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John Dalton: Wherever the Economy Is Headed, Tourism Will Lead It There 

By
VRM Intel Staff
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How’s that for an opener? Here we are working in an industry that always seems to be leading the economy, and hardly anyone knows it. I wonder how many politicians understand that tourism is the number one industry in the world, and that they should be supporting it every day. Here are a few worldwide facts that tell the story of how our industry is leading the way to a better economy.  

  • According to the World Travel Council, more travel dollars are spent in the United States than in any other country.  
  • China ranks second.  
  • Travel spending in the United States is almost twice as much as China. 
  • One out of every nine jobs in the world is created by tourism. 

 A few more facts  

  • Foreign visitor spending in the United States is 20.6 percent whereas domestic spending is 79.4 percent. 
  • In July, 209,000 new jobs were created in America, and leisure and hospitality contributed 62,000, or 30 percent of the total. 
  • Leisure travelers spend approximately 2.4 times more than business travelers. 
  • 13 percent of Americans plan to take three or more vacations this year. 

Transportation Taxes 

The tax rate on the average airline ticket is 21.1 percent. This year the airlines are forecasting more than 730 million people will board aircraft in the United States. The driving market has the privilege of being “double taxed.” First, the federal government taxes gasoline at the rate of 19.4 cents per gallon. Second, the states add their gasoline tax, ranging from 12.2 cents per gallon in Alaska to 58.2 cents in Pennsylvania. 

Destination Taxes

Almost every purchase travelers make is subject to a state sales tax, and the lodging tax fluctuates from state to state. 

For vacationing folks, lodging taxes far exceed transportation taxes. It’s almost impossible to calculate what the total per-person tax dollar amount is for tourists. With all that revenue, it boggles the mind why government employees are not adequately staffed to serve travelers. 

The next time you arrive at the airport, you might ask yourself why the lines are so long and the wait times are often unacceptable to clear security. Do you think politicians are allocating some of that 21.1 percent tax from your ticket to other industries? Are the elected officials in your state appropriating travel tax dollars to support their agendas? 

Millions of dollars of local and county vacation rental (VR) taxes are not being collected due to lack of personnel and technical capabilities. Many vacation destinations do not have the manpower to even identify those renting without a license. It’s unfair to the local communities for federal and state representatives not to increase the budgets. The collection of taxes is vital to enhance the infrastructure of vacation destinations. In addition, it is unfair to taxpayers for rogues to be earning rental dollars yet avoiding paying taxes. It goes beyond the occupancy tax. One also wonders if these individuals are claiming the income on their federal income tax filings. 

In January 2014, the Onsite Property Management Association (OPMA) Board of Directors voted to go on record challenging the proliferation of businesses and individuals that harm legal short-term rentals. They urged professional short-term rental partners to join them and lend their voices in support of eliminating these unprofessional and illegal activities within the hospitality industry. To date, few have joined the fight. Today, many politicians still do not understand the negative impact this has on our sector. 

Does it sound like I am about to take the politicians to task for not supporting the visitors who support our destinations and the businesses that serve them? Oh yeah! 

Decades ago, while working at AAA headquarters, I learned that the federal gasoline tax was voted into law to maintain the highways and bridges throughout the country. At that time, I was astonished to learn that only 75 percent was appropriated for that purpose, and 25 percent was earmarked for other programs. It seems today Washington is selling us a new infrastructure program to finally update the highways and bridges. The only problem is that now only 60 percent of the gasoline tax dollars are being applied for this long awaited endeavor and 40 percent is quietly being moved elsewhere by our elected officials. 

 

The Florida Fiasco 

We all know the story of the Florida legislation attempting to eliminate Visit Florida, the major marketing arm attracting people to the state. When it was announced, the people who have devoted their lives to our industry descended upon Tallahassee. The governor supported their cause to maintain Visit Florida and not reduce its funding. The politicians felt the pressure and introduced a revised bill leaving Visit Florida in place but cutting the budget to $25 million. The governor sent his message that he agreed that the marketing arm needed reorganization but that he would veto the bill if the funding was not reduced from the previous year. 

Despite the opposition, the House and Senate proceeded to vote. The House vote was 98–14, and the Senate voted 34–4 to reduce the funding. Collectively, the vote was 132–18.  

88 percent of the elected state officials voted against tourism. They individually knew the consequences of their vote would be devastating to the state. The tax revenues would plunge, untold residents would lose jobs, and homeowners would soon be paying higher property taxes.  

When all was said and done, the governor passed it off as “politicians just being politicians.” If that’s the case, then I have yet another reason to be sure we rid ourselves of politicians who are against tourism, wherever they are. All 132 of those voting against our industry, regardless of their reasoning, deserve to be sent back to public life on Election Day. They have no place in government. 

Do they have the ability to understand that marketing Florida without tourism is like marketing a picnic without food? Did they believe the private sector would increase its marketing dollars to replace the void left by Visit Florida? Or did they buy into the Field of Dreams movie? You know, the “Build it and they will come” theory. 

Did they believe that Florida (the field) was built and visitors would come without the state funding the marketing? Well, Kevin Costner built the field, and they came. But what everyone seems to miss is that the visitors who went to Iowa did not go to see the field. They went to be entertained by the great array of baseball talent who had passed away. 

It’s not the soil of Florida that attracts a record number of visitors each year. It’s the talent of the people who have invested their lives to help visitors create lifelong vacation memories for those willing to spend their hard-earned dollars in these communities. It is the commitment of dedicated individuals to produce innovative products and services to bring visitors back again and again. It is a combination of all the stakeholders in VR communities working together. 

 

It’s Time to Vote Them Out of Office 

This is true of every VR market in the United States. In recent years politicians have done little to support the success of the tourism industry. The gang of 132 anti-tourism representatives is not alone. There are thousands of them across the country, and it’s our duty to rid ourselves of the people who believe they can regulate our industry. All they can do is get in the way of our progress to continue to lead the economy to prosperity by voting against what is good for tourism. 

Nationwide, we need to identify these “political barriers to tourism’s progress” and vote them out of office. It’s time to take names. It’s time to tell your community who they are and why they should be voted out of office. A campaign against these individuals should be a high priority. They should be replaced with people who understand the value of our great industry.  

We require political leadership who will leave the local legislation in the hands of the communities and not at the state level. We need astute politicians committed to providing local communities with additional funding and manpower to create their own vacation-friendly ordinances, to enable them to identify the rogue organizations and individuals giving the VR sector a bad name and extinguish their parasitic behavior, and, of course, collect 100 percent of the taxes so they can allocate those taxes directly back into the local vacation rental infrastructure. Let’s end this diversion of funding by the states and federal government that serves their personal political agendas. 

Imagine if we had the majority of politicians at all levels of government, understanding the importance of our industry? Imagine how they could deliver their campaign messages: 

“I am running to support tourism; this industry creates more jobs than any other and is second in consumer spending only to food. Business travelers meet with customers to sell and service them face-to-face to successfully grow their businesses. Vacationers return home with memories that will last for generations. People travel to other countries to understand one another, forge friendships, and live in a more peaceful world. I need your vote to join the new breed of political leaders who understand: Wherever the economy is headed, tourism will lead it there.” 

Come Election Day, let’s vote for them and send the incumbents opposed to our way of life out of the political world. Perhaps they might even travel and begin selecting VR companies for their vacations. They might even wind up at yours, looking for a deal. Just be sure to charge them the rack rate. 

About John Dalton 

John Dalton is currently the chief marketing strategist at OPMA. He was with TWA for ten years and worked at AAA headquarters before starting his own company. He is an industry consultant and conference speaker and has worked with most of the major hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, car rental firms, and numerous travel agencies. 

Making the Most of Your PPC Ad Spend 

By
VRM Intel Staff
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0

When it comes to PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, marketers are always looking for ways to improve performance. The goal is to optimize the account continuously, finding ways to save money and spend more efficiently. Anyone with PPC experience knows that there are countless ways to do this, including adjusting keyword bids, setting daily ad schedules, adding negative keywords, and so on.  

Why is it that one of the most obvious ways to spend more efficiently is often overlooked? While everyone is spending time making little tweaks to try and push the needle forward, they often lose sight of the bigger picture, which is the account’s overall budget allocation throughout the year. Using both historical data and competitor’s data and being prepared to adjust on the fly, you can ensure that you are not limited when business is booming and that you’re tightening up and maintaining discipline during slower seasons. 

 

Seasonal Budget Adjustments

The most common tactic employed when trying to optimize spend throughout the year is seasonal budget adjustments. This is especially true in the vacation rental industry. Many travel destinations experience busy seasons where it is important fill all vacation rental properties, meaning it is important to allocate additional ad spend to these months.  

Property managers near ski resorts need to ensure that their winter ad spend budgets can keep up with increased winter demand. If budgets are limited during these important months, it can mean leaving easy money on the table. On the opposite end of the spectrum, once the ski season ends and the snow begins to melt, these destinations tend to experience a lull in traffic. This can be a good time to reduce bids and budgets to save up for the next big push. This is also a good opportunity to shift focus toward homeowner acquisition as opposed to reservations. 

On a similar note, it is also important to understand how specific holidays affect performance. Holidays should be considered their own entities, and even during a slow month or season it may be important to jack up budgets for a brief period to ensure maximum efficiency.  

Sticking with the ski town example, April and May (a.k.a. “mud season”) tend to be very slow booking months as snow is melting, but Memorial Day can lead to a nice influx of visitors, especially if the specific town is hosting an event. Thus, it is important that spend begins to increase leading up to Memorial Day to ensure that your budget is keeping up with traffic.  

 

Competitive Analysis

It is also important to keep an eye on competitors and their actions, as it may be an important factor in how you spend your budget. If a competitor begins to increase their budget and bids, it is going to lead to an increase in CPC for your account. If this is during a busy period, it may mean that you need to increase the budget even further to keep up. Even though it’ll be more expensive to generate conversions, many times it is too profitable of a time period to let the competition win. 

 

Be Prepared for Changes

Lastly, it is important to be able to adjust strategy on the fly due to unforeseen circumstances. While a lot of the previous examples involved using historical data to formulate a plan of attack, things can change out of the blue because of unforeseen weather events, natural disasters, or other large-scale events. I imagine most businesses in Houston would have benefited from completely pausing ad spend during and in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, as the focus of the entire city shifted squarely toward recovery. Similar things can be said for locations dealing with forest fires, mass protests, and so on. 

 

All in all, the moral of the story is that an easy—but often overlooked—strategy for improving account efficiency is better allocating your overall budget throughout the year. Be prepared to take full advantage of busy seasons and important holidays and to spend more efficiently during slower time periods. And most important, be ready to adapt to any unforeseen events. By being prepared you can continue to decrease the amount of wasted spend in your account and improve overall efficiency. 

Google is moving into vacation rentals…and what property managers can do to get ready

By
Amy Hinote
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Google is moving into vacation rentals, and the decision is expected to significantly change the way travelers search for and book vacation homes.

At the Onsite Property Management Association (OPMA) Summit at the Reunion Resort in Orlando last Tuesday, members were updated on the progress of an ongoing beta program between Google and the OPMA membership.

Google’s vacation rental beta program with OPMA is being facilitated through technology integrations provided by BookingPal, a channel management provider in the alternative accommodations industry. The partnership was initiated by BookingPal advisor, David Baggett, co-founder of ITA Software, which was purchased by Google in 2010.

According to BookingPal founder, Alex Aydin, Google had been monitoring the vacation rental sector for some time and decided to test its US vacation rental beta program first with onsite property managers due to the on-premises services these managers provide to guests. As a result, BookingPal reached out to OPMA, which represents 60,000 rental units, to gather a group of onsite managers for the beta program.

Since the program’s launch, OPMA members have seen $1.2 million in revenue from bookings through BookingPal.

 

Challenges for Google in Adding Vacation Rentals

During the session, BookingPal disclosed that the vacation rental beta program has encountered challenges along the way.

“The Google platform was not set up for vacation rentals, so they’ve had to make modifications,” Aydin told members.

For example, only one URL is currently offered for each Google card making it difficult to display key-level inventory. Other challenges include the ability to index each property geographically for search and mapping, connectivity with booking engines, channel limitations, and traffic limitations during the beta period.

Despite the challenges, Aydin expects the program to be fully operational in 2018.

 

Google’s European Launch

As Skift first reported, “Some Google searches have been revealing an option to comparison-shop vacation rentals.”

According to the article, “The results are limited to a small subset of alternative lodging inventory similar to traditional vacation rentals. Collectively we counted about 7,000 property listings. That is a mere smattering of the potential rental listings in Europe.”

Google told the Mercury News that it considers the functionality and offering type to be a “small-scale experiment.”

“This involves a very limited amount of inventory on a trial basis,” a company spokeswoman said. “We hope to expand to more inventory, inventory types, and partners soon.”

 

What Vacation Rental Managers Can Do

According to Aydin, a Google card will be required for each vacation rental. Vacation rental managers can get ahead of the curve by providing business information with unique URLs for each home or unit under management. Becoming an early “owner” of the business information for each property will provide an initial competitive advantage as Google rolls out its vacation rental product.

In addition, working with channel managers who are partnering with Google will make connectivity easier in the coming months.

 

What will this mean for Airbnb and HomeAway?

According to Aydin, “up to 90 percent of OTA online ad budgets are spent on online search engine marketing and optimization.” As Google dives deeper into the vacation rental sector, OTA’s cost of reaching travelers likely will be impacted.

However, another potential consequence for OTAs and online marketplaces affects the rates they are able to charge to travelers.

Airbnb charges travelers a 6-12 percent “guest service fee” on top of the rental amount, while HomeAway’s “service fees” can add over 15 percent to the rental cost for travelers.

Google’s results will display comparative pricing, possibly making it more advantageous for travelers to book directly with the property manager.

 

Is Your Vacation Rental Company Set Up for Dynamic Pricing? 

By
VRM Intel Staff
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Going from setting rates once a year through a handful of seasons to having rates that change daily has major implications for all levels of the vacation rental organization. Whether using some sort of rules-based system from the property management software (PMS) that changes prices based on occupancy or number of days out or using a sophisticated, third-party revenue management system that changes prices based on fluctuations in market supply and demand, one thing is true: gone are the days of having rates that change based only on the season and that are set once per year. 

While this may seem like a minor change, it affects all levels of the organization, so it is important to get the entire team on board before flipping the switch. 

In working with hundreds of managers, we have found that once you have made the decision to get more sophisticated with your pricing, there are still a few things to think about regarding how you do business. 

 

Retrain the Reservations Staff 

Sending out PDF quotes with rates that will be honored indefinitely is a thing of the past. You will need to retrain your reservations staff to communicate that rates (just like availability) change continually, and guests should be encouraged to book now to lock in that great rate. 

Looking at other sectors of the travel industry, this is nothing new. Even “old school” travel agents who sell packaged vacations and send out PDF quotes still state very clearly that the proposed rates are not valid until the property is booked. 

Most guests are quite used to the idea of rates not being the same if they return days later (sometimes even hours later, in the case of flights) to book, so don’t fret about a customer backlash. Prepare your agents for explaining that, just as for flights, hotels, and car rentals, prices and availability for vacation rentals are subject to change. 

This strategy will help reservationists with the pricing system conversion, as guests will now have an incentive for making a decision. It will be clear that if they wait, the rate could change (or someone else could book it), so it would be best to lock it in as soon as possible. The reality is that rates will not change drastically (unless a major event is suddenly announced and demand peaks). 

If you have repeat guests who are upset that prices might be different from last year, train your reservationists to use that as an opportunity to inspire loyalty in guests. Instruct them to offer the same rate the guest paid last year (or 5 percent more), noting that the offer is only available to repeat guests. 

The last thing reservationists need to recognize is that depending on their PMS software, how they adjust a folio if guests add or subtract a day from their stay may change the rate. Make sure to review with the staff how the system works and how you want to handle that scenario. Avoid recalculating the entire stay because rates may have gone up or demand may have peaked since the initial booking. 

 

 Make Sure Your Website Can Handle It 

Using just a static rate table will no longer suffice. Airlines and hotels did away with rate tables decades ago. If you really want to keep a rate table, it will either have a lot more rates or you should make sure your website provider can display a minimum and maximum price during the “season” you define. Several OTAs, such as HomeAway, support a seasonal minimum and maximum rate. However, the more dynamic your pricing, the less meaningful those rates are: if you show a wide range of prices, that in reality they might need to enter their dates just to get an accurate quote. 

If you have not already noticed, HomeAway and other channels are hiding or completely getting rid of rate tables and pushing guests to enter dates to get a quote. The data somewhat supports this strategy: conversion goes up when guests enter their dates, in part because it makes it easier to see which units are available and what the relative rates are. 

Other options for displaying  rates include the following:  

  • Calendar view (with no rates, with rates on the calendar, or with rates appearing when the cursor hovers over a date) 
  • No rates tab (guests need to enter their dates to see prices) 

We generally recommend using one of these two options. If your website provider is having a hard time making its rate table or calendar match your dynamic rates, we strongly recommend just going with no rates tab. 

One of the major issues in how your website provider displays rates relates to how it receives rates from the PMS you use. We will address how PMS systems handle dynamic rates below, but this was one of the major issues with rate feeds once dynamic pricing was implemented. 

 

Get Owners on Board 

Owners will no longer be able to easily know what you are charging, and they may try to micromanage things. Make sure to explain what you are doing and why. 

When starting, we recommend implementing dynamic pricing only with the owners you know will be okay with your making all the decisions when it comes to pricing. You can, either put together an FAQ and some literature on the merits of dynamic pricing and poll your owners to see who wants to opt in, or you can simply exclude those pesky owners who are always looking over your shoulder and think they know better how to manage the pricing of their properties. 

We’ve seen managers make the switch without fully considering those owners who constantly look at their rate table on VRBO and compare it with their neighbor’s rate—and then cannot understand why you are pricing higher than their neighbor on Christmas. Often, those owners are more trouble than they are worth, and it would be better to leave them out of your dynamic pricing program. 

Lastly, make sure contracts with owners allow you to fully manage rates. You would be surprised how many vacation rental management contracts look more like real estate agent listing contracts than hotel management contracts. You are the expert, and the owners have hired you to make these kinds of decisions, just as they trust you to pick the right pictures for your listings and the right way to answer the phone for guests. 

 

Make Sure Your Channel Manager and PMS Can Handle Dynamic Rates 

Every PMS system handles rates differently. If using a channel manager provided by your PMS or a third-party manager, make sure that their rate feed incorporates your dynamic pricing correctly. 

The main issue is that many dynamic pricing systems are based on a set of rules (e.g., when my occupancy is 80 percent, increase price 10 percent). Those rules are then applied when someone sends a request for a quote, but often they are not translated into a given price per day or price per season. 

Ask your PMS system whether their rate feed is accurate. Often it is not, and this is a huge problem in the industry. All dynamic rates should be able to be translated into a feed that has a given price for every season or day. A season is really just a range of days. It is essential that all PMS systems and channel managers standardize translating rates into a given price per day or range of days, potentially with length of stay adjustments where supported (e.g., offer discount if length of stay is greater than seven days or increase if fewer than three). 

Finally, ask your PMS system whether they can handle multiple listings that change rates daily. If they can’t, you may want to consider switching to a more rate-sophisticated PMS. 

 

Ease into It 

Set some boundaries (minimums and, potentially, maximums) as you get comfortable. Test things out with your most lenient owners. Also, you will want to know where you stand in the market. Whether you are setting rules or using independent third-party reporting or a revenue management system such as Beyond Pricing, you need information such as the pricing levels of your competitors and their occupancy trends. And you likely will want to know that information across as many advertising channels as possible (not just on Airbnb and HomeAway). Knowing current market trends helps you put your dynamic pricing into context so you are not flying blind. If your dynamic pricing product does not provide this kind of market intelligence, consider supplementing it with this kind of data. 

Do not be afraid to ask for help from fellow managers who have made the switch. They, better than anyone else, can guide you and help you proceed to the next level in what is probably the most exciting change toward modernizing vacation rentals since smart locks! 

Virtual Resort Manager Seminar Coming to Wilmington, Dec 12

By
Amy Hinote
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0

Virtual Resort Manager is bringing a vacation rental industry seminar for vacation rental managers to Wilmington, NC, December 12 at the Wilmington Hilton Riverside.

Pete Wenk, founder and CEO at Virtual Resort Manager (VRM), and his team will be revealing new features and functionality in the VRM software platform. In addition, vacation rental managers and suppliers will be discussing recent developments in the vacation rental industry and predictions for 2018. VRM will be joined by VRM Intel, Red Sky Travel Insurance, Breezeway, Lynnbrook, and PointCentral.

Whether you are a VRM client, are looking for new software, or are anxious to learn more about best practices and where the vacation rental is heading in 2018, we invite you to join us.

 

VRM + VRM Intel Live

Wilmington Hilton Riverside

December 12, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Lunch Included

$59 per Attendee

Click Here to Register

 

Sessions:

  • VRM Software: 2017 Updates and 2018 New Features and Functionality + Demos
  • Recent Developments in the Vacation Rental Industry with Amy Hinote, VRM Intel
  • Where the Vacation Rental Industry is Heading in 2018, Panel, Isaac Baker, Mike Harrington, Miller Hawkins, Leslie Painter, Eddie Walters
  • Best Practices: Travel Insurance and Damage Waivers with Laird Sager, Red Sky Travel Insurance
  • Update: Credit Card Processing Changes and Chargebacks with Sharon Popovich, Lynbrook
  • Smart Home 2018 Developments with Adam Norko, PointCentral
  • Property Care Operations: Your Special Sauce or Biggest Liability? With Koryn Okey, Breezewway

Book your room using the following rate codes: Hilton Wilmington Riverside, Rate Code: VRM

 

Using Social Media to Build Your Brand 

By
VRM Intel Staff
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1

We are sorry to say that if you aren’t using social media in your marketing plan, you are behind the times. And if you are using social media, we are sorry to say that you are probably doing it wrong. Although social media use is an extremely powerful tool in a marketing arsenal, it is not a cure-all and won’t be a viable source for direct bookings that you can measure. But it is vital to your brand and your online reputation. 

For some reason, over the past several years social media has morphed from a fun, interactive tool to a trendy sales tool in the eyes of page owners and businesses—this is where the danger begins. 

First, let’s think back to the birthplace of modern social media, Facebook. 

Facebook was spawned from an invention of Mark Zuckerberg called Facemash, which was originally designed to rate fellow college students on their physical attractiveness (Yes, really). Over the years, Facebook has become an extremely engaging platform, even with the ability to market to users. But let’s not forget why Facebook was made in the first place—so people could engage online with one another on a personal level. 

If you aren’t engaging your audience, you’re doing it wrong. 

Think about this for a moment. You probably have 150 to 700 “friends” on Facebook. (Don’t worry about the business side, I’m speaking merely about your personal friends.) You’re popular, right?! However, do you have friends who hardly ever post? Maybe someone you didn’t really know, but who hit that “accept” button anyway? It’s not that they aren’t posting anything. It’s that you don’t hit their like button or comment on their stuff—ever. Facebook realizes this (through its algorithm) and filters out their content from your wall because you are clearly not interested in it. 

Now apply that to your business page. If you have fans who never click “like” or comment on your posts, Facebook is going to show less and less of your content to them. It’s the algorithm!  

If you post only promotional stuff and do not understand the algorithm, you’re doing it wrong. 

People engage in social media for several reasons, and one of those is to maintain relationships. When we approach our fans with the mind-set of a relationship rather than a sale or a booking, we see more engagement, better reviews, and overall happier fans, both now and long term. 

 

Here Is the ROI Issue…. 

What kind of ROI can you expect from social media? That is a question that really should not exist. Yes, you can see the ROI in your social platforms; it does exist. However, asking this question means that you are expecting all your social touchpoints to result in bookings; it just doesn’t work that way. Social media bookings come from good branding, and good branding comes from patience and a well-organized plan.  

 

 

If you are wondering where to start, ask yourself the following: “What sort of content do my fans like?” You can publish various types of content and measure the results—count your likes and engagement. Facebook lays it all out for you in your admin panel. By promoting your brand in that fun, non-salesman way, you are giving your fans what they like. This leads to more engagement, which leads to much better brand recognition in the long run!  

If you post more content about your company and products than destination-related info, you’re doing it wrong. 

 

The Visual Experience 

A popular saying is, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Actually, Fred R. Barnard said, “A picture is worth ten thousand words.” Either way, social media is a visual experience and visual content is at least forty times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content (HubSpot). When you think about it, every social platform centers on visual content.  

This is your opportunity to publish the funniest, coolest visual content you can, whether that’s photos, videos, GIFs, memes, and so on. Start producing content that amuses your audience, but remember, there might be a difference between what you like and what your audience likes. Again, test and measure.  

If you don’t support your message with a nice visual, you’re doing it wrong. 

 

Opinions Matter 

One of the most overlooked aspects of social media is reviews. If there is one thing we know about the Internet, it’s that everyone has a loud virtual mouth. Reviews are a powerful tool and have the potential to help or hurt your brand image in a heartbeat! 

So how do we use reviews? Actually, republishing reviews could have a great impact on your audience and makes for some fantastic content. This is what we call user-generated content and is considered by some to be the holy grail of the content world because, well, it’s real and from a trusted source—a reviewer.  

 

 

There is no better way to build trust than to let your audience tell others how much they love you. A great strategy is to post reviews about a rental AND photos of that rental. You could even use this as a remarketing tactic with paid campaigns. 

 

Speaking of Paid Campaigns 

Yes, Facebook is a business. It enjoys collecting our money, too. But do the ads work in the vacation rental industry? Of course they do, but again, more for brand recognition than anything else. We won’t get into the differences in “like” campaigns and “audience” campaigns here, but your ads normally get many more impressions than they do clicks, which is why they’re great for promoting your brand. 

Remarketing is probably the best tactic you can use on paid Facebook. It’s simple but effective. Remarketing ads on Facebook are ads that display on their Facebook feed after they have visited your website, attempting to hook them again. Again, think of engaging information here as well, such as reviews, or bringing them back to a page they may have missed. 

 

Does Social Media Help with SEO? 

To make a long story short, yes. A strong social media presence with interactions from users does help with search engine optimization. Search engines use “social signals” in their algorithms—yet another reason to have a good audience following. Of course, it’s difficult and time-consuming to be present on ALL social media channels, so at least make sure you keep up with the competition. If you and a competitor are running from a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your competitor.  

 

What Now? 

So now you know that social media for the vacation rental industry, whether on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram, is about building a trusted brand, not making a sale. It’s about winning over an audience, not pushing them to book. We admit, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to planning and executing content through your social channels. Writing all those steps down would turn this article into a book.  

And don’t get us wrong—there is a place on social media for promoting your rental units, but do it in the paid channel portions, not the regular wall posts. 

Just remember, if you use social media as a tool to build your brand as a whole instead of booking units, you’re doing it right. 

 

What You Should Be Doing for Social Media—The Bare Minimum 

  • Post three to four times a week to your Facebook Page. 
  • Post something fun 80 percent of the time and post something promotional 20 percent of the time to increase engagement and reach.  
  • Respond to your reviews (good and bad) and private messages on Facebook within an hour (a badge on your page displays your response time). 
  • Spend money either remarketing on Facebook or boosting posts. 

 

Great Ideas for Facebook Remarketing Ads 

  • Drive users to a page on your website that they may not have seen before, or one that is normally hidden, such as “New Rentals” or “Why we rock as a rental company.” 
  • Create ads that are guest reviews and rotate them to reaffirm customers’ choice in you. Link to more testimonials.  
  • Use a special Facebook-only coupon code and tease it in the ad to get visitors back to a page that has the coupon (you could also ask them to enter their email address to get the coupon code). Track the code so you know how many bookings you get. 

 

SkyRun Vacation Rentals Owner Barry Cox: Finding a Competitive Edge in Today’s Vacation Rental Market

By
VRM Intel Staff
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4

I’ve lived in the mountains of Colorado for seventeen years now, a transplant from the East Coast by way of the Midwest. Given that winter is coming, a snow metaphor is appropriate. When you’re skiing or boarding down a mountain, in order to turn you need to be able to tip your skis or snowboard up and “get an edge.”

When you do it right, it’s called “carving.” Carving a good turn by using your edges feels fabulous and keeps you moving forward with speed and in style. In business everyone seeks an edge, and the vacation rental business is no exception. When you find an edge, you’ll be able to carve your way to business success. In this article I’m going to describe three edges that I think are becoming increasingly important as the vacation rental industry consolidates. 

First, a little background. I’d been with working IBM for fourteen years when I moved to Colorado in 1999 to take a new position within the company. About five years later, my family bought our first second home in Keystone, Colorado. To make a long story short, I started managing it and began managing other properties for friends.   

Steve Falk and I started SkyRun in 2004 alongside our day jobs. We grew SkyRun to one hundred properties, and we both left our other full-time jobs. With his legal and market development background and my technology and business consulting background, we made a good team. 

 

Powder Days

This was between 2004 and 2007 and property management was booming. To get back to the snow metaphor, that time frame was what we call a “powder day”: when you get a foot or more of fluffy new “white gold,” the fun and ease of being on the mountain is magnified a hundred times, and staff who are more committed to the snow than to the job take a personal day. Fresh powder is sometimes called “hero snow” because anybody can get an “edge” when turning in powder. It doesn’t matter whether you have perfect technique, how good your equipment is, or how good your physical conditioning is—you’re in for a good day on a powder day.  

 

Wind-blown, hard-packed, and icy days

It’s the same way in business. When conditions are good, business is good. Your weaknesses are most exposed during the bad times. From 2008 to 2011 the powder days we dreamed of turned into the “wind-blown, hard-packed, and icy days” we dread. This became an era when your weaknesses were most exposed and you hoped to merely hold an edge. In 2017, we find ourselves again in a powder day period. But powder days don’t last forever. Better sharpen those edges . . . 

As Steve and I learned more about the industry, we gradually realized that the future belonged to multi-location property managers. To be competitive, we needed to have scale. 

Our thought process was the following:  

  1. We could remain a single-location property manager and grow by adding properties that compete with the hundred we already have.
  2. We could diversify our risk by adding a location in another geography, perhaps even at a beach, but we still would have one hundred more toilets to worry about remotely.  
  3. Or we could license our brand, process, and systems to enable other local entrepreneurs to serve vacation guests and property owners the way the industry has for decades. Locally.  

We chose option number three, and SkyRun has become a rapidly growing multi-location organization with six hundred properties in twenty-five locations. As poet Robert Frost said, “And that has made all the difference.” 

I believe that choice has given SkyRun its particular edge, and that is how you too can get a similar edge. Regardless of how competitive your market is, and whether you’re a single-location manager or part of the growing number of large multi-location companies, whether you’re new in the industry or you’ve been around long enough to know what “GLA” stands for and how to send one (by fax), and whether you operate in the mountains or beaches, you can get an edge.  

We’ve developed our edge through three practices: having strength in numbers, being efficient, and operating with a local touch. Let’s take a deeper look. 

 

Edge 1: Go Big—There Is Strength in Numbers 

Business leaders from Henry Ford to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos know that critical mass and repeatable processes are vital to long-term business success and ultimately vital to how well you serve your guests and owners. A company with six hundred properties will simply be able to get better pricing and service than a company with only twenty, on everything from bed sheets to credit card fees to OTA listings. Industry studies such as the VRMA annual survey show that a manager with more than five-hundred properties makes much more profit per property (27 percent more at last measure) than a manager with fewer than 100 properties. In an industry that has a 20 percent to 30 percent commission margin, 27 percent more is a big deal. 

Take hotels as an example from our hospitality industry. When I was growing up, there were still mom-and-pop hotels dotting the roads of America. The experience in each was unique, and most of them had some charm. There were no central reservations. There was no online, just a phone line. You could talk to mom or you could talk to pop. Then came hotel chains with buying power, central reservations with one number to call, a consistent experience, and lower prices. Who can blame us as consumers for flocking to the Holiday Inn or Howard Johnson or later Marriott and Hilton? We traded the local experience of dealing directly with mom or pop for what was more desirable: lower prices, consistency, and ease of booking. 

Yet we consumers made a trade-off. Most of us would still prefer local knowledge and would prefer to deal with mom or pop. Perhaps that’s one reason the direct-from-owner renting of VRBO and shared spaces of Airbnb has taken off so rapidly.  

What if we could, as an industry, have both scale and local touch? That’s a teaser; more on that later. 

 

Edge 2: Operate Efficiently 

We experience increasing competition from professional property management companies that offer a lower commission (if you are one of these, then kindly skip to Edge 3). Of course we traditionally priced managers will argue that they get you with other fees, and that’s true in many cases. I’m sure both mom and pop would have made this argument too, right until they put the “Closed” sign on the front door or sold out to a larger company. The point is that the manager who is built from the ground up to be able to operate at a lower commission will always be able to provide a better product in the long term. You can add more and more fees and charge more and more for light bulbs, but as long as your cost of providing the same level of service is higher than that of your competitors, your profits will eventually shrink or you will have to cut services. 

Our industry is very people-focused, so an industry benchmark that I always pay attention to as a measure for efficiency (but which is not widely measured) is how many properties you manage divided by how many full-time equivalent (FTE) employees you have.  

That gives you the number of properties you manage per FTE. If this number is less than ten, you should consider whether there are valid reasons for it to be that low. Perhaps you manage single-family homes and not condos, your properties are farther apart, or you have a higher-end clientele who require more attention (hopefully at premium prices). I find that an ideal number is about fifteen or twenty properties per FTE. 

So how do you become more efficient? 

Quality People 

A manager can get to twenty properties per FTE overnight by firing people and letting quality suffer. That is unequivocally not what I am suggesting here. I am talking about a superior product being the foundational assumption and the number of people it takes to provide that product being the measure of your efficiency.  

By this measure, a better quality staff is key. Those people we all know and have working on our teams who can do more with less. Those who show up on a powder day. This measure doesn’t factor in the cost of higher-quality staff, and that’s on purpose. Always hire the better person. 

Technology 

Quality people require quality processes, and quality processes require quality technology. Some industries are ripe for technology. That vacation rentals is one of those industries is what attracted me and is what attracts so much venture capital. 

Examples of processes that are ripe for automation abound in this industry. 

As much as they like talking to you and we like talking to them, our guests would rather self-serve in almost every phase of their stay. Most guests would prefer automated online reservations and lead tracking; a good website with detailed information that anticipates and answers all of their questions; clear and accurate pricing; online, instant, and secure booking; the ability to look and book on their mobile, tablet, or desktop; preparation and arrival instructions by email; and an app that stays with them on their device. From shopping to preparing to staying to checking out, today’s guests would rather interact with you on their devices than call. I submit that this is a good thing because it is a much more efficient way for us to interact and doesn’t require as many staff.

Being able to automate all this without dropping quality depends on several factors. First, guests and owners must be able to reach a real local person 24/7 when something inevitably goes wrong. And second, preparation and maintenance of the property and the accuracy of listings and instructions must be outstanding. These are not easy things. 

Many other examples exist of processes ripe for technology in the client/owner interaction aspect of the business. These include an owner self-serve portal for onboarding and ongoing communication; remote home care and monitoring through home automation; operational processes such as checklists, real-time call-in updates from housekeeping, good work order and property needs tracking; and marketing/remaining in contact with guests after their stay (which hopefully means prior to their next stay). 

At SkyRun, our background in technology and having several locations sharing the cost allows us to use our own proprietary software for most of our core functions. It is tailored to our needs and priorities. So if we want to add a function to meet a market demand, we just do. We buy off- the-shelf software for some functions but always do a build-versus-buy analysis to determine whether that’s the best choice.  

Interestingly, most multi-location property managers have chosen the path of developing their own proprietary software. With software development advances in open-source and standard APIs, this is becoming an option for more and more companies. It can be a competitive advantage if implemented wisely or a huge waste of time and money if not. 

Sharing/Centralization 

In addition to a quality team and technology, another way to be more efficient is to share or centralize processes or assets. You can do this in many ways. If you are a single-location property manager, you can buy off-the-shelf software to share the cost of software development. You can attend VRMA to learn from your industry peers. Additional opportunities for sharing data and resources include the VRM Intel’s Dashboard Reports with comparative market analytics and VRMA’s government advocacy resources. By sharing, you will gain efficiency. 

Efficiency is where multi-location organizations have a distinct edge. In addition to the sharing described above, they can leverage shared infrastructure, processes, and staff. Sharing can happen in technical areas such as a phone system, HR and IT resources, and a reservations or on-call service as well as in marketing. Ultimately, the biggest advantage multi-location organizations share is building their brand. 

Operating in a multi-location organization is like operating a single-location business without needing your own phone system, IT or HR department, reservation call center, or a team for marketing, search engine optimization, and social media. You have an edge by being able to concentrate on your guests and your owners and their properties. At SkyRun, we even share physical items such as two Matterport cameras and our SkyEye drone—things that one location doesn’t necessarily need completely to itself, so efficiencies are gained by sharing. 

 

Edge 3: Local Touch, Local Fun™ 

Being big and efficient gives you two edges but can also come at a huge cost. Our business, after all, is to provide personal vacations and local experiences for our guests. Both VRBO and Airbnb, arguably the two most successful companies in the vacation rental industry, have that direct connection to the location through the property owner as their foundation. If we get an edge on efficiency by cutting staff and therefore service level, that’s not an edge. If you get an edge by doing everything the way it’s done in headquarters somewhere far away (hypothetically in the Northwest) or by relying only on technology without a personal touch, is that an edge? The question I posed earlier was, “What if we as an industry could have both scale and a local touch?” 

Having a local touch is the area in which single-location property managers should and do have an undeniable edge. Being able to provide guests a personalized and local experience only comes from a local company or local owner. At SkyRun we refer to this as Local Touch, Local Fun™. Every location is independently owned and operated by a local owner and/or local staff who know the area and who are passionate about it. Also, all SkyRun guests receive a SkyCard with discounted or free local activities and in-room information written by our local staff that helps them enjoy the location the way a local would.  

So it’s possible to get this local edge as a multi-location organization. In fact, ironically, done right, we (speaking as a multi-location organization myself) can use our edge in efficiency and numbers and shared processes to be better at being local too. 

Examples of being both global and local are Ace Hardware and True Value Hardware and the Best Western hotel group in our industry. These owners are local businesspeople who pay local taxes, serve on the boards of local nonprofits, send their children to local schools, and are part of the community. When you go in, the owner is there to chat with, and he or she knows what product works best in the local area and what time is best to plant or paint. They stock snow sleds in Colorado and beach toys in Destin. And by being part of a larger brand, they leverage shared buying power, technology and processes, and loyalty programs to provide businesses that are tailored to be local yet are competitive with the box stores. It’s a remarkable innovation that we can emulate in the vacation rental industry. 

So if you are a single-location property manager, your edge comes from leveraging your focus and expertise and list of past visitors to your location to provide the best locally focused guest experiences. To be competitive, you must also strive to be efficient and to sign as many properties as you can to grow. 

When you are a multi-location manager, your edge comes from leveraging your inherent advantage of size and efficiency. To be competitive, we must also strive to provide the same local service that a single-location manager provides. 

Perhaps the time has come for single-location managers to consider forming or joining a group of locally owned and operated locations with multiple locations. For a single-location manager, this could be an alternative to retooling or selling your business. 

Any pursuit is more enjoyable when you have an edge. In an increasingly competitive and global industry such as vacation rentals, you need as many edges as you can get. Edges help you enjoy the powder days and survive the coming days when things inevitably become more challenging. 

*I hope this article isn’t too edgy! 

 

About the Author

Barry Cox is cofounder and CEO of SkyRun Vacation Rentals, a multi-location property manager with twenty-five independently owned and operated licensed locations in nine states in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Although Barry may be able to help you get an edge in business, he admittedly is not the best “carver” on the mountains of Colorado, but he’s working on it . . . a lot . . . You can learn more about SkyRun at biz.SkyRun.com or www.SkyRun.com, or contact barry@skyrun.com. 

 

Powerhouse Duo Launches “Sea to Ski with Sarah and T” Podcast for Professional Vacation Rental Managers

By
Amy Hinote
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1

Watch out, Mika and Joe! Vacation rental industry powerhouses, Sarah Bradford and Tim Cafferty, have joined forces to launch a podcast series for professional vacation rental managers titled “Sea to Ski with Sarah and T.”

Sarah Bradford is the owner of Winter Park Lodging Company and Steamboat Lodging Company in Colorado, and Tim Cafferty is the president at Sandbridge Blue Realty Services in Virginia and Outer Banks Blue Realty Services in North Carolina. The two met in Chicago for a peer group meeting and hit it off right away.

During one of their chats, Sarah told Tim about her new preoccupation with podcasts and how they help her pass the time on her drive to work. Bradford was lamenting the fact there was no podcast specifically for professional vacation rental managers. While there are a few podcasts that address vacation rentals, the industry has not seen a one developed to address the day-to-day challenges of professional property management.

For those who know Tim Cafferty, it is unwise to float an idea by him unless you’re ready to jump on it, so when Sarah suggested they team up to do a podcast for professionals, Tim’s response was, “Why not?”

A month later they were all in, and Bradford and her family traveled to Cafferty’s destination to get the ball rolling.

“We have a lot of similarities, and Sarah’s family traveled to the East Coast and stayed with us this past summer for a few days where we were able to do a deep dive about our companies, our philosophies, and what we want from this show,” said Cafferty.

They named the podcast “Sea to Ski with Sarah and T,” and the show is designed to address real issues that professional rental managers face with concrete takeaways in each episode.

“The first primary objective is to have fun,” he added. “We both agreed that when it stops being fun it is time to jump off the merry-go-round. The second primary objective is to fill a void. We both feel that we are at points of our career where we are giving more than we are getting in terms of going to conferences, and I, for one, talk to a number of newer operators in the industry asking for tips on this or that. This is a way for us to give back and perhaps be a voice for the industry in some small way.”

Cafferty continued, “So far, the response has been humbling. We have heard a lot of nice comments, and people have been very kind to us and receptive. The number of downloads and plays we’ve had on our first couple of episodes has been way beyond any expectation. We also are going to get better every time, so watch out!”

Bradford and Cafferty now have six episodes under their belt and have developed a 30 minute format designed to cover relevant bullet points and illustrations, along with a “not so hot off of the press” news topic regarding something happening in the industry. They are also open to feedback from property managers.

Since the two come from very different markets (hence the name “Sea to Ski with Sarah and T”), the diversity in destinations gives the podcast a high-level, unique view for professional rental managers.

“We think our differences are what probably will be the strength of our show with our diversity of markets and how we handle things differently,” said Cafferty. “We are very similar. We went to high school and college in North Carolina, we both have twin children, we both own two vacation rental companies, we use the same software, our business philosophy is similar, we both are awesome skiers, and the list just goes on. But we also have a lot of differences. We’ve already established that on the first couple of episodes, and it is actually the core of episode #3 (how we are handling OTAs so differently). I think that diversity will help us have more of a legitimate sound to our listeners and give them better takeaways.”

Cafferty added, “So often, you hear something from one person that you dismiss because ‘they just don’t understand my market.’ With us, chances are that one of us does indeed understand your market and can give you real life experience of what you might want to do—or what you definitely want to avoid doing.”

The Sea to Ski podcast is educational, but also highly entertaining, and vacation rental managers will “see themselves” in every episode.

“Our banter is genuine,” said Cafferty. “She has to keep me on track, and I have to remind her that she doesn’t know it all…..I do.”

Move over, Morning Joe!

The State of Vacation Rental Software 2018

By
Amy Hinote
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0

“The Tech-Enabled Vacation Rental Manager” examined the increase of technology functionality utilized by property managers (PMs) to meet and scale needs throughout the company. In this second part of the series, we take a deeper dive into the features that have been released in property management systems (PMS) in 2017, new functionality that is on the horizon, and software challenges facing PMS providers in today’s fast-evolving technology landscape. 

Executives at Barefoot, CiiRUS, LiveRez, Maxxton, RealTimeRental, Streamline, and Virtual Resort Manager (VRM) let us in on their recent developments and provided insight into what vacation rental managers can expect to see from the software industry in the coming year. We also asked these technology leaders about the future of all in one solutions vs. plug and play, and whether the industry can expect to see consolidation in the VR software sector.

HomeAway Software, Kigo, and RNS had not responded by the time this article was published. 

 

Features and Functionality Released over the Last Year 

It is clear that these PMS providers are not coasting on existing functionality (see chart). Over the last few months, we noticed some similarities in tech progress in the industry in advancements in API communications, lead management, housekeeping and maintenance workflows, and revenue management. 

The industry is also seeing widespread adoption of eSignatures, enhanced reporting, inventory “sharing” among users, and more user-friendly interface design. 

In addition, all the companies are completing more direct connections to OTAs and third-party channels. It will be interesting to see how this affects the channel management companies whose model relies on the present lack of this functionality in software companies. 

It is important to note that newer software companies are developing features that already exist in other systems. In the following feature list, keep in mind that some systems already offer features that have recently been created in others. 

 

Features and Functionality in Development for 2018 

Although the PMS executives were hesitant to give away all their development secrets for 2018, they provided us with a glimpse into new functionality that is in development for 2018 (click to enlarge).   

 

Where the Software Industry Is Heading in the Future 

We asked these innovators about the challenges they face, their take on the all-in-one solution versus plug-and-play models, and the future of consolidation in technology. 

 

What are the biggest challenges that software providers face today? 

Ed Ulmer, Barefoot: Many clients are struggling to understand technology overall—it has so many complexities that without a full-time IT person on staff, even getting a grasp on what is needed or mission critical can be a challenge. So, it is important for the software provider to bridge the gap in many instances, breaking down the technology to “bite-sized pieces” to make a complete picture.  

An additional challenge is that many consumers start with the question, “What is this going to cost me?” instead of taking the time to understand the value being provided. Price is important, but do the work to understand that by spending $1,000 you might save $50,000 in staff time or lost opportunity costs. The market comprises many players, and that causes a lot of “noise.” The noise and saturation will end as this market begins to consolidate. 

Josh Parry, CiiRUS: The industry has ever-changing needs and expectations, both in terms of legislation and technology. A big focus of our system is channel management, which requires us to work within the parameters of over thirty directly connected channels, each of which has different needs and technology with which we must make our system work. There is also the difficulty that property managers are becoming more discerning. This is fantastic because it means that managers are asking the right questions and are picky about the systems they’re going to be using, but it also keeps us on our toes. As managers become more tech enabled and more aware of essential tools and trends, we need to constantly be on the leading edge of that. It’s a very fun challenge. 

Tina Upson, LiveRez: One of the biggest challenges we face is building software that accommodates managers with a wide variety of business practices. It requires building a lot of flexibility into our software while at the same time making sure it’s is still intuitive and easy to use. Our job is made a lot easier, though, because we leverage our partners throughout the entire development process, from deciding what to build to assessing if what we built is solving the problem we set out to tackle to having real managers test the software before it’s released. Every time we build a new feature, we try to leverage the latest technology. This means our developers must not only stay in the know about the latest advancements but also quickly learn how to utilize them. Lucky for us, we have a team that totally thrives on this challenge. 

Joe Testa, RealTimeRental: [The challenge facing the industry is] the ability to monetize all the new developments we add to our platform; the fear that we are developing a platform or solution that might be a bit too sophisticated for our user base; and understanding what the PM wants, needs, and is willing to pay for. 

Carlos Corzo, Streamline: TIME. Ideally, you want to build and execute on all of your ideas. Due to the complexity of the system, there is a very long learning curve for new developers. Luckily, our developer retention rate is outstanding. We also strive to create an environment where companies can thrive and build their forward-thinking ideas. Streamline is one of the few companies that make a commitment to building custom solutions designed and engineered by our very own property managers. Regardless, we want to be at the forefront of technology. New companies with new techniques are always coming into the market. Ingenuity and staying the course, while listening to the needs of our PMs, have been the key to success. 

Pete Wenk, VRM: [The challenges facing the industry are] third-party distribution, third-party integrations (including housekeeping/maintenance, smart homes), and yield management and pricing. 

 

In the future, do you think we will see movement to all-in-one tech solutions or plug-and-play solutions? 

Ed Ulmer, Barefoot: We will see providers try to offer all-in-one solutions primarily as a mechanism for driving more profitability from customers. This is also a good way to make sure customers invest in the value of the entire system. However, plug-and-play solutions will still have a significant role to play as new technology and innovation tends to come from start-ups.  

Barefoot is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and as a result, we straddle both options. We continue to add new functionality to provide end-to-end software. But we also develop our API, which allows new-to-market technology to be integrated rapidly. 

Josh Parry, CiiRUS: The CiiRUS model, a turnkey solution with custom development options, will become more popular. The backbone of the PMS usually fits all customers like a glove, but each may require some bespoke customization. This is a great middle ground because it allows us to implement the standard PMS immediately to begin fulfilling the client’s needs while we work on any bespoke functionality they need. 

Tina Upson, LiveRez: Managers want three things when it comes to technology: something with good functionality, something that is convenient, and something that is well supported. Early on, professional managers were forced to use third-party solutions because their own software systems didn’t offer the features they needed (or their software system’s features didn’t meet their needs). This created an ecosystem where niche, third-party software providers flourished. But, as software systems have evolved to include more features, we’ve seen property managers make the switch to all-in-one software systems such as LiveRez. The convenience of an all-in-one system is hard to beat. You log into one system, get support from one provider, and get one bill a month. The features all work together flawlessly because they’re developed and supported by a single company. 

Of course, some circumstances exist where you need your software to connect to other pieces of technology, such as channel management, credit card processing, travel insurance, or smart home automation, for example. These connections require that both your software provider and the third-party vendor maintain the connection and keep it up to date (and some providers do a better job at this than others). Sure, having hundreds of these API connections allows you to offer your customers a lot of options, but there’s also a big cost to maintaining them. The time and money spent focusing on these external connections could often be used to improve your own software instead.  

At LiveRez, our philosophy is to assess our partners’ needs in a particular area, determine if we can meet these needs internally, and if we can’t (or if it doesn’t make sense for us to do so), then we will develop strong connections to one or two vendors that we carefully vet. This allows us to establish close relationships with these vendors and ensure that we can maintain the highest levels of functionality. It’s really a tradeoff between quality and quantity, and we always strive for quality first.  

Joe Testa, RealTimeRental: [We will see movement to] plug-and-play systems. Companies are offering very specific technology, and it would be very expensive to replicate that. Plug-and-play models eliminate that. 

Carlos Corzo, Streamline: Over time, Streamline will be an all-in-one solution; we are looking to create a one-stop shop. You can look at this in different ways. We want to optimize our pricing core and its flexibility to our clients. However, I still feel that third-party vendors can be a critical piece to the success of a property manager. As I mentioned earlier, I have been privy to some ingenious solutions. We don’t believe in taking any tools to success away from our clients. Ultimately, we want to seamlessly integrate third-party vendors into our menu structure. One login, one URL, one username, one password. Streamline will always offer solutions for different types of users, whether you’re new, small, intermediate, or power users. We give you the ability to run your entire company by just using Streamline as the main engine. So, I do see an all-in-one solution. However, you always want to integrate with third-party vendors because they can be essential to your success in specific locations.  

Pete Wenk, VRM: In our opinion, both are viable solutions, depending on the needs of the individual company. The plug-and-play systems generally offer sophisticated solutions to simple problems that can, in many cases, be solved in the all-in-one (AIO) solution. Larger companies often need more than the AIO solutions can provide. 

 

Do you predict that we will see consolidation in the software space? 

Ed Ulmer, Barefoot: Of course, there will be winners and those who are less successful. Acquisitions will certainly be made, and many of the small players, who do not operate in a niche, will be out of business. 

Josh Parry, Ciirus: Perhaps not separate software like Streamline and CiiRUS consolidating, but it is certainly possible that major channels and companies such as HomeAway and Airbnb will acquire software. While the separate software services generally compete very respectfully, the technologies just have such different foundations, competencies, and focuses. If they were to consolidate, it would be to liquidate the purchasing systems, not to merge their systems and work together. That would just be such a huge undertaking, and I don’t think it would benefit the property managers at all. Take, for example, the acquisition of two systems that turned into Kigo. When the legacy system was retired, hundreds of property managers were given an ultimatum to leave the system or pay a huge premium to upgrade. That sort of stuff doesn’t go down so well. 

Tina Upson, LiveRez: We’re already seeing some consolidation in the space. RealPage bought both Kigo and InstaManager in 2014 and announced that it had integrated the two in 2015. HomeAway seems to be actively moving customers off its non-cloud-based platforms to its two cloud-based systems, Escapia and V12.net. And we’ve seen a number of niche software services and listing sites close their doors and/or get bought by other providers.  

We also have consolidation of the software market share as a result of large-scale managers such as Vacasa, TurnKey, and Wyndham acquiring smaller companies and moving them onto their systems.  

On the flip side, new software companies are entering the market every year. Just on the Capterra review site alone, 118 software systems are listed. Unfortunately, a number of these companies probably won’t have the longevity to remain viable for the long term, so they’ll either shut their doors or sell to other providers.  

Consolidation doesn’t necessarily make sense from a purely functional standpoint unless you can easily combine the systems into a single software platform that is far superior. I can see how it may make sense for a property management software system to acquire a niche software company that focuses on a different, more specialized subset of problems facing managers to expand its offerings. From a business perspective, it may make more sense if you hope to transition users from one system to another. But we feel that if you just focus on building the very best software on the market, managers will organically switch to your solution (no consolidation necessary).  

Another line of thought is that it’s worth acquiring another company just to gain access to data that could be used to enhance its solution. This is one of the reasons why it’s so important for property managers to really investigate the software company with which they partner. Looking beyond just software functionality, you must consider the company’s values, its financial stability, and the leadership team. 

Joe Testa, RealTimeRental: Yes. We are in acquisition mode. 

Carlos Corzo, Streamline: Definitely. I don’t know if it will be through acquisition. I am starting to see less focus on new features and development. PMs know they need an edge, and they are looking for the systems that offer that edge. In time, I only see a few systems surviving the continuing demands. Revenue management and guest/owner retention are constantly changing. We are going to be getting into the social media vacation goers, and they will have different needs and expectations. This will be a technological movement that will require new and creative strategies. Traditional methods will simply not work, and this will lead to the necessity to switch software.  

Pete Wenk, VRM: We have not seen any indication of movement in that arena. 

VRMA 2017 – The Value of the Vacation Rental Professional

By
Vince Perez
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3

Another well attended and successful event in Orlando! The vendor to property manager ratio was off the charts and for good reason. If there is any lingering doubt about the value of your business that was dispelled at VRMA. There was one particular keynote that caught my interest – “Is There a Future for Property Managers?”, it was a great back and forth on distribution and the realities of the vacation rental marketplace.

As I have always maintained, operational excellence is what drives the value of your vacation rentals business. A big component of that value is derived from your brand.  Understanding how to effectively manage your brands distribution, particularly for those with  “premium supply” will define your outcome down the road.  Those that do not understand this value concept will struggle in this new paradigm.  Keeping your brand front and center is the first step in refining your operational excellence.

There is No Lack of Distribution

Plenty of options are available to promote / distribute your properties.  It comes down to what is best for your region, type of inventory and your goals.  A few keys to success are:

a) Making sure you are working with an “open” property management system that allows you to           take advantages of opportunities that favor your business.
b) Understanding where your traffic (leads and bookings ) are coming from and their associated           breakdowns.
c) Making sure you are leveraging social media to maximize brand value.

Distribution is a double-edged sword.  Does it makes sense to sign with a distribution channel if their demographics do not fit your data?

Brand vs Bookings

Having control of your distribution will help you better understand where your brand fits in your overall marketing strategy (hint: it should be a priority).  Having a modular infrastructure that  gives your brand control is a good start. Incorporating social media outreach should be a core component of your overall branding strategy.   Other than local, it is one the few places where you have a competitive advantage over the big sites. Regardless of where you are in the “dependency cycle”, now is the time to have in place a brand centric strategy that touches the traveler pre, during and post booking.

The Reality of Our Marketplace

Your brand no longer exists to the traveler unless you take action.  No matter if you are new to the industry or a brand that has been in place for years, the challenges are the same.  The anecdote is also the same –  having a solid retention strategy that brings guests back and talking about your brand.   The math and the associated choices are about to become obvious.

Scared about Changing Your Property Management Software?

By
Carlos Corzo
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0

As business owners and property managers, we are all accustomed to making difficult decisions. Some may just be choosing which team member needs to work on the upcoming holiday weekend, while others fundamentally change how you manage your properties and business. Changing your property management software (PMS), of course, falls into the latter category. 

Changing your PMS is a huge undertaking that comes with built-in fears. From accounting worries to fears of losing historical data, long-term relationships, or change itself, there are many reasons why you might find it difficult to peel off that Band–Aid and finally make the switch. But as technology improves and the needs of the modern property manager grow, it becomes more and more crucial to take the leap and face any fears you may have. Fortunately, we’re here to help—so you can stop holding back and provide your company with the PMS it needs. Trust me: upgrading may not be as scary as you think. 

 

Accounting 

Accounting may be the biggest fear in this industry. Making sure you stay “in trust” is making sure you stay in business, and choosing a PMS that doesn’t have compatible accounting can be a death knell. After years of imports, I have seen many clients go live without attempting to replicate and match a month-end close from their previous software—you don’t want any part of that. 

Yes, this is a daunting task, but the right PMS team can help you avoid compatibility issues with your current accounting processes. In fact, Streamline includes accounting as a key process for verification prior to taking a client live. 

 

Historical Data 

Historically, it has been a struggle to obtain data easily from other software systems. Many property managers often find themselves arguing with PMS providers about who owns their data. To us, it is obvious that the owner is you. 

It is equally clear that you may import that data to future software. That’s why we have devised techniques that allow us to import reservations, historical disbursements, users, owners, owner statements, units, and closed work orders to create checks and balances. We work with each client to review any data available, define relationships across the data sets, and rebuild their historical data. We understand that you need to look at prior-year history, occupancy, and pricing so you can make informed decisions on how to run your business. 

Don’t ever let a vacation-rental software company hold you hostage. 

 

Websites 

Many software companies in the property-management industry like to control their clients’ data as well as their websites. While Streamline provides clients with free websites when they purchase our software, we provide an open API that allows them to work with any web-development company they choose. Like your data, you own your domain. We work closely with exceptional website development companies such as BizCor, ICND, Bluetent, and Blizzard. These companies are on the cutting edge of web development, and if you are already working with one of them, you won’t skip a beat. 

 

Long Term Relationships 

We are here to stay. Having been in the vacation rental space for over sixteen years and working with Streamline for thirteen of them, this is what I know and love. I am extremely passionate about making my clients successful. This market seems to be changing every day. We boast the best retention rate in the industry because we treat our clients like family. 

 

Change 

The fear of changing software is a valid fear. Many larger companies struggle with making software changes because their staffs are so accustomed to their daily routines. Throwing one monkey wrench such as a software change into the cog can bring the whole operation down, or at least slow you down for a few months while everyone gets up to speed. 

It all comes down to planning. Defining the right checkpoints throughout the go-live process is critical. These points include: 

On-site Evaluations: This allows us to tailor your training to your day-to-day operations. 

Imports: For imports to be successful, you need to introduce them at the right time during the training process. You cannot train without having the necessary information in your system. 

Accounting Audit: This is a step that is often overlooked, and it is possibly the most important in the transition from one system to another. You have to prove and justify that your accounting actually works and aligns exactly with your current software. You can accomplish this by mapping out your imports so you can simulate the close of a month in both systems. This will allow you to identify any shortcomings and fix them. Until this audit is perfect, you should never jump the gun and go live. 

Soft Launch: Tell the company you are going live and ask it to do double entry for a day or two. Use this as a way to identify problems and challenges and address any fears from your team. It is imperative that you have a trainer on-site to help everyone work through their issues. 

Go Live: For those of you who remember Love Connection, “We’ll be back in 2 and 2.” You need someone on-site a minimum of two days before and two days after you go live. Making your employees comfortable is a big part of a successful transition. 

If you already have a thriving business, a smooth transition to a new, modern system with features to help increase revenues is key. Change is not easy, but if you are well prepared, it can make a world of a difference. 

 

3 Ways PMS Providers Can Be Misleading 

Many PMS providers say all they can to get your business—including making impossible promises they will not be able to keep. Don’t be misled by these common “above and beyond” promises. 

1) Pretty vs. Functional 

It is easy to paint a pretty picture. It is even easier to show a pretty interface. But you must evaluate the underlying technology running your operation. While we understand that “pretty” is important, you should never make that a deciding factor when you choose your software. “Pretty” is not going to make you more bookings. Data is king in this industry. Make sure that all the critical aspects of your day-to-day operation are in place—especially your trust accounting. 

 

2) Access to Historical Information 

Don’t be misled by companies telling you that if you leave, you will lose all your historical information. That is just not true, and companies often use it as a tactic to get you to stay. Everyone has the ability to run reports, and these reports can be reverse engineered to rebuild the data in your system. I see this mistake a lot. Companies that have ten to twenty years of data simply leave it behind because they are told it is impossible to bring it with them. Keeping your data is imperative. 

 

3) Stale Technology vs. Companies Focused on Research and Development 

I have seen a major shift over the years into stale solutions. These companies scale back on resources—especially development—because they have reached comfortable client bases. As mentioned above, this industry is constantly changing. Don’t be left behind. 

Just because you’re ready to make the change to a new PMS doesn’t mean you should believe everything you hear. Do your research and understand what every PMS can and can’t do—your business will thank you for it. 

Successfully Navigating Changing Your VRM Software

By
Claiborne Yarbrough
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0

Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of people and organizations more than the word change. While change is a natural part of any life cycle, it is often viewed from the perspective of organizational crisis instead of unlimited opportunity. Every day, in talking to people about making the change to a new vacation rental management software, I really listen. I listen for and try to anticipate the underlying stress that implementing a new technology will have on an organization. 

This article offers suggestions for mitigating the feelings of crisis when confronting change and focuses on the opportunity change presents. The key to successful change is to understand and handle your staff ’s styles for dealing with change and follow proven processes. 

 

The Opportunity 

Changing software is more than just a change in the technology that you use; it is a huge opportunity to affect your company’s culture, to sync your technology and processes, and to bring into sharp relief your company’s ability to evolve. 

Changes are natural in the life cycle of all organizations. In fact, the ability to change is essential to continued existence. Change in business is often the result of needing to realign people, roles, and processes with new technologies. What has served well as a business model for years may no longer be acceptable because of market forces beyond the control of your business. In the vacation rental or property management business, this has never been truer. Rapid change has required the evolution of the vacation rental landscape, including instant booking, transitions to nightly instead of weekly rates, and protecting your data and leveraging it in micro-targeted marketing campaigns. 

As a response, vacation rental companies must position themselves against or leverage new marketing initiatives in their market while continuing to keep costs down. The fastest way to do this is by applying new technology. Appropriate technology helps companies address trends in the market, puts building blocks into place that facilitate growth and develop customer loyalty, and provides operational efficiencies that limit or cut expenditures. If the technology supporting your vacation rental business hasn’t changed or offered new functionality in the past three years, there is no question that you need to revisit change to stay competitive. 

 

Preparing Your Staff for Change 

New technology means changes to your staff ’s everyday work reality. You should plan on positive reactions as well as fear, resistance, and discomfort. Research suggests that each person has a “change style.” Understanding people’s change types and the best way to communicate with each type is important to help prevent or minimize complaints and resistance or even sabotage. Discovery Learning, Intl, compiled the aggregate results from 150,000 change-style assessments performed using its proprietary Change Style Indicator® to support its research. The results indicated that people can be grouped into three categories based on how they deal with change: 

Conservers tend to be the most reticent of the change styles and may seem as if they are inflexible or resistant. They prefer to work in existing structures and processes. They honor tradition and highly value the way things have always been done. When faced with change, conservers want clear communication, guidelines, and processes to mitigate their internal stress. 

Pragmatists are in the middle of the continuum. They are more likely to evaluate the ability to change to solve problems. With this perspective, they will often be the ones in the organization who see both sides of the issue and function as mediators between those who are resistant to change and those who embrace it. 

Originators are agents of change. They usually have a strong streak of entrepreneurial spirit. They like change for change’s sake and will often seem too spontaneous or “willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater.” With their enthusiasm for change, they may miss details that need to be considered, as they are so caught up in their vision. 

So how can you best use knowledge of change styles Ultimately, it is It’s all about effective communication and processes to support change. Understanding the various perspectives and helping inform all change styles in a way they can relate to will make the process of change smoother for your company. 

 

Strategies for Successful Change 

Here are some strategies for implementing successful change: 

Ownership and Vision  

What are the goals that you are trying to achieve? They include personal goals if you are the owner of the company, especially if you are considering selling the company. With these goals in mind, you take ownership of the change process and become the visionary. Want to grow your inventory, acquire a competitor, or be acquired? You need to own the vision of the company and the changes you need to make to achieve your goal. 

 

Examine the Consequences  

One way to reduce fear of change is to understand its consequences. Identify three opportunities and potential pitfalls of making changes. Involve people in all levels of the organization. You may want to consider involving customers to get their perspectives on your proposed changes. 

 

Communication  

Your timeline should include communicating whether via a presentation to staff at the outset to present your goals or weekly check-ins against your timeline. Make sure that you build communication into all parts of the change process. Remember that pragmatists often can function as go-betweens for the conservers and originators, so make sure that all staff change styles are given equal participation in discussions and your communication planning. 

 

Request Feedback  

One of my former colleagues loved to say, “There are three reasons why you do what you do every day: the first is because that is how you have always done it, the second is because of the limitations of your software or other infrastructures, and the third is because of best practices.” Remember that changing software is a huge opportunity. Take the time to get feedback from all levels of the organization to uncover best practices. Use rounds of feedback to gain both business and operational efficiencies and to build consensus. 

 

Structure and Timelines  

Remember your conservers and pragmatists in your organization and their need for the comfort they receive from structure. Develop a logical sequence of events that everyone in the organization can agree is in manageable blocks. This will also hold everyone in the organization accountable to task-oriented goals. Often, a project management tool, such as Basecamp, can be used to provide structure and timelines. 

 

Create a Map of Success  

Everyone likes to be praised and to receive positive feedback; both are never more valuable or useful than during a time of change. Build a series of “quick wins” into your timeline, and then when those are met, celebrate them. Have a pizza lunch or give everyone an hour off early. Doing so will show how much everyone on the team is appreciated for his or her willingness to undertake the change that is needed to reach your goals. 

 

Document Your Changes  

Not one of the most interesting aspects of the change process but one that is necessary is documenting how you implemented changes: what did and didn’t work, what the stressful times were that in hindsight could have been avoided, and what went more easily than anticipated. This information will be invaluable to you as you confront another time of significant change in the organization. 

 

Facilitating Change 

Vacation rental managers have different goals that factor into their software selection decisions. Sometimes, they are positioning for growth. Sometimes, they are working in a system where they have had long-standing workarounds to support their process. Sometimes, they need to tailor or customize software because they are doing something innovative in their market. 

Whatever the reason, we try to offer a very different perspective about how to successfully pursue this significant change by talking about vision and consequences. We know that various stakeholders are going to need different types of strategies to manage their concerns around change. We have a strong expectation that communication is vital, and we encourage rounds of feedback that are built into our implementation process. Structure and timelines are discussed, such as how and when we do data porting and how and when our partner integrations are brought into the mix. All of this is documented before we go to contract so that we have a strong foundation for our transition process. 

Changes in technology can be successfully navigated with preparation, leadership, and communication whether you are a large or small organization. It is also an excellent opportunity to implement valuable processes and cultural change within your organization. 

The New Fall Issue of VRM Intel Magazine is Here

By
Amy Hinote
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0

The Fall Issue of VRM Intel Magazine is here! In spite of natural disasters, OTA dominance, and increased regulation, the demand for vacation rentals is still rising. As the industry evolves, the resilience and adaptability of property managers are apparent, and new ways to leap ahead of the competition continue to present themselves as evidenced in the following pages.

This issue contains the full spectrum of online marketing for vacation rentals, including public relations, OTA independence, social media, content marketing, PPC, website conversion optimization, and strategies to increase direct bookings. These articles collectively provide a how-to guide for marketing performance in 2018.  

In addition, technology continues to drive much of the industry’s conversation. In the article, “The State of Software 2018” on page 81, we discuss our talks with software CEOs and examine recent feature additions and the challenges innovators face in meeting the needs of vacation rental managers.  

Our industry has seen a renewed discussion about data privacy and usage. In the article “Who Owns Your Data?” on page 85, technology leaders reveal their policies and paradigms surrounding the use and protection of your data.  

I hope you enjoy this issue and look forward to your feedback, as always. 

Thank you so much for your support and readership.  

What to Do When the Rules Don’t Make Any Sense 

By
Matt Curtis
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0

Building a coalition to help governments find logical solutions 

“Fish Hooks” McCarthy was an aide to New York Governor Al Smith who was known for bending the rules in his favor. He was famous for saying the same prayer every morning at St. Patrick’s Cathedral: “O, Lord, give me health and strength. We’ll steal the rest.” 

When I was a kid, I had a best friend named Jerome. He once said to my mom after she told us we couldn’t swim in our backyard pool during the summer, “Mrs. Curtis, what good are the rules if we’re not going to follow them?” 

When it comes to regulating the New Economy, local governments are finding it challenging to create rules that compel compliance. And the New Economy—whether you call it the Sharing Economy, the On-Demand Economy, the Gig Economy, or the Peer-to-Peer Economy—has scooped up vacation rentals and vacation rental managers by including them in their rules. 

But if rules are created that can’t accomplish compliance, how can we expect people to follow them? 

That’s why I strongly urge vacation rental managers to help their local governments in crafting regulations. After all, you’re a professional manager in this long-established industry. 

Likewise, I strongly urge local policy makers to work closely with professional managers. The policy-makers will learn the industry from you, and will create effective regulations that comport with existing local regulations. 

Often, I hear people ask, “Why would a city create a rule where the issue is different for the neighboring house?” For instance, the vacation rental noise regulations may begin at 9:00 p.m., but a neighboring resident may not have to worry about the noise rules until 10:00 p.m. 

What is my response to people who pose such questions? Get involved. 

If the rules don’t make sense, it may be because local governments do not fully understand how rules can be easily broken. Policy makers have a lot on their plate, and they depend on stakeholders to help them understand what does—and doesn’t—make sense. 

Sometimes I hear vacation rental managers say, “My town wants vacation rentals to only rent a handful of days per year.” 

What do I say when I hear that? Get organized. 

An organized group of vacation rental managers who build a coalition or alliance can achieve so much more than someone acting alone. You can put together a story based on all your combined experiences and help the local government find the solutions they seek.  

Sometimes I hear vacation rental managers say, “Our town is so buried in this issue they can’t see straight.” 

 

What do I say to that? Get a professional. 

A professional will serve as an ombudsman for the local government and the alliance of vacation rental managers. Typically, this might be a local lawyer who works closely with the town on land use issues, or a registered lobbyist, or some other type of consultant. 

This professional can do something the vacation rental manager may not be able to do: dedicate real time to the issue, walking the halls of government and working with policy makers to find a solution to address their concerns—or to identify a solution that may already exist in current regulations. 

The community of vacation rental managers has a lot of friends in the Monterrey County area. When towns in Monterrey County, California, began to create regulations governing the vacation rental industry, some managers were quick to act. They got an organized alliance together, called the big industry stakeholders for help, and rallied supporters to various city council meetings. 

Now, it’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback and look back at things that happened five and six years ago, but I wonder: What would have happened if our initial decision for the Monterey County Vacation Rental Alliance had been to suggest they hire a professional? 

Would that professional have fully understood the political dynamics going into the discussion? Would a professional have understood best practices when discussing with a Monterey County policy maker the merits of local rules? Lastly, would a professional have known the technical aspects of creating regulations so they could use that know-how to help redirect conversations when they got bogged down in the mire of public discourse. 

 

My answer to all of these is, YES! 

Let’s be fair, who would have known how all these conversations were going to go? It’s easy and cheap to play Monday morning quarterback like a couple of guys at the office debating in front of a vending machine. But we also need to learn from our experiences, and I believe that our experiences have taught us that vacation rental managers need to be involved, to get organized, and—in the right circumstances—to hire professional help. 

How do you hire a professional? 

One shocking way to get started: consider asking your local council member. Oftentimes professional lobbyists, land use lawyers and consultants work regularly with city councils. Sometimes a council member may offer a short list of suggestions for the issues you face. More often they won’t offer suggestions, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. 

You can also suggest to the local policy maker that the town bring in an experienced consultant to help find a solution. 

Or, just ask other vacation rental managers who have faced these debates. 

A professional who understands the changing tides of the New Economy, the demands of traveling families, and the statistical impact of vacation rental activity on a town’s economy can help a local policy maker understand the benefits to the community. 

Professionals can help a community comprehend the variety of innovations and technologies that can help them address their concerns. This allows officials more time to focus on growing a successful regulation rather than discussing one. 

The right professional will understand what rules do and don’t work, so a community can create regulations that achieve compliance. 

At the end of the day, that’s what we’re all hoping for: the creation of local regulations that achieve compliance rather than driving the activity underground. As we all know, it is the underground activity that is more likely to create noise, parking, and trash issues. It’s the underground activity that is less likely to pay their local taxes, and it is the underground activity that is more likely to create bad experiences for travelers. 

Let’s create good rules that work rather than bad ones that don’t. 

Oh, yeah, and that summer my mom told us to not swim in the pool … we swam all the time when she was gone. 

Keys to Successful Content Marketing for Vacation Rentals

By
VRM Intel Staff
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2

Content marketing is more than a hot buzzword. It is a highly effective marketing strategy that can boost your company’s profits and decrease your dependence on listing sites.  

Although this content does not specifically promote your company, it does help you acquire new leads and gain the trust of potential travelers. This is precisely the type of content that people want to interact with, and it helps them. 

This article assumes the following: 

  1. You have a website for your brand. 
  2. You have a general understanding of guest needs/wants in your market. 
  3. You understand that bad content is worse than no content. 

 OK, let’s get started! 

 

Ideas: Don’t Overcomplicate Things 

Although content calendars, keyword research, and personas can be helpful, the effort required to accomplish these “best practices” can discourage people who aren’t marketing professionals. The majority of business owners and property managers simply don’t have the expertise or training required to accomplish these types of things quickly, and becoming discouraged can often drive them to just give up. 

Instead of focusing on marketing agency exercises, leverage your expertise. You intimately understand the types of visitors, their questions, insider tips, and more! Use your subject matter expertise to create killer content for your guests and potential guests.  

For example, what questions do you regularly receive from guests? The inspiration for our Predictive Fall Leaf Map was not a result of keyword research. Instead, it was inspired by hundreds of guests who had asked us when the leaves would peak in our area.  

If you listen to your guests, you will find that they have great questions. What should I do on a rainy day? Where can we buy groceries? Are there any good restaurants for a rehearsal dinner?  

Leverage the intersection of guest interactions and your local expertise to create content that perfectly satisfies the needs of your guests. For example, The Ten Best Spots in Destin for a Rehearsal Dinner or 7 Things to Do in Seattle on a Rainy Day are almost guaranteed to perform well because they are based on real questions.  

Why waste time ideating? You have direct access to an endless pool of ideas from your guests.  

 

Educate: Help, Don’t Sell 

Too often businesses try to force customers into conversations about buying a product. This is an awful content marketing strategy! Forcing spammy, salesy content on a site visitor who is not ready to buy is worse than a used car salesperson in a plaid jacket and a cheap tie. 

The buying journey for vacation lodging is very different from most online purchases. This is not an Amazon Prime purchase that someone is going to make on a first-time visit to your site after a few minutes of research. Instead, this product is relational, and your brand must prove that you are worthy. By creating helpful information, your potential guests’ first interactions with your brand are positive ones. You win their trust and have a chance to win business.  

Creating content that answers questions is automatically helpful; you are solving a real problem in the moment. A well-written review of a restaurant by a local expert with insider information can be extremely helpful. Your content is an insurance policy against clients wasting a precious night of their vacation on a subpar dining experience. A previous guest asked about this restaurant. As a result, you visited the restaurant, took high-resolution photos, and created a detailed review. You are now helping your guests and enhancing their vacations. 

This is where it becomes really fun. Winning customers from the competition can easily start while they are staying in the competition’s property. Let that sink in. If you help your competitor’s guest with excellent content during a stay, they may book with you the next time around. 

 

Tenacity: Rinse, Wash, and Repeat 

Recently, I was researching our brand’s past content and discovered that a miniscule 1 percent of our content was driving a whopping 72 percent of our total traffic. The really depressing (or invigorating) stat was that one page drove over 38 percent of our total traffic. 

My conclusion from this research is that you must fail and fail often to succeed at content marketing. If less than 1 percent of your content is going to drive 70 percent of your traffic, a logical conclusion is that you need to produce a ton of content to figure out what will work well for your brand.  

Once you identify a top-performing content type, duplicate this success! If it was a top-ten list that resonated with pet owners, produce more pet-friendly content.  

Why is failure necessary? Although we think we know our audience and what they want to read, our content may underperform as a result of issues with the content itself, delivery, brand authority, or a myriad of other reasons.  

Unfortunately, there will be many failures for each success. This is reality. Fortunately, the tenacity and patience that are required to be successful are not common traits. If you possess these traits, you are exponentially more likely to be successful. 

 

Patience: Wait and Wait Some More 

If you need results today, content marketing is not the right marketing channel for you. Channels that include near-instant results include PPC, paid social, email marketing, and listing sites. However, if you are willing to be patient, content marketing is a crucial part of building a long-term, sustainable brand. 

A recent study by Ahrefs disclosed that a miniscule 5.7 percent of pages will rank for a high-volume term within one year of publishing content. For the lucky 5.7 percent, it typically takes between 61 and 182 days to rank.  

Until the page ranks in the search engines, you will have to drive traffic to the content using your email list, social following, or paid channels. This is not going to happen overnight, but the wait will be well worth it!  

Knowledge is power. Don’t expect to write a blog post today and immediately see a huge increase in occupied nights. Content marketing is a long-term strategy that may need to be augmented by short-term tactics. Once the results kick in, the value to your brand will be enormous. 

 

Convert: Move People through the Funnel 

OK, now that you have attracted people to your content, what do you do with them? Great question! Nurture them. These baby leads must be fostered and grown into conversions. If you ignore them, they will die.  

Why not use a tool like AdRoll or Facebook Ads to cookie and retarget every visitor? Once visitors have accessed your page, you can retarget them inexpensively. My recommendation would be to use content to slowly transition them down the buying funnel to an eventual purchase. 

It is perfectly acceptable to have an “ethical bribe” that promises to send an e-book with Twenty-Two Secrets About [Destination Name] featured near your helpful content. If your content was truly helpful, chances are this form will convert well. 

The method you use to move them through the purchase funnel does not matter, but do not ignore a lead. An ignored lead will become a worthless lead very quickly. Email them about new content, events, and specials (occasionally), and you will eventually win them as paying customers.  

 

Conclusion 

If you are looking to amplify your marketing efforts, content marketing is a great option. This advertising method simultaneously helps others and builds your brand. To get started, stay focused on creating content that answers common questions and attempts to help and on fostering your leads. 

The Association Of Vacation Rental Operators & Affiliates (AVROA) 2.0: What to Expect in 2018 

By
VRM Intel Staff
-
7

Vacation rental owners and managers are preparing to fight back against the changes imposed on them over the past two years. The Association of Vacation Rental Owners and Affiliates (AVROA) is being reimagined and reinvigorated, and 2018 will be the year vacation rental owners begin to have a strong voice, active education, and participation in the vacation industry.       

On September 8, in offices located on the thirty-first floor of the Chicago Board of Trade Building, a group of owners, managers, and vacation rental (VR) industry companies from the United States, Canada, and Europe met to take the first step toward creating AVROA 2.0. All had a shared purpose: to discuss how AVROA could do more to create value for its members and support the industry. Here are a summary of what happened in that meeting and a peek at what you can expect in 2018. 

Effective January 1, 2018, AVROA will formally become a nonprofit agency. The association has created a fifteen-person board comprised of VR owners, managers, and affiliated companies. April Salter, founder of the Just Say No to VRBO Service Fees movement, will be AVROA’s chair; Rod Fitts, founder of AVROA, will be vice chair; and Ralph Moorhouse, a VR owner, will be treasurer. Five subcommittees, each chaired by AVROA board members, also were created.

These subcommittees will focus the association’s efforts in five key areas: education, member engagement, marketing, advocacy, and listing services relations. After laying some of the initial groundwork, these committees will expand to include others who have volunteered to help. To give you a glimpse of the future, the chairs of the education, marketing, and advocacy subcommittees have written summaries of their objectives for 2018. 

 

AVROA’s Education Priorities 

Our task in Chicago with the education subcommittee was to work out how we could create value for AVROA members by first researching what is already being offered and then committing to create a library of materials for members.  

Over the past few years, many new providers have launched training products that advertise how owners and managers can increase income and occupancy while significantly reducing workload. Although this material is what owners and managers are looking for, sifting through courses, downloads, and webinars is time-consuming at best, and figuring out which courses are worth the investment can be frustrating and confusing. 

Initially, we believed the best course of action was to find all available content and establish some form of evaluation process. As time went on, our thoughts turned to how we could help launch AVROA in January and provide some real value. We all knew of courses and training programs being delivered by prominent industry players with vast experience, so we decided to offer an evaluation of these programs at the outset and use this evaluation to create a set of standards as a benchmark. Thus, our work begins. 

The goal for 2018 is to create a solid education hub through which AVROA members can search a database of books, training programs, and short courses while also having access to a library of downloadable resources. We also turned our attention to the different types of members who would benefit from these materials, from the new, independent owner needing basic but thorough information to the professional owner or manager seeking listing site independence. Collating all these resources is going to be a challenge, but we are an enthusiastic and motivated team committed to bringing the best to this new venture.  

Heather Bayer (chair), Trevor Wiesnewski, Ryan Liebentritt, Ralph Moorehouse, and Maria Rekrut, AVROA Education Committee 

 

AVROA’s Membership and Marketing Priorities 

The year 2018 will be a leap forward in AVROA member involvement. We want our members to be engaged in AVROA, not just standing on the sidelines. We are assembling an all-star cast to train our members on best practices in areas such as guest relations, operations, marketing, and investments. AVROA will be the hub for members to gain elite training for the VR industry.  

Our industry needs a place to meet, connect, and share wins and losses. We are excited to create this place with our AVROA Members Community. Not only will this group serve as the ultimate FAQ sounding board, but members will have a place to network with each other. The AVROA Members Community also will help unite owners and managers under a common mission and with a common voice. Industry news will be aggregated into this community, consolidating the many sources owners and managers use today. 

AVROA’s new website will help members identify why they are joining AVROA, and it will deliver a best practice guide for our trainings. This guide can be customized to members’ needs. Thus, whether members are just getting started with their first rental, already own and manage a handful of rentals, or have a property management company, they can rest assured that the recommended training will be on point, meet them at their level, and help their business grow. 

The best training programs in the world fail, however, if nobody knows they exist. Our marketing committee is here to make sure members are in the loop as each training tool or resource is announced. We also are tasked with spreading the AVROA mission and bringing in new members to help strengthen the community. 

Jason Beaton (co-chair), Annie Switzer (co-chair), Barbara Wilde, Erin Sandoval, April Salter, AVROA Education and Marketing Committee 

 

AVROA’s Advocacy Priorities 

The best way to begin a discussion of our plans is to state who we are and what we stand for: We are property owners and managers. We are small business owners, kitchen-table businesses, and sometimes mom-and-pop businesses. We are the boots on the ground, the ones responsible for paying bank loans and property taxes, for keeping the paint fresh and creating amazing vacation environments. We are the ones who, in all likelihood, bought our properties because we love being there. We are passionate about them. Arguably, we are an odd bunch, and we get really excited about participating in the human interaction of helping the traveler plan that most precious event—a vacation.   

We are small businesses, but there are tens of thousands of us. Over the past eighteen months, it has become clear that VR owners and managers need a stronger voice in the industry. Working together, we can have a greater impact. We seek to earn your trust as an organization. We seek to be your voice, your advocate for change, your mouthpiece, and your warrior.     

AVROA’s advocacy roles will be as follows:  

  • We will be spokespersons for VR owners and managers when issues concerning our industry arise. We will issue press releases and statements and speak with a unified voice to online travel agents, media, and policy makers about issues that are common to our members.  
  • We will provide resources to help members battle unreasonable local ordinances and harmful zoning proposals. These tools will include sample letters, tips to organize opposition, and advice about how to talk to elected officials.  
  • We will monitor and report on issues that could affect large segments of our membership.  
  • We will develop partnerships with organizations and companies that support our policy positions.  

We will focus on shaping our advocacy positions and launching tools for our members in the second quarter of 2018.  

The time is here. We need a voice. We need education. We need advocacy. We need a way to network with each other and provide leadership for our industry. If you are interested in advocacy or know someone who is, contact Byron Ackerman at byron@ackerman5.net. 

Byron Ackerman (chair), Erin Sandoval, April Salter, AVROA Advocacy Committee 

 

By the end of the Chicago meeting, there was a growing feeling among VR owners and managers, one that many had not felt in a while. It was a feeling of hope and a belief that real tools may have emerged from this meeting and that owners and managers will be able to have a voice in the market and re-establish those values that many see slipping away.  

Setting Managers up for Success in the Vacation Rental Industry

By
Sue Jones
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0

At a time when unemployment rates are at their lowest in decades and talent is harder to find, it is now more important than ever to focus on growing and developing management talent within your company. Both new and experienced managers require ongoing coaching, development, and support to strengthen their knowledge and management skills. Your managers have the greatest impact on retaining and engaging your workforce. Let’s make sure they are successful.   

When it comes time to promote someone from your team to a management position, ask yourself the following questions, “How have I set my employees up for success? And are they prepared to step into a management role?” Based on my experience, the answer to these questions usually falls somewhere in between “kind of” and “sort of.” We naturally assume that when employees are good at what they do they will be great managers.   

We all know that managers are key to employee engagement and retention, yet we often find that they are not equipped with the knowledge and tools they need to successfully lead people. A recent study by Gallup found that up to 70 percent of the variance in employee performance can be attributed to the quality of their managers.   

Managing others successfully requires more than just technical experience. Developing your manager’s confidence to select, hire, and retain the right team; evaluate and manage the teams’ performance; and the manager’s ability to provide ongoing feedback is key to ensuring his or her success. Listed below are five critical skills managers need to develop and become adept to ensure their success as leaders in your business.    

 

The ability to identify skills and to make good hiring decisions.

I think a lot of us naturally assume that managers are skilled at selecting, interviewing, and making good hiring decisions just because they are “managers.” Given that most businesses spend a significant amount of their operating budgets on workforce expenses, it is interesting to note that very few measure the success of hiring managers in their ability to select the right candidates. 

Managers need coaching and training on interviewing, what to ask, and more important, what not to ask. They also need tools and resources to assist them with the process. Creating an interview evaluation guide or score card, and training your managers on how to use these resources, can help level the playing field and create an objective basis for comparison of the candidates, which can lead to better hiring decisions over time.   

Having the right people in the right place at the right time starts with your manager’s ability to assess his or her team’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. 

 

Delegating to Others 

Have you ever heard of the seagull management style? Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager says, “The most common management style is seagull management. A manager gives you a task, disappears, and then only returns when you make a mistake—they fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on you, then fly out.” Providing work assignments and delegating to employees is integral to getting things done efficiently and effectively. Managers do too much themselves stating:  

  • It is quicker to just do it myself than to take the time to train someone else right now. 
  • My team is too busy; I can do the work myself. 
  • I want it done right, so I will do it myself. 

These are all common reactions when it comes to delegating. One thing I often share with managers is to focus on doing only the work that you can do to focus on doing the work that only you can do.” Effective delegation skills provide managers with more time to focus on high-payoff activities, things that are important to work on, and result in revenue for the business and impact the bottom line.   

Time is a precious commodity. Developing your manager’s ability to delegate is key to his or her success.   

 

Managing Performance, Coaching, and Providing Feedback 

Managing performance is more than just a once-a-year performance review. It is an everyday activity that managers need to embrace. Employees want clarity about what is expected of them. They want goals and feedback about their performance, and they want recognition when they achieve those goals.   

In a recent study by Mercerii the authors reported that only 12 percent of employees rank their managers as excellent at helping staff improve performance, and just 11 percent reported that their managers excel at coaching, supporting, and developing staff. How well do you think your employees would rate your managers on this skill set? 

In a recent article in the Spring 2017 issue of VRM Intel Magazine, which focuses on managing employee performance, I provide several tools and resources to assist managers with managing performance. Introducing practices such as coaching journals, one-to-one meetings, competency anchoring, and “Keep, Start, Stop” techniques into your managers’ tool kit is a great start toward developing their self-confidence with coaching and providing feedback.

 

Decision-Making Skills 

New managers rarely come to the table with “honed” decision-making skills. We are asking more of our managers. We want our managers to be good at motivating, engaging, and retaining employees, and we want them to make informed decisions. A manager’s indecisiveness and inability to make a timely decision can create chaos and confusion, greatly impeding the productivity and efficiency of the staff. 

Most people acquire good decision-making skills through trial and error. This is often accomplished by providing your managers with decision-making opportunities. Whether it is selecting new software, making a hiring decision, or something as simple as approving schedule changes, they are all opportunities for managers to practice and improve their decision-making capabilities.   

Clearly defining the level of decision-making for your managers is key. Managers must be capable, and they also need to feel confident in their ability to make decisions quickly within the guidelines of your company policies and structure. Letting your managers know what kinds of decisions they can make and the types of decisions they need to run up the flagpole is a great place to start to ensure your managers’ decision-making success.

 

Emotional Intelligence 

The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others is something your managers need to develop. The importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) is now being recognized as an important leadership skill for managers, even more so than their IQ.    

Unfortunately, far too many people lack basic emotional intelligence. They simply don’t have enough self-awareness or the social skills necessary to work in fast-paced, constantly changing environments. Your managers need to become adept at recognizing their emotions, understanding what their emotions are telling them, and noticing how their emotions affect employees around them. On the flip side, managers also need to understand their perceptions of others and how others may feel to be able to manage work relationships more effectively. Without an ability to see other points of view, managers will struggle to pull a team together to produce the results you desire. 

The good news is EQ, unlike IQ, can be improved upon. Developing your employees’ competence with self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills is a worthy investment to ensure their success as managers. 

Training, developing, and growing your internal management team is a competitive business advantage and well worth the investment of your time and resources. 

Branding Your Vacation Rental Company with a Customer Focus 

By
VRM Intel Staff
-
0

Online bookings in the vacation rental industry have been on the rise for a while. We are hearing from clients that anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of their bookings have been online this year. What that tells me is that when people call in to book over the phone, they require and expect more from their service providers. Long gone are the days of easy bookings where the caller calls and says, “I want to book this home.” Instead I hear that people are calling about pricing and availability. Their minds have not been made up already that they are going to book at all.  

Recently during a secret shopping project that I conducted, I found that in three out of five calls, the agents never asked what brought me to the area or what I was looking to do. They gave me “canned” information on the amenities of the resort or gave me a price and then asked me if I wanted to make a reservation and what credit card I wanted to use. I have to admit, I felt a little violated. They didn’t take an interest in what was important to me or even earn the right to ask for a reservation. In other calls, the phone routing disconnected or delivered to dead air where I waited for two minutes saying, “Hello . . . hello,” before eventually hanging up. 

If your company is going to thrive and grow with the times, I encourage you to implement the following helpful tips for exceeding increasing customer expectations. 

 

The Platinum Rule 

We all know the golden rule of treating others how you would want to be treated. Let’s take it to the next level with the platinum rule and treat others how they want to be treated. We do this by asking questions and listening to hear. 

 

Listen to Hear, Not to Respond 

It is our natural human instinct to think about how we are going to respond when we are listening to callers or guests. It takes concentrated effort to overcome our natural instincts and really listen. This could require pausing after hearing an objection or concern and sharing that you are taking notes and want to understand the issue fully before coming up with a solution. The customer will respect this because who wants a quick answer that feels “canned” and not thought through? It is OK to say that you want to research what happened and follow up with the customer later that day. You could also make a comment on partnering with the client on the issue at hand and being his or her advocate in coming up with a fair resolution. 

 

Empathize before Educating 

Customers want to feel heard, understood, and related to. Often our natural instinct is to fix the problem before fixing the person. If we go straight into educating the customer about the “why” or the solution, we miss the opportunity to connect with the caller and build a long-lasting relationship. I have even heard customers, after being given a solution that is fair, say something like, “You didn’t even say you were sorry.”  

 

Acknowledge Their Vulnerability 

Often customers will share something vulnerable—maybe they are going through a divorce or have just lost a family member. Take the time to acknowledge the situation. You don’t have to relate to them by sharing a story of yours that is more devastating. Please don’t do this as it discounts their pain and does not create a connection. Instead say something like, “I am so sorry you are going through that.” Then gear your tone and focus on their needs for relaxation and rejuvenation. 

 

Put the Caller in the Moment 

Often customers are completing a responsibility by reserving a home. Get them emotionally connected to the experience they will have when staying with your company. You can do this by using the word “you” or “you and your family.” An example would be, “You and your family are going to love this home. It has a nice patio that overlooks the ocean. In the morning, you can enjoy coffee and breakfast as you watch the waves, or you can enjoy wine in the evenings while watching the sunset.” I have heard customers actually say that they are ready to be there now when employees have been successful at emotionally connecting them to the experience. 

 

Build Relationships 

Often employees, during a busy season, are what I call “burning through calls.” When answering the phone, they make a quick assessment of whether the caller is a potential guest or not and then move on to the next call. Take the extra two minutes to ask what is bringing the caller to the area and what experience he or she is looking to have while visiting. Make the caller feel like you care. Even if the caller can’t do the minimum night stay or the price is too much, the caller will remember how you made him or her feel and will want to tell other people or come stay with you at another time. Every interaction we have is an opportunity to brand our company. 

 

Make It Easy on the Customer 

This might be an offer of an e-mail with links to send to the group that is traveling with the caller and taking an active role in deciding the home the group will stay in. Offer to call back instead of saying, “Call me when you have decided.” I heard an employee share that the employee’s company lets multiple people pay for a stay so that one person doesn’t have to pay the total and then collects funds from everyone in the group. I love that! I hear customers feel so relieved and grateful because of this offer. 

As Maya Angelou put it, “At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did; they will remember how you made them feel.”  

Wyndham CEO on EU Vacation Rentals: “We received considerable interest in this business from potential buyers”

By
Amy Hinote
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0

In August, Wyndham Worldwide announced plans to spin off its hotel business from its ownership business to allow the two separate companies to focus on their strengths and find more financing opportunities. The company also announced it will explore “strategic alternatives” for the European vacation rental businesses, which CEO Steve Holmes said “aren’t a natural fit under either the hotel or timeshare umbrellas.”

In the vacation rental industry, the announcement triggered interest from buyers for the European vacation rental brands, but it also led to questions. Most notably, why would Wyndham, a company that is the world leader in vacation rentals—a sector of travel that is currently red hot—want to fully exit its market-leading position? And will Wyndham also be seeking a buyer for its North American vacation rental businesses?

Last week’s earnings call did little to answer these questions as the company pointed to solid performance by its vacation rental brands with reported net revenues generated from rental transactions and related services increasing $23 million.

Within WDN, vacation rentals grew 8%, transaction volume increased 4% including two points from tuck-in acquisitions, and average price per rental rose 3% partly due to currency movements.

Holmes did offer an update on Wyndham’s progress in finding a home for its European vacation rental businesses.

“As part of the separation, we announced that we will explore strategic alternatives for our European Vacation Rentals organization,” said Holmes. “This business operates leading brands in the European Vacation rental space, generates about $750 million of revenue at attractive margins, and are somewhat underappreciated by a largely U.S. investor base. Since our announcement, we received considerable interest in this business from potential buyers and we are responding to that interest.”

Holmes added, “As a result, we are optimistic about this process. With that being said, you should expect that it will take several months before we have something more definitive to say about the outcome of these efforts.”

Timing for Selling EU Vacation Rental Business

“[The European vacation rental] businesses are fantastic businesses and they have great management over there. So the amount of interest in those businesses is reflective of how strong the businesses are,” said Holmes. “So we’re very proud of those businesses.”

Homes continued, “As to timing a normal M&A process like this, which we kicked off once we saw the level of interest that existed, would probably take us to completing it before the spin. That is our hope. The hope is not being a good plan, of course, but we would hope to be able to get it done, it all depends on how quickly things move. But we have we’ve done everything we can to keep the process running slightly ahead of the spin, and we’ve got a great team working on it. So I’m sorry I can’t give you any more detail but M&A deals are always a little difficult to put a specific timeframe to.”

 

Time to Overshare Your Property Care 

By
Jeremiah Gall
-
3

We all have that friend—everyone has one or two—who loves to overshare. You know the type. Maybe they post too many Facebook updates or include too many details in that story from last summer told over dinner. Oversharing is a thing, and it’s easy to do. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to property management and care, the norm has been the opposite. Managers fail to build and organize robust property information, and not enough information is shared with property owners. Owners have come to expect more transparency and detail about how their home is being maintained, so now is the time to improve your property-care program and start oversharing by communicating the details of your service to your clients. 

We live in the information age. We have the ability to create and digest an incredible amount of information, hampered only by our access to Wi-Fi (which is a challenge at the moment while I write this from a rustic vacation rental on Squam Lake, New Hampshire). This digitizing, cataloging, and organizing of information has opened access to data on a granular level. We can get the status of a flight down to the minute of departure and progress en route, track the delivery of a package from the distribution center to the local warehouse and down to the truck it’s riding on to your front door, or check real-time updates on investment portfolios. We’ve come to expect this level of detail, access, and transparency. 

Vacation rental homeowners are beginning to expect this level of detail, access, and information about their property as well. They want to know how their most valuable asset is being cared for and maintained. Monthly income and owner statements cover the accounting details, but they don’t provide a full picture of the asset protection and care that owners are increasingly demanding from their property managers. 

Creating and transparently sharing the details of comprehensive property-care programs with their owners is a growing trend for progressive property managers like Paso Robles Vacation Rentals in California and 360 Blue in Destin. By collecting, tracking, and sharing more information with owners, they are strengthening their relationships with their clients. 

This article provides specific reporting which serves to communicate your property-care program to owners and capture the full value of property management and asset protection services.    

The best part is that it’s simple to add better reporting to the workflow that managers are already using. In the services industry there is nothing better than receiving additional credit and potentially charging more while providing the same service.   

 

Frequent Property–Condition Reports 

The first step in a comprehensive property-care program is frequent, quick inspections of the condition of the property. This is the best way to demonstrate continued property care and attention for absent homeowners concerned about the state of their home. Managers are interacting with their owners’ homes multiple times a week, including cleanings, post-departure inspections, and routine maintenance repairs. Each interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate to the property owner the time that is being dedicated to their property. 

These reports can be as simple as quick condition reports or as thorough as a fifty-point housekeeping inspection report, as long as they are consistent, professional, and transparent.  In addition to the efficiency gains the reports drive internally, property managers build trust with the owner and increase the owner’s positive interaction with the brand by sharing the reports externally with clients.  

Frequent condition reports are the appropriate place for demonstrating property care and introducing any necessary improvements and repairs; it is not a monthly owner statement.  Monthly statements should be used for accounting purposes, not to showcase how well the property is being maintained and cared for. Too often, these monthly statements include surprise maintenance charges, which clients may be seeing for the first time and long after the necessary services have been provided. 

Additionally, these reports provide a history of property care. Condition reporting builds over time, adding multiple data points for each element of the property on each inspection. In the aggregate, this demonstrates the type of consistent asset protection and management that is so valuable to property owners.  

Capture All the Details 

Communicating the full value of property management requires tracking and sharing more details about the exact services you provide. There are so many little tasks and details that go into keeping vacation rental property maintained and ready for guests. Property managers change filters, light bulbs, fix running toilets, and any number of small repairs in the course of the weekly turnover process. 

Much of this work may not require an individual service charge, meaning it doesn’t show up on the monthly statement and is never shared with property owners. Start using smart technology to capture and organize every touch point with each property and automatically add them to the property profile. Operational costs are too high to perform services without receiving credit.   

Take advantage of all the detailed work that goes into vacation rental management and share it with owners. It has never been easier to be a “rent by owner,” with the growth of listing sites and online tools. If property managers are going to stay competitive, they need to show owners exactly how they are maintaining the property and all of the hard work that goes into it. Don’t worry about oversharing, and don’t be discouraged if owners ignore your updates. Every touch adds confidence in the management service, particularly in an industry that hasn’t shared much in the past. 

 

Seasonal Inspection Reports 

Part of a thorough property-care program is a seasonal inspection. This provides owners with comprehensive insight into the condition of their property, should highlight maintenance issues that were completed during the inspection, and introduces any suggested future repairs or maintenance that the property owner should be aware of and approve. 

An end-of-season property review and inventory has been the standard procedure for vacation rental managers for many years. However, most managers still complete this by hand using paper checklists or a generic digital checklist. Consider interviewing owners and including customized programs for each owner based on their specific concerns for the property. Impress clients with a seasonal inspection that is tailored to their property and highlights the special attention that staff paid to checking each bedroom and bathroom and each unique feature of the property. 

By using a platform like Breezeway, managers can complete their entire seasonal inspection and automatically add the details to the inventory. This creates an excellent history of the condition of the property to be used for future reports, maintenance, and operations. 

 

Inventory and Property History Reports 

With the number of vacation rental investment properties growing, asset protection and maintenance are critical considerations for owners. Managers should leverage their frequent interaction with the property to build a deep property profile, complete inventory, and maintenance history. Operationally, this helps managers ensure that all necessary preventative maintenance is being completed and documented. 

Sharing this information on an annual basis provides an opportunity to help owners track contents; budget maintenance expenses for the following year; and feel confident that their property manager is keeping a full record of their property maintenance for insurance renewals, claims, or to demonstrate excellent asset preservation for a future property sale.  

 

Leveraging all the information from routine condition reports and seasonal inspections, managers can easily create a full property inventory report for clients. At the end of the year when clients are reviewing annual statements and taking stock of their rental income, it’s powerful to remind them of all the work that was done to carefully maintain their home throughout the year and how well their property manager knows their property and is best qualified to continue to care for it in the future.

New report shines light on concerns of hotel room attendants in certain Toronto hotels

By
VRM Intel Staff
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This article, “Precarious work takes toll on hotel housekeepers,” was written by Rebecca Melnyk of the REMI Network. While the article focuses on the hotel industry, the study is significant for vacation rental operators and managers. 

The moment Grace became a room attendant in a downtown Toronto hotel, she was happy to find steadier work after immigrating to Canada from the Philippines on a contract nanny job. But she soon became aware of the strenuous tasks her role as a housekeeper entailed: cleaning 16 rooms in an eight-hour shift and the pressure to maintain a high-quality level of cleanliness for every room, some untidy, others left in disarray.

As a single mother, she’d rush to meet her room quota in order to arrive at her son’s daycare on time, and in this rush to balance work and family, her physical well being became less important than completing hours of tedious and repetitive tasks: cleaning shower tiles from top to bottom, removing stains, polishing toilets, vacuuming carpets, scrubbing coffee pots, lifting heavy mattresses—the reason for one of her injuries.

“Housekeeping is the most demanding, physical job in an entire hotel,” says Grace, who prefers not to share her last name. “You’re in the same positions all day long, every day. Bending, reaching, walking, twisting, squatting.”

Her twenty-three year career as a room attendant reflects that of many hotel housekeepers, the majority of whom are immigrant women of visible minorities. The housekeeping industry has a 40 percent higher injury rate than all service sector workers in Canada. According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety (CCOHS), a housekeeper is estimated to assume 8,000 different body postures every shift. Repetitive motion injuries to the back, neck, shoulders and arms are common.

Added onto this workload is the pressure to appease monthly cleaning audits, which measure how effectively a room is cleaned. Maintaining this level of quality both increases the work and hinders the amount of time a housekeeper needs to complete quotas.

“There’s a certain average for the audit you have to meet,” says Grace. “If you fail, you get stressed.”

Grace and her co-workers have better conditions than most. Their union contract under UNITE HERE Local 75 now limits the workload to 15 rooms and provides better benefits. She can relinquish two to three rooms a day, depending on the situation. At other Toronto hotels, room attendants don’t have these rights and their benefits vary. One of Grace’s friends must clean 19 rooms a day and cannot leave until her quota is fulfilled. Many workers routinely skip breaks, stay late to finish the job and endure physical strain in fear of being replaced.

Current trends in Toronto have also heightened housekeepers’ fears about job security, no matter what hotel they work for. Several hotels are converting into condos, costing thousands of hospitality jobs, while sustainability programs encourage guests to conserve water and energy by forgoing housekeeping, leaving workers without rooms to clean. Many women in the industry see their jobs as disposable. Some are wary to speak up about body strain or anything that could make them appear weak or unable to work.

Those who do are either supported by management or sometimes discounted. According to a recent Oxfam Canada report, which underlined the precarious work of housekeepers at several major hotel chains in Toronto, the workload of room attendants is growing and so are injury rates. As one general manager in Toronto noted in the report, hotel rooms require much more cleaning than they did years ago, while guest expectations have increased. Despite injuries, many continue working in the same job.

“Housekeeping is the heartbeat of the hotel and usually the most underappreciated function.”

One case highlighted in the study is that of Kerry Ann Palmer, a Jamaican immigrant who has been working in a downtown Toronto hotel for four years. Three years ago, she reported a wrist injury to her supervisor who made her continue working without any modifications to her job, despite a doctor’s note in her favour. She now requires a brace at all times.

“These women feel stuck; they’d like to leave, but this is the only experience they have,” says report author Diana Sarosi. “The work is too exhausting and demanding for them to take any courses or additional training. They are so enwrapped in survival, getting enough hours, getting things done. If they don’t have enough hours, then it’s about finding another job for extra income.”

A room attendant’s well being largely depends on the culture of the hotel management, along with the type of programs that are implemented.

Amrita Bhalla, senior HR executive with more than 10 years of experience in the luxury hospitality industry, lecturer at the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism at Ryerson University and currently managing director of A.B. Consulting, says the way housekeepers are treated can depend on the management philosophy in a particular hotel.

“The leadership style of the general manager can really set the tone for how they want all their employees to be treated,” says Bhalla. “Housekeepers have such an important job and it’s really important to recognize and celebrate them.”

She says “housekeeping is the heartbeat of the hotel and usually the most underappreciated function.” Room managers should have a close link to their staff and “make sure leadership is quite present” at staff lunches or events. This is one way to help facilitate communication between departments.

“You’re in the same positions all day long, every day. Bending, reaching, walking, twisting, squatting.”

When it comes to occupational health and safety, hotels between six to 12 employees must have a health and safety representative, while hotels above 20 employees are required to have a joint health and safety committee. Many establishments implement programs and even focus groups designed to find ways to avoid injury. But from Grace’s experience, these programs aren’t taught on an ongoing basis, even as new employees come and go. If a housekeeper has an injury, it is communicated to management, but there needs to be more intervention ahead of time.

“Be consistent and educate the workers on how to better use body positions to complete duties,” she suggests. “Because we have a quantity of rooms that have to be finished, the workers rush. They don’t care about the movements and positions, and at the end of the day, there is a lot of pain in their bodies.”

Programs to help housekeepers relieve body strain should include the use of visuals and videos, something Bhalla strongly believes in. She suggests companies get staff involved in the videos, while showing them how to use proper positions. Translating health and safety materials into the top three languages spoken among housekeeping staff is also key. It’s a diverse workforce comprised often of visible minorities where the first language may not be English. Overall, cutting training tends to happen in the short term, but will eventually catch up with managers.

“If you don’t do the right kind of onboarding and orientation for new hires in housekeeping, then it just becomes harder to correct it,” Bhalla cautions. “You’ll possibly have to deal with performance issues that aren’t the fault of new employees because they were never trained.”

Besides improving body postures and using lighter equipment, CCOHS suggests hotels find new approaches, other than strictly ergonomic ones. Options include job rotation where workers move between different tasks, at fixed or irregular periods, and team work to provide greater variety and more evenly distributed muscular work. The whole team is involved in the planning of the work and each team member carries out a set of operations to complete the whole product, allowing the worker to alternate between tasks. It is also important that housekeeping staff be informed about hazards in the workplace, including the risk of injuries to the musculoskeletal system.

Proper training shapes lifting habits, so workers need to adopt practices that reduce fatigue. CCOHS advises doing heavier tasks at the beginning of a work shift, rather than at the end when fatigue is at its maximum. When a person is tired, the risk of injuring a muscle is higher.

Jane Sleeth, senior national consultant at Optimal Performance Consultants says ergonomics training is usually a case by case basis with hotels, but there is a big need for them to become proactive.

“Some hotels have great human resources in place and they regularly ask us to provide training with updates and new topics,” she says. “Others have had our team train, but haven’t followed up. Others ask us for quotes and nothing further occurs.”

Education should be focused on proper body mechanics, work/rest/break schedules and stretches prior to certain tasks, she says. Housekeepers should learn how to self-treat musculoskeletal injuries and know when to visit a physiotherapist or chiropractor. There should also be training on actual case scenarios with feedback on body mechanics and the proper use of equipment to avoid ergonomic exposures.

Many hotel owners embrace employee concerns. Many truly care about the well being of their housekeepers and strive to implement programs that will support their work. They understand that housekeepers are frontline staff who have the power to alter the reputation of a hotel. After the Oxfam report was released, Susie Grynol, president of the Hotel Association of Canada, stated that the study doesn’t “paint an accurate or balanced picture” of the industry in Toronto, and that its members have a number of compliance measures in place to ensure not only high health and safety standards, but also employee satisfaction. Many hotels, she notes, have acquired ergonomically-friendly tools to assist with cleaning.

“Just because rights exist in a jurisdiction, doesn’t mean that everybody in that jurisdiction is treated with all the fairness and dignity that one should expect at work.”

Despite these efforts, the most calls the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) receives are from women working in the hotel industry who feel they need added protection to better negotiate fairer workplace standards. More often than not, the women are new to Canada and come from marginalized communities within large urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver.

“Having rights on the books and being treated fairly at work are not always the same thing,” says Derek Johnstone, special assistant to the national president of UFCW Canada. “Just because rights exist in a jurisdiction, doesn’t mean that everybody in that jurisdiction is treated with all the fairness and dignity that one should expect at work.”

Many operations are franchised, he points out. Owners may operate according to standards, but will run their businesses the way they believe a business should be run, with their values dictating how to communicate with staff.

“Some franchises are, without a doubt, good employers, but you have a lot who are not responsible employers,” he says. “This is the reality — provincial ministries of labour just don’t have the resources to ensure that every employer out there is acting responsibly.”

It’s Time to Ask More from VR Revenue Management Tools

By
Cliff Vars
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When it comes to managing your portfolio of vacation rentals, no one knows your strategy better than you do. Working in conjunction with your owners, you’ve established an end goal, and you know you need to adjust your rates, minimum night stays, and marketing tactics to get there. So perhaps, like many VR property managers who want to keep up with the latest tech, you’ve invested in a few software tools to help you out. There are several new tools in market that focus on revenue management—specifically rate adjustments. These tools claim that they can do all the work for you, and if you just listen to their recommendations and don’t ask too many questions, your business will grow exponentially. 

But to ensure you’re making the right decisions to reach your strategic goals, you need data you can trust. And to trust data, you need three things: to know where it’s coming from, to have enough of it, and to be able to interpret it to derive meaningful insights. 

 

Get access to the right data—and a lot of it 

Many revenue management tools available today have great aspirations but can’t deliver on their promises because they just don’t have access to the data. They may have some information about the larger market, but they don’t have visibility into traveler search traffic or market occupancy—data points that reveal actual supply and demand. (Which, when you’re in the business of economics, you definitely need.) 

Without some of those key data points, these tools may not even be able to identify a true competitive set for your portfolio of rentals. And if the comp set’s wrong, you won’t get the guidance you need to set your rates appropriately no matter how much data there is. 

 

You have to see data to believe it 

Of course, the companies large enough to have a lot of data often aren’t willing to share it—certainly not all of it. But you can’t trust a tool that’s a black box. When it comes to making decisions that are going to impact your business, you shouldn’t be expected to blindly accept what a piece of software tells you to do. 

Many tools acquire their data by scraping it from online travel agencies and other sites, which means it could be incomplete or inaccurate. Any leading revenue management tool of the future needs to provide real-time, proprietary data to its users—and it needs to be transparent. 

 

Data is science. Interpretation is a fine art. 

But ultimately, transparent access to all the data in the world won’t get you anywhere unless you can interpret it to find meaningful, actionable insights. That’s where expertise comes in. Startups may have a scrappy team of data scientists and software developers, but you want a tool that’s built by a team with years of real-world, first-hand experience in delivering solutions for property managers and in revenue management solutions. You want the right data at the right time, presented in the right way for your business. And only someone who’s been in both industries can deliver that. 

 

It’s time for a new kind of revenue management tool 

Revenue management for the VR industry isn’t a new concept. It requires some adaptation from the world of hotels, but the fundamental principles remain the same. You set your business goals, establish a strategy, and make tactical decisions to move forward. If those decisions aren’t based on data you can trust, you can’t be confident that you’ll reach those goals. 

It’s time to start looking for a revenue management tool that understands your business, gets you the data you need, and gives you insights to succeed. 

3 Big Myths About Direct Bookings

By
VRM Intel Staff
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“One would think that given all of the industry attention on direct booking, there would be a more uniform way of looking at what it actually is. The most obvious type of purchase that all hotels clearly count as direct is the booking that occurs on the brand.com website or app where there is no third party involved in facilitating the transaction.” (Skift, May 2017) 

Yes, after so many years of debating the booking issue—an argument that has resulted in the “direct booking wars,” a phrase even consumers now recognize—we should all be agreeing about the definition of a direct booking. However, we are still far from a robust (or profitable) understanding of website direct bookings. Out of the many myths about direct bookings, let’s break down a few. 

 

Big Myth #1: 

A direct booking is a website booking. 

Direct bookings existed long before OTAs came along, even before websites existed. While they include bookings on brand.com, the most obvious direct booking is the one that happens when a guest either dials those ten digits or uses click-to-call to reach a reservations agent. Aside from old-fashioned walk-ins, phone calls are the oldest form of direct booking, and contrary to popular belief, they still matter—quite a lot. 

While supplier websites yielded 27 percent of bookings in 2015, calls to hotels were at a valuable 17 percent (much higher for private accommodations). Combined with bookings at the property and metasearches, non-brand.com direct bookings were 31 percent of all bookings, outpacing website bookings (U.S. Consumer Travel Report Eighth Edition, Phocuswright, 2016). We can debate the inclusion of metasearch as a direct booking; however, we’re inclined to include it because it’s closely related to pay-per-click or click-to-call. 

While we can argue about what to consider as direct bookings, the category comprises far more than brand.com. Imagine what these percentages might be if we cast the direct booking net wider than just websites and included those third-party numbers? 

 

Big Myth #2: 

Online bookings are profit engines; everything else is a profit drain. 

This might be true if the guest went straight to your website and booked without ever seeing your property via Google pay-per-click or on a metasearch site or an OTA—or without a quick phone call to verify something about the property, which happens 71 percent of the time, according to HomeAway. These views have a price, but few properties are tracking the full path to purchase and attributing their earnings appropriately. Most managers just assume that, if the booking came through the website, it had some vague website marketing costs attached to it but that it’s cheaper than an OTA or paying the overhead on a reservations agent. Not true. Every online booking has costs attached, and understanding those costs is essential to understanding how to spend dollars on visibility and training. NAVIS tracks the entire path to purchase so managers can trace exactly how many dollars were spent and which dollars spent were most profitable. 

Regarding direct booking via a website or the voice channel, note that: 

Direct bookings via phone have a higher value, generating $3 for every $1 generated online. 

Reservations agents convert at an impressive 42.5 percent when they are properly trained in the art of sales. 

Agents can add another 10 percent to that if they are trained to handle outbound calls in their downtime. 

Not performing at these levels means you’re losing significant revenue every day. 

 

Big Myth #3: 

If you build a website, direct bookings will come. 

Here is the notion about direct bookings that can be their biggest drawback. A website neither creates nor converts demand. Desktop and mobile websites can be frequent parts of today’s complicated path to purchase; however, as Google notes, to “earn (and re-earn) each person’s consideration . . . you’ll need to do more than just show up” (Think with Google, July 2016). 

Capturing and converting guests requires giving them all the information and tools they need across all available channels and devices, including voice. Expedia’s The American Traveler’s Path to Purchase notes that travelers use online resources 20 times per week in the 45 days prior to booking and, on average, three resource types. Notably, these resources are both online and off-line. Think of the path to purchase as a zigzag from online to off-line and back. Keeping travelers on the channels you own, rather than letting them wander off to OTAs or metasearch sites, is essential. If you prominently include a clickable phone number and chat options on your mobile website, you can steer customers toward your most profitable voice channel. 

Looking clearly at direct bookings opens up more opportunities. As a hotel or vacation rental owner, when you embrace the off-line channel and tune in to the evolving habits of travelers, you can increase demand as well as increase conversions with your existing demand. 

Get downloadable worksheets, webinar recordings, and e-books on this topic and on the latest vacation rental industry trends at Learn.TheNavisway.com. 

It’s All About Experiences

By
Andy Gaylord
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Vacations, at their essence, are experiences. Your guests come to you in search of fun and excitement. When they return home, what they will remember most is how they felt and the things they did with their friends and family. To succeed as vacation rental managers, you must create complete experiences, full of activities, personal service, and great value. Guests expect more, so you must give them more. 

This, however, is easier said than done. Activity providers remain separate, guests’ expectations are higher than ever, and everyone is offering discounted rates. Giving your guests everything they want isn’t easy. To do so, you must value experiences first and foremost. 

In this article, we’ll examine how successful vacation rental companies are adopting an experience-first mentality. We’ll then determine how you can take immediate actions to embrace what matters most—your guests’ experiences. 

 

What the Big Dogs Are Doing 

The big dogs in the travel and hospitality industry have realized that experiences come first. In this integrated digital world, consumers are accustomed to purchasing complete vacations with the touch of a button. Over the past year, both Expedia and Airbnb have invested a great deal in creating complete guest experiences. 

When you visit Expedia.com, “Bundle Deals” and “Things to Do” are both featured prominently in the main navigation bar. Bundle Deals, which had previously included just flights and hotels, now also include special offers that highlight activities, such as free tickets to the local waterpark. Within Bundle Deals, there are clear links to area activities as well as opportunities to add specific activities to your package. 

On Expedia’s homepage, there’s also a section titled, “Today’s Popular Destinations.” When you choose a destination, you’re directed to a travel guide page that doesn’t even mention accommodations or flights. It simply highlights the area’s attractions and provides guests with great information for planning their vacation. 

This is clearly intentional. Expedia understands that when guests are booking accommodations and flights, they aren’t just thinking about those two items. Instead, they’re thinking about all the things they are going to do on their vacation. By allowing guests to imagine experiences, Expedia is tapping into their emotions, which can build tremendous loyalty when done effectively. 

Airbnb, one of the most disruptive companies of the past ten years, now features experiences, not rentals, at the top of their homepage. Their tagline is, “Book unique homes and experience a city like a local.” Also, under the “Places” tab, they’ve created personally curated guides to cool places all over the world. Some of these guides even highlight famous actors, such as Ashton Kutcher’s go-to spot for family fun. When you book on Airbnb, you understand you’re getting a distinct experience. Guests who book with Airbnb are very loyal, and much of this is because booking with Airbnb gives them something different from a traditional hotel or vacation rental. 

 

Be the Local Expert 

I know what you’re thinking: This is overwhelming! Both Expedia and Airbnb have huge budgets and endless resources. How am I supposed to compete? The truth is, however, as local property managers, you have the advantage. You know your destination better than these big brands, and your connections with local businesses and activity providers are authentic and personal. Use your local knowledge to help your guests create memorable experiences. 

 

Display Vivid Content 

One easy place to encourage experiences is on your website. When guests are planning a trip to Destin, Florida, for example, they’re dreaming about dolphin cruises and snorkeling in the crystal-clear water. If they see images of dolphins or people snorkeling with sea turtles on your website, they will immediately imagine themselves on vacation. 

 

Reveal Knowledge 

Images are just the beginning. Writing unique content on your website that highlights area activities and events not only broadens your ability to attract search engine traffic, it also builds trust and loyalty. Display your local expertise and provide your guests with information that only a local would know. 

 

Make Connections 

Even though activities make up a significant portion of the travel industry, very few vacation rental managers have fully integrated activities into their businesses. Every destination is known for specific activities. Identify your area’s top activities, and tie your business to them closely. Offer guests discounted passes to popular activities and provide recommendations for local shops and restaurants to visit. Better yet, partner with companies such as Xplorie, a business that connects property managers with activity providers. Working with Xplorie allows you to offer free activities to your guests. There are tons of ways to give your guests better experiences. 

 

Provide Superior Guest Service 

Superior guest service builds loyalty. Today, many companies get so tied up in trying to drive bookings that they overlook the importance of personalized guest services. Invest in good housekeeping, be proactive in responding to guests’ needs, and most important, show your guests that you care. When you go above and beyond to ensure that your guests are taken care of, they will remember you and book with you again and again. 

 

Quality Experiences Last Forever 

Taking an experience-first mentality has many lasting benefits. It will help you define your brand and allow you to connect with your guests emotionally. You will also give your guests more value and establish lasting relationships. Vacations are experiences. If you create them, your guests will come. 

 

About Bluetent 

Bluetent believes that all vacation rental managers, no matter the size of their business, should have the tools to succeed in the modern digital landscape. In 2017, Rezfusion, Bluetent’s proprietary platform, will process over $300 million in direct online bookings. Bluetent’s products and services reach travelers, inspire guests, and attract owners. 

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