that they do, but I am concerned that the investment may not generate the proper return.”

Jim Olin, CEO and founder of C2G Advisors, agreed. Olin has worked in community association management in various roles for decades. Vacasa is going into a whole other industry, a pretty significant strategic pivot for them, he said. The move will give them exposure to all owners in a development, which could present conflicts of interests and a risk of losing short-term rental units with a mistake at the association level. “They want to be careful not to boil the ocean,” he said.

How Georgia Mountain Cabin Rentals Founder Paul Gribble is Raising the Bar for the Mountains that Raised Him

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November 20, 2018

georgia mountain cabin rentals blue ridge

The phrase “born and raised” becomes less passive and more active and ongoing for Paul Gribble. Though he was born and raised in the traditional sense in the Blue Ridge Mountain area, he is now returning the favor to Blue Ridge, Georgia, bringing new life to its economy and raising its visitor experience.

Following successful stints in car dealerships and real estate practice taught by his father, Gribble started Georgia Mountain Cabin Rentals (GMCR) in 2004 in the vibrant mountain town of Blue Ridge. At the time, there were only a few property managers there, but he saw the potential for an emerging business and started GMCR, managing just one property. Today, his company manages about 50 homes with nine full-time staff and 11 independent contractor cleaners.

The homes they manage are primarily second homes for future retirees who “have their heart in Blue Ridge,” according to Gribble. The homes aren’t necessarily luxury properties, he said, but he and his team make sure guests get more value than they are paying for. They focus on customer service and delivering beyond expectations, including personal phone communication and attention to details such as pets’ names and special occasions. They often provide gift baskets, pet treats, and hand-signed thank-you notes from the entire staff. “It doesn’t take a lot of money but makes a big impression,” Gribble said.

And it works. GMCR has a 68 percent repeat guest rate and checks in nearly 10,000 guests annually—without the use of OTAs.

The company tested a small group of properties on different OTAs over the past two years but found that there were more instances of property damage among OTA guests, the reservations were mostly for peak times that would have booked anyway, and they lost the customer touch they are known for. To them and their homeowners, this wasn’t worth the commission rates. Instead, GMCR pushes the #bookdirect message in its marketing and works hard to make sure guests return.

Most of GMCR’s guests come from Atlanta and Florida where Blue Ridge is the first real mountain town they can get to coming north. Families come during summer and school vacations, and couples and small groups visit for Valentine’s Day, leaf peeping in the fall, and festivals throughout the year.

One of those festivals is the Blue Ridge Blues and BBQ Festival, a three-day weekend of music, food, and other celebrations of local culture. The Blue Ridge Lodging Association created the festival eight years ago in an effort to bring tourists to the otherwise quiet dip in the season. “You could shoot a cannon up our main street and not hit anything on that weekend,” Gribble said. Now, the third weekend of September every year is considered a holiday in the town because it’s as full as it is on the 4th of July. The annual event draws around $2 million to the area and raises tens of thousands of dollars for local children’s charities.

The lodging association itself serves as a strong model of collaboration for other vacation rental markets to follow. Among its members are vacation rental managers, B&Bs, and two hotels (including Gribble’s own Reid Ridge Hotel). Gribble was the association’s first nonfounder member, and he now serves as its president. Its goal is to set a high standard of achievement for providers with minimum membership requirements to make sure guests who come to Blue Ridge get the “good warm fuzzies” and want to come back, he said.

Inside and outside the organization, the lodging companies work alongside each other and with other industries, including restaurants and retail, to advance tourism and take care of the town’s guests collectively.

“We work together to make sure guests who come to Blue Ridge come back to Blue Ridge,” Gribble said. “As Matt Landau says, we are a young industry, and people coming together to work with each other makes us all stronger.”

The Blue Ridge Lodging Association has been held up in the industry as a model to follow not only because of its community-first nature but also because of its successful implementation of the blues and BBQ festival to enrich local tourism. Other markets have reached out to Gribble and the association for help starting their own organizations. His advice to property managers about working with their communities is, “Get out of your comfort zone, and stop thinking that you have the only trade secrets that work.”

But Gribble’s relationships with industry peers is more than a smart business tactic for him and the local economic ecosystem. “We’re competitors on paper but friends first,” he said. He and the leaders of other local property management companies go on vacation together, share ideas and procedures that can help each other make money, eat dinner together, and even have each other’s backs when guests try to play one off the other. “It’s a Blue Ridge family.”

When he’s not running GMCR, the festival, his hotel, or the lodging association, Gribble consults for property managers outside of his market who want to grow and be more efficient but just aren’t 100 percent sure how, he said. “Sometimes companies just need an experienced answer,” and he is happy to help.

If that weren’t enough, he is a real estate broker, leads a construction company that specializes in vacation cabins, sits on the board of directors for the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce (he was chairman last year), and chairs the chamber’s tourism board.

Oh, and somehow he finds time to travel occasionally with his fiancée, and the two blog about their trips on ShortTripSecrets.com.

In a world where business is often empty “busy-ness,” Gribble’s demanding schedule is anything but. His efforts in developing and raising the community that raised him represent the best of the vacation rental industry.

And he loves it all. “This is fun. I enjoy what I do, and there is something new every day,” he said. “Every day is like a different puzzle. Construction, hotel, property management—mixing it all together to do the best we can do.”

HomeAway Announces Virtual Tour Pilot

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November 19, 2018

https://www.military.com/hiring-veterans/resources/10-reasons-to-hire-vets.html

Last week, HomeAway announced its release of virtual tours for vacation rentals listed on HomeAway and VRBO. Currently being piloted in select markets, the tour simulates walking through a property with 360° images throughout the interior and exterior. The feature works with tours filmed on personal phones and cameras to professionally captured footage from companies like InsideMaps and TruPlace.

“The barriers to entry for virtual technology have never been lower,” said Ben James, senior product manager for HomeAway, said in a release. “Customers are hungry for this technology because research shows that properties with virtual tours generate more revenue. Given that each one of our vacation rentals is unique, being able to walk through a property before you book helps travelers make informed decisions.”

A recording of a virtual tour on VRBO.com.

TruPlace is embracing 3D technology, said Suzi Cusack, vice president for TruPlace. “We recently launched our TruFusion 3D Tour which utilizes DSLR cameras to meet the demands for higher quality images in virtual tours which translates into revenue for property managers,” she said. The company is building an API to integrate 3D images into HomeAway’s virtual tour.

A HomeAway representative said the company is rolling out the feature in several local markets in Florida, Hawaii, California, Texas, Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Maryland. Virtual tours will be released to global markets in 2019.

Interested owners and property managers can contact virtualtours@homeaway.com.

Today’s Challenge: Staffing to Meet Business Needs

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Sue Jones

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November 19, 2018

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staffing meet business needs sue jones hr4vr

For the first time ever, there are more job openings available than there are eligible people to fill them. It should come as no surprise that employers of all sizes are struggling to find qualified employees for more than 6.7 million job openings.

Oregon State University conducted a study to answer two questions about the hospitality industry labor shortage:

Why is there is a labor shortage in the hospitality industry?
What are some possible solutions to the labor shortage?

The study indicated that millennials are the primary reason for the labor shortage. The study found that they were the least satisfied with their jobs; most likely to leave the industry within a five-year period; and that they view compensation differently, placing value on workplace culture, professional growth, and task variety. The authors concluded that the issues are unlikely isolated to the millennial generation but are an emerging trend of the future workforce.

On the flip side, baby boomers, about a third of today’s workforce, are now working longer and staying in the workplace past retirement ages. Research from Gallup found that baby boomers, who strongly agree that they currently “have enough money to do everything [they] want to do,” expect to retire at age sixty-six. Baby boomers who strongly disagree with this statement predict they will retire significantly later, at age seventy-three.

Today it is critical to provide “reskilling” and “retraining” for your current workforce to meet future needs and to start thinking about the workforce you have today as your primary workforce of tomorrow. There is no “new wave” of talent entering the workplace to fill the 6.7 million job openings. You have to develop your own talent.

Consider your location and the affordability of the area so your employees can live close to where they work. An article in The Denver Post illustrates how a tight supply and high demand for housing makes it challenging for workers to find living arrangements in an area with lots of work available. The article states, “They are living in tents in Crested Butte. In Telluride, they could soon be squeezed into portable shelters. They are in motels not suited for ski vacationers in Steamboat Springs. And in Breckenridge, some locals are living in their cars.” This situation is becoming more prevalent in a vast majority of vacation destination markets throughout the United States.

Let’s not forget about the cost of childcare. According to the fifth annual Cost of Care Survey, childcare costs rose for the fifth year in a row. The survey found that childcare is less affordable for families than it was a year ago. One in three families (33 percent) spend 20 percent or more of their household income on childcare, 19 percent spend 25 percent or more, and a whopping 71 percent spend at least 10 percent of their annual income on childcare. For comparison, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines affordable childcare as up to 7 percent of the household income.

Filling open positions requires a new way of thinking about recruitment, compensation, training, and other incentives you might not have in place. With multiple generations and different needs in the workplace, you need more than a “one size fits all” approach to attract, engage, motivate, and retain talent.

Additionally, companies are starting to relax their standards around education and experience requirements. There is a shift in relaxing preemployment drug testing to exclude marijuana as a way to attract candidates.

Finally, reassess your recruitment practices and procedures so that you are prepared to make offers in days versus weeks. Today’s applicants are typically juggling several job offers. Make sure your offer is the best and the one the most closely fits the individual’s needs.

All of these factors are challenging employers to think differently about the following:

Tapping into diverse recruitment pools
Buying talent through compensation
Recruiting at the speed of light
Retraining: developing your internal workforce

Tapping into Diverse Recruitment Pools

Employers can step up creativity with how and where to find new talent. Consider different demographics, such as veterans, military spouses, and nonviolent ex-convicts—three demographics to start with. Remote workers, disabled workers, and individuals reentering the workforce are additional recruitment pools.

Veterans

Looking for hardworking, motivated, and ethical employees? Veterans have the proven ability to learn new skills and concepts. They know and understand the dynamics of leadership, and they perform well under pressure. Veterans have a respect for procedures and know what it means to do “an honest day’s work.”

The Society for Human Resources Management stated in a recent article, “More veterans are college educated now than ever before with rates surpassing those of civilians. Because of a highly competitive military recruiting market and the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, we’ve seen a dramatic shift and significant increase in the level of education our service members have achieved before, during, and immediately following their time in service.”

Military Spouses

It is a major challenge for military spouses to find jobs and build a career while supporting their military service member. Military spouses often get overlooked as a strong recruitment source even though there are hundreds of military bases throughout the United States for employers to partner with.

Just like veterans, military spouses have diverse backgrounds. They tend to be more adaptable and are less likely to become overwhelmed in a stressful or changing environment. According to the Military Family Life Project, about 10 percent of military spouses have a master’s degree, MBA, or professional degree.

One of the greatest ROIs in hiring military spouses is retention. You can train them while they are stationed near your location and then continue to retain them as a remote employee when they transfer duty stations.

Nonviolent Ex-convicts

Instead of focusing on the perceived risks of hiring ex-convicts, hiring individuals with previous convictions can significantly expand your applicant pool. Ex-convicts are a disadvantaged recruitment pool and are often found to be incredibly hard working and grateful for the chance to excel with an employer.

This is a great time to reevaluate your current recruitment and hiring practices to ensure that you don’t automatically exclude ex-convicts from your applicant pools.

Remote Workers

You can fill workforce staffing and skills gaps by recruiting more remote workers. You will gain access to qualified applicants throughout the country (and internationally), and you open up another pool of individuals who prefer to work from home or have specific hours available to work.

While not all positions are suited to remote workers, there are several responsibilities that can be completed remotely as a full-time or part-time position. Effectively hiring and retaining remote workers requires a shift in the company culture as well as careful planning for the workflow, performance management, communication, and engagement of the remote employees.

Disabled Workers

It is a challenge for people with disabilities to get their foot in the door. Many employers don’t have procedures (or goals) to recruit from this demographic. Working with local, state, and federal agencies to create a plan to recruit, hire, and retain people with disabilities is a key step businesses can take to increase their workforce. This group is willing to work hard and is excited for an opportunity to contribute.

Individuals Reentering the Workplace

There are a significant number of family members reentering the workforce after raising children, taking care of elderly parents, or caring for a family member. Others who have owned a small business or who retired early are now reentering the workforce because they now need or want a job. This is a great resource for a part-time workforce.

Look for transferable skills and soft skills that identify what they have done, what they know, and how they can utilize their skills in your business. Individuals returning to work are an asset to businesses. The first step is to create training programs to reintroduce these individuals back into the workforce. Skill sets can change but aptitude rarely does.

Buying Talent through Compensation

It is now officially an employee market, which is especially brutal for businesses with fewer than fifty employees who can’t compete with the pay and benefits of larger firms. Buying talent means that you are going to be paying more in the form of higher wages, competitive benefits, paid time off, performance-based incentives, and other types of compensation outside of base wages. If you haven’t already done so, now is a great time to rethink your compensation and benefits strategy to address what is most important to the individual(s) you are looking to attract. Companies are starting to offer more fringe benefits, such as extra time off; time to volunteer or participate in children’s activities; training seminars and conferences; flexible work schedules (hours/days); and company-issued cell phones, tablets, and laptops.

Calculating the value of your employee’s total compensation package works as a recruitment and retention tool. Providing total compensation statements illustrates for applicants and current employees what their total compensation is, or will be, based on both actual wages and fringe benefits. For more information on marketing the value of total compensation statements, visit HR4VR.com/Media.

Recruiting at the Speed of Light

Applicants today are typically fielding several job opportunities. Putting applicants through long processes is no longer effective. You need to find ways to be more flexible, address things on the spot, and make hires within days, not weeks. Candidates who apply still need to be recruited. Listed below are some things that are becoming more mainstream when recruiting great hires during low unemployment.

Immediately start contacting qualified candidates and leads by texting them and asking when they can interview by phone or in person. Sending emails and waiting for a response or calling and leaving a voice message is less effective and wastes valuable time.
If your company uses an applicant tracking system, make sure that you are checking applications frequently, every couple of hours. I recommend removing filters for education, experience, and other criteria that restrict the resumes flowing to managers. Too often, great candidates can fall into a black hole and become lost because of unnecessary filters.
Be prepared with competitive compensation. Know what you are willing to offer the candidate and have it ready to go. Many states no longer allow you to ask about salary history. However, you can ask what the applicant is looking to earn. Too often, companies spend time finding the right person and then when they present an offer, the candidate is outside of the range, which wastes a lot of time and causes everyone involved angst.
Employee referral programs work and are typically a company’s best recruitment tool. In this economy, increasing your referral fee for hard-to-fill positions is a no brainer. For example, a $2,000 referral fee for a $40,000 salaried position may be easy to quantify given the cost of hiring and the lack of applicants.
In the past, the best practice was to “hire slow and fire fast.” Today, it is all about hiring fast. Take time to review your internal hiring process to find areas that you can eliminate and bottlenecks where you might be able to speed up the process. It is all about connecting with the individual as quickly as possible. Scheduling interviews when all the decision-makers are available is key so you don’t have to bring candidates back for additional interviews.
Make immediate employment offers. Being prepared to present qualified applicants with an offer the same day as the interview is critical in today’s low unemployment environment.

Retraining: Developing Your Internal Workforce

The Manpower Group conducted a survey of 2,000 employers and identified that the number one skill that is hard to find are skilled trades. Maintenance technicians, landscapers, electricians, plumbers, and other skilled trades positions are some of the most challenging positions to fill.

With soft skills, the number one skill gap is communication skills. Sixty-one percent of respondents cited written and verbal communication as the largest gap they see with applicants.

Here are some things trending with businesses today as they develop their workforce:

Companies are starting to identify new skills their employees might be interested in learning and are then providing them with the educational assistance and time to obtain the skills. Additionally, they are creating internal programs to develop the talent they can’t find.
Onboarding and orientation programs now include more than what is necessary to complete the employee’s job responsibilities. Companies are creating training programs around written and verbal communication, basic workplace professionalism and etiquette, and other core business practices to assist candidates with entering or reentering the workforce.
Work with baby boomers to create knowledge transfer programs for internal employees when they retire. Pairing millennials with baby boomers to teach them how to use technology more effectively in the workplace is another great retention strategy.

As you wind down from your summer, or wind up for your winter, thinking more broadly on how to recruit, compensate, train, and retain your workforce today and in the future will be time well spent.

Resources:

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/guide-to-veteran-hiring-8-facts-to-break-down-barriers-and-stereotypes.aspx

https://www.military.com/base-guide/browse-by-location

https://recruitmilitary.com/employers/resource/493-why-smart-employers-hire-and-retain-military-spouses

DC Council Unanimously Approves Short-Term Rental Bill in Final Vote

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November 14, 2018

DC Council Delays Final Vote on Short-Term Rental Bill

The DC city council voted unanimously yesterday to approve a short-term rental bill that limits non-owner occupied rentals to primary residences only and caps them at a maximum of 90 days per year, among other regulations.

Ahead of the vote, council members debated several amendments, including council chairman Phil Mendelson’s proposal to offset the estimated $104 million in lost short-term rental revenue with excess revenues identified in the most recent annual revenue estimate. His proposal also included a delay in the effective date of the ordinance to October 1, 2019, to give property owners time to change their properties’ uses.

The former stipulation faced opposition at the October 16 meeting and resulted in the vote’s postponement, but it was approved unanimously yesterday.

The council also approved council member Charles Allen’s amendment to allow some short-term rental owners to apply for an exemption to the 90-day rental limit if they are required to work away from the city, as many DC residents are for military or diplomatic assignments, or if they are away for medical care for themselves or a family member for longer than 90 days.

Mendelson and council member Kenyan McDuffie, who proposed the short-term rental bill in January of last year, called the amendment “a recipe for mischief” and pointed to the additional administrative requirements it would demand. The council approved the amendment 9 – 4.

Other amendments were voted down to the applause of meeting attendees, including another attempt to increase the 90-day rental cap to 120 days and a request to increase the short-term rental property limit from primary only to primary plus one additional dwelling.

The bill now heads to mayor Murial Bowser’s desk where she is not expected to veto it.

Related Articles:

DC Second-Home Rental Ban Passes First Vote Unanimously

D.C. Council to Vote on Second-Home Rental Ban

VR Companies Make Phocuswright’s Hot Startups List

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November 14, 2018

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On Monday, Phocuswright released its Hot 25 Startups list for 2019. Created in partnership with Voyager HQ, a club that connects travel startup founders, investors, and corporations, the list highlights the startups they believe have staying power in a crowded and fast-moving marketplace.

“The companies on our list are those we feel have the greatest potential to make a difference to their sector or market in the next 12 months – based on their ability to innovate, grow customers and expand geographically, as well as the quality of their leadership team,” PhocusWire writes. “To rank potential objectively, we asked contributors to score each company on significant recent fundraising, press, partnerships, product, traction and acquisition potential.”

Four vacation rental-specific companies and one travel tech company coming into the industry next year made the list, along with a few others that could make appearances in this space in the future.

Beyond Pricing

Dynamic pricing and revenue management software Beyond Pricing currently serves more than 150,000 listings across 7,000 cities. In 2019, it’s aiming to grow to 500,000 listings and hit $3 billion in bookings, as well as eyeing boutique hotel accommodations and bed and breakfasts. The company has raised $3.5 million in venture capital led by Bullpen Capital and Resolute Ventures.

GuestReady

GuestReady provides vacation and short-term rental hosts with select property management services including cleaning and maintenance. Currently, the company operates in the UK, France, Portugal, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. GuestReady has raised $3.7 million over two seed investment rounds led by Impulse VC and Swiss Founders Fund, and it acquired the London company Easy Rental Services in October of last year. The company is planning for more acquisitions next year, as well as extensions of its property management technology, to grow its management to more than 2,000 properties in 15 cities.

LuggageHero

Copenhagen-based LuggageHero offers storage kiosks in shops for travelers to store their luggage for $1 an hour while they wait for their rental property to become available. Kiosks can be found in 310 shops across New York City, London, and Copenhagen, and the company plans to expand to 36 additional cities by January 2020. LuggageHero is also planning integrations to allow vacation rental managers, OTAs, and other third parties to offer luggage storage reservations directly within their platforms.

The company announced $380,000 in seed funding from angel investors in July of 2017.

Slickspaces

Slickspaces automates guest entry, check-in, and check-out processes for property managers, apartments, bed and breakfasts, hotels, and other accommodations providers. The Vancouver-based company has raised $3 million in funding, including an investment from BlackPines Capital Partners Inc., whose founder and CEO is ex-Booking Holdings CEO Darren Huston. Huston also serves as Slickspaces’ executive chairman.

TripTech

TripTech makes it possible to run native ads with real-time pricing and availability on top travel sites. The company will be expanding into vacation rentals, extended stay hotels, and other accommodations spaces next year.

Other Hot 25 companies to watch:

Ascape: An app that curates 360° videos and virtual reality travel content. The company is developing a library of stock content that will be available for travel brands to license
Stay22: An event planning software tool that gives event organizers a way to direct attendees to accommodations around an event’s venue, including homes listed on Airbnb.
TravelPerk: A corporate travel management platform that let company travel planners or individual employees book plane tickets, hotels, properties on Airbnb, trains, and other business trip needs on one itinerary with one invoice.
VoyHoy: A multimodal search platform that allows travelers to search combinations of air, rail, and bus travel in Latin America. In 2019, it will add other last mile transportation options to better access islands, national parks, and other places that are difficult to reach, as many vacation rental-friendly destinations can be.

Florida Panhandle Still Struggling One Month After Hurricane Michael

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November 12, 2018

hurricane michael florida panhandle panama city mexico beach

A month after Hurricane Michael made landfall over the Florida Panhandle as one of the strongest storms to hit the US, those left in its path of destruction are still struggling to recover. Several residents are forced to live in tents or cars because their homes have been condemned or razed off the map entirely. Others are luckier and still have a standing home they can live in, though often under a shredded roof covered by tarps. Today, thunderstorms and tornado warnings had them all worried if the tarps and tents will hold.

Annie Holcombe counts herself among the lucky. “Every person in my family has had to move,” she said. Holcombe is the director of account management for BookingPal and a Panama City resident. She moved into a new build neighborhood last year. Its homes are damaged but mostly livable after withstanding the brunt of the storm, which ripped out 90 percent of the community’s trees and sent them into power lines and houses.

Recovery everywhere has been painstaking. Cell connections remain spotty for some service providers as power crews have yet to completely stabilize the grid. Holcombe said it’s become normal to have one or two outages a day as repairs progress. Many residents also don’t have access to the internet or cable television, making it difficult for them to get critical information, like where to get drinking water.

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

As is the case after every disaster, these communities have had to lean on each other. Holcombe and other locals who could connect to the internet through mobile data have organized their own relief efforts through social media. After her mom used a plastic Rubbermaid bin to store irreplaceable family photos and a friend posted a request for similar tubs, Holcombe launched a drive for the bins.

“People are finding out every day that they can’t live in their homes because of mold or because they’re structurally unsound,” she said. She had a lot of people from her large network asking what they could do to help, so she began telling them they desperately needed storage.

From there, the drive took on a life of its own. Within three days, she received 12 boxes of plastic bins – the shipment was the only thing on the delivery truck. Later, a friend recommended she start an Amazon wish list where people can order the bins and have them delivered to her house. One BookingPal partner, Siesta Key Luxury Rental Properties, also set up drop off locations at its offices to collect bins for her.

She now gets daily deliveries Monday through Saturday, receiving bins so quickly she’s had to stack them up in front of her own torn-out walls. “I call it hurricane chic décor.”

storage bin stacks annie holcombe's house panama city florida — Stacks of plastic bins line Annie Holcombe’s house in Panama City, Florida after she started a drive to help locals affected by Hurricane Michael

To date, she has distributed more than 400 bins and helped nearly 50 families. Those requesting bins should also know that every bin comes with a 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.”

But even with the tireless efforts of individuals like Holcombe, local crews, and organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, Panama City and its neighbors have a long way to go in recovery. “Everybody is doing their part locally, but we’re exhausted from feeling like we’re only one community and we can’t help the whole problem,” Holcombe said. In addition to bins, other ways her vacation rental industry peers and others can help include:

Donate to Holcombe’s PayPal pool to prepay for $10 Thanksgiving meals at a local PoFolks restaurant
Donate school supplies, coats, shoes, laundry detergent, and other items requested by Bay District Schools
Supply unwrapped toys to local holiday toy drives
If you have a vacation rental home nearby that’s livable, consider offering your offseason weeks to temporarily house residents whose homes are destroyed. Many of those affected are also those who are the backbone of the hospitality industry, Holcombe said.

VRM Intel will cover more on this story and others from the aftermath of Hurricanes Michael and Florence here and in our upcoming issue. If you have an experience or information you’d like to share, please email alexa.nota@vrmintel.com.

Vacation Rental Industry Loses Ballot Initiatives Around the Country

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November 8, 2018

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2018 midterm election ballot initiatives vote short-term vacation rental ban regulations

On Tuesday, residents in several municipalities cast their votes for or against local short-term rental ballot measures. In South Lake Tahoe and Pacific Grove, California; Maui County, Hawaii; and the lesser-known South Portland, Maine, voters approved severe short-term rental restrictions, bans, and heavy fines. The results stand in stark contrast to the June Palm Springs vote in which residents overwhelmingly struck down Measure C, a ban on vacation rentals in residential areas.

“We are disappointed in the outcome of Tuesday’s election,” said Greg Holcomb, government relations director for the Vacation Rental Management Association. “These results will have a severe effect on the local travel and tourism industry in those localities. We will continue to work with property managers and other industry stakeholders to fight fragmented local regulations by focusing on statewide legislation to regulate the industry.”

South Lake Tahoe, California

Eyes are still on South Lake Tahoe, one of the most visible and high tension battles this year. Of ballots counted so far, citizens voted 2,345 to 2,232 in favor of Measure T to ban vacation rentals in residential zones, limiting them to the tourist core. The difference of 113 votes could phase out nearly 80 percent of the city’s 1,800 short-term rentals by 2021 and apply harsher restrictions on the 400 that remain. However, El Dorado County has not yet certified the election results as absentee ballots are still being counted, and there is a small chance they could swing the vote in favor of vacations rentals given the narrow margin.

“It wasn’t a surprise,” said Stu Roberson of RnR Vacation Rentals in South Lake Tahoe. “We could have done more sooner. That would be the advice I give to others: If there’s an inkling of something like this, it won’t go away. Deal with it sooner.” He cited a lack of accurate and complete information among voters regarding affordable housing availability and the economic losses that would come with a ban as a large factor in the outcome.

Leading up to the vote, Roberson said he was prepared for the vote to go either way. “I told my team that no matter how it goes, we’re still going to be renting vacation rentals.” He said RnR is still operating at full strength, and he believes vacation rentals in residential areas will still be there two years from now. He expects vacation rental proponents will take another look at what can be done to get the ban overturned. “I truly believe there is a solution at hand. [The ordinance] will change, it will address the concerns everybody has. But it’s going to be a real challenge because a lot of the decision-making like on Tuesday was emotional.”

In the meantime, Roberson wants everyone to know visitors are still welcome on Lake Tahoe. “Vacation rentals are still available, so come on up.”

Update: El Dorado County’s first results update on November 9 puts the Measure T vote at 3,115 in favor, 3,090 against, a difference of just 25 votes.

Pacific Grove, California

A five-hour drive southwest on the opposite edge of the state, Pacific Grove faced a similar vote with more stinging results. Measure M took more than 58 percent of the vote to ban and phase out short-term rentals in residential areas outside of the coastal zone within 18 months.

“We had been fighting this for months and giving it our all,” said Annee Martin, owner of Sanctuary Vacation Rentals. “I knew it was going to be close, and I was praying for a miracle.”

She, too, believed it was affordable housing misinformation that swayed the voters. She estimated about half of the homes in the market are second homes, many valued at $1 million or more, that would never become long-term rentals. Her biggest advice to property managers in any market is to proactively enact good neighbor policies and programs and try to work with city hall.

Still, she shared Roberson’s optimism for the future and was already planning for the next 18 months, taking steps toward rebranding as extended-stay or monthly rentals, collaborating with other businesses, and attracting new traveler demographics. “We will survive, and we will thrive again,” she said. “We’ll figure it out.”

Maui, Hawaii

In Hawaii, Maui County residents voted on an initiative to amend the county charter on penalties. Nearly 52 percent of more than 49,000 voters opted to increase 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 he himself calls “draconian.”

South Portland, Maine

One of the lesser-known but intensely heated fights was in South Portland, Maine. Residents voted to uphold an ordinance passed by city council this summer to ban unhosted short-term rentals in residential areas. The initiative landed on the ballot following the second of two successful petitions this year led by resident Michael Frabotta. The battle over regulations has had contentious points, including claims of false information from signature gatherers, alleged harassment of signature gatherers that resulted in police involvement, and the resignation of city council member Adrian Dowling following an intense discussion on the city attorney’s performance, particularly as it related to short-term rentals.

South Portland has less than 300 short-term rentals, but 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. After short-term rentals grew faster than expected, Portland city council enacted a moratorium on new permits for non-owner occupied units last month and is considering tightening restrictions.

Continuous Learning: Knowledge is the Key to Business Success

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Heather Bayer

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November 7, 2018

continuous learning key business success heather bayer

“What’s the point of learning about crypto-currency? It will never affect me.”

That was my sister’s response when I told her I was researching distributed networks for travel and how consumer transactions for vacation rentals might one day be in Bitcoin.

She could be right—she’s in her early 70s, lives in rural Ontario (albeit in the posh part), and has gotten by for years on minimal technology; she hates Facebook and has only recently mastered Spotify. Indeed, there is so much new to learn that perhaps it is best to stick with what is important to us, rather than trying to understand every bright and shiny thing that comes along.

So, we got into this lively discussion about learning and what to spend our time on.

It just so happens that my sister is about to start renting part of her home on Airbnb. This isn’t a new activity, since she’s been in the vacation rental business almost as long as I have, but it’s been a while since she last rented, and things have changed.

It’s not a matter of just listing and watching the bookings flow in, as it used to be when we started out.

You need to know about marketing on Twitter and Instagram, how to write a blog post (and what to write about), what to put in a rental agreement, and how to manage today’s guest expectations. If you are a property manager, as I am, it’s all about continuously learning how to stay abreast of or even ahead of the competition, in terms of marketing automation, channel management, reservation systems, and managing operations.

And that’s just the beginning.

Learning in this industry is like parenting. There’s so much advice from so many people that it’s tough to distinguish what will work specifically for you from what to discard because it’s faddy or irrelevant to your needs.

What do you want to learn?

The type of education that is going to be right for you will most likely depend on where you are in your short-term rental journey.

A new owner might have minimal knowledge of how to market, operate, and manage a rental business and may need more comprehensive education than a seasoned operator who wants to upgrade his or her knowledge of rental practices.

At the next level, someone preparing to move into property management will have different learning needs from an established property manager with employees, a significant number of owners, and a larger budget.

So, the first task is to define your learning needs, which is easier if you can sort them into the following categories:

Strategic Management
Operational Management
Marketing
Guest Services
People Management
Technical Skills

Take each one and map out what you need to know now, what is important but less urgent, and what could be outsourced. For example, it may be fun to learn about Instagram for Business, but if it’s going to contribute less to your bottom line than a course in converting website traffic to reservations, it may be best to leave that to someone else—or a third-party company that can take care of social media marketing for you.

So where do you learn all this stuff that will make a difference to your business?

Should you really trust someone who has been in the business six months and is now telling you how to make $100K a year as an Airbnb host, or the owner of one small vacation rental who is touting consultancy at $100 per hour or offering a course that will unlock the “secrets” of the short-term rental industry? Do you need a “boot camp” experience, or a sampling of the education available at one of the many conferences held throughout the year, or can you glean all you need to know from a Facebook group or a Learning Center hosted on one of the OTA sites?

There are plenty of knowledge sources, including the following:

Facebook Groups

There are dozens of peer-operated Facebook groups in which owners ask questions about managing rentals and members contribute their knowledge. For a pressing question on an operational topic, you can usually find a quick answer there. However, you’ll find that the quality of the answers differs widely.

Forums

The days of the Yahoo group forums are passed, but other forums are still going strong, such as the UK’s Lay My Hat (free) and Matt Landau’s Inner Circle (paid membership).

Webinars

These can be a great source of information on a single topic, such as social media marketing or insurance issues. The Association of Vacation Rental Operators and Affiliates (AVROA) and the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) deliver monthly webinars featuring known industry experts (free for members).

Conferences

There are plenty of events to attend at which you can immerse yourself in the world of vacation rentals over a few days. The largest, the VRMA International Conference, is held primarily for property managers and is worth attending for both the educational content and the army of industry vendors filling the exhibition hall. The Vacation Rental Success Summit (Canada/US) and the Vacation Rental World Summit (Europe) are focused more on the independents, while VRM Intel and VRMA also hold regional events. Some industry software suppliers have their own user events (e.g., HomeAway, Streamline, and LiveRez).

Online Training

There are plenty of courses available online, so lay out your criteria for credibility testing and contact them for details. For example, Cottage Blogger has just been relaunched as Vacation Rental Formula and offers a range of short courses on numerous topics, with some longer courses scheduled for publication later in 2018.

(Editor’s Note: In addition to Vacation Rental Formula, the VRMA now has an online VRM certificate program, and RealJoy’s Micah Berg recently launched the Vacation Rental University. While have not yet thoroughly vetted these programs, they are worth investigating.)

Credible Resources

To identify which resource is going to work for you and how you can sift through all the learning opportunities available, start by defining your criteria for a source of knowledge.

There’s a whole industry out there that involves teaching people how to sell courses on any subject without knowing much about it, so checking out the credentials of the person providing the learning is the first step.

At the moment there’s no accreditation system for learning resources in our industry. Anyone can put together a professional-looking website, create a course, slap a price on it, buy some Facebook ads, and take your money. And you have no idea whether what you are buying is going to be worth the time you’ve spent and the price you’ve paid.

Ask these questions:

How long have you been in the business?
How many properties have you owned and managed?
What experience do you have with property management issues?
Have you spoken at industry conferences?
Have you published articles in any journals or other publications?

Check the source’s website for an About page that answers all of the above questions, and if it doesn’t answer them, be wary.

A final note about vacation rental education

Our industry changes frequently, whether it’s an algorithm adjustment by one of the OTAs, a threat from a new entrant, a shift in the way guests perceive the business, or new technology forcing us to look differently at the way we do things.

This is why we need to keep up to date with what’s new, adapt and evolve our practices, and be prepared for whatever may come next. Disruption is always on the horizon, and those with the in-depth knowledge necessary to handle change effectively will be the winners in the constant battle to remain successful.

Education is key to this process, so when you hear someone tell you that there is nothing new to learn about this business, know that you’ve just overtaken them in your quest for knowledge.

Annual Deep Cleaning for Each Home in Inventory Should be Mandatory

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Durk Johnson

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November 6, 2018