Steps for Getting Started with Big Data for Vacation Rental Managers

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November 17, 2014

Data mining for vacation rental companies

Powerful data mining tools for vacation rental managers are being created (i.e. NAVIS) enabling you to analyze your performance in ways previously unimagined.

But with all of the technology recently created, poor data quality can prevent the optimal use of the new solutions, and as your company’s data grows, the room for error grows equally fast.

There are a few steps a vacation rental manager can take to get started on the right foot when it comes to Big Data.

Start Small

Since most vacation rental managers today have multiple data sources, collecting and cleaning data seems much more overwhelming and time-consuming than it actually is. This is why it is a good idea to start small and focus efforts on data sets which provide information used to answer the most pertinent business questions.

The first step is to simply identify the data fields which are important to your marketing, reservation and business intelligence needs. Here is a sample vacation rental management data checklist.

Start fresh

If you want easy-to-use Big Data tomorrow, the best place to start is making sure you are collecting data correctly today. You have an opportunity to gain a huge competitive advantage in your market with the use of your data, so it will benefit you immensely to put processes in place today which will help you tomorrow. Once you have identified the data fields you would like to collect, you can put in processes which help you collect clean, actionable data.

Here are some tips for starting fresh:

Put data in the right fields. Make sure your team is inputting data correctly. It is easy while on a call with a customer to throw a comment into an address line or a source code into a comment field. Find creative ways to make your team understand the importance of data entry and incentivize them to double check customer and reservation folios.

Use drop downs for as many fields as possible. This will help eliminate errors in data entry and in activity on your website. Cascading dropdowns as seen below are especially helpful on your website’s form submissions pages.

Here is an example.

Review your property data. Your property-specific data will be a key driver in the calculations and business intelligence you will get from your data. Identify all regions, locations, types and amenities you offer and review property details to make sure information has been properly entered.

Choose a data technology partner

Much of the data quality will be determined by the tools you use to analyze your data. Here are considerations for choosing a data technology partner in the vacation rental industry:

Integrates with property management software
Provides or connects with automated email marketing tools
Is integrated with your call center
Works directly with your team to set up your systems
Provides ongoing support
Collects information directly from your website
Understands the vacation rental industry

It does take a little time to put in place processes and technology to maximize the use of your data, but not as much as you might think. It is essential you start moving forward with this initiative sooner than later. The longer you wait, the amount of data your vacation rental company collects will only increase and will continue to be underutilized.

If you have the data at your fingertips, use it. Your competitors will be soon- so don’t miss your moment.

Vacation Rental Pros acquires Lahaina Island Properties and more

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VRM Intel Staff

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November 13, 2014

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Ponte Vedra-based VacationRentalPros.com added more than 220 new properties to its portfolio through the acquisition of Lahaina Island Properties, based in Fort Myers, Florida, and by taking over the management of 40 properties from VIP Realty.

“Southwest Florida is one of the premier vacation destinations in America,” said Steve Milo, managing director and founder of VacationRentalPros.com. “Now, there are 220 more properties in the region that prospective vacationers can check out through our feature-rich website.”

All VacationRentalPros.com properties benefit from cutting-edge marketing tools, including professional photography, a rating system to help customers choose the right fit for their family, and other enhanced features.

“Our website is second to none,” Milo added. “What better way to showcase some of the best vacation rental homes in America?”

Last month, VacationRentalPros.com announced a deal to manage vacation homes at the Encore Club at Reunion, a luxury community in Orlando. Now, with this latest expansion into Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Beach, VacationRentalPros.com has over VacationRentalPros.com has over 880 properties under management and averaged 40% a year growth making it one of the fastest growing vacation rental companies in the nation.

Marketing Boot Camp Session Materials

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VRM Intel Staff

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November 13, 2014

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Amy Hinote of VRM Intel recently conducted a half day marketing boot camp for vacation rentals at the 2014 VRMA Annual Conference in San Diego.

The DIY Marketing Plan Workshop was designed specifically for vacation rental managers to learn to create a marketing plan, identify new marketing strategies and define the budget needed to implement identified tactics.

The seminar covered:

The anatomy of the PM marketing plan
Identifying objectives
Analyzing the market, competition and pricing strategy.
SWOT analysis
Identifying and selecting marketing channels
Determining the marketing budget
Evaluation metrics

Below you will find the presentation slides, along with the workbook and budgeting spreadsheets.

Marketing Plans for Vacation Rental Managers from Amy Mutual

Marketing Plan Workbook for Vacation Rental Managers

2015 Marketing Budget

Determine your marketing budget

Barefoot’s Yarbrough questions Brent Bellm about HomeAway’s closed communication initiatives

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VRM Intel Staff

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November 7, 2014

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Claiborne Yarbrough from Barefoot Technologies sat down with HomeAway COO Brent Bellm at the VRMA Annual Conference in San Diego to discuss HomeAway’s closed loop communications policy and email policies.

Claiborne: There have been some rumors about the new email policy that HomeAway has enacted. First, can you tell me about the specific change to the policy?

Brent: In order to protect user privacy and reduce incidents of email phishing, we launched a secure messaging feature. This feature anonymizes the email addresses of in-coming inquiries and out-going responses, thereby preventing fraudsters from knowing the email identity of owners and managers.

Owners and property managers may still obtain the actual email address of inquirers by logging into their dashboard; those email addresses are only anonymized in the emails themselves. In addition, it checks for viruses and malware in attachments, and it redacts any email address present in the body of a message, to prevent users from accidentally exposing their email addresses in their signatures and templates.

It is critical to note that, while this feature handles many different business communication processes, it does not handle everyone’s special needs. For this reason, the secure messaging feature is not enabled for integrated property manager today and integrated property managers (including Barefoot customers) continue to receive and respond to inquiries as before, using their software with no email addresses anonymized.

Any property manager who uses our web-based management platform, rather than integrated software, but who requires a full email address to be present in the inquiry to power their CRM systems, may opt out of this program, with the acknowledgement that their communications are less secure. We are exploring ways to make this secure messaging feature compatible with more property manager communication models, and until we do, we will always provide the option to opt-out (by contacting HomeAway customer service).

Claiborne: What was the purpose of making this change?

Brent: Our primary objective was to combat email phishing, which this secure messaging feature accomplishes by preventing fraudsters from learning, and thereafter targeting, the email accounts of owners and property managers. Phishing attacks have grown significantly in our industry over the past two years, and property managers have been victimized every bit as much as owners. Some of the phishing attacks have resulted in significant traveler losses and negative news coverage, which ultimately hurts everyone: travelers (who lose money or shy away from the category), suppliers (who lose the trust of travelers and, therefore, business), and the HomeAway marketplace (which also loses reputational trust). We hope to eradicate phishing, and so far, this feature has made a major dent in it.

Our secondary objective with this secure messaging feature is to begin tracking and rewarding owner and property manager response behavior. Response scores were introduced to look at the speed and consistency of responding to traveler inquiries; it is the number one problem in our marketplace today, as rated by travelers. Both travelers and our internal data suggest that approximately 30% of inquiries don’t get a response at all, and when travelers experience this, their likelihood of leaving our site and the vacation rental market skyrockets. The negative impact is enormous on traveler likelihood to book, loyalty, and likelihood to recommend. Inquiry responses for customers who have the secure messaging feature go through a messaging system that allow us to measure, to the second, the elapsed time between inquiry and response (or lack thereof). For suppliers with this secure messaging feature, response time is being incorporated into their listing quality scores which help determine where properties appear in search results within their subscription level. We reward owners and property managers who respond to more than 80% of inquiries within 24 hours. Those who do not will find their listing quality scores reduced. As mentioned above, there are many property managers who cannot utilize this secure messaging feature. For them, we are developing alternate ways to measure or self-report how quickly and frequently they respond to inquiries. Until those methods are live, response scores will not be counted as a component of their listing quality scores, and therefore they will not be penalized for their inability to be measured.

Claiborne: How does this impact the vacation rental management company?

Brent: As mentioned above, some property managers are challenged to utilize this feature without changing their internal processes. We are working on solutions that make it compatible with the various property manager communication models, whether they use integrated software or HomeAway websites. Until we do, property managers should consider this feature optional. We strongly encourage using the secure messaging feature, as well as following our security best practices.

Claiborne: If you are working with a software company that has an integration to HomeAway for Professional, will the information about the prospect in those transactions be affected?

Brent: Integrated property managers, whether using HomeAway Software for Professionals or any other integrated partner software, will always have access to prospect information. Our goal is to keep this information away from the fraudsters, not from you or any of our trusted partners.

Claiborne: What are some other measures that HomeAway takes to provide security that add to your value proposition?

Brent: I could talk for days about this. On the risk-management side, we have an industry-leading fraud detection engine that scores listings and all actors accessing our site on a wide array of variables. We have dedicated models and processes that oversee the integrity of new listings, account changes, inquiries, and payments. We are actively testing two-factor authentication to secure supplier account access, and thereby eliminate (for the most part) fraudulent account takeovers.

When it comes to traveler protections, we offer a host of options that range from our basic rental guarantee (that covers all listings against fraud) to more comprehensive offerings covering customers who pay through HomeAway Payments (this includes credit card payments to integrated property managers) or who purchase the optional Carefree Rental Guarantee.

Ultimately we aspire for our marketplace to be the most trusted everywhere around the world, and earning that trust depends on a combination of fraud prevention, traveler protection, and third-party trust recognition.

VRHP Annual Conference Starts Monday

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VRM Intel Staff

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November 7, 2014

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The Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals has released the agenda for the 2014 National VRHP Conference in Charleston, SC, November 10-12. The conference is designed to help vacation rental managers take their housekeeping departments to the next level in 2015 and beyond.

Join other vacation rental professionals who are serious about providing superior housekeeping services for guests and owners.

2014 VRHP National Conference Agenda

Monday, November 10th

6:30 pm- 8:30 pm Opening reception

Tuesday, November 11th

7:45 am – 8:15 am: Breakfast

8:15 am – 10:30 am Welcome and Keynote Speaker – Steven Craig “12 Fundamentals”

10:30 am – 11:00 am Vendor Showcase

11:00 am – 12:00 pm Round Table Discussions with Vacation Rental Managers

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch/Vendor Showcase

1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Concurrent Sessions

Housekeeping Call Backs
Technology Plugins, Software and Apps for Housekeeping and Maintenance with Amy Hinote, VRM Intel

2:15 pm – 2:45 pm Vendor Showcase

2:45 pm – 3:30 pm Concurrent Sessions

Basic Maintenance: In-house vs. Subs, Best Practices, Maintenance Contracts with Laik LePera, Outer Banks Blue
Personnel Management: Interviews, Incentives, Training and More with Jackie Myers, Village Realty and Amy Helle, Hatteras Realty

3:30 pm- 4:15 pm Concurrent Sessions

Standard Procedures
Getting what you want from Property Owners

4:15 pm – 5:00 pm Certified Housekeeper and Inspector Certification Tests are $10.

6:30 pm – 8:30 pm Reception and Dinner

Wednesday, November 12th

8:30 am – 9:00 am Breakfast

9:00 am – 10:00 am Key Note Speaker—Chris McLean “Leadership”

10:00 am – 10:15 am Vendor Showcase

10:15 am – 11:00 am Concurrent Sessions

Creating Partnerships with Suppliers to Help Your Business
Customer Service Going Above and Beyond with Durk Johnson, Vacasa

11:15 am – 12:15 pm Round Table Discussions with Vacation Rental Managers

12:15 pm – 1:30 pm Lunch and Vendor Showcase

1:30 pm – 2:15 pm Concurrent Sessions

Revenue Enhancements and Money Saving Tips
Cross Training for Inspectors: Help make On-site Visits for Technicians More Efficient

2:15 pm- 2:45 pm Vendor Showcase

2:45 pm – 3:30 pm Supplies, Product Demos, Tips and Tricks of the Trade with Jill Hatfield, Bald Head Island Limited

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm Closing

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Certified Housekeeper and Inspector Certification Tests are $10.

By Amy Hinote

PM insight from HomeAway’s Third Quarter Earnings Call

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VRM Intel Staff

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November 5, 2014

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In HomeAway’s Q3 earnings call yesterday, CEO Brian Sharples made comments and answered questions that give some insight into HomeAway’s plans for 2015 and beyond. Here are some of Sharples’s comments which impact professional property managers.

Overview

“We’ve made it very clear recently that we are placing emphasizes on a multi-year marketing strategy that much of our efforts focused on driving demand and efficiencies that increased bookings and saved time for our owners and managers. We’re also equally committed to elevating the traveler experience on our sites.”

Driving Online Booking

“The most impactful change we can make to enhance traveler experience is to drive adoption of online booking. And so I want to make it very clear that we have set a goal and it is our intention to require the vast majority of our listings to be online bookable by the end of 2016.”

“What this means is that travelers will see an online booking button will listing, know the calendar and rates are correct and have the option to send a booking request and be confident that they will receive a prompt response. It’s important for you understand what this means for our owners and managers, first, the online booking system will accommodate both subscription and PPB as we believe this flexibility gives us the competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

“These changes over the next two years will require that owners and managers maintain their calendars publish rates that accurately reflect all fees and respond the booking request as quickly as possible and within 24-hours certainly to be competitive on our sites. All of these items are important elements of listing quality and in the shorter term will be faced into our sort algorithm which determines where listings appear with sort order.”

“…We have, if you look at our new online booking metric, taken online bookings from 5% 12 months ago was 5.4% of our customers to 32.6% one year later today. So our objective of getting that to a 100%, we are actually arguably on pace to do that. I think we’re going to bend the curve up, because of some policies decisions and other things we’re doing. But we’re giving the customers enough of heads up that I actually don’t believe, we’ll see a lot of churn and I think the other reason is that where they are customers going to go, I mean Trip now (TripAdvisor), Airbnb now the most is the competitors are online booking based. There really aren’t any major sites that deliver the kind of traffic we do that don’t have that kind of an experience.”

“Our owners have resisted online booking historically. And even two years ago, when we surveyed our owners, 90 plus percent said they had no interest in online booking. And that’s because, our owners make tons of money and they are doing it in a certain way and they are happy doing it that way. But I think traveler expectations are changing in part, because of competition.”

Responsiveness Scores Will Be Visible to Guests

“Starting in the fourth quarter, we will also make responsiveness scores visible to travelers and while we’re aware that there may be some owners and managers who initially are uncomfortable with these changes, lack of response outdated calendars and confusion over rates creates poor traveler experience and is not consistent with the experience that we want to deliver and that we believe we have to deliver going forward in the future.”

Integrated Pay per Booking Listings: Property Managers

“With the integrated property manager listings, that (conversion) has been a challenge, those are lower converting listings for whole bunch of reasons. Some of them have to do with the complexity integrations and the systems they have and the quality of data that we get. Some of them have to do with the fact that those listings are marketed in a lot of different places, some of them have to do with the fact that some of those listings aren’t as price competitive, as the ones that we have that come in through the platform. And that’s regardless of where they sit on the sites.”

“Now we are keeping those listings pretty low (in search rankings), because until we see a high conversion rates, we don’t want to replace our subscription listings with those listings. And so until that happens, once we get conversion up and some of things are working on, some of them are technology oriented, some of them are have to do with, specifically how they are marketed on the sites and then have to do with many of those IPMs. For example today, we haven’t reported over the reviews yet and once we get the reviews it should help with conversion. And so there will be a double whammy -Once we get to the place where the conversion is adequate for us, then we will be incented to move them higher and you will get a combination of both effects.”

Marketing to Millennials

“…We’re just looking at the next generation of travelers in the Millennials and people who grew up with technology. I mean, our kids grew up with cellphones in their hands and they are used to getting things done instantly online, not talking on the phone, not negotiating with people. And so, if you’re going to be a player in this business from an owner perspective or property manager, the word we’re putting out is you’re going to have to adapt over the next few years.

“We are thankfully in a position where we deliver so much revenue for our customers that I think we can now take a leadership role and say to them, we’re done trying to just convince you, we’re now going to say you’ve got to make this happen in the next couple of years.

“And we’re going to – we’ll develop tools and all these other of things to make it easy for you. But in the long run, our belief is that we will capture more business and get more travelers staying in vacation rentals versus hotels by creating that experience.”

Sticking with Subscriptions

“Now, competitively, there are still a number of differences that will exist as the market evolves. So, I think all the major competitors will have online bookable inventory.

“However, what will be different on HomeAway? Online bookable doesn’t mean we’ll get out of the subscription business. Our customers love subscriptions, they love it. The vast majority of customers don’t want to be paying commissions to somebody. So, we are going to keep to that as a differentiator in our business, no question about it.”

Competitive Advantage

“We are going to be free to travelers. TripAdvisor and Airbnb have chosen to charge big fees to travelers. Well, we’re going to have a pretty sizeable marketing budget in the next few years. And we’re going to be letting everybody know, when you come to our platform and you don’t pay a fee and we think that’s a big deal, because if you look historically at the travel industry, those competitors who adopted no traveler fees first are the ones that ended up being the big winners in that business.”

Pricing

“There is no doubt that we can charge higher prices, we have said that consistently. But there is a limit.

If you look at right now naturally, what’s happening in our subscription prices, I mean was up 12% year-on-year this quarter and that’s been – I mean it’s been virtually every year, been in the business it’s between 12% and 14%, compounded every single year.

So prices are going up pretty rapidly. I think they will continue to go up pretty rapidly.

Now, we have opportunities. Lot of people asks this, well, when are you going to do geographic pricing? We are not working on geographic pricing right now, that’s potentially a long-term opportunity. People ask us, well, when you’re going to raise the high-end, because the value of being a platinum subscriber in your site is really high. And the answer of that is, yep that’s a huge opportunity we have too. And we may do a little bit of that in 2015.

But as long as the pricing is going up naturally, that’s a level we can save, if we need that in the future. And we really like to be the company that continues to deliver good value. Because if we take the value away that we deliver then we’re just the same as everybody else. And so, that’s also why I say the subscription business is a huge competitive advantage for us, because once somebody is a high performing customer in one of these businesses they have a preference for that, because it’s a better value and that makes them very sticky customers for us. And I am not sure everybody quite appreciates how important that is.”

HomeAway sues San Francisco over Airbnb ordinance

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VRM Intel Staff

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November 3, 2014

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HomeAway, the nation’s largest vacation-home rental site, on Monday filed suit against San Francisco saying its new law to regulate short-term rentals in private homes unfairly benefits Airbnb at the expense of HomeAway and other rivals.

The suit says the law violates the U.S. Constitution by creating a burden on interstate commerce and asks the U.S. District Court for Northern California to throw out two key provisions of the measure before it takes effect on Feb. 1, 2015.

“It is shocking the Supervisors passed a law that, in our opinion, stifles opportunity in such a discriminatory manner,” Carl Shepherd, co-founder of HomeAway, said in a statement. “In its apparently single-minded goal to ‘legalize Airbnb,’ we claim the Supervisors ignored the benefits of responsibly regulating a well-established industry, and embraced an unconstitutional and unenforceable regulation.”

Judson True, legislative aide to Supervisor David Chiu who crafted the law, responded that HomeAway “facilitates some of the most egregious abuses” of housing laws such as the Ellis Act, a state law that allows landlords to stop renting out units. “This lawsuit is proof that our law will achieve its intended goal and stop the worst abusers,” True said.

Short-term rentals have long been illegal in San Francisco, but the city only loosely enforced that law As sites like Airbnb, with almost 5,000 listings in San Francisco, and HomeAway/VRBO, with 1,200, became popular, concerns grew that the lucrative vacation rentals were siphoning off permanent housing, and changing neighborhoods. Chiu spent two years drafting a law to legalize and rein in the rentals, which the supervisors passed 7-4 and Mayor Ed Lee signed last week.

The law has already engendered plenty of controversy with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein coming out against it, and a group with backing from housing activists and landlords planning a 2015 ballot measure seeking a more-stringent law. Political observers noted that the lawsuit was filed on the eve of a bitterly fought election battle between Chiu and fellow Supervisor David Campos for a seat in the state legislature.

The new law says only permanent residents of San Francisco can rent their homes to short-term travelers. But most of the 1,200 San Francisco listings on HomeAway and its subsidiary VRBO are second homes, whose owners don’t live here year-round. HomeAway wants the permanent resident requirement tossed.

“The permanent residency requirement is the key to trying to prevent the cannibalization of our housing stock” into vacation rentals, True said.

HomeAway’s Shepherd previously told The Chronicle that it is “naive” to think that vacation-home owners would turn those second residences into permanent housing if they were barred from renting them short-term, and that he thought the new law had been crafted expressly for Airbnb’s business model.

The law also says that vacation-rental platforms have to collect and remit San Francisco’s 14 percent hotel tax, something that Airbnb started doing in October, although it’s been mum about any plans to pay an estimated $25 million in back taxes. But HomeAway and VRBO function differently than Airbnb, acting as classified-listing services rather than middlemen, which means they don’t have the ability to collect the hotel tax — or even to know when homes were rented out via their sites.

True’s response to that: “It’s offensive that any short-term rental company wouldn’t want to make sure San Francisco gets the tax revenue it deserves.”

“Our goal is to work with the city to amend the law to one that balances the needs of the community with the rights of all people to rent their properties, regardless of who they are, where they choose to live and how they choose to market those properties,” says Shepherd. “We expected any ordinance in San Francisco would be thought-leading public policy, but instead it fails on all counts resulting from a desire to anoint winners and losers, not to create policies that are fair to all.”

Vacation Rental Road Trip! One year…all vacation rentals.

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 23, 2014

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By Amy Hinote, Editor and Founder, VRM Intel -Road trip! Starting November 1, I am taking VRM Intel on the road visiting professional vacation rental managers in the U.S., Europe and Canada.

Throughout the last two years, at VRM Intel we have been covering the latest news and events in the vacation rental management industry. The industry as a whole is rapidly changing and each destination faces its own unique challenges.

During the next year, we will be reporting from the road visiting with property managers and communicating unique intelligence along the way, including updates on standardization initiatives, government issues, competitive analysis and feature articles on property management companies.

We have also launched VRroadtrip.com, a consumer facing website documenting the road trip and promoting professionally managed vacation rentals. The website isn’t finished yet, but I would love your feedback.

On a personal note, I have been working in Chicago for the last few years and am packing up my home, loading up my car and my camera and hitting the road for the next 12 months, starting with Deep Creek, Maryland. To date, the itinerary looks a little like this:

Deep Creek, Maryland, November
Outer Banks, NC, November
North Myrtle Beach, November
Gulf Shores, AL, December
Destin, FL, January
Panama City, FL, January
Orlando, FL, February
Dublin, Ireland, February
Paris, France, March
Barcelona, Spain, March
Almafi Coast, Italy, April
Galveston, TX, May
Winter Park, CO, May
Keystone, CO, June
Snowmass, CO, June
Moab, UT, July
Park City, UT, July
Then up to Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Whistler, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and back to Chicago.

I hope you will take a look at the website, and follow this great vacation rental adventure. See you soon!

Feel free to contact me with any questions or suggestions on where to stay.

Q&A: LiveRez’s Tyler Hurst Running for VRMA Board Seat

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 23, 2014

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Tyler Hurst, Director of Sales and Marketing at LiveRez, is looking to serve on the VRMA Board of Directors. Hurst is running against Matt Golis, former CEO and co-chairman at Yapstone, for the supplier seat recently vacated by Lee Hughes, CEO at CSA Travel Insurance.

We reached out to Hurst to learn more about his motivation for wanting to serve on the board and his feelings about the association and where the industry is heading.

Question: What motivated you to want to serve as a VRMA Board member?

Hurst: My motivation is driven by my desire to help professional managers. The VRMA plays an important role in driving the direction of the industry, and I want to lend my perspective to that effort. Every day for the past six years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn the challenges faced by not only professional managers using LiveRez, but managers from all over that are looking for technology solutions. The VRMA has done a lot for the industry that I work in, and serving on the board is a way to give back.

Question: Do you feel like VRMA is currently moving in the right direction?

Hurst: To this point, I think the VRMA has served our industry very well. Right now, however, is a monumental time in the history of this industry. Having both a technology background and a good understanding of the needs of a wide variety of managers of different sizes and destinations, I feel like I can accurately represent the collective voice of these managers and help ensure that the VRMA continues to act in alignment with their best interests. Specifically, having someone with a background in technology will be extremely important as more and more of the industry moves online.

Question: Currently, the VRMA membership represents less than 5% of the total vacation rental management companies in the U.S. If elected, what do you believe can be done to increase the number of members?

Hurst: Moving forward, there’s an opportunity for the collective VRMA membership – both the vendors and the professional managers – to work together to leverage their own networks toward the goal of increasing VRMA membership.

Historically, LiveRez has played a big role in promoting the VRMA and helping drive membership, not only among the professionals that we partner with, but also the greater industry in general. As the Director of Sales and Marketing, I’ve helped spearhead many of those promotional efforts. And, if you look at the new VRMA members listed each quarter, a large percentage of them are LiveRez partners that have been exposed to those marketing efforts. That leads me to believe that our efforts are working.

If elected, I can bring the knowledge I’ve gained in those promotional efforts to the VRMA itself and hopefully work together with other vendors and professional managers to expand those efforts.

Question: Lately, Portland and San Francisco city councils chose to legalize short term rentals in primary homes, but restrict short term rentals in traditional vacation rentals? In addition, municipalities all over the country are facing challenges in regulating vacation rentals. What role do you believe the VRMA should play in government advocacy?

Hurst: The VRMA should be the collective voice of professional managers. And, right now the voice that is needed is one of education and awareness.

As an industry, we all know the important role that the vacation rental industry plays in local economies. And, we recognize that many of the issues that have driven the need for regulation spawn from a lack of best practices and originate primarily from homes that are not professional managed.

So, I see the VRMA’s efforts as a two-prong attack: Continue to promote best practices and highlight the professionalism of vacation rental managers, while also spreading the word about the positive impact that vacation rentals have on the economy. We need local officials to realize that they don’t have to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Question: This year the AH&LA initiated a campaign to demonstrate the lack of standards in vacation rentals. What do you believe the VRMA can do to build, ensure or encourage standardization in the industry? Or do you believe the industry should not be standardized?

Hurst: It’s important to note that vacation rentals are not hotels, and don’t want to be hotels. In many ways, we don’t want to take the same path as hotels have. If the hotel industry was truly superior to vacation rentals, they wouldn’t see vacation rentals as threats and wouldn’t initiate negative campaigns against the vacation rental industry (like the one in question).

However, there are a few things we can learn from hotels in terms of standardization. While our inventory will never be as standardized as hotels, the level of service and convenience we offer guests can be. This goes back to promoting best practices among professional vacation rental managers and encouraging the adoption of technology that benefits not only guests but also professional managers and the home owners they work with.

Question: What business experience and leadership skills do you currently have which you believe will improve the VRMA?

Hurst: I have more than six years of experience working directly with professional vacation rental managers, speaking with them on a daily basis to understand their needs and find solutions that make real impacts on their businesses. In the process of doing just that, I’ve helped LiveRez grow to become the industry leader in vacation rental software (and in just a short period of time).

I also have a background in politics. I’ve worked on a variety of political campaigns, both local and national. And, I currently serve as the chairman of Idaho’s Young Republication Association and on the executive committee of the Idaho Republican Party. Nobody wants to hear from a politician, but certainly they can appreciate someone that helps build consensus.

The sum of this experience is that I know how to grow businesses, form partnerships and work with a wide variety of people to accomplish goals. I hope to lend this experience to the VRMA Board and Membership.

The election is being held Tuesday at the 2014 VRMA Annual Conference in San Diego, CA.

By Amy Hinote, VRM Intel

Interview with Doug Macnaught, Former President and Co-Founder of Instant Software

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 23, 2014

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In 2010, Doug Macnaught and Dave Hopcroft, co-founders of Instant Software, sold their vacation rental software company -including the software platforms PropertyPlus, V12, First Resort and Entech – to HomeAway, Inc., days before the VRMA Annual Conference in San Antonio, causing an uproar in the vacation rental industry.

Now four years later, as we approach the 2014 Annual Conference in San Diego, we recently learned Doug Macnaught’s extensive four year non-compete agreement has come to an end. We wanted to know more about what Macnaught has been doing, how he views the last four years in the industry and what is next for his future.

Question: It has been four years since HomeAway purchased Instant Software. What have you been up to?

Macnaught: Not a tremendous amount “work wise.” After my year’s consultancy was up, I still had 3 years left on my non-compete agreement.

After some well needed rest, we traveled and spent time with friends and family. Heather & I had the opportunity to visit many parts of the country that I had been to and she had not – would you believe she had never been to the Carolinas (and I had been there more times than I could count)? It was great to visit theses places and see what they are like as a tourist.

I have played some golf and we have a couple of art businesses in Fort Lauderdale that have proved an interesting distraction.

Question: What motivated you and Dave Hopcroft to sell Instant Software when you did?

Macnaught: I learned many years ago not to speak for Dave!

Personally speaking, there were many things that led to the decision, not the least the existence of a willing and credible buyer! HomeAways’ offer was very compelling, and personally it provided financial security for my family that was very attractive. I was also looking forward to working with them to help provide a wide range of new benefits, stability and opportunities to our clients.

Another motivator was the VRMA Switch project: It was clear to me that the Switch would put Instant Software in an untenable position with its’ VRMA Member Customers. We would be expected to cooperate with something that was effectively being developed as competition to our own proven technology. I had no stomach for that fight as many of our clients were my friends and I just did not want to jeopardize the friendships. Although the project ultimately came to nothing, I still feel that the whole Switch Initiative was not the right thing for the association to undertake.

Question: Initially, you were going to stay on with HomeAway for some time. What happened to change that plan?

Macnaught: There were a number of things that just made that not viable, so I embarked on a 4 year early retirement.

Question: In assessing the evolution of HomeAway’s handling of Instant Software, how would you rate their software development progress?

Macnaught: That is a difficult one to answer. I have a lot of experience with taking over software companies and progress is never as fast as you would like. While I have no knowledge of their development plans, I am hopeful that the users will see significant progress in the months to come.

Question: Recently RealPage purchased both Bookt/Instamanager and Kigo. Instant Software had a history of purchasing multiple software solutions. What advice would you give to companies as they roll up multiple software platforms under one umbrella?

Macnaught: I think RealPage is slightly different than Instant Software. Although they are successful in the Long Term and Commercial space, they were not familiar with the Vacation Rental market, as such they did not have well known product to build on, and they were not well known by their newly acquired customers. Notwithstanding any of that and looking at the companies they have purchased, I would start by clearly identifying what made each one successful and build on it, change very little in the early stages. Customers are looking to see what the new owners are going to “take away” from them and it is important that this doesn’t happen.

They should provide investment, support, added value and a real sense of security while they determine the right migration path, assuming consolidation is the plan.

At Instant Software we recognized that there were places where consolidation was appropriate and those where it just was not viable. We provided a central internet product line built on ISILINK and a Common Support and Admin operation, however we maintained most of the PMS Systems, their development teams and client support right up to the day we sold.

Question: As you have had the chance to step back from the industry a bit, what changes to do you see taking place that affect property management software development?

Macnaught: I think the most important change is the natural evolution of the source of the reservation. The reservation process will be taken out of the hands of reservations staff and become a predominantly guest-driven technology from the web or mobile booking sites, these could be 3rd party sites or the actual clients own site. This will mandate that online booking engines are the driver rather than in-house reservation software. The PMS Software development will have to focus more on the back of the house and integration with various tools that make the Manager more efficient and drive alternate revenue.

Question: Along those lines, what software features do you see as becoming more necessary for property managers in 2015 and beyond?

Macnaught: Mobile & web-based functionality for owners and guests that really allow them to be in control of the relationship is an absolute requirement.

Internally – I think enhancements in Maintenance & Housekeeping are big areas, they can add value and profitability to a Managers business to replace costs for marketing that will undoubtedly increase. I think that delivering Mobile technology to staff in the field is a necessity.

Revenue Management or the much touted and badly delivered “Yield Management” have real potential in the 3rd party distribution space.

Finally 3rd party distribution is no longer a luxury. It is as necessary as having a check-in report. If property managers cannot reach beyond their own website then they will be left behind –and the software company must provide the tools to make sure that does not happen.

Question: We are seeing a lot of acquisition in the vacation rental industry (Wyndham, Vacasa, Resort, Vacation Rental Pros, et al.). Do you believe a national brand is viable in the vacation rental industry? What qualities would it take to be successful?

Macnaught: I think it is perfectly possible to have national brands but they must be cautious as they acquire companies, they should learn the ResortQuest lessons. Going back to my answer about software company acquisitions, the same is true – build on what made the local company successful and try not to assimilate them like the Borg.

Question: What do you believe will be the biggest challenges facing property management companies in the next 12-18 months?

Macnaught: I believe that there are two massive challenges:

1) As the industry garners wider visibility from the growth of companies like Airbnb & HomeAway, local regulators will start looking to impose more restrictions. This will need to be dealt with quickly and forcefully to ensure that managers and their businesses are not negatively impacted.

2) Getting your distribution right. With the announcement that Expedia are adding 100,000 rentals via their partnership with HomeAway; and presenting them as a specific segment it is essential that Professional Managers are in a position to take advantage of this, they simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of this development.

Question: What is next for Doug Macnaught?

Macnaught: This year I celebrated my 50th birthday and this month saw the end of my Non Compete Agreement with HomeAway. I am too young to stay retired, plus Heather is really keen to get me out of the house!

I do not believe that it is wise to try and replicate what we did before, but I love the industry and have a passion for making software meet a clients needs. I am working on something that I can’t yet announce so watch this space…. In the meantime I am available for consultancy to managers & technology companies to help them maximize their systems.

Doug Macnaught and his wife Heather will be attending the VRMA Annual Conference in San Diego, October 26-29.

By Amy Hinote, VRM Intel

Q&A: Yapstone CEO Matt Golis Running for VRMA Board Seat

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 23, 2014

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Former Yapstone CEO and current Co-Chairman Matt Golis is looking to serve on the VRMA Board of Directors. Golis is running against Tyler Hurst, Director of Sales at LiveRez, for the supplier seat recently vacated by Lee Hughes, CEO at CSA Travel Insurance.

We reached out to Golis to learn more about his motivation for wanting to serve on the board and his feelings about the association and where the industry is heading.

QUESTION: What motivated you to want to serve as a VRMA Board member?

Golis: After being an active member (including a VRMA sponsor) for the past 9 years and attending many VRMA meetings, I have always wanted to contribute my experiences in the industry for the betterment of VRMA. After being CEO of a fast-growing Internet payments company for the past 11+ years, I transitioned to Co-Chairman in May which is finally giving me the time to really make a difference within VRMA and several other boards. I have never run for a VRMA seat before because I simply was too busy – now I can help this organization grow and continue to prosper.

QUESTION: Do you feel like VRMA is currently moving in the right direction?

Golis: VRMA has made tremendous strides in the past year, as evidenced by increased membership and attendance at VRMA events. In addition, VRMA’s board has attracted fantastic talent to address both VRMA’s role in advocating for professionally-managed vacation rentals and anticipating threats and opportunities to the industry as a whole.

I think I can bring both technology expertise and a Silicon Valley perspective that can help VRMA keep moving in a positive direction.

QUESTION: Currently, the VRMA membership represents less than 5% of the total vacation rental management companies in the U.S. If elected, what do you believe can be done to increase the number of members?

Golis: I think there are several ways to increase membership among vacation rental managers:

1. Consider both new locations that have not hosted a VRMA event, as well as locations that are easier to access by plane and/or are a “destination” themselves. Each VRMA conference, I have been impressed with how many attendees are coming to their first event because of the proximity to them. For VRMA to grow its membership (and engagement at conferences), we need to diversify where the events are held and consider locations that maximize ease of travel and new member opportunity.

2. Offering more VRMA-certified training classes that can be taught as web-based training to work towards different levels of professional management certification for vacation rental companies. For property managers that cannot attend events, VRMA has a great opportunity to market web-based training and classes that can both increase membership and potentially provide a great revenue source to the organization. Since many vacation rental managers are in vacation destinations around the US, it is hard for many to travel to a VRMA event. Offering web-based training (with a strong Internet marketing campaign) would be the best way to connect with these property managers that represent the 95%+ that are not active VRMA members today.

3. Continuing to invest in advocacy for the industry, and establishing stronger ties with news sources that are covering many of the short-term rental debates that are affecting professional vacation rental managers. If VRMA makes this investment, the halo-effect from VRMA fighting for the best interests of vacation rental managers can lead to increased membership.

QUESTION: Lately, Portland and San Francisco city councils chose to legalize short term rentals in primary homes, but restrict short term rentals in traditional vacation rentals? In addition, municipalities all over the country are facing challenges in regulating vacation rentals. What role do you believe the VRMA should play in government advocacy?

Golis: VRMA needs to play a significant and active role in government advocacy because we can’t afford to allow large short-term rentals that operate like hotel sites define us and our industry. Many of these sites cater to an urban population (i.e. New York and San Francisco) and they are framing the debate around helping hosts generate supplemental income in a down economy. They view vacation rentals as a threat, and have the resources to frame the debate. VRMA needs to both partner and act on its own to define how vacation rentals both operate very differently from other short-term rentals and how the audience that vacation rentals cater to is fundamentally different than those companies trying to profit from urbanites renting out their apartment, home, or couch for a few nights.

QUESTION: This year the AH&LA initiated a campaign to demonstrate the lack of standards in vacation rentals. What do you believe the VRMA can do to build, ensure or encourage standardization in the industry? Or do you believe the industry should not be standardized?

Golis: I think the AH&LA knows how much both vacation rental and short-term rental sites are affecting their growth as an industry. I do think there are ways that the VRMA can encourage best practices that only helps the image of the industry, but I am not a fan of imposed regulation on the vacation rental industry. I think VRMA can demonstrate that it is both providing education to its base and training that can show the AH&LA (and hospitality industry at large) that professionally-managed vacation rentals care about maintaining a high standard of quality and service.

QUESTION: What business experience and leadership skills do you currently have which you believe will improve the VRMA?

Golis: Having served as a CEO of a company that has grown substantially, from a few to 250+ employees in the past 11 years, I have experience in both scaling teams and addressing the ever-changing needs of the industries we serve (like vacation rental managers). I would look forward to actively contributing my leadership and organizational experience, with a technology perspective that will consider new and better ways of helping VRMA thrive. I am fortunate to know many VRMA members over my past 9 years in this great industry, and want to continue to bring people together to anticipate how VRMA can expand and take on a greater role in making the industry pie even bigger.

The election is being held Tuesday at the 2014 VRMA Annual Conference in San Diego, CA.

By Amy Hinote, VRM Intel

NAVIS and HomeAway release reservation lead interface integrating HomeAway listing inquiries with the NAVIS Narrowcast sales and reservation solution

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 22, 2014

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Dwellable's Mobile App Study for Property Managers

NAVIS and HomeAway unveiled a reservation lead interface that integrates HomeAway listing inquiries with the NAVIS Narrowcast sales and reservation solution.

The interface allows NAVIS’ new Listing Lead Management system to capture more actionable leads, drive higher conversion rates and increase revenue for vacation rental (VR) operators. NAVIS is the leading reservation sales system provider for the vacation rental, resort, and hotel markets. The HomeAway family, with more than one million live vacation rental listings in 190 countries, is the world’s #1 source for vacation rentals. Click here to learn more about how the NAVIS Listing Lead Management system increases revenue for VR operators.

Lead Management solution is free of charge to NAVIS Narrowcast clients

“NAVIS worked with HomeAway to develop the most powerful booking and lead management tool for the vacation rental industry,” said Michelle Marquis, NCP, NAVIS’ vice president of marketing and strategic initiatives. “NAVIS Narrowcast clients can now manage and convert their HomeAway and VRBO.com listings at a much higher level with NAVIS’ VR lead management solutions. Best of all, the new Lead Management solution is free of charge for all NAVIS Narrowcast users. We invite everyone to come by our booth at VRMA14 and be first to see how the new NAVIS–HomeAway Lead Management solution can strengthen their operation.”

NAVIS seamlessly receives HomeAway listings in NAVIS’ Narrowcast reservation sales system. The HomeAway inquiry appears as a call on the Narrowcast dashboard screen with a summary of the listing’s information, and property of interest. The system also automatically routes the call to the most appropriate agent for handling. The NAVIS-HomeAway Listing Lead Management interface also lets clients track conversions and revenue attainment for optimized performance management.

The new NAVIS Listing Lead Management system:

Increases listing inquiry conversions with automatic lead data collection for more effective reservation handling and outbound re-marketing.
Allows automated responses through NAVIS Reach to new inquiries based on home or condo availability.
Enables fast follow up from Narrowcast directly to inquiries in one system.
Cleanses lead data; consolidates records by household, eliminates duplicates via NAVIS’ CRM.
Queues leads to the highest converter on your sales team – or uses other metric of your choice.
Shows listing details from the NAVIS Lead Form for informed inquiry management.
Provides campaign analysis; attributes the booking to all stages of that lead’s interactions.
Provides reporting summaries on bookings, conversion, outbound revenue, and more.

NAVIS Reach drives more effective retargeted lead marketing

“HomeAway and NAVIS want to help VR operators get the best value from being partners with each of us,” said Marquis. “Our powerful new Lead Marketing System enables operators to make the most from their investment with those leads.” Marquis noted that listing site leads convert at about 5%. The new NAVIS HomeAway interface captures data on the 95% of leads that typically do not convert and makes that data available to NAVIS’ Reach CRM marketing tool. The result is increased revenue for VR operators.

“Most VRBO or HomeAway leads sit in somebody’s email box. NAVIS Reach allows operators to segment and target those prospective guests into Household Personas and automatically market back to valuable leads. NAVIS Reach lets VRMs automatically retarget an email to somebody who showed interest this year or last but did not book. This takes lead retargeting to a more profitable level.

“The data are strong,” Marquis said. “Narrowcast revenue that comes from listings sites such as HomeAway and VRBO has grown from 6% just three years ago to 23%. NAVIS and HomeAway will continue to work together closely to help NAVIS Narrowcast and HomeAway clients manage their leads for more conversions that boost revenue now and in the future.”

More to consider than the multiple when selling your vacation rental company

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 21, 2014

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More to condsider than the muliple in your vacation rental amanagement company Exit Strategy

When you have an offer on the table for your vacation rental management company, the price tag jumps off the page. It is especially distracting if the price is higher than you had hoped. Your hard work has paid off, and you want to close the deal as quickly as possible.

However, the dollars signs can be misleading. There are many situations where the highest offer is not necessarily the best offer.

“There are numerous factors involved when determining which offer is best,” said Ben Edwards, President at Weatherby Consulting . “Typically, the time value of money, if financing is involved, deal structure and future tax liabilities consistently require the most review during this process.”

If you get distracted by the offer price, the power shifts to the buyer and you can potentially lose negotiating power as you struggle to defend the original offer price. Due diligence about the buyer and the offer is extremely important before accepting an offer.

Here are five considerations to add to your pre-acceptance checklist.

1. Do the net offer proceeds meet your financial exit goals?

At first, the offer price for your vacation rental management company can appear more than sufficient to meet your retirement goals. However, you will find it useful to determine what your net proceeds will be once expenses (accounting, taxes, debts, etc.) have been paid.

“The sales price and your retirement present two interesting discussion points, said Edwards. “The sales price is generally a function of earnings, while retirement needs represent a forecast of expenses needed to sustain your quality of life. Understanding the net amount of your sale on the front end will pay dividends subsequent to closing helping you to more accurately prepare for retirement.”

Note that the initial offer you receive is generally the highest possible price that you will receive from that buyer. During due diligence, the buyer will be looking for reasons to reduce the price. Build in enough room for adjustment and consider your net revenue when assessing the price.

2. Consider the structure of the transaction.

Your transaction’s structure can materially affect the amount of taxes you will have to pay, the cash you will realize at closing and the timing of your transition from the business. If you are looking to exit the company at the closing with enough cash to retire, you may not want to enter into an earnout transaction, which would pay you over time while requiring you to work under the new owner for a period.

“I receive this question often…Preferably, cash or cash equivalents at closing are the most prudent way to structure a closing settlement from a seller’s perspective,” said Edwards. “Financing is advisable in certain circumstance where a Class A buyer is participating in the transaction. Generally speaking, any portion of the purchase price paid out of future profits in not advisable or only under specific circumstances since the risk of the purchase price is contingent on future production. If the seller is susceptible to financing risk, he or she should keep the company and pass on the offer under most, if not all, scenarios.”

Transaction structures can be complex, but do not be intimidated. A transaction advisor with vacation rental industry experience can answer your questions so you are comfortable with the proposed structure before you select a buyer.

3. Understand the buyer’s valuation.

“Having a transaction advisor is key to helping facilitate the diligence and answer any questions relative to confirming the company’s value,” said Edwards.

In a vacation rental transaction, the buyer will be looking to confirm that the information you provided is accurate during the due diligence phase and will articulate concerns about your company’s performance that lead to reductions in the offer.

Take time to investigate the buyer’s valuation assumptions so that you can preempt any potential adjustments. Then, if you believe there will be substantial reductions in the price during due diligence, you might view this buyer’s offer very differently.

4. Assess the buyer’s ability to close the transaction.

You can avoid wasting your time in due diligence by determining whether or not the buyer is able to close on the sale. In today’s marketplace, financing for business purchases isn’t easily obtained.

Edwards added, “With the interest in the vacation rental market, financing requires tremendous diligence by the seller, as well as, strong guarantees from the prospective buyer.”

Here are two ways to secure your position:
If the buyer is financing, get a commitment letter from the lending institution
Investigate the buyer’s history of acquisition both inside and outside of the vacation rental industry.

5. Are you ready to let go?

Before you choose a buyer and move into due diligence, look inward. Are you truly prepared to give up your business? Can you visualize your life in its next phase?

“Knowing whether you want to sell is paramount before moving forward with the sale of the company,” said Edwards

It isn’t uncommon to see sellers jump at the highest offer, and later regret the decision.

In many cases, the highest offer doesn’t lead to the best outcome, and spending large amounts of time and energy in due diligence only to walk away with a defunct sale can be disappointing. By taking a closer look at the buyer’s assumptions, motivations and history, as well as an honest look at your own, will increase the likelihood of a successful transaction.

By Amy Hinote, VRM Intel

Amy Africa -Mobile-Schmobile: 6 Sure-Fire Tips on How You Can Improve Your Mobile Strategy Today!

By

VRM Intel Staff

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October 20, 2014

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Mobile Hospitality Marketing for Short Term Rentals

When I began my internet career, my first “legitimate” email address was a CompuServe number.

Back then, if you told someone you were doing work on the web (or the WWW as it was ever-so-fondly called), they’d often look at you quizzically, wondering whether or not you made a good porn star or how much money you had from trafficking whatever illegal things you were selling. Allegedly.

By Amy Africa, Mobile-Schmobile: 6 Sure-Fire Tips on How You Can Improve Your Mobile Strategy Today!

These days, I get thousands of emails about mobile with the same sort of questions as folks had then. People want to know what to do, what not to do, and a lot of times they just want to tell me the eleventy bazillion reasons why it doesn’t/won’t work for them. As if mobile marketing is a choice. Ha! I went through exactly the same battles when people told me the internet was like the CB radio. Ah-em Bill LaPierre.

But I digress…

Here are some of my best tips to improve YOUR mobile journey. (These come from the questions I am most commonly asked.)

1. Look at what kind of traffic you’re getting…

Separate your handheld traffic from your tablet traffic. Tablets and phones are NOT the same thing. The industry experts like to group them together because tablet conversion is 2-3x that of most traditional sites and eleventy bazillion times better than most smartphone conversion. Grouping all mobile traffic together masks phone conversion problems but they need to be separated.

Experts say “oh, you can’t do that because is a Nexus a phone or a tablet?” Look, it’s not rocket surgery. If you’re taking your primarily phone calls on it, it’s a phone. If you’re using it to play Candy Crush and watch Netflix, it’s a flipping tablet.

Why does it matter? Mostly because email traffic is typically “phone” traffic and if you learn how to separate it properly, you’ll also figure out how to design to it; what kind of landing pages you need; how you can best use your selling space (selling on a 2×4 is often more challenging than one might think); what things you need to ask for and what you don’t (for example, you don’t need to dedicate an entire screen to asking for the email address of someone coming from email), and so on.

Plus, phone traffic is ON A PHONE. I realize this is like stating “water is wet” but many marketers tend to forget that if the customer is ON THEIR PHONE and you have a call center it’s much easier – and usually far more lucrative – for the user to push a CLICK TO CALL button than it is to maneuver your shopping cart.

2. Work your transfer.

If you only listen to one tip that I have this is it – if someone puts something in their mobile cart, show it in their regular cart. You can use email and mobile numbers to help you do this.

3. Use spreaders.

I like to think of the whole sales process as feeding a rat to a snake – and you really want to know where the rat is stuck in the snake so you can squeeze him out the end.

When you know where your rat is stuck in your snake, use a spreader to get them to the next level. A spreader would be a pushpage, instigated chat, v-chat, sometimes even a text message. Whatever you need to do to smooth the gap.

4. Don’t get sucked up in the industry buzz.

Learn what’s best for you by trying it, tweaking it, and then perfecting it. Do more of the stuff that makes you money and less of the stuff that doesn’t. It’s that easy.

Test out triggered text messages. A lot of “experts” will tell you that folks hate them. Personally, I have to be willing to bear your child for you to get my phone numbers these days. Triggered text for a lot of companies? Life-changing. Granted, very few people use triggered text messages properly but they are still one of the best marketing things I’ve ever seen. In. My. Career.

Work your internal search. There are hundreds of articles stating mobile search is exactly the same as regular search. It’s not. Searches are often shorter and more specific (or way longer and completely incomprehensible) and people tend to make a lot more mistakes. Plus, mobile search is used more frequently and there is typically much more of a priority put to it. (Meaning that showing 1,232,832 finds on something isn’t going to be useful to anyone on a mobile device. In fact, chances are they’ll struggle with 20 and look at less than 5.)

Don’t get caught up in the tools, the programming languages or the platforms. Figure out what your users need. Look at what features they’re using (or what they’re not); which device(s) they are using; whether or not they are buying or browsing; etc. If 95% of your traffic is coming from YouTube, you’ll need something entirely different than a company where the majority of the traffic is coming from their email program.

I like responsive design and it’s not a silver bullet. You can’t just “go responsive” and have all the evils of the world go away. In fact, for some folks it makes things worse – not just because it can be slow and pricey – but because it can make marketers really lazy and what you do on your tablet isn’t the same as what you do on your desktop. Nor is it the same as what you do on your phone. (Hint: no matter what you do – you are going to need to REALLY work your navigation as if your life depended on it.)

5. Develop new contact strategies. (Chances are good that your mobile efforts are going to need different contact strategies than your traditional efforts.)

Because things happen much faster mobile-wise, your contact strategies should often happen much faster too.

With mobile, you’ll also have more contact methods in your arsenal and they’ll work differently.

So what does this mean?

It means that if you’re sending out an abandoned cart program – you’re going to want to mail it faster. You also may want to add more emails to your plan – so if you normally send out 3 emails, test 5 or 7. Try SMS as well. Abandoned cart text messages work really well. Remember, there’s a big chance that your mobile cart sucks – so don’t send them back to where they abandoned/struggled in the first place – try to get them on the phone or to your traditional site (if your cart is better.)

Store locator emails are another big thing. When someone goes to your site, and searches to find a store, there’s a pretty big chance that they want to go to that store today. On the page with the locator, collect their email address and send them a coupon. Collect their mobile number and send them a text. Do both. (If you don’t do offers, send them a “grocery list” of things they should look at – stuff you don’t want them to miss when they visit.)

6. Figure out the importance of your referring URL’s and market to your users accordingly.

So, here’s the thing…

In most cases…

If someone comes in from Facebook, they are not at all equivalent to someone who comes in direct/no referrer.

If someone comes in from a branded PPC search, they are typically lightyears ahead in terms of qualification than someone who came in from a Twitter link.

Social media can drive a ton of mobile traffic but if you’re like most folks, very little of it will immediately convert to a sale. Customer service nightmares? Yes. Sales? Don’t count on it to pay your bills. (Hint: If you have to put all your eggs in one basket, put them in your direct/branded keyword strategy. That’s where you will make the most money. Period.)

What are YOUR best tips for mobile marketing? Send ‘em to info@amyafrica.com. I’ll publish the best ones in a future post.

By Amy Africa, Mobile-Schmobile: 6 Sure-Fire Tips on How You Can Improve Your Mobile Strategy Today!

Winter Park, CO Vacation Rental Experience

By

VRM Intel Staff

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October 18, 2014

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March 2014 –March at Winter Park Resort was truly a Winter Wonderland! I stayed with Winter Park Lodging Company, easily one of the most fun, tight-knit teams in the vacation rental industry. Their hospitality was off-the-chart! And that is from a southern girl! (read more about them)

The resort has everything you need and is so much fun! But I have to say my favorite part of this trip was snowmobiling with Grand Adventures! I was a little scared at first but caught on after a bit, and I think this could be a new hobby for me!

My condo at the resort was perfect and it was nice to have all of the resort amenities. The ski culture is still intimidating to me, but this resort makes it less so. The condo had a fireplace and opened out to the huge hot tub, grilling area with the big outdoor fireplace and was about a 3 minute walk to all of the restaurants in the resort.

In town, the food was surprisingly good, and the bars are super fun.

But I have to say, my favorite was the Smokehouse BBQ. Between the B.B. King poster and Auburn signs (War Eagle!), I was right at home, but the barbecue was outstanding. I’m still craving it.

This is an easy place to go if you’re single. Driving is not necessary. people are super nice, there are many areas to read and write, and even the snowmobiling was single-friendly!

I will most definitely be back!

Pics below.

Northern Michigan Vacation Rental Experience

By

VRM Intel Staff

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October 18, 2014

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Northern Michigan Vacation Rental Private Lake View Sunsets

August 2014 –Chicago was getting pretty stifling in the late part of the summer, so I needed to get out of the city and see some stars! That’s what I told Alan Hammond, owner of Holiday Vacation Rentals in Northern Michigan.

He delivered! I grabbed a couple of my friends and drove to Harbor Springs, Michigan to get some peaceful, siren-less R&R on Lake Michigan. We stocked up the cooler with meat and veggies for grilling out and wine for drinking, and stayed at Eagle View, a huge 3 BR private home rental on the lake.

Located along the Tunnel of Trees, this house was so quiet and serene…and clean! This was one of the cleanest vacation rentals for a house its size I’ve stayed in. The kitchen had absolutely everything we needed, including grilling utensils.

We had tons of plans to get out and do all kinds of things in the area, but we loved the house and the private beach so much that we stayed in and read, cooked out, sat by the fire, had wine and cheese, laughed, talked and watched shooting stars.

It was a huge contrast to our daily lives in Chicago, and it was so needed!

We also got a chance to go to dinner with Alan Hammond and his truly beautiful inside-and-out wife Kathie. We went to Legs Inn, a Polish restaurant on the Tunnel of Trees, and only two miles from our house. There was a deli/country store on the way that we later used to to grab fresh bread, cheese wine, and a couple of t-shirts.

I highly recommend Legs Inn for dining. We sat on the Lakefront porch –they have a beautiful garden there–and had smoked whitefish, fried Pierogi, Kabanosy (Polish Sausage), Bigos (Hunter’s Stew), Golabki (Cabbage Roll), and grouper…and of course, wine!

Harbor Springs is one of the cutest upscale towns I’ve seen. Very American with a walking vibe. Cute shops and coffee shops. I recommend the Stained Cup Coffee, which has fast wifi. Get the Torte Rustica (sausage spinach, roasted peppers and cheddar cheese on crustini crust topped with whipped eggs and more cheddar and mozzarella).

I will definitely be back and stay at this house again…without a doubt!!

By Amy Hinote

Vacation Rental Pros Facebook Photo Contest Rules

By

VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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“Pets on Vacation” PHOTO CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS CONTEST. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

1. Sponsor: The “Pets on Vacation” Photo CONTEST (the “Contest“) is sponsored by Vacation Rental Pros and VRM Intel (hereafter “Sponsor“) with offices located at 1567 Ridge Avenue, Suite 707, Evanston, IL 60201.

2. Eligibility: These are the Official Rules (the “Official Rules“) for the Contest. The Contest is open only to persons who are legal residents of and are currently located in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia (excluding Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands), who are at least eighteen (18) years of age on or before November 15, 2014. Any individuals (including but not limited to employees, officers, directors, consultants, independent contractors, and interns), who have, within the past six (6) months, performed services for the Sponsor (hereafter the “Administrator“), their parent, subsidiary, or affiliated entities, or agents acting on behalf of the above entities, including but not limited to all other promotional partners, or any organizations responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the Contest or supplying the prize(s), and/or their respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees and distributors, and immediate family and household members of such individuals, are not eligible to enter, play or receive a prize. “Immediate family members” shall mean parents, step-parents, children, step-children, siblings, step-siblings, or spouses. “Household members” shall mean people who share the same residence at least three (3) months a year. Eligibility is subject to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

3. Entry Period: Consumers may enter the Contest between October 15 at 12:00 am Eastern Time (“ET”) and Novemeber 14 at 11:59 pm ET (the “Entry Period“).

4. How to Enter: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You may enter the Contest during the Entry Period as follows:

Enter via Facebook (WooBox): Visit http://woobox.com/

Limit one (1) entry per person/email address. If an entrant submits multiple entries, all subsequent entries (other than the initial entry) will be automatically disqualified. All entries are subject to verification by the Administrator. Entries must be uploaded in compliance with the Contest requirements. Entry entries that do not meet the specifications or otherwise do not comply with the Official Rules herein may be automatically disqualified. Incomplete, illegible or mutilated entries will be automatically disqualified. No responsibility is assumed for lost, late, misdirected, damaged, altered or illegible entries. Any attempted form of entry other than as described herein is void. Administrator and or Sponsor will determine in its sole discretion what constitutes a valid entry. All materials submitted become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned or acknowledged. In the event of a dispute about the identity of an entrant, entries will be declared made by the Authorized Account Holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry (if eligible). “Authorized Account Holder” is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address.

The potential winner may be required to provide Sponsor with proof that the potential winner is the Authorized Account Holder of the e-mail address associated with the winning entry. Entries must be submitted from a valid e-mail account, which may be identified by reverse domain name search.

5. Entry Requirements: Your Entry must meet the following criteria:

Specific To “Pets on Vaction” Competition

Photo entries only.
Photos must be submitted as per the instructions on the contest submission.
Entry indicates an agreement and understanding of the following:
- If chosen as the prize winner, every effort will be made to fulfill the prize no later than December 15th 2015.In the event the grand prize cannot be fulfilled as advertised, VRM Intel will provide an alternate equipment prize of the grand prize winner’s choice with a retail value of up to USD$100.

General Competition Requirements

Must be your own original work.
Cannot have been submitted in any other prize promotion or featured on a public website.
May only contain content, for which you have, or have the power to grant, all required consents and approvals.
Must comply with all Terms of Use of Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms). LINK
Cannot contain, as determined by Sponsor, content that is sexually explicit, violent, derogatory of any ethnic, racial, gender, religious, professional or age group, which violates any law, or which communicates a messages inconsistent with the positive good will to which we wish to associate.

Submissions must not: (a) violate any third party rights, including, but not limited to, copyrights, trademark rights, or rights of privacy and publicity; (b) contain defamatory statements; (c) include threats to any person, place, business, or group; or (d) be obscene or indecent. Any elements that appear in the submission, including, without limitation, images, text, or other materials used must be entirely original and created by the entrant, or be in the public domain. Use of any elements that are not original or in the public domain will result in disqualification of a submission, in the Sponsor’s sole discretion. If a submission depicts any third party, that third party must be of the age of majority in his/her jurisdiction of residence and you must have permission from that third party to grant the rights to the Sponsor described in the “Sponsor’s Rights to Entries” section below. By submitting an entry, you represent that (a) you are the creator of the submission, (b) you own all rights to the submission, (c) the submission does not infringe upon or violate the intellectual property, privacy, or other rights of any third party, (d) the submission has not previously been entered in any other contest, and (e) the submission has not been previously published in any medium.

The Administrator will not make available to the general public or to the Judges any entry that is obscene, pornographic, violent, offensive in any manner, or in any other way not suitable to be published (as determined solely by the Administrator). Entrants agree that the inability to publish an entry, or the obscenity, fraudulent nature or invalidity of the registration information (as determined by Sponsor or the Administrator, at their sole discretion) will render the corresponding entry void.

Associations for Vacation Rental Managers

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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OPMA: The OPMA is a professional advocacy organization that is dedicated to promoting the value of the rental experience through onsite property management companies. As an industry advocate, OPMA seeks to gain legislative influence on behalf of it’s members and the greater industry, define a common set of core values and unite its members under a common vision and banner. Read about OPMA’s latest initiative.

VRHP: The Vacation Rental House keeping Association is the right place for vacation rental managers who are looking to improve their housekeeping and maintenance departments and network with like-minded property managers, This year’s VRHP Conference is being help Nov 10-12 in Charleston. Take a look at the agenda and get more information on how to register.

Consulting and Transaction Advisory Services in the Vacation Rental Industry

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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Weatherby Consulting provides transaction advisory, consulting and asset management services with proven success in creating opportunities and solutions in the vacation rental industry. They deliver high-impact results, provide partner-level attention and implement tailored solutions to address each of their client’s unique goals and objectives. CEO Ben Edwards will be presenting a bootcamp workshop at the 2014 VRMA Annual Conference entitled Budgeting and Financial Management. Read more about the workshop.

Keyless Locks and Smart Home Technology for Vacation Rentals

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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Kaba: Kaba’s Oracode keyless door locks allow for the remote management of access to vacation rental properties, through an easy-to-use and secure web-based solution. Oracode’s unique web based, keyless system uses an electronic push-button lock that grants access through time-sensitive codes. Since codes can be given days, months or years in advance there is no need to store or distribute keys or keycards to guests, staff or vendors. At the 2014 VRMA Conference, they will be promoting their new partnership with BeHome247. Read more about Kaba and their integration.

PointCentral: Smart Home Control for Vacation Rental Management –PointCentral property automation is a cellular, Smart Home solution that can be accessed from any web-enabled device. With no upfront capital investment, vacation rental managers gain superior control of their entire inventory of homes – Keyless Access Control, Energy Management, Site Monitoring, and Improved Client Satisfaction. Smart home control is revolutionizing vacation rental management. But don’t just take our word for it. VRMs are leveraging the power of smart home control every day. Check out these video testimonials.

Floor Plans for Vacation Rentals

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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TruPlace Interactive Floor Plans: TruPlace combines professional photography with accurate floor plans and insta-load technology to give guests an online tour through your homes. Their interactive floor plans are proven to increase revenue, bookings and lead time, and they recently partnered with FlipKey to offer floor plans and improve conversion rates on listing pages. Read more about TruPlace’s partnership with FlipKey.

Credit Card Processing for Vacation Rental Managers

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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Ascent Processing: Payment processing with a personal touch Ascent Processing is a small, progressive, client-centric electronic payment and gateway service provider. They are committed to excellence and have a high standard of ethics in our tight-knit vacation rental industry. “We are proud to be a Bronze VRMA sponsor. Stop by our booth and learn about the payment processing programs available to our industry. The incentives can save quite a bit of money on credit card processing fees,” said Regina Ebert

Travel Insurance Companies for Vacation Rentals

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VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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Red Sky Travel Insurance: –The travel insurance team you can count on. Red Sky’s ownership and management team have been in the vacation rental industry for decades, so they know from experience the challenges you face. Their commitment to personal attention is more than a strategy – it’s a core belief that’s rooted in their experience on your side of the rental counter.

Rental Guardian makes it simple for those in the travel/tech, property management and online travel markets to offer travel and damage protection products to their guests, travelers and tenants. Rental Guardian will be announcing two new exciting product launches, as well as a major enhancement to the Policy Manager feature set. Visit the Rental Guardian booth for more info.

Property Management Software in the Vacation Rental Industry

By

VRM Intel Staff

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October 15, 2014

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HomeAway Software: You know them as the provider of Escapia, V12, PropertyPlus, First Resort and Entech, but HomeAway Software is now doing much more. At this VRMA conference, HomeAway is highlighing the new technology in gladRESPONDER –Read more about gladRESPONDER.

LiveRez: Having partnered with 800+ property management companies in just the past six years, LiveRez is the fastest growing and most-used cloud-based software for professional vacation rental managers. From Google Glass to iVacationRental to smart home integration, LiveRez has several new features and products being released at VRMA 2014. Read more about LiveRez’s new offerings.

Maxxton: Maxxton goes beyond VR software. It is a complete ERP management system that gets your vacation rental business online and offers superior property management. Last year, Maxxton exhibited at the 2013 VRMA Annual Conference in Nashville,TN where we announced our global expansion to the U.S. vacation rental market,” said Chris Connar, VP of Sales and Marketing. “This year, we are pleased to attend the 2014 VRMA Annual Conference in San Diego,CA alongside new partners sharing several mutual U.S. based clients

Streamline: Better Software | Better Pricing | Better Service
Streamline is a one of kind solution built by property managers for property managers to help companies maximize profits and efficiency. Partner with Streamline vacation rental software and you will never have to switch systems again. Proud corporate Silver Sponsor of the VRMA. Find out more about Streamline’s vacation rental software.

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1. Do the net offer proceeds meet your financial exit goals?

2. Consider the structure of the transaction.

3. Understand the buyer’s valuation.

4. Assess the buyer’s ability to close the transaction.

5. Are you ready to let go?

1. Look at what kind of traffic you’re getting…

2. Work your transfer.

3. Use spreaders.

4. Don’t get sucked up in the industry buzz.

5. Develop new contact strategies. (Chances are good that your mobile efforts are going to need different contact strategies than your traditional efforts.)

6. Figure out the importance of your referring URL’s and market to your users accordingly.

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