Note: HomeAway, Airbnb and Flipkey recently joined Travel Tech and put the Short Term Rental Advocacy Center under the Travel Tech umbrella. The following article is relevant to the vacation rental industry as the DOT makes a precedent-setting decision on ancillary fess in online transactions.

Washington, D.C. – The Travel Technology Association, the trade association for innovators in travel distribution, joined a group of consumer and industry stakeholders today in leading a press briefing on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on airline passenger protection and ancillary fees. The coalition of travel stakeholders, including consumer, travel agent, corporate and managed travel, and online travel distribution groups were all aligned in urging the DOT to act swiftly to require airlines to make ancillary fees transactable wherever consumers purchase airfare.

LISTEN TO THE BRIEFING HERE

Excerpts from today’s call

“In a very literal sense our members make up the travel marketplace – we make travel happen. Not only helping millions around the globe search, compare, and book travel options, but as we see with our GDSs members actually serving as the backbone of travel — powering direct distribution for many of the airlines, providing the IT infrastructure for hotel partners, and offering the technology and data that allows OTAs and brick and mortar travel agents to do their work.”

“The ideas we’re discussing today, of transparency and transactability, are in the very DNA of Travel Tech.”

“With more than 50% of the airfares sold in the United States going through travel intermediaries, consumers rely heavily on our members to provide them with the ability to comparison-shop the ever expanding array of travel options.”

“Consumers have the fundamental right to know the upfront cost of their entire trip, and not be surprised at the airport with extra fees from the airlines. In the final analysis, we think it’s imperative and frankly way overdue that DOT takes action in this regard. It’s time for the DOT to require airlines to make ancillary services available to consumers when they purchase a ticket.”

“It’s imperative and frankly way overdue that the DOT takes action in this regard. It’s time. It’s time for the DOT to require airlines to make ancillary services available to consumers when they purchase a ticket.”

– Philip J. Minardi, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Travel Tech

Portland-based Vacasa landed in the No. 9 spot in the U.S., in the coveted 2014 Inc. Magazine 10 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.

These companies from the 2014 Inc. 5000 competed against one another in what Inc. says is the annual list’s most competitive year yet. The list only looks at American businesses, and to make the top 500 companies had to meet the minimum of 918.59% in three-year revenue growth.

Vacasa was founded in 2009 and currently has a network of over 1,100 properties and 264 employees in the Western U.S. According to Inc., Vacasa has a growth rate of 16,192% and annual revenue of $23.9 million.

CEO Eric Breon and COO Cliff Johnson co-founded Vacasa in 2009 to connect vacationers with homeowners who want to rent out their homes. And rather than rely on homeowners to set their own prices, the company lets its systems do the work. “Our software also runs a rate optimization system. We vary the rates up to four times a day for our homes; we treat the homes more like a commodity,” Johnson says.

In an interview with the Portland Business Journal, CEO Eric Breon said, “We manage vacation homes, and prior to the financial downturn, people were buying vacation homes as an investment, without plans to rent them. When the downturn hit, prices fell 40 percent. Combined with property taxes, maintenance, and more, homeowners were much more eager to explore renting their second home.”

“This timing helped us quickly become one of the largest vacation rental companies in the country, and we now have owners earning over $100,000 annually by renting their home for periods it previously sat empty.”

Vacasa was founded in Portland in 2009, and its North Portland headquarters is home to 42 employees. The company has been working to bring legal vacation rentals to the city of Portland itself. Portland City Council’s decision last month to legalize short-term rentals in a primary residence, subject to certain conditions, should help its business in its home city. The city will tax such rentals and the resident will require a permit and will have to meet safety standards.

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 26, 2014 –HomeAway, Inc. announced an investment in HotSpot Tax, Inc., the only automated, web-based tax filing solution for state and local short-term rental taxes in the world. The investment reinforces HomeAway’s commitment to helping owners successfully rent and operate their properties and enables HotSpot to expand upon its existing standalone tax compliance product to offer an integrated solution across many short-term rental platforms. Ultimately, both support the mission of making it simple and easy for short-term rental owners to comply with the laws within their local municipalities.

“Tax compliance is an important issue in our growing industry, and we believe most municipalities see it as the emblem of a level playing field among local lodging providers. Generally, if people are not compliant, it’s because it’s not easy to figure out and comply with local requirements, not because they’re avoiding taxes,” says Carl Shepherd, HomeAway® co-founder and chief strategy officer. “HotSpot makes it easy for owners to know they have properly remitted these highly specific taxes, which in turn increases local compliance and helps municipalities benefit from the vacation rental industry.”

Co-founded in 2002 in Denver by Rob and Kim Stephens, HotSpot offers a comprehensive tax compliance solution that manages all tax and license requirements for vacation rental owners and managers. HotSpot maintains an extensive database of tax rates throughout thousands of locations across 43 states. To date, HotSpot has filed 350,000 sales & occupancy tax returns and paid $80 million in taxes to state and local agencies. HotSpot charges its customers an average of $10 to $12 per month.

“We’ve been HomeAway’s exclusive tax compliance partner for many years,” says Rob Stephens, HotSpot co-founder and CEO. “HomeAway makes it easy for individual owners and property managers to rent their home to travelers and offset the cost of ownership. Our mission is to provide a simple solution to the complex and burdensome tax compliance issues faced by owners and managers, to help them operate their rental business legally. Complexity is the enemy, and both businesses help solve for that.”

The terms of the investment have not been disclosed.

(Clearwater Beach, FL) – Teeming Vacation Rentals just celebrated its first year in business and already has more than 100 properties under management in the St. Pete/Clearwater area and has recently expanded to Panama City Beach and St. Augustine/Flagler Beaches.

To date, they have had over $2.6 million in bookings, over 40,000 guest inquiries, and have just signed a two-year deal leasing 22 units at The Palm at Treasure Island to Global Connections, a travel club supplier.

“We switched to St.PeteClearwaterVacationRentals.com and as a result have seen a significant investment return on our unit,” commented Peter O’Flynn, an owner and client of TeemingVR. “As overseas owners, we were keen to have an agent that would look after our unit in a way that would offer a complete service with as little hassle as possible. TeemingVR took us under their wing, refurbished our unit in record time, and brought in, even in low season, an impressive number of new clients. Their website offers constantly updated and a fully transparent view of bookings and cash flow from renters, and they set us up quickly on sites such as VRBO, etc. Nothing seems to be too much trouble for Jeff and his courtesy and efficiency is outstanding. Our bottom line reflects their efforts.”

Jeff and Gina Paglialonga founded TeemingVR as condo owners and avid travelers themselves. TeemingVR’s motto as vacation rental managers is “By Owners for Owners.”

They knew first hand that there needed to be a better way to increase rental revenue, while also providing great service to owners and guests. Jeff’s background as the top salesman for one of the largest publicly traded insurance companies, combined with his experience having launched real estate and renovation companies and numerous marketing efforts, all came together in one package in the founding of TeemingVR.

The average annual number of inquiries for most online ads is around 350. Being a part of the TeemingVR network has given individual owners the exposure of over 40,000 inquiries since their start. The company’s approach to managing vacation properties was to drive more revenue to owners by tapping into the collective advertising power of their network and gaining a market-busting visibility that would attract an astronomical amount of potential guests.

The 5 Property Approach they implemented consists of Property Care, Account Services, Availability, Technology and Marketing.

Statistics show that guests are 22 times more likely to book if they get a response within 5 minutes of when they inquire. TeemingVR utilizes an automated response system to help achieve that aggressive response time. They also offer 24-hour online booking and owner access, advice in updates to your property, turnkey services and capitalizing on the massive exposure of their network marketing which includes all leads from major sites such as VRBO, FlipKey, HomeAway, etc. and their customized software.

“It has been so encouraging as we continue to hear from owners that we have brought something to the rental market which had been greatly needed,” commented Gina Paglialonga. “Often, we found that traditional vacation rental companies had not grown and changed as the market had developed. Our difference is that we understand today’s renters, how to reach them, and how to keep them happy from our initial contact with them until the time they return the keys. Having been owners of multiple condos ourselves, we understand things that concern property owners and operate from that perspective. We also know how busy owners are with their own day-to-day lives, and therefore our goal has always been to make renting their property as worry free as possible while maximizing rental income. Most property owners are not wanting their 2^nd home to become a 2^nd job!”