• News
    • VRM Intel News
    • Latest News
    • Sponsor News
  • COVID-19
  • Marketing
  • Tech
  • OTAs
  • Customer Service
  • Regulations
  • Business
  • Housekeeping
  • Subscribe
  • More
    • Calendar of Events
    • VRM Intel Live!
    • Reports Login
    • VRM Intel Magazine
    • Advertise
    • Authors
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
VRM Intel
  • News
    • Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Pregame Prep Campaign
      Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Hosts Super Bowl Preparedness Campaign for Vacation Rental Operators
    • vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel
      Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing
    • Woman dropping off a ballot
      2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    • VRM Intel News
    • Latest News
    • Sponsor News
  • COVID-19
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • 2022 Vacation Rental acquisitions from AvantStay, VTrips, Vacasa, Meredith, and more
      Who Sold? Here’s What We Know: 2022 Vacation Rental Management Acquisitions
    • 2021/2022 Ski Destinations Showing Big Performance Gains in ADR and RevPAR for Vacation Homes and Condos
    • “It’s like a short-term rental regulation pandemic.” 2022 Spring Vacation Rental Regulatory Trends + Fall Outlook
    • HR 2022: Attracting Today’s New Workforce after the Resignation Tsunami and the Great Renegotiation
  • Marketing
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    • board meeting in presentation room
      Tourism Boards and DMOs Offer Seat at the Table for Vacation Rentals
    • Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
    • All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle
  • Tech
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
    • All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle
    • PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners
    • Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting
  • OTAs
    • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    • Blue Star Acquires Majority Stake in TravelNet Solutions
    • Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management Conference, DARM 2022, Nashville
      Sessions Details for Upcoming Vacation Rental Data and Revenue Management (DARM) Conference: Livestream/Video Tickets Available
    • Vacasa (VCSA) Stock Falls as Lock-up Period Expires
    • 4 Ways to Stand Out in a Crowded Market: Get Your Brand & Listings in Front of Potential Guests
  • Customer Service
    • Why Not A Hotel? A Guest and Homeowner’s Perspective: There’s No Place Like Home … Or Is There?
    • Leading Proptech Company Guesty Appoints David Aber as CFO
    • Meredith Hospitality Brands Inc. Expands to Mt Hood with Acquisition of Mt Hood Vacation Rentals
    • View of Waikiki from Diamond Head Park, Honolulu, Hawaii
      Honolulu City Council Bans Stays Under 90 Days Across Oahu
    • Are you a Visionary without an Integrator at Your Vacation Rental Management Company?
  • Regulations
    • vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel
      Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing
    • Woman dropping off a ballot
      2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures
    • voters at a polling center voting
      Dozens of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures Heading to Voters this November
    • board meeting in presentation room
      Tourism Boards and DMOs Offer Seat at the Table for Vacation Rentals
    • Arizona state flag outside the legislature buildings at the state capitol
      Arizona Legislature Passes Measure to Restore Some Power to Cities
  • Business
    • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    • Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More
    • All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle
    • PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners
    • Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting
  • Housekeeping
    • Why Not A Hotel? A Guest and Homeowner’s Perspective: There’s No Place Like Home … Or Is There?
    • Analysis: “Reinventing” Vacation Rental Management by Alex Nigg
    • HR 2022: Attracting Today’s New Workforce after the Resignation Tsunami and the Great Renegotiation
    • Safety First: Evaluating and Addressing Safety Risks at Your Vacation Rentals
    • The Importance of the Guest Experience within Vacation Rental Operations: From the Back of the House to the Front
  • Subscribe
  • More
    • Calendar of Events
    • VRM Intel Live!
    • Reports Login
    • VRM Intel Magazine
    • Advertise
    • Authors
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • RSS

Technology and Marketing

Secure More Direct Bookings through Personalized Sales and Marketing

Secure More Direct Bookings through Personalized Sales and Marketing
mm
Doug Kennedy
December 3, 2020

As most of my readers and clients in the vacation rental (VR) niche of lodging know, I have also been providing training in the hotel and resort space for even longer. In the late 1990s, my company, known at the time as HSA International, trained hotels on how to use this then-new concept we called “cybermarketing.”

Back then, Expedia was still owned by Microsoft, and Travelocity had just partnered with AOL. With the internet still in the dial-up era and computers chained to a phone cord, cybermarketing represented a “fenced” distribution channel that had yet to be discovered by mainstream travelers. After 9/11, the hotels we trained discovered that OTAs were a wonderful tool to sell distressed inventory, and deal-seeking guests soon spread the word. By the mid-2010s, hotel brands realized they had become overreliant and launched “book direct with the brand” campaigns, but it was already too late. Guest loyalties were rapidly shifting to the OTA brands vs. the hotel flag flying out front. The brands essentially conceded and simply proceeded to negotiate lower commission structures, which is perhaps the single most important benefit of being part of a hotel brand these days.

In 2014, I was asked to return as a guest speaker to the VRMA conferences, in which I had been a speaker every year from 1996 to 2009, and I was shocked to see how far the OTA concept had already penetrated into the VR space. Part of me wanted so badly to grab a microphone and warn the industry of the perils of overreliance on OTAs; unless they were used correctly, OTAs would siphon away top-line profits. Yet the owners of some of the fastest-growing VR companies were singing the praises of this model.

So here we are in 2020, and an ever-increasing number of VR management companies are waking up and realizing that OTAs may represent the proverbial “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Now, I’m not saying that OTAs are the enemy, nor that VRMs should immediately pull all inventory. When managed correctly, OTAs are and will continue to be an integral part of a comprehensive marketing and distribution plan.

OTAs are especially important, perhaps irreplaceable, for certain classifications of VR companies, such as those whose inventory consists mostly of condos, those who host shorter stays, and those in markets wherein guests return infrequently. For example, most visitors to Central Florida’s theme parks might return every five years and are therefore harder to convert into regulars than guests who want to rent the same beach house or ski chalet every season.

The smartest strategy for all VR companies is to use OTAs to find new guests but then do all they can to convert those OTA guests into booking directly next time.

Not all of the following suggestions and tips will be feasible for your company, depending on your market demographics, but hopefully this list will spur the kind of creative thinking that will enable the VR industry to take back its power. Remember, VRMs, you control the inventory that powers the business model of all OTAs. They need you more than you need them.

 

1)  Work for more direct website traffic. There are so many self-study resources to help VRMs learn the latest about organic searches, pay-per-click, and especially the retargeting of website visitors on social media. Even if you rely on an in-house leader or an outside agency, every VR owner and director should stay abreast of the latest so they can at least ask challenging questions.

2)  Seek out listing and referral sites that have a critical mass to compete with OTAs for organic and paid SEO but also drive traffic to your website. A few that are well known to VR operators are vacationfinder.com, condo-world.com, resortsandlodges.com, rentabeach.com, findrentals.com, and northweststays.com.

3)  Post your phone number prominently on your website on both desktop and mobile versions with a line of text saying something like, “Call in-house reservations now.” Update your after-hours voicemail greeting to reiterate that callers have reached in-house reservations and promise a timely callback.

4)  When communicating on apps, make it personal. Explain that you are a local, small business. Ask guests to stop by the rental office. Entice them with free, local giveaway items, such as jams, honey, regional wine, branded picture frames, or kids’ welcome gifts.

5)  Encourage everyone who interacts with guests to ask questions to uncover the stories behind guests’ travel plans, and then recognize birthdays, anniversaries, military furloughs, and memorial services. Stop by the local dollar store or stock up from Oriental Trading to keep low-cost decorations handy.

6)  Make your service staff aware that those shopping on OTAs who click the “manager” link might then contact your company directly by phone, email, or chat. When that happens, train everyone how to use a personalized, engaging hospitality style. If guests have not yet booked, work to channel-convert them. If they have booked, ensure they know who your local brand is and get a jump start on channel conversion for their next visit.

7)  Embrace in-home messaging. Post pictures of the entire staff of your small business. Have a small poster that tells the stories of your company’s owners. Likewise, post your company’s emergency phone number with pictures of the people who answer, such as maintenance or housekeeping, in uniform.

8)  Consider moving to a Wi-Fi provider that requires guests to give their email addresses to access it, presents a branded landing page upon accessing the network, and allows guests to opt-in to future email marketing.

9)  When you get guests’ email addresses, send personalized video email messages to reiterate the welcome and send a fond farewell. This is especially important if your company uses remote registration and self-check-in. Yes, it takes about 60 seconds per guest, but a personal video welcome message is a wonderful way to rehumanize what has evolved into just another electronic transaction.

10)  Organize a drip campaign of emails, targeting guests by dates relevant to their anticipated rebooking cycle, and make them as personalized to specific guests as your CRM and PMS integration allows. Consider old-school postcards too, especially if your CRM allows you to personalize them with guest-specific details.

11)  Create a “selfie station” at your office or welcome center, labeled as such. Include your company name but, more importantly, the destination name with a cute, locally-themed background.

Related Itemsbook directcybermarketingDirect BookingsDoug KennedyFeaturedmarketingOTAsseovacation rental marketingVacation rentals
Click to add a comment

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology and Marketing
December 3, 2020
mm
Doug Kennedy

Doug Kennedy is President of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. a leading provider of customized training programs and telephone mystery shopping services for the lodging and hospitality industry. Doug continues to be a fixture on the industry’s conference circuit for hotel companies, brands and associations, as he been for over two decades. Since 1996, Doug’s monthly hotel industry training articles have been published worldwide, making him one of the most widely read hotel industry training writers. Visit KTN at www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or email him directly. doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com

Related Itemsbook directcybermarketingDirect BookingsDoug KennedyFeaturedmarketingOTAsseovacation rental marketingVacation rentals

More in Technology and Marketing

Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business

Sarah DuPreOctober 18, 2022
Read More

Geotargeting & SEM: A How-To Guide on Spending Less & Getting More

Jill Highsmith McGeeAugust 18, 2022
Read More

All About the Data: Predictive Indicators with Jason Sprenkle

Rebecca LombardoAugust 16, 2022
Read More

PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners

VRM Intel StaffAugust 5, 2022
Read More

Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting

VRM Intel StaffAugust 4, 2022
Read More

Blue Star Acquires Majority Stake in TravelNet Solutions

Amy HinoteJuly 26, 2022
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Sponsor News

  • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    BusinessOctober 18, 2022
  • How to Increase Your Occupancy in a Competitive Market through Monthly Rentals
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersSeptember 16, 2022
  • PriceLabs Announces $30 Million Investment from Summit Partners
    BusinessAugust 5, 2022
  • Ximplifi Adds Owner Portal to Automation Suite for Short Term Rental Accounting
    BusinessAugust 4, 2022
VRM Intel
Calendar of Events
Videos & Whitepapers
VRMintel Magazine
Subscribe
Advertise
About Us
Authors
Contact Us

Recent News

  • Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Pregame Prep Campaign
    Arizonans for Responsible Tourism Hosts Super Bowl Preparedness Campaign for Vacation Rental Operators
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersJanuary 18, 2023
  • vacation-rentals-housing-vrm-intel
    Carrots and sticks: Vacation rentals and the creation of affordable, workforce housing
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersDecember 6, 2022
  • Woman dropping off a ballot
    2022 Election Results of Vacation Rental Ballot Measures
    Industry News for Vacation Rental ManagersNovember 11, 2022
  • Recession-Proofing Your Vacation Rental Business
    BusinessOctober 18, 2022

View Current Issue

VRMintel Copyright © 2016-17 | Click HERE to Subscribe | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Copyright | Jobs | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

NDAs & Confidentiality Agreements: What to Include and When to Enforce
Managing Profit, Not Just Revenue

xxx videos

  • mamadas
  • redwap
  • free porn
  • porno gratis