CONFERENCE WORKBOOK
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
3 SCHEDULE 5 CONFERENCE MAP 6 AGENDA: AT A GLANCE 9 EMCEES AND KEYNOTE SPEAKERS 11 CONFERENCE INFORMATION: THINGS TO KNOW 13 2021 DARM BATTLEGROUND 15 SESSION DESCRIPTIONS BY TIME 29 REVENUE MANAGEMENT GLOSSARY 37 COMPANY DIRECTORY 49 VACATION RENTAL WOMEN’S SUMMIT
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Monday, Aug 16th 3:00-6:00
Registration, Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level)
5:00-6:00
Inhabit IQ’s DARM Welcome Happy Hour, Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level)
Tuesday, Aug 17th 8:00-9:00
Registration and Breakfast Pickup and Meetup, Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level)
9:00-10:15
Welcome with Sarah and T and Keynote Daniel Levine, C19 Trends Aftermath & the 2022 Travel World, Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level)
10:30-11:10
Breakout Sessions
11:20 – 12:00
Breakout Sessions
12:00 – 1:15
Taste of Carolina Lunch and 2021 DARM Battleground (Part 1), Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level)
1:30 – 2:10
Breakout Sessions
2:20 – 3:00
Breakout Sessions
3:00 – 3:30
Fruit, Cheese, Caffeine, and Chocolate Break, Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level)
3:30 – 4:10
Breakout Sessions
4:20 – 5:15
The Future of VR Data and Revenue Management, Executive Panel Moderated by Amy Hinote, VRM Intel, Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level)
Wednesday, Aug 17th 8:00 – 9:00
Lowcountry Breakfast, Colonial and Carolina Ballrooms
9:00 – 10:15
Welcome Back with Sarah and T, and Keynote with Shaun Stewart Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level)
10:15 – 10:45
In-Case-You-Stayed-Out-Too-Late Refueling Break, Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level)
10:45 – 11:25
Breakout Sessions
11:35 – 12:15
Breakout Sessions
12:15 – 1:45
Farmer’s Market Lunch and 2021 DARM Battleground (Part 2), Carolina Ballroom
2:00 – 2:40
Breakout Sessions
2:40 – 3:10
Ice Cream Social, Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level)
3:10 – 3:50
Breakout Sessions
4:00 – 5:00
The State of the Vacation Rental Industry with Key Data’s Melanie Brown and Closing, Carolina Ballroom
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Whether you plan to sell your business in the near term or 15 years from now, planning can help you maximize your results. Why pre-sale planning?
Estate and Generation Planning:
Tax Efficiency:
What is the most effective way to pass assets to the next
How to produce income in a taxefficient manner by coordinating
generation or to equalize family members who aren’t in the business? We will work with you
with your tax professional.
and your attorney to implement strategies.
Cash Flow Planning: Understanding how much income is needed to maintain lifestyle after the sale.
Charitable Goals: What is the best way to make charitable gifts?
Whichard & Woolard Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors can help you craft a plan. Remember, if you don’t have a map, any road will get you there, but you might not like where you end up. You have worked too hard not to plan for a successful retirement.
Visit our website – www.whichardwoolard.wfadv.com – to learn more about our team and the ways we can help you with pre-sale planning. William A. Whichard, Jr. | Private Wealth Financial Advisor John H. Woodard, Jr. | Private Wealth Financial Advisor 704 Blue Jay Street, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948
This information is made available with the understanding that Wells Fargo Advisors and its affiliates are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or tax advice. Investment and Insurance Products:
NOT FDIC Insured
NO Bank Guarantee
MAY Lose Value
Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered brokerdealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. CAR# 0721-01537
The Colonial Room/Lobby Level
Mezzanine/Meeting Level
The Gold Ballroom/Second Floor
CONFERENCE MAP
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6 ROOM
WEDNESDAY
TUESDAY
GOLD BALLROOM (SECOND FLOOR)
CALHOUN (MEETING LEVEL)
8:00
9:00
COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL): SOUTHERN PICKUP BREAKFAST AND MEETUP
9:00
10:15
CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL): WELCOME WITH EMCEES: SARAH BRADFORD AND TIM CAFFERTY | KEYNOTE: DANIEL LEVINE―C19 TRENDS AFTERMATH: THE WORLD IN 2022
10:30
11:10
The Theory of Limited Edition 2.0: Leveraging the things that do NOT scale as your superpower to growth and happiness with Matt Landau
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Which metrics matter and how are they calculated and compared across vacation rental systems with Cliff Johnson
11:20
12:00
Pricing Strategy Levers: Pricing levers vacation rental revenue managers pull to influence booking activity with Anurag Verma
Rentals Recovery Roadmap: Which short-term rental industry trends will prevail with AirDNA’s Jamie Lane
12:00
1:30
1:35
2:15
Optimizing Listings and Pricing on Vrbo/Expedia: Panel Discussion with Expedia Group Team
PMS Data: Finding business data and answers hidden in your property management system/software, Panel Discussion
2:20
3:00
Optimizing Listings and Pricing on Airbnb: Panel Discussion with Airbnb
Data-Driven Property Managers: How to set up your benchmark metrics for success in your Key Data Dashboard
3:00
3:30
3:30
4:10
Channel Management Checklist with James Burrows
4:20
5:15
CAROLINA BALLROON: THE FUTURE OF REVENUE MANAGEMENT IN THE VACATION RENTAL INDUSTRY MODERATED BY AMY HINOTE, VRM INTEL
8:00
9:00
COLONIAL (LOBBY LEVEL) AND CAROLINA (MEETING LEVEL): LOW COUNTRY BREAKFAST MEETUP
9:00
10:15
CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL): WELCOME BACK WITH EMCEES: SARAH BRADFORD AND TIM CAFFERTY KEYNOTE: SHAUN STEWART―PEOPLE OR TECHNOLOGY? THE QUESTION WE'LL ANSWER IN 2022
10:15
10:45
COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL): IN-CASE-YOU-STAYED-OUT-TOO-LATE REFUELING BREAK
10:45
11:25
Hotel Revenue Management Strategies: When to use, when to adapt, and when to toss, Panel Discussion
Getting your Entire Team on Board for Direct Bookings: The battle for direct bookings is hand-to-hand combat, not aerial strafing with Doug Kennedy
11:35
12:15
Length of Stay (LOS) Strategies: Using LOS tactics to manage channel performance and optimize occupancy with Jeff Paglialonga
VRM Staffing Challenges: Addressing the #1 challenge Among vacation rental managers with Sue Jones and Ari Eryorulmaz
12:15
1:45
CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL): TASTE OF CAROLINA LUNCHEON AND 2021 DARM BATTLEGROUND
COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL): FRUIT, CHEESE, AND CHOCOLATE BREAK Mitigating Risk: Looking at the “T” in your 2022 “SWOT” analysis, Executive Panel Discussion
CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL): Farmer’s Market LUNCHEON AND 2021 DARM BATTLEGROUND Channel Technology: Implementing revenue management strategies across all channels using channel managers, PMSs, and direct connections (Part 1)
Rental Inventory and Homeowner Metrics: A guide to measuring and improving what really matters for your inventory with Brooke Pfautz
2:00
2:40
2:40
3:10
3:10
3:50
Advanced Revenue Management Roundtables: Revenue managers sit down with channel managers, PMSs, and direct connections (Part 2)
4:00
5:00
CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL): GENERAL SESSION: VACATION RENTAL PERFORMANCE, 2021 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY WITH KEY DATA’S MELANIE BROWN
COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL): ICE CREAM SOCIAL Traveler Demand Data and Website Analytics: Why you need demand data now with Amber Carpenter
PINCKNEY (MEETING LEVEL)
Rate Strategy: Building revenue management strategies in the new travel landscape with Natalia Sutin
RUTLEDGE (MEETING LEVEL)
CAROLINA (MEETING LEVEL)
Long-Term Value Building: For executives, building value in your business to accomplish long-term goals and exit strategy with Cynthia O’Dell
Digital Marketing: Generate bookings with a comprehensive digital advertising strategy with Conrad O’Connell
2022 Forecasting: Forecasting when historical performance is unreliable and the future is uncertain, Executive Panel Discussion
SEO: How search engine optimization (SEO) REALLY works for vacation rentals with Paul Hanak
Margins Matter: A look at line-item benchmarks from 100s of P&Ls with Ben Edwards
Tech in Buying and Selling: Pros and cons of a company’s “tech stack” when buying and selling companies, Executive Panel Discussion
Play Bigger: Tips & Tricks to Drive Direct Bookings with Tim Schutts
Driving Results with People Data: Using data to identify job candidates and put your team members in the right seats with Steve Trover
Optimizing Your Website: Merchandizing properties and pricing on your company’s website with Braeden Flaherty, Josh Guerra, and Ben Ollic, Rebecca Lombardo, TruPlace
Analyzing Operations and Property Data: What’s changed (and hasn’t) in the last 18 months with Jeremy Gall
Building a 2022 Revenue Optimization Team: What does the org chart look like for a high-performing team (sales, marketing and revenue management)
Holding a RM Meeting: How to conduct a revenue strategy meeting with Heather Richer
Building Repeat Business: Converting guests into repeat customers, Panel Discussion and Brainstorming with Tyann Marcink, David Angotti, Matt Landau and Friends
Email Marketing: Targeted and automated email marketing strategies to fill inventory and build relationships with Amir Rashid
2021 CEO Panel: Revenue Optimization, Channel Mix, Consolidation, Operations, and Challenges
Building Competitive Sets: Developing comp sets and tools available
The Future of VR Techology: How are technology companies approaching the future? A panel with tech leaders about future plans
Advanced Revenue Management Marketing
EXECUTIVE Data and Foundational Revenue Management
DARM AGENDA
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Next Generation Property Management Software For Vacation Rentals ✓ Powerful trip manager that makes it easy to upsell ✓ Revolutionary real-time trust accounting system ✓ Includes full booking and SEO website ✓ Work order and email automation ✓ Integrated distribution
Find out more and book a demo at LMPM.com
Sarah Bradford
Tim Cafferty
Sarah Bradford owns Winter Park Lodging Company and Steamboat Lodging Company with her husband, Chris. Both companies focus on higher-end luxury vacation rentals, and they are currently updating several to bring them out of 1999. Sarah also is the co-host of the popular professional vacation rental podcast, Sarah and T along with Tim Cafferty.
Tim Cafferty is the owner and president of Outer Banks Blue Realty Services. He was born and raised in the hospitality and vacation rental industry starting his first job in 1970 carrying linens to the cars of incoming guests each weekend for his family’s business. Tim got his Masters in Journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, returned to the Outer Banks, and began working again with his family at their vacation rental management firm. Tim learned all the aspects of the real estate business including sales, property management, and vacation rentals while he began his path as a REALTOR® and decided to open his own company in 2005.
Owner, Winter Park Lodging Company, Co-host, Sarah and T Podcast
Owner and President of Outer Banks Blue Realty, Co-host, Sarah and T Podcast
Shaun Stewart Chief Executive Officer, Newlab Shaun Stewart is a seasoned executive from the travel and technology space. Over the course of his 20 year career he has held various leadership roles in travel including time at Expedia, TripAdvisor, Jetsetter & Airbnb, focusing his efforts on supply acquisition and distribution of all flavors of accommodations. Stewart is currently the CEO of Newlab, a singular community of experts and innovators applying transformative technology to solve the world’s biggest challenges. Prior to that he was the Chief Business Officer at Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle company based out of Google X in Mountain View.
Daniel Levine Founder & Director, Avant-Guide Institute Daniel Levine is the founder and director of the Avant-Guide Institute. As the bestselling author of 11 books on trends, business, travel, and marketing, Levine is the global editor of the popular trends website WikiTrend.org where he leads a large international team of trend spotters including over 9,000 researchers who chronicle the latest ideas, products, and experiences from around the globe. Levine is a trusted consultant to major companies and brands worldwide and is regularly featured in newspapers and magazines and is often on television and radio including CNN, NBC and others.
DARM EMCEES AND KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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REGISTRATION LOCATION AND INFORMATION DESK The registration and information desk will be open in the lobby at the entrance of the Colonial Ballroom through 10:00 am on Tuesday and will then move to the Meeting Level Foyer for the remainder of the conference. MEETING AND WORKSPACE SPONSORED BY LMPM Need to have a conversation, a call, or check email? Additional meeting and workspace is being sponsored by LMPM in the Laurens Room to the left of the information desk on the Meeting Level. ALL-DAY BEVERAGE STATION Thirtsy? Coffee, water, and sodas are available for attendees through 4:00 on Wednesday. The beverage station is located in the Colonial Ballroom (Lobby Level). GENERAL SESSION OVERFLOW General sessions are located in the Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level). During these times, we’ll also be livestreaming to the Gold Ballroom (Second Floor) for people who would like more space during the meals and general sessions. WIFI SPONSORED BY RevPARTY RevPARTY is sponsoring an open wifi network for attendees. CONFERENCE APP For conference information, session descriptions, and more, access our conference app at touchstay.com/darm.
NEW 2021 DARM AWARDS SPONSORED BY EXPEDIA GROUP This year, Expedia Group is sponsoring the first DARM Awards. Look for the Data and Revenue Management Pioneer Award, the Revenue Manager of the Year Award, the 2021 DARM Innovation Award, and the DARM Battleground People’s Choice Award. BATTLEGROUND SPONSORED BY RevPARTY (SEE PAGE 13) Expedia is sponsoring the first DARM Awards. One of these awards will be given to your favorite battleground presentation. You can vote using paper ballots on the tables or using the conference app.
BASIC INFORMATION
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Because “set it and forget it” doesn’t work for vacation rentals. 12
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Your Revenue Management Partner
3RD ANNUAL DARM BATTLEGROUND: A FAST AND FUN WAY TO SEE WHAT’S NEW IN TECH
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echnology companies are presenting their new functionality during the fast-paced DARM Battleground. Each presenter will pitch the audience for five minutes, followed by five minutes of think-on-your-feet questions from our DARM judges. Two trophies will be presented as a result: DARM Battleground: People’s Choice and the DARM Innovation Award. You can vote using paper ballots on the tables or using the conference app at touchstay.com/darm.
ART, RENTED’S AUTOMATED RATE TOOL WITH ANDREW MCCONNELL Rented provides technology, tools, and services to help vacation rental pros optimize their portfolio of properties. Art, Rented’s Automated Rate Tool, is the only dynamic pricing software built for and by professional short-term rental revenue managers. With Art, your inhouse specialists are empowered to set the right price for every property with intelligent rate recommendations and easy custom adjustments. For companies that need hands-on support, our Revenue Management Service provides a dedicated revenue manager who specializes in handling every detail: setting prices, monitoring performance, and making custom adjustments.
DEMANDIQ BY KEY DATA WITH MELANIE BROWN DemandIQ is the lodging industry’s first product for capturing true, real-time, forward-looking traveler demand data. To date, we have all relied upon booking data to reflect traveler demand. While this tells the picture of the demand you captured, it doesn’t tell the full story about the demand you failed to capture or the market-level demand that never made it your way. With this new product, we will be able to offer clear insights into the full demand picture.
MARKETMINDER BY AirDNA WITH SCOTT SHATFORD AirDNA is presenting MarketMinder, its flagship platform for short-term rental data and analytics. In addition to its market intelligence tools, this battleground session will focus on two aspects of MarketMinder: My Properties, a tool where vacation rental hosts and managers can onboard properties, create custom comp
sets, and benchmark themselves against the competition; and Smart Rates, a new tool to push automated pricing to their listings.
PORTFOLIO ANALYTICS BY PRICELABS WITH OLIVER MARCZYNSKI
their shopping carts, SCA brings the lead data back to the vacation rental company and allows them to convert up to 30% of their abandoned web traffic leveraging highly personalized outbound emails and calling from captured data.
TRACK PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Portfolio Analytics by PriceLabs provides a convenient way to visualize internal WITH MICHELLE MARQUIS booking data and helps identify opportunities to increase revenue. Intuitive charts make it easy to see portfolio and group performance at a glance without losing track of individual listings which might require additional attention. Pair Portfolio Analytics with our Market Dashboards to compare your booking trends against similar listings in the market and automate pricing adjustments to respond to patterns in bookings with our Dynamic Pricing tool for a full revenue management solution. Connect via our 50+ PMS partners or internal API and unlock actionable booking trends in minutes, free of charge.
RevMAX WITH DESIREE GARCIA AND MAUREEN SHILLING RevMax partners with data experts to offer market and business intelligence to help with pricing strategies. RevMax offers distribution channel management, nightly minimum management, as well as automated incremental revenue generation. Along with all of the tools to build an effective pricing strategy, the experienced RevMax team also offers consulting services for those companies that need some help to capitalize on the tools. RevMax is now open to non-Streamline clients, so it’s the perfect time to talk to the team to find out how they can help increase the bottom line.
SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT BY NAVIS WITH AMIR RASHID The NAVIS Shopping Cart Abandonment (SCA) tool works behind the scenes capturing stay and contact details entered by guests as they search and explore options on your booking engine. Once a guest enters their email, all previously entered stay and contact data are sent to the lead form, even if the reservation isn’t made. With up to 80% of guests abandoning
Effective revenue management is about more than just unit pricing. In addition to giving PMs the ability to flexibly set and configure unit pricing and integrate with third-party dynamic-pricing providers, Track provides tools to optimize fees-the second largest revenue driver for most PMs. Track’s fee configurability gives PMs the power to overcome competitor commission-rate threats in retaining homeowners, package fees optimally to work within each channel’s limitations, and insulate against one our industry’s biggest negatives-being “fee’d to death” after choosing a home on rent alone. Once fees are built in Track, PMs establish business rules for automatically mass-applying them by unit type, location, reservation types, channels, etc., eliminating much of the manual work typically required to optimize this important revenue source.
TRIP MANAGER BY LMPM WITH SEAN RAFTREE LMPM is next-generation property management software for vacation rentals. LMPM’s powerful Trip Manager can boost your revenue management strategy so you’re measuring RevPOR, not just RevPAR. Supplement your rate strategy by including additional services and experiences to generate ancillary revenue before and during the stay, monetize owner stays, and provide merchandizing benefit on channels.
WHEELHOUSE PRO WITH ANDREW KITCHELL Wheelhouse will be introducing a few features from their newest platform, Wheelhouse Pro. Wheelhouse’s goal is to bring transparency and auditability to pricing engines in the accommodations space. Their newest toolset will demonstrate that ambition and illustrate the power and control that revenue managers can have with more transparency around how a pricing engine is working.
DARM BATTLEGROUND
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Maximize Your Rental Revenue The world’s leading provider of short-term rental data and analytics tracks the daily performance of over 10 million properties on Airbnb and Vrbo in 120,000 global markets. Join thousands of vacation rental operators using MarketMinder to gain a competitive edge. Research trends and forecast where markets and properties are heading Price automatically and dynamically based on real-time data Invest using property-level information on any address in the world
airdna.co
hello@airdna.co
720.233.2318
Trusted By 50,000 Hosts + Managers Worldwide
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BREAKOUT SESSIONS DESCRIPTIONS BY TIME
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17TH 8:00 – 9:00 REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST PICKUP AND MEETUP, COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL)
9:00 – 10:15 2021 DARM WELCOME WITH SARAH AND T AND KEYNOTE DANIEL LEVINE, C19 TRENDS AFTERMATH & THE 2022 TRAVEL WORLD, CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL)
Optional: Spaced-out overflow room with livestream in Gold Ballroom (Second Floor)
During this presentation, attendees will get answers to all those questions and more from Vacasa’s vice president of revenue management Natalia Sutin. Sutin will address how strategies shifted during the pandemic to meet the same objectives, as well as the fresh pricing challenges that emerged, and which trends she expects to hold as the travel industry continues to rebound.
THE THEORY OF LIMITED EDITION 2.0: LEVERAGING THE THINGS THAT DO NOT SCALE AS YOUR SUPERPOWER TO GROWTH AND HAPPINESS Presenter: Matt Landau, Founder, VRMB and Unlocked Podcast Room: Gold Ballroom (Second Floor) Primary Track: Marketing
10:30 – 11:10
Additional Tracks: Executive
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs): WHICH METRICS MATTER AND HOW ARE THEY CALCULATED AND COMPARED ACROSS VACATION RENTAL SYSTEMS?
Matt Landau believes every independent vacation rental manager is sitting on a goldmine of unique selling attributes that differentiate from bigger, richer, flashier competition. But that without some very intentional sculpting of these attributes those same managers can easily slip into a commodity price race to the bottom. After several years on the road documenting some of the world’s most profitable and sustainable vacation rental brands, Landau reveals the common denominators of their stealthy positioning and the direct impact it has on data, revenue, and lifestyle design.
Presenter: Cliff Johnson, Vice President, New Homes, Realtor.com Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Foundational Revenue Management, Executive, Marketing Successful revenue management not only requires access to comparative data, it also requires a comprehensive understanding of the data, including definitions, equations, and why they matter. Cliff Johnson will take us through the terminology and KPI equations used by revenue managers to craft, implement, and evaluate effective pricing strategies.
LONG-TERM VALUE BUILDING: FOR EXECUTIVES, BUILDING VALUE IN YOUR BUSINESS TO ACCOMPLISH LONG-TERM GOALS AND EXIT STRATEGIES Presenter: Cynthia O’Dell, Senior Wealth Planning Strategist, Wells Fargo Room: Rutledge (Meeting Level)
RATE STRATEGY: BUILDING REVENUE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN THE NEW TRAVEL LANDSCAPE Presenter: Natalia Sutin, VP, Revenue Management, Vacasa Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management Additional Tracks: Executive, Foundational Revenue Management Dynamic pricing is nothing new for vacation rental operators, but the strategies behind it are shifting to adapt to the new travel landscape. What key market indicators should revenue managers be looking for to signal rate adjustment? How can an effective revenue approach support local operations—and deliver results for homeowners—during peak seasons or, conversely, fill gaps in the booking calendar while maintaining price integrity?
Primary Track: Executive You are busy building your business, but are you building the value of your business? Understanding the fundaments of business value is the key to creating a valuable enterprise which you can convert to personal wealth, funding your lifestyle, retirement or family legacy goals. Beyond the basics, Odell will review VRM market trends and valuation dynamics which can inform your value creation strategy, examine the impact of risk, answer your question regarding ownership transition options and discuss best practices successfully used by other owners, as they prepare for their future.
For 18 years, the vacation rental industry’s top brands have chosen Bluetent as their digital partner — for good reason:
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 17TH
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11:20 – 12:00 RENTALS RECOVERY ROADMAP: WHAT INDUSTRY TRENDS WILL PREVAIL?
measurement, and budget allocation, and share how you can spend effectively no matter what your monthly ad spend is. O’Connell will also cover updates around the iOS 14.5 updates and the future of ad tracking for vacation rental managers.
Presenter: Jamie Lane, VP of Research, AirDNA Room: Gold Ballroom (Second Floor) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Executive, Advanced Revenue Management, Foundational Revenue Management, Marketing Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US economy— specifically, the hospitality industry—has gone through an unprecedented contraction and recovery. Jamie Lane, vice president of research at AirDNA will outline how government stimulus, easing lockdowns and travel restrictions, and pent-up demand for travel allowed certain sectors and markets of the vacation rental industry to recover and outperform other segments of the US lodging industry. He will present an updated economic forecast and outlook of the VR industry for a variety of U.S. locations. Lane will then provide an overview of industry trends including historical and future demand pacing, how record occupancy is impacting ADRs, and where supply is growing fastest. Other topics include a review of the host wars (how successful Airbnb and VRBO have been at attracting new hosts), how exclusivity of supply has changed over time, the overlap between platforms by location type, and if/when international travel will return.
REVENUE STRATEGY LEVERS: PRICING LEVERS VACATION RENTAL REVENUE MANAGERS PULL TO INFLUENCE BOOKING ACTIVITY Presenter: Anurag Verma, Founder and CEO, PriceLabs Room: Calhoun (Second Floor)
2022 FORECASTING: PREDICTING REVENUE WHEN HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE IS UNRELIABLE Panel Discussion: Mike Bohmer, Turnkey/Vacasa; Scott Bunce, Cabins for You; CJ Stamm, Southern Comfort Vacation Rentals; Ben Edwards, Weatherby Consulting; and Moderated by Amy Hinote, VRM Intel Room: Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive Additional Tracks: Advanced Revenue Management, Data Year-over-year (YOY) data sets are unreliable in today’s current environment. In addition, 2021 was an extraordinary year for many property managers. Looking ahead to rental projections and budgets in 2022, how can vacation rental managers predict revenue and set expectations for homeowners? We’ll discuss how companies are looking at the upcoming competitive environment and planning for the future when recent historic data may be an anomaly.
12:00 – 1:15 TASTE OF CAROLINA LUNCH AND 2021 DARM BATTLEGROUND (PART 1), CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL)
Optional: Spaced-out overflow room with livestream in Gold Ballroom (Second Floor)
Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management Additional Tracks: Foundational Revenue Management, Executive Revenue managers have more than rate at their disposal to impact reservation activity. PriceLabs founder and CEO Anurag Verma will define and explain industry pricing levers including minimum night requirements, booking window, promotions, channel policies, fees, cancellation policies, and more. In addition, he’ll give examples of how each lever can influence booking activity across channels and discuss different strategies involving a combination of levers and channels.
GENERATING BOOKINGS WITH A COMPREHENSIVE DIGITAL ADVERTISING STRATEGY Presenter: Conrad O’Connell, Founder, BuildUp Bookings Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Marketing Additional Tracks: Data In this presentation, O’Connell will talk about the data-driven strategy and tactics behind his company’s managed ad spend (over $1.5M in the last 12 months) across Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram & more. He will share best practices in targeting, reporting,
1:30 – 2:10 PMS DATA: FINDING DATA AND BUSINESS ANSWERS HIDDEN IN YOUR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (PMS) Presenters: Patrick Power, Solution Architect, TRACK; Chad Blankenship, CTO, Southern Vacation Rentals Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Executive, Foundational Revenue Management Hidden inside your PMS software are many of the answers you need to accelerate your company’s growth and provide better guest, owner, and staff experiences. Getting to these insights typically requires connecting data that most systems don’t provide out of the box. In this session, we’ll showcase ways to unlock insights like how to rate and incent house cleaners using guest satisfaction scores, data that helps you pull the different distribution channel levers that maximize occupancy and profitability, and smart methods for segmenting guests to boost marketing performance.
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 17TH
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OPTIMIZING LISTINGS AND PRICING ON VRBO/ EXPEDIA Panel Discussion with Expedia/Vrbo Revenue Team and Cameron Felton, Director of Revenue Management, Evolve Vacation Rentals; Sarah Franzen, Director of Revenue Management, Natural Retreats; and Jordan Locke, CEO, RevPARTY Room: Gold Ballroom (Second Floor) Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management Additional Tracks: Marketing, Foundational Revenue Management Expedia Group’s revenue team for lodging and vacation rentals will join a panel of revenue managers to discuss how PMs can optimize their listings and pricing display on Vrbo and Expedia and answer questions about how to execute the latest strategies and maximize and monitor performance.
HOW SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) REALLY WORKS FOR THE VACATION RENTAL INDUSTRY Presenter: Paul Hanak, Director of Marketing, ICND Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level)
2:20 – 3:00 DATA-DRIVEN PROPERTY MANAGERS: HOW TO SET UP YOUR BENCHMARK METRICS FOR SUCCESS IN YOUR KEY DATA DASHBOARD Presenters: Jennifer Talbert, Revenue Management Consultant, and Taylor Hill, Business Development Manager, Key Data Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Foundational Revenue Management, Marketing, Executive Like all well-run companies, property management companies should be data driven at their core. With so many different software platforms that don’t all integrate together, this can be hard. The best companies are still finding a way. We will discuss how to identify, measure, collect, report on, and―most importantly―act on your data. Companies making clear data-driven decisions are leading our industry and will continue to do so. Jennifer and Taylor will walk through how to set up and monitor metrics in your dashboard, how to build reporting, and how to identify ways your company can start improving today.
Primary Track: Marketing Additional Tracks: Data
OPTIMIZING LISTINGS AND PRICING ON AIRBNB
SEO is always referred to as a “dark art” due to its technical nature and the years of knowledge and experience required to master. For this reason, property managers often rely on outsourced SEO companies for prime placement in the search engines. The cold hard truth? Many SEO companies don’t focus on what really matters. Audits and scores from online tools don’t rank your site better, but the methods in this presentation do.
Panel Discussion with Airbnb Team and John de Roulet, Wheelhouse; Tim Speicher, Buoy; Doug Truitt, Rentals United
Geared toward both beginner and advanced technical levels, Hanak will explain what’s important for search engines in the vacation rental sector and how to stop the wool from being pulled over your eyes from outside agencies. Join a twenty-year SEO veteran as he walks you through some eye-opening myths about the SEO game and what a property manager can keep an eye out for to make sure they are getting the best bang for their buck.
MARGINS MATTER: BENCHMARKS ACROSS 100S OF P&LS THAT LEAD TO PROFITABILITY
Room: Gold Ballroom (Second Floor) Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management Additional Tracks: Marketing, Foundational Revenue Management Airbnb will join a panel of revenue managers to discuss how VRMs can optimize their listings on Airbnb and will answer questions about how to execute the latest strategies and maximize and monitor performance.
PLAY BIGGER: TIPS & TRICKS TO DRIVE DIRECT BOOKINGS Presenter: Tim Schutts, Vice President, TravelNet Solutions’ Atlas Digital Marketing Room: Rutledge (Meeting Level)
Presenter: Ben Edwards, President, Weatherby Consulting
Primary Track: Marketing
Room: Rutledge (Meeting Level)
Not all clicks are created equal. Conversion is still king, but clicks at every stage of the guest journey are critical to overall direct booking success. We’ll explain how different channels drive clicks that boost overall traffic, and how implementing specific digital marketing tactics at each guest journey stage can dramatically improve your booking performance.
Primary Track: Executive Additional Tracks: Advanced Revenue Management In a world in which well-funded multi-destination short-term rental companies are buying growth with zero attention to margins, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remain both profitable and competitive. We’re being told that an EBITDA of 5 - 8% is normal. However, leading managers are bringing well over 20% to the bottom line. Margins are critically important for both long-term growth and when buying and selling companies. Having reviewed—in depth— hundreds of P&Ls, Edwards will shed light on what property managers are spending in key areas as a percentage of revenue and will discuss how to increase profitability in the current and future competitive environment.
Attendees will learn how to deploy a full-funnel digital marketing method that increases direct bookings. They’ll learn tools and tactics for increasing traffic and conversions, how to effectively measure ROI for decision making at each stage, and the measurable business results Property Managers and Hoteliers are experiencing by using this more effective approach.
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Need an Extra Pair of Hands? Watching a property manager work is a masterclass in multitasking. Considering all the moving parts you keep aloft, it’s a wonder you haven’t evolved six arms. But too much busy-ness is bad for business. “Doing more with less” is a myth, and good help is scarce. How can you possibly grow in that environment? You invest in efficiency. It’s like buying your time back, and you can’t scale without it. Our TRACK vacation rental software and ATLAS marketing suite take many day-to-day tasks off your plate through powerful automations, opening up more time to grow your business and tackle those back-burner projects like hiring, process improvements, and the occasional day off. If you feel like more of a juggler than a property manager lately, visit tnsinc.com.
MEET US AT THE VACATION RENTAL WOMEN’S SUMMIT DECEMBER 1–2, 2021 http://tnsinc.com/extrahands
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17TH
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THE VRM TECHNOLOGY MIX: PROS AND CONS OF A COMPANY’S “TECH STACK” WHEN BUYING AND SELLING COMPANIES Panel Discussion: Jakob Dwyer, President, Realjoy Vacations; Steve Milo, CEO, VTrips; Zac Monahan, VP, M&A, Vacasa; and moderated by Jacobie Olin, President, C2G Advisors Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive The theme of this panel is to learn what components of a seller’s “tech stack” are important to buyers. We will also hear of common pitfalls that have happened in the past and ways to avoid them in the future.
3:00 – 3:30 FRUIT, CHEESE, CAFFEINE, AND CHOCOLATE BREAK, COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL)
3:30 – 4:10 DRIVING RESULTS WITH PEOPLE DATA: USING DATA TO IDENTIFY JOB CANDIDATES AND PUT YOUR TEAM MEMBERS IN THE RIGHT SEATS Presenter: Steve Trover, Cofounder, Better Talent by Laveer & Co. Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Executive What is people data and how can you use people data to measure behavioral drives and cognitive abilities while taking into consideration the total person when evaluating candidates and leading team members? This session will present ways to collect and utilize people data to improve overall company results. You will learn how to identify, hire, and inspire your company’s most important (and costly) asset―your team.
MERCHANDISE PROPERTIES AND MAXIMIZE BOOKINGS ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE Presenters: Braeden Flaherty, Bluetent; Josh Guerra, Bizcor; and Ben Ollic, Q4 Launch with Photography Expert Rebecca Lombardo, TruPlace Room: Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Marketing Additional Tracks: Executive, Data Across enterprise-level vacation rental management companies, over 50% of bookings are coming directly . . . not through third-party channels. Too often when looking at revenue management, we neglect our own websites. This panel will discuss how to merchandize property listings, optimize sort algorithms, display pricing and policies, use strike-through and urgency pricing, and maximize promotions on your own website to increase online bookings and keep guests on your site.
MITIGATING RISK: A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE “T” (THREATS) IN A VRM’S SWOT ANALYSIS Panel Whiteboard Discussion: Moderated by Jim Olin, C2G Advisors, with Eric Thibodeaux, Laird Sager, Andrew Kitchell, and Andrew McConnell Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive In a SWOT analysis, the T stands for threats. In an uncertain environment, PMs are finding it necessary to perform a solid risk assessment and strategize to mitigate these risks. In this open discussion, we’ll sit down with executives, identify these threats facing both the industry and individual companies, and discuss how PMs can plan for the future.
4:20 – 5:15 THE FUTURE OF VR DATA AND REVENUE MANAGEMENT, CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL)
Presenter: James Burrows, CEO, Rentals United
Vivek Bhogaraju, GM, Revenue, Lodging and VR, Expedia; Steve Milo, CEO, VTrips; Scott Shatford, CEO, AirDNA; Anurag Verma, CEO, PriceLabs
Room: Gold Ballroom (Second Floor)
Moderated by Amy Hinote, Sarah Bradford, and Tim Cafferty
Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management
Optional: Spaced-out overflow room with livestream in Gold Ballroom (Second Floor)
CHANNEL MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST
Additional Tracks: Data, Executive, Foundational Revenue Management, Marketing If you have a direct connection through your PMS, why would you need a channel manager? Rentals United cofounder and CEO James Burrows will discuss what channel management features you need to look out for to drive ROI. Along with case studies with customers from around the globe, Burrows will answer questions from revenue managers about how they can optimize existing channels and new opportunities with Google Vacation Rentals.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18TH
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18TH 8:00 – 9:00
Room: Gold (Second Floor)
LOWCOUNTRY BREAKFAST, COLONIAL AND CAROLINA BALLROOMS
Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management
9:00 – 10:15 WELCOME BACK WITH SARAH AND T, AND KEYNOTE WITH SHAUN STEWART, CAROLINA BALLROOM (MEETING LEVEL)
Optional: Spaced-out overflow room with livestream in Gold Ballroom (Second Floor)
As more hotel-trained revenue managers enter the short-term rental sector, hotel revenue management strategies are being tested and evaluated for vacation rentals. What are the similarities and differences between the two lodging sectors? This panel will explore what attributes are the same, what is different, which strategies translate, and which do not.
THE BATTLE FOR DIRECT BOOKINGS IS HAND-TOHAND COMBAT, NOT AERIAL STRAFING Presenter: Doug Kennedy, Founder, Kennedy Training Network
10:15 – 10:45
Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level)
IN-CASE-YOU-STAYED-OUT-TOO-LATE REFUELING BREAK, COLONIAL BALLROOM (LOBBY LEVEL)
Primary Track: Marketing
10:45 – 11:25 ANALYZING OPERATIONS AND PROPERTY DATA: WHAT’S CHANGED (AND HASN’T) IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS Presenter: Jeremy Gall, Founder and CEO, Breezeway Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Executive, Foundational Revenue Management, Marketing, Advanced Revenue Management The growth of the short-term rental category is well documented―not only with respect to the number of rentable homes and management companies, but also the identity, challenges, and priorities of vacation rental operators. In this presentation, Breezeway’s founder and CEO Jeremy Gall will reflect on this growth by presenting three different sources of internal data: operations survey data from spring 2020 and 2021 (e.g. biggest property care challenges, plans to differentiate their business, frequency of client communication, number of software tools in use, etc.), and data on five million property care tasks from the Breezeway platform (average length of cleans/inspections/repairs, most frequently repaired items, most urgent guest requests, etc.). Jeremy will discuss different trends that the data reveal and share his perspective on what challenges and opportunities lie ahead for industry operators.
HOTEL REVENUE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: WHEN TO USE, WHEN TO ADAPT, AND WHEN TO TOSS Panel Discussion: Scott Bunce, COO, Cabins for You; Dwight Yang, Partner, Richer Logic; and Michelle Marquis, VP, Revenue, Travelnet Solutions
Additional Tracks: Executive Doug Kennedy will show us how to secure more direct bookings via textual selling, in-platform messaging (on OTA’s) and via every guest/staff conversation. Participants in this session will walk away with a list of specific training tips to help their companies secure more direct bookings and reduce their reliance on costly third-party channels that can also be a barrier to return bookings. While the war for direct bookings does require “aerial strafing” (digital marketing), the most important battles in VR distribution occur through human and not digital interactions. Whether by phone, chat, email, or a random in-person conversation with a maintenance tech, it is the people that make the difference.
BUILDING A 2022 REVENUE OPTIMIZATION TEAM: WHAT DOES THE ORG CHART LOOK LIKE FOR A HIGH-PERFORMING TEAM (SALES, MARKETING, DISTRIBUTION, AND REVENUE MANAGEMENT) Panel Discussion: Amber Carpenter, CMO, Acme Vacation Rentals; Amy Gaster, CEO, Tybee Vacation Rentals; John de Roulet, Wheelhouse; Doug Truitt, Rentals United Room: Carolina Ballroom (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive Additional Tracks: Foundational Revenue Management, Advanced Revenue Management, Marketing Whether big or small, how are your sales, distribution, revenue, and marketing efforts working together? Revenue in general is always a top line goal and KPI for companies. In this panel we will have industry experts discussing how these four areas collaborate together successfully in order to reach top-line revenue goals/KPI’s.
Revenue management for scaling hospitality operators
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18TH
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11:35 – 12:15 HOW TO HOLD A REVENUE STRATEGY MEETING Presenter: Heather Richer Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Foundational Revenue Management
Finding, compensating, and retaining staff are some of the biggest challenges facing industry professionals today. Property managers have learned that finding and retaining employees takes creativity with compensation and flexibility with schedules. No longer does a one-size-fits-all approach work. Remote workforces have opened up staffing alternatives across the US and internationally. Join Sue and Ari for a lively discussion on ways to approach your staffing needs.
Additional Tracks: Executive, Data, Marketing Richer Logic’s Heather Richer will discuss how to construct an effective agenda for a revenue strategy meeting, including who should be there, what KPIs are monitored, how revenue managers are being held accountable, and how marketing and data teams fit in. Whether your team is in house or outsourced, holding regular and effective meetings will keep everyone on the same page and on track.
12:15 – 1:45
LENGTH OF STAY (LOS) STRATEGIES: USING LOS TACTICS TO MANAGE CHANNEL PERFORMANCE AND OPTIMIZE OCCUPANCY AND REVENUE
2:00 – 2:40
Presenters: Jeff Paglialonga, CEO, Teeming Vacation Rentals; and Desiree Garcia and Maureen Schilling, Streamline Room: Gold (Second Floor) Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management One of the primary levers used by revenue managers is length of stay (LOS). Jeff Paglialonga, CEO, Teeming Vacation Rentals, was able to fast-track revenue growth using LOS strategies. In this case study, Jeff will discuss his objectives and then demonstrate with his software provider, Streamline, how he executed the strategies and was able to get ahead of his competition.
INCREASING REPEAT BUSINESS: CONVERTING GUESTS INTO REPEAT CUSTOMERS Panel Discussion: Tyann Marcink, David Angotti, and Matt Landau with Arthur Colker and Suneel Goud Room: Carolina (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Marketing Additional Tracks: Executive Looking ahead to what could be a highly competitive 2022, having confirmed reservations on the books is worth gold. What are PMs doing to increase repeat business, and how are they converting OTA travelers into loyal guests? Tyann, David, and Matt will lead this discussion on building repeat business and will talk about tech ideas with StayFi’s Arthur Colker and NEC’s Suneel Goud.
VRM STAFFING CHALLENGES ABOUND: ADDRESSING THE #1 CHALLENGE FOR VACATION RENTAL MANAGERS Presenters: Sue Jones, CEO, HR4VR, and Ari Eryorulmaz, CEO, Extenteam Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive
FARMERS MARKET LUNCH AND 2021 DARM BATTLEGROUND (PART 2), CAROLINA BALLROOM
Optional: Spaced-out overflow room with livestream in Gold Ballroom (Second Floor)
RENTAL INVENTORY AND HOMEOWNER METRICS: A GUIDE TO MEASURING AND IMPROVING WHAT REALLY MATTERS FOR YOUR INVENTORY Presenter: Brooke Pfautz, CEO, Vintory Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Executive After speaking with hundreds of VRMs, Vintory CEO Brooke Pfautz quickly realized that most professional property managers are in the dark when it comes to understanding the key metrics of inventory growth. Join Brooke in this session for an insider’s look at metrics and data never presented in our industry before. Quickly become an expert in running growth numbers and calculating the ROI of a new property for your program. See where you stand vs your colleagues and competitors. Metrics for metrics sake are not very useful so we’ll move beyond the numbers and get to the bottom line―what leadership must focus on to drive a successful vacation rental business.
CHANNEL TECHNOLOGY: IMPLEMENTING REVENUE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ACROSS ALL CHANNELS USING CHANNEL MANAGERS, PMSS, AND DIRECT CONNECTIONS (PART 1) Panel Discussion: Jim Barsch, NextPax; James Burrows, Rentals United; Braeden Flaherty, Bluetent; and Matt Gurley, BookingPal with Revenue Managers Room: Gold (Second Floor) Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management Revenue managers have questions for channel managers, and this panel has answers. In this discussion, vacation rental managers will have the floor to ask questions about connectivity and strategy execution, hear about their roadmaps, talk more about the Google Vacation Rental platform, and suggest new functionality.
Five Pricing Models VISIT: REVMAXIQ.COM
STREAMLINEVRS.COM
Five Pricing Models + Automatic Nightly Minimum Management Automated Incremental Revenue Generation Revenue Management Consulting Market Intelligence Business Intelligence
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18TH
27
GOLD IN PLAIN SIGHT: EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO GROW REVENUE
Room: Gold (Second Floor)
Presenter: Amir Rashid, NAVIS
Additional Tracks: Foundational Revenue Management, Executive
Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level)
Today’s revenue managers are struggling to execute pricing strategies using available technology and connectivity. Many managers have built their own technology as a result. This panel will discuss what their able to accomplish in proprietary tech vs what the PMSs, channel managers, and pricing tools are able to.
Primary Track: Marketing Additional Tracks: Foundational Revenue Management With inventory filling fast this year, too many email marketing strategies got put on the backburner. Covering tactics around automation, crafting personalized messages, and more, learn how your email strategy is key to building guest loyalty, keeping units filled, homeowners happy, and getting the most revenue per booking.
EXECUTIVES LOOK AHEAD TO 2022 AND BEYOND: REVENUE OPTIMIZATION, CONSOLIDATION, COMPETITION, AND HOMEOWNER RETENTION Panel Discussion: Moderated by Andrew McConnell, CEO, Rented, with Sarah Bradford, Winter Park and Steamboat Lodging Company; Tim Cafferty, Outer Banks and Sandridge Blue; Max Schuster, Stay Marquis; and Steve Schwab, Casago Room: Carolina (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive For company owners and stakeholders, Andrew McConnell will moderate this important discussion with industry leaders about what the future holds in the vacation rental industry in the areas of revenue optimization, industry consolidation, the upcoming competitive environment, and homeowner retention, communications, and loyalty.
2:40 – 3:10 ICE CREAM SOCIAL, COLONIAL BALLROOM
3:10 – 3:50 TRAVELER DEMAND: WHY YOU NEED THE DATA NOW! Presenter: Amber Carpenter, CMO, Acme House Company and founder, Demand IQ Room: Pinckney (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Data Additional Tracks: Marketing, Foundational Revenue Management, Advanced Revenue Management To date, we have all relied upon booking data to reflect traveler demand. While this tells the picture of the demand you captured, it doesn’t tell the full story about the demand you failed to capture, or the market level demand that never made it your way. This session will help you understand Demand Data: What is it? Why are you losing money if you’re not using it? And how do you get started putting it to work for you?
ADVANCED REVENUE MANAGEMENT ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: REVENUE MANAGERS SIT DOWN TECH PROVIDERS (PART 2) Panel Discussion: Cameron Felton, Evolve; Sarah Franzen, Natural Retreats; Natalia Sutin, Vacasa; Emily Pattillo, Casiola, with the Industry’s Technology Providers
Primary Track: Advanced Revenue Management
BUILDING COMPETITIVE SETS: DEVELOPING COMP SETS AND TOOLS AVAILABLE Presenters: Tim Speicher, Buoy; Jamie Lane, AirDNA; and Jennifer Talbert, Key Data Room: Calhoun (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Foundational Revenue Management Additional Tracks: Data, Marketing, Executive Building competitive sets, aka comp sets, is challenging but necessary in building rate strategies. After last year’s DARM Conference, we realized that revenue managers were in need of a tool for comp sets. As a result, AirDNA and Key Data set out to help. In this panel, revenue managers will meet up with comp-set-tool providers to talk about what factors are used in building comparable comp sets and will discuss how to use technology to monitor competitive performance.
THE FUTURE OF VR TECHNOLOGY: HOW ARE TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES APPROACHING THE FUTURE? A PANEL WITH TECH LEADERS ABOUT FUTURE PLANS, CONSOLIDATION, AND CONNECTIVITY Panel Discussion: Eric Broughton, CSO, Inhabit IQ; Ryan Bailey, CEO, TravelNet Solutions; James Burrows, CEO, Rentals United; and Jeremy Gall, CEO Breezeway; and Moderated by Amy Hinote, VRM Intel Room: Carolina (Meeting Level) Primary Track: Executive Additional Tracks: Data, Foundational Revenue Management, Advanced Revenue Management, Marketing During this panel discussion led by Amy Hinote, we’ll learn more about what the VR tech environment is going to look like in the coming years. We’ve assembled a panel of C-level tech executives in our sector to discuss private equity, consolidation, road maps, and how we’ll connect in the future.
4:00 – 5:00 GENERAL SESSION: THE STATE OF THE VACATION RENTAL INDUSTRY WITH KEY DATA’S MELANIE BROWN AND CLOSING WITH SARAH AND T, CAROLINA BALLROOM
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Chart Your Course. From where you are to where you want to be. Bring your guest and lead data together to make better decisions and drive more direct bookings.
Capture Capitalize on existing vacation rental demand by capturing booked & unbooked guests across web, voice, OTA, and email channels
Convert Book direct guests with sales & marketing strategies that generate industry-leading conversion rates, ADRs, and profitability
Engage Engage guests, nurture repeat stays & build loyalty across channels throughout the booking and vacation rental stay experience
Optimize Glean insights into what campaigns are working to reach out at the right time with a complete view of leads and guests
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29 GLOSSARY
ADVERTISED PRICE The nightly price that a vacation rental manager (VRM) is presenting to the consumer.
ALGORITHM A series of repeatable steps for carrying out a certain type of task with data. As with data structures, people studying computer science learn about different algorithms and their suitability for various tasks. Specific data structures often play a role in how certain algorithms get implemented.
APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE (API) API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) Refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The term may also be applied to any machine that exhibits traits associated with a human mind such as learning and problem-solving.
AVAILABILITY, RATES & INVENTORY (ARI) The minimum data set that is required to be synchronized between a VRM and a distribution channel to enable online booking (a.k.a. ARRI, which also includes restrictions).
AVAILABLE NIGHTS Also known as Room Supply or Nights Available. The total number of nights that the VRM is authorized to rent out. Typically, this is the total number of nights less owner reservations and maintenance-related down-time.
AVAILABLE OCCUPANCY Calculates the percentage of guest nights out of the total nights available for guests to book. By comparison, occupancy, the traditional hospitality KPI, calculates the percentage of guest nights out of the total nights in the period, without considering the owner nights and hold nights. Because owner reservations and hold nights take up some of the nights typically, Available Occupancy is helpful to how well you’ve filled up the properties from the nights that were available for you to fill with guests.
AVERAGE BOOKING WINDOW Represents the average number of days between when the reservation is made by the guest and the check-in date. Average Booking Window is calculated as the average number of days the property is booked in advance of arrival for the selected period. Understanding the expected booking window for a property or group of properties helps you know when to adjust pricing by demonstrating when you should expect the property to book for certain seasons. Larger properties that sleep more people may have longer booking windows since they take more planning. Smaller properties typically have shorter booking windows. Booking windows are also different for different times of the year, and differ between markets.
AVERAGE DAILY RATE (ADR) The calculated average nightly rate for a property or group of properties. Calculated by dividing the total rental revenue by total nights sold. It is one of the most common financial indicators to measure performance in the vacation rental industry.
30 GLOSSARY
AVERAGE LENGTH OF STAY (ALOS) Calculated by dividing the total number of nights by the number of stays in a property or group of properties during a specified time period.
AVERAGE RATE INDEX (ARI) A vacation rental KPI that measures the performance of a VRM’s ADR compared to a competitive set during a specified time period.
BEST AVAILABLE RATE (BAR) The lowest available unqualified rate, representing the fair market value for a property for each day.
BEST RATE GUARANTEE (BRG) The promise that the unit price a consumer receives when booking directly with the VRM is the best rate offered in the marketplace. VRMs implement a Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) policy to drive consumers to book direct.
BILLBOARD EFFECT The theory that accommodations listed on third-party distribution sites gain a reservation benefit in addition to direct sales. That benefit, coined the “billboard effect,” claims a boost in reservations due to the property being listed on an OTA website. Would-be guests gain information about the property from its OTA listing, but then opt to book directly through a channel controlled by the VRM.
BOOKING CURVE A tool that visually displays bookings over a certain period of time (e.g. room pickup, bookings, and availability). Data is displayed in a graph which shows how bookings develop over time. The data needed to create a booking curve is usually taken from a Property Management System (PMS).
BOOKING ENGINE An application which helps support an online reservation. For VRMs, the Booking Engine commonly refers to the application included on a VRM’s website which facilitates online booking through an API connection to the Property Management System (PMS).
BOOKING PACE The rate at which reservations are made for a property or group of properties over a specified time period, usually compared to another specified time period. Many VRMs also collect competitive booking pace data for a set of like-type properties.
BOOKING WINDOW The number of days between when the reservation is made by the guest and the check-in date.
BUDGET Refers to the annual budget that sets the financial plan for the property for the next calendar or fiscal year. It includes a daily occupancy, rate and RevPAR by major market segments and feeds into the financial budget for the property. The budget shows percent change vs. last year and previous year by month and quarter.
CANCELED STAYS The number of guest stays for check-ins during a given period that canceled prior to arrival.
31 GLOSSARY
CANCELLATION RATE The percentage of reservations that canceled during a period.
CHANNEL FEE, OR CHANNEL HOST FEE Fee charged by a distribution channel, channel manager, or marketplace. Typically, this fee is deducted from the payment before the VRM collects it.
CHANNEL MANAGER An intermediator that provides connectivity between a VRM and third-party distribution channels. The channel manager keeps ARI in sync between the PMS and the third-party systems (a.k.a. Switch, Dumb Pipe, EDI).
CLOSED TO ARRIVAL (CTA) A yield tool used to close days out from reservations arriving on a particular day. This yield practice originated from the airlines and is not considered a good practice in VR revenue management.
COMMISSIONS The payments that a travel agent receives for each reservation made on their site. Commissons can also be used to define several other payment relations such as between Owners and Managers.
COMPETITIVE SET, OR “COMPS” A defined group of competitive properties that have a similar type, target market, location, and/or concept.
COMPLEX A building or community with multiple units (e.g. Condo-hotel, Condominiums, or Townhomes) usually managed by a Home Owners Association (HOA). Individual units are often managed by multiple VRMs.
CONDO-HOTEL Also known as a Hotel-condo or a Condotel. A building which is legally a condominium, but which is operated similar to a hotel with a front desk and onsite staff and services.
CONFIDENCE INTERVAL The probability that a value will fall between an upper and lower bound of a probability distribution. Data Scientists use confidence intervals to measure uncertainty. A higher probability associated with the confidence interval means that there is a greater degree of certainty that the parameter falls within the bounds of the interval. Therefore, a higher confidence level indicates that the parameters must be broader to ensure that level of confidence.
CONVERSION The transition by a customer from shopping or gathering information to taking an action such as purchasing or making an inquiry.
CONVERSION RATE The percentage of users who take a desired action. Also known as the Look-to-Book Ratio.
COST OF ACQUISITION The fees and commissions associated with a booking across all channels, including voice, brand.com and OTA.
32 GLOSSARY
CUSTOM FEES Additional fees unique to a property or a group of properties.
DATA INTEGRITY The accuracy and consistency (validity) of data over its lifecycle.
DATA SCIENCE A multi-disciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data.
DATA SCRAPING A technique in which a computer program extracts data from human-readable output coming from another program.
DATA WAREHOUSE A system used to do quick analysis of business trends using data from many sources.
DAY(S) BEFORE ARRIVAL The number of days before the stay date.
DEMAND The amount of interest in a product.
DEPTH OF INVENTORY The number of like-kind units available in a similar region or complex. Inventory can be rolled up onto Representative-Level channels or broken out for Key-Level channels. Example: There are 8 x 2BR/2BA Ocean View units (a.k.a., Key-Level w/ Depth.)
DIRECT BOOKING Direct bookings happen when a customer books directly through the VRM and not through a third-party channel.
DYNAMIC PRICING Dynamic pricing is a customer or user billing mode in which the price for a product frequently rotates based on market demand, growth, and other trends.
EBITDA Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization
FENCED RATE A rate that involves certain requirements in order to make the reservation, such as nonrefundable and non-cancelable reservations, or advanced purchase reservations. Fenced rates are more easily segmented.
FORECAST Expected revenue results based on analysis (occupancy and average rate included). Forecasts also typically refer to predicted demand.
33 GLOSSARY
GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (GDS) A network that enables automated transactions between VRMs and third-party distribution channels.
GROSS OPERATING PROFIT (GOP) Total Revenue - Operating Expenses
GROSS REVENUE, GROSS BOOKING REVENUE (GBR) Total revenue the VRM collects, including Guest Fees.
GUEST FEES Fees that the VRM charges the guest and are not part of the Rental Revenue (e.g. Cleaning, Booking, Pet, Parking, and Pool).
HOLD NIGHTS The number of nights unavailable for booking due to a hold (i.e. maintenance).
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI) A business metric used to evaluate factors crucial to the success of an organization (e.g. ADR, Occupancy Rate, Conversion Rate, and RevPAN).
KEY-LEVEL LISTING, OR KEY-LEVEL A unit-specific listing that represents an exact vacation rental unit. Example: Emerald by the Sea—Unit 312. This is a corner unit on the third floor with a view of the ocean. Individual homes are merchandised as Key-Level Listings (a.k.a., By the Door, Unit Specific).
LENGTH OF STAY (LOS) The number of nights a guest has booked at the property.
LOOK-TO-BOOK RATIO Used in the travel industry to show the percentage of website visitors (lookers) relative to the number who book on the website (bookers).
LOSE-IT RATE A rate where the property would be better off being unsold than sell at this rate.
MACHINE LEARNING Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it to learn for themselves.
MANAGED DISTRIBUTION A service that helps VRMs optimize online distribution. This includes channel managers and additional service providers such as consolidated contracting, consolidated accounting and reporting, additional content syndication services, revenue and yield management tools with consulting, analytics, transaction processing, and payment services.
34 GLOSSARY
MARKET PENETRATION INDEX (MPI) A metric used to determine whether the property is achieving its fair share of occupancy compared to a specific group of properties (i.e. a competitive set). It is calculated by taking the occupancy percentage of the property and dividing it by the occupancy percentage of the competitive set (competitive set data collected through a third-party provider). A MPI of above 1.00 indicates that the property is achieving more than its fair share, while below 1.00 suggests that the properties in the competitive set are ‘eating’ into the property’s ‘pie’. Note: Traditionally, revenue managers prefer to multiply the number by 100 (or convert into a percentage).
MARKET SHARE The percentage of business your property is receiving as compared to other properties in the market.
MERCHANT CHANNEL A distribution channel that charges the traveler’s credit card and sends the supplier a net rate (e.g. Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline).
MERCHANT OF RECORD (MOR) The party that charges the traveler’s credit card.
METASEARCH A type of search engine that aggregates inventory from several sources and presents it in a single space such as HomeToGo
MINIMUM LENGTH OF STAY, MINIMUM NIGHT STAY (MLOS) A restriction dictating the lowest number of nights a guest can stay at a property.
NET RATE The total amount received from a merchant distribution channel which is the amount the traveler paid minus the commissions and/or fees charged by the third-party distribution channel.
NET REVENUE PER AVAILABLE ROOM (NET RevPAR) Calculated by multiplying occupancy by ADR and then subtracting the overhead or costs associated with that room booking.
NET RevPAR Net Revenue Per Available Rooom Night after acquisition and S&M expense
OCCUPANCY INDEX The measure of your property occupancy percentage compared to the occupancy percentage of your competitive set. Formula: PROPERTY OCC/ competitive set OCC * 100.
OCCUPANCY RATE (OCC) 1) The percentage of total available nights that have been rented for a property or a group of properties over a specified time period. 2) The percentage of all rental units that are occupied or rented at a given time.
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ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY (OTA) An Internet-based accommodation and travel reservations system. Vacation rental managers typically provide inventory to OTAs, which sell the rooms in exchange for a commission.
OPEN NIGHTS Nights that remain open for guest stays, that are not otherwise already booked by guests (Nights Sold), owners (Owner Nights), or blocked off. This is useful for quickly determining the opportunity remaining for a given period. When combined with ADR for a period of similar rates it can also be useful in calculating the revenue opportunity remaining, or money still “left on the table.”
OTA SEARCH RANKING The order in which your property is listed on the OTA channel search results page.
OWNER REVENUE The revenue the property owner receives. Calculated by subtracting the VRM’s Commission from Rental Revenue.
PACE TO BUDGET How a property is performing relative to the budget that has been prepared for it.
PAY PER CLICK (PPC) A marketing technique employed when a marketer establishes links or advertising copy on a web page and agrees to pay a fee each time a web user clicks on those links.
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS Extracting information from data and using it to predict trends and behavior patterns.
PRICE ELASTICITY An economic measure that shows the responsiveness or “elasticity” of the demand for a product based on a change in its price.
PROMOTIONS, OR SPECIALS A discounted rate or an extra bonus when booking, such as “4th Night Free.”
PROPERTY In the vacation rental industry, a “property” refers to a vacation unit or home of any type.
PROPERTY GROUP For revenue managers and channel managers, this is a group of similar properties in a VRM’s inventory that are priced together.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (PMS) System of record for reservations and property data used by most vacation rental managers to store, retrieve and communicate data critical to their business.
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RACK RATE The full price at which units are sold to customers before discounts.
RATE PARITY Defined as maintaining consistent rates for the same property across all channels.
RENT PER AVAILABLE SLEEPS (RevPAS) RevPAR broken down by the number a property sleeps, calculates the amount of Unit Revenue per unit of sleeping capacity per night. Because RevPAR offers diminishing value when comparing different property types, RevPAS normalizes the data to allow comparisons across properties with different sleeping capacity. This allows you to directly compare the rental revenue per the sleeping occupancy over the number of available nights for properties that sleep 14 and properties that sleep 2.
REPRESENTATIVE STYLE LISTING, OR REP-LEVEL A listing that represents a certain lodging type in a multi-unit building or complex. This listing might have “Depth of Inventory” and different unit types. Example: 2BR/2BA Ocean View (a.k.a. Hotel Style Listings, By Unit Type, Allocate on Arrival).
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) The benefit (or return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment, and the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. For VRMs, typically calculated by dividing the rental revenue generated from a source by the cost of the source.
REVENUE GENERATING INDEX (RGI) OR RevPAR INDEX (RPI) A metric used to determine whether a property is achieving its fair share of revenue compared to a specific group of properties (i.e. a competitive set). It is calculated by taking the RevPAR of the property and dividing it by the RevPAR of the competitive set (competitive set data collected through a third-party provider). An RGI of above 1 indicates the property is achieving more than its fair share, while below 1 suggests that the properties in the competitive set are eating into the property’s pie. Traditionally, operators prefer to multiply the number by 100 (or convert into a percentage).
REVENUE MANAGEMENT The application of disciplined analytics that predict consumer behavior at the micro-market level, optimize product availability, and price to maximize revenue growth.
REVENUE PER AVAILABLE BEDROOM (RevPAB) RevPAR broken down by bedroom, calculates the amount of Unit Revenue earned per bedroom per night. Because RevPAR offers diminishing value when comparing different property types, RevPAB normalizes the data to allow comparisons across properties with different numbers of bedrooms. This allows you to directly compare the rental revenue per bedroom over the number of available nights for 10-bedrooms vs 2-bedrooms. It also provides a more meaningful KPI for comparing the traditional RevPAR across all properties when benchmarking against other companies, as well as for comparing all your properties against one another.
REVENUE PER AVAILABLE NIGHT (RevPAN) The revenue collected each night that a property is available to rent out. RevPAN is calculated by dividing rental revenue by the number of available nights for a property or group of properties.
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REVENUE PER AVAILABLE ROOM (RevPAR) A performance metric in the hotel industry that is calculated by multiplying a hotel’s ADR by its occupancy rate. A critical KPI for measuring revenue performance, RevPAR takes into account both the ADR at which you booked the property and percentage of number of nights it was booked (Occupancy). This provides a better indicator of overall performance when compared to looking at the ADR or the Occupancy alone. Compared to ADR or Occupancy as stand-alone metrics, RevPAR provides a more complete measure of your company’s success by giving you an overall picture of both rental revenue and occupancy.
REVENUE STRATEGY A holistic approach that enables collaboration and innovation across all departments of the company. By unifying teams around a common source of dynamic data and a company-wide mission focused on profitability, an organization can become more efficient, drive more direct engagement with customers and capture more revenue.
SYSTEM OF RECORD (SOR) A system of record (SOR) is an ISRS (information storage and retrieval system) that is the authoritative source for a particular data element in a system containing multiple sources of the same element. To ensure data integrity, there must be one—and only one—system of record for a given piece of information. This is typically a vacation rental manager’s PMS in the vacation rental industry.
THIRD-PARTY DISTRIBUTION External channels such as OTAs (e.g. Vrbo, Airbnb and Booking.com). Third-Party Distribution channels also include Tour Operators, Wholesalers, and GDS.
TOTAL REVENUE PER AVAILABLE RENTAL NIGHT (TRevPAR) Total revenue by the amount of available nights for a selected time period. For hoteliers, this metric is referred to as Total Revenue Per Available “Room” (TRevPAR) and typically includes total revenue for the period included food and beverage and all other revenue. Because most vacation rentals do not have F&B revenue and concierge revenue is still not widespread, TRevPAR only includes unit revenue and other revenue over the total nights in a given period.
TOTAL REVENUE PER OCCUPIED RENTAL NIGHT (TRevPOR) Total Revenue divided by the total guest nights for a selected time period.
TRAVELER FEE The fee charged directly to the consumer by an OTA which raises the total rate paid above the rate charged by the VRM or homeowner. Also called the “Service Fee” by HomeAway, Airbnb, and TripAdvisor.
UNCONSTRAINED DEMAND The forecast of how many properties you could sell if you had an unlimited number of properties.
VRM COMMISSION A predetermined fee charged by the VRM to the homeowner, as a percentage of rental revenue.
YIELD MANAGEMENT See Revenue Management. The process and discipline of making frequent adjustments in the price of a property in response to certain market factors, such as demand or competition.
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As the world’s leading provider of short-term rental data and analytics, AirDNA tracks the daily performance of over 10 million properties on Airbnb and Vrbo in 120,000 global markets. Through a combination of machine learning algorithms and source data on over 1 million listings, AirDNA has revolutionized pricing, benchmarking, and investing in alternative accommodations. Join the thousands of vacation rental operators using MarketMinder to gain a competitive edge. https://airdna.co
Founded in the heart of the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado, Bluetent is a digital agency with 18 years of experience serving the vacation rental industry. Our team of more than 75 experts are dedicated to our clients: we help vacation rental brands-of all sizes-develop well-rounded digital presences through direct booking websites, channel management, and digital/email marketing. http://bluetent.com/connect-with-us
BookingPal is the leading provider of distribution technology and Channel Management solutions for the vacation rental industry. BookingPal helps property management companies increase revenue, occupancy and efficiency through a fully managed distribution platform. The platform provides smooth, continuous, and real time connectivity between the world’s leading property management software systems and consumer travel websites such as Homes & Villas by Marriott International, Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, Google, VRBO, and TripAdvisor. https://bookingpal.com
Breezeway’s property care and operations platform helps coordinate, communicate, and verify detailed work at properties, and deliver the best service experience. Breezeway’s software and mobile apps have facilitated over 6M property tasks across 100+ million square feet, and help hundreds of short-term rental operators and hospitality professionals meet detailed service standards. Created by the founder of FlipKey (acquired by TripAdvisor), the Breezeway team is building the future of property care and service. https://www.breezeway.io/
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C2G Advisors is the leading advisory firm in the short-term vacation rental industry specializing in mergers and acquisitions, litigation consulting, and general consulting & real estate. With over $500M in transactions, we offer our clients a disciplined approach to their specific goal, and we bring our expertise in all elements to ensure success. Whether you are looking to expand through acquisition, sell your company, or obtain a business valuation, we believe that transparency and confidentiality are of utmost importance and will hold your hand throughout the process from cradle-to-grave(C2G). www.c2gadvisors.com
Manage smarter with Escapia Vacation Rental Software. Escapia is a proven, full-featured property management solution offering business guidance you can trust and automation to simplify. With innovative tools backed by Expedia Group data, it’s never been easier to optimize your vacation rental business. Escapia is rolling out game-changing functionality focused on increased distribution, business intelligence, and automation. Contact us today to see what’s new with Escapia! Call 877-238-2287 to learn more. http://escapia.com
Expedia Group, Inc. companies power travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success, while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers. The Expedia Group family of brands includes: Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, Egencia®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™. https://www.expediagroup.com
Extenteam is the #1 trusted staffing solutions provider for property management professionals operating short-term rentals, vacation homes, multifamily communities, and boutique hotel properties. Our dedicated remote team members work exclusively for you to supercharge your guest services, reservations, leasing, digital marketing, accounting, and other critical support functions. www.extenteam.com
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When you partner with Generali, you’re working with a company with 30 years of experience and backed by one of the world’s largest insurance providers. Our success is built on our reputation for assisting travelers in the most difficult of circumstances and delivering travel protection solutions designed to meet your needs. https://www.generalitravelinsurance.com/sales/vacation-rental
Inhabit IQ is a unique collective of tech-forward companies serving the vacation and property management industries. Our brands’ strategic partnerships deliver best-in-class software solutions and services while fostering innovation and collaboration with like-minded entrepreneurs and industry leaders. We believe that property managers should have the opportunity to choose platforms that best support their business goals and benefit from strategic partnerships across our ecosystem. https://inhabitiq.com
Conversion Focused Websites & Digital Marketing. Founded in 1999, InterCoastal Net Designs (ICND) is an independently owned, forward-thinking company specialized in vacation rental website development and strategic marketing solutions to drive conversions. Whether that’s more reservations, leads, or owners, our solutions lead to direct revenue for your company. We are dedicated to being first-to-market with features and functionality that will keep you at peak performance by providing a better user experience for guests and value for your owners. Our experienced digital marketing team is committed to providing the latest technology and techniques to maintain and improve your online presence and drive qualified traffic to your website. Our marketing and web development, together with our superior customer support, provide the ideal agency experience to gain exposure and maximize online reservations. https://www.icoastalnet.com/contact
Key Data is the vacation rental industry’s trusted source for real-time data & analytics. VRM Intel, VRMA, and over 1,600 of the leading property managers worldwide turn to Key Data for accurate, up to date insights into what’s happening in the vacation rental space. Our dashboards offer property managers around the globe better visibility into their own performance, as well as the most accurate view of benchmarking in their local markets. For more information reach out to us at sales@keydatadashboard.com. https://keydatadashboard.com
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LMPM is next-generation property management software. Founded by a technology entrepreneur and vacation rental owner, LMPM is enterprise-grade, fast, and modern. We think you’ll be amazed when you book a demo. Here’s a quick summary of LMPM: Boost efficiency with our revolutionary real-time trust accounting system and quickly create trips with our amazing trip manager. Connect to all popular OTAs, take direct bookings with an included WordPress e-commerce and SEO website, and set up automation with easy-touse and powerful logic tools. Your owners can access a portal where they can see real-time property performance and make bookings. Visit our website at LMPM.com/book-a-demo/ to discover the next generation. https://lmpm.com
For hospitality professionals, getting and keeping profitable guests is tougher than ever. NAVIS has created the only complete Hospitality CRM with a proven plan that helps reservations, Revenue Management, and Marketing truly operate as one team and make more money. https://naviscrm.com
NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc. is a leading designer and provider of innovative displays. We offer the widest range of display products on the market. NEC is orchestrating a brighter world with the quality and reliability of its products and outstanding customer service. NEC Display Solutions offers the personal touch of a small business but with global outreach. A 100-year-old company with almost $3 billion in revenue. GuestView Guide from NEC Display is a wall-mounted digital concierge to help vacation rental management companies earn more from each guest’s stay, reduce their support burden, and delight their guests for higher ratings and more direct re-bookings. https://guestviewguide.com/
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NextPax is the most advanced channel management technology provider for vacation rentals, hotels, and resorts. NextPax specializes in providing complex connectivity solutions between property management systems and distribution channels worldwide. The extensive NextPax network is continuously growing by connecting new professional property managers, hotels and channels to the network. Complete connectivity is provided for all content: photos, descriptions, amenities, calendars, pricing and booking retrieval. All of this is done on a completely automated basis. NextPax co-develops with industry partners like Booking.com, Vrbo, Google, Expedia, Airbnb and TripAdvisor https://nextpax.com/
PriceLabs is an all-in-one revenue management solution for the short-term rental industry. We offer dynamic pricing, market data, and portfolio analytics to help optimize revenue and save hours on implementation. Years of customer feedback and industry experience have led our team to create some of the top revenue management tools for hosts and professional property managers. Founded in 2014, PriceLabs has priced over 100,000 listings in 100+ countries and continues to grow rapidly. https://hello.pricelabs.co/
The inventory acquisition marketplace for property managers. Propersum generates new inventory for property managers by showing property buyers and REALTORS® the best vacation homes for sale combined with interested property managers. Propersum is available in 30+ US locations and has distributed more than $125m in management proposals to interested vacation rental buyers, REALTORS®, and homeowners. www.propersum.com
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Q4Launch is a Charleston-based digital hospitality marketing company. We work with vacation rental companies across the country, helping them get found online, boost their conversions, increase guest stays and add homeowners to their portfolio. Our integrated hospitality marketing process includes SEO, PPC, responsive website design, content creation, social media management, email marketing, lead generation, brand and logo design. With our holistic approach, customers have experienced a 95% success rate. Your success starts with our awesome team. We work together to combine multiple hospitality marketing tactics that reach your guests at every phase of their booking journey. We also help target homeowners looking to partner with a VRM to help you increase your inventory. Our marketing team works with you to create a killer strategy that’s unique to your brand. Then our content creators produce interesting, keyword-focused landing pages and blogs to help you rank on Google and drive traffic to your site. We’ll even create and manage all your social media accounts because who has time to spend hours on Facebook when you’re busy running a business? Email marketing campaigns, full website optimization, and monthly progress reports complete the Q4Launch marketing package. We could go into more detail, but at the end of the day, our team members are dedicated to one thing: producing results! We deliver a consistent message to your audience as they conduct research and make comparisons, turning them from prospects to partners or repeat guests. Ready to drive more revenue? Swing by Q4Launch’s booth https://q4launch.com/
RealTech Webmasters provides technology and marketing solutions for vacation rental managers. From custom websites and seamless integrations with major property management software providers, we help you level-up your business and earn more direct bookings. https://www.realtechvr.com/
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Red Sky Travel Insurance has been providing coverage exclusively to the vacation rental industry in coastal, lake, ski and mountain destinations since 2008. We meet both the needs of guests and the business goals of vacation rental managers through our comprehensive travel insurance plan designs-Sun Trip Preserver, Ski Trip Preserver, Ski Pass Preserver and Mountain Trip Preserver. Our team of experienced vacation rental travel insurance veterans personally provide “high touch” service, support, and training to Vacation Rental Management Companies, vacation planners, and valued guests. Frequent, on-site, personal training helps with the successful growth in sales and promotion of travel insurance. Red Sky was founded on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, our years of experience helping vacation rental managers weather the storm of unforeseen disruptions to their guests’ vacations make Red Sky a trusted advisor. Thorough planning and quick response are in our nature. With Red Sky, you’ll experience the best of both worlds-the personal attention of a core team of professionals to address your needs and the strong reputation of our underwriter. https://www.redskyinsurance.com/
Rentals United empowers enterprise managers, PMS software partners and OTAs to grow through efficient, reliable and market-leading channel management, and other innovations. The Rentals United network consists of advanced connections to the big OTAs, top-performing niche sites, and book direct websites to help businesses master marketing, gain competitive advantage, and optimize growth strategies. With a team of 100 people and 4 offices in Europe and the USA, the company prides itself on helping the largest property managers worldwide with their business strategies. As a trusted knowledge resource for the short-term rental industry, Rentals United is The Channel Manager. https://rentalsunited.com/
Rented is your partner in vacation rental revenue management. Meet Art, the Automated Revenue Tool! Rented’s dynamic pricing software for vacation rentals is built by industry pros for industry pros. Art helps rental managers set the right price for every property, every night. We know that no piece of software will replace your expertise, but Art will help you and your team save time, stay in control, and price confidently. Art delivers dynamic pricing recommendations, helps you make informed adjustments, and automatically updates your rates across your property management system (PMS) and major booking channels. You’ll benefit from advanced pricing models, simple yet powerful customization tools, and easy PMS integration. Stop by our booth and meet with our Revenue Management Team for a demo of Art, a free account to try out Art, and the chance to win a $1000 gift card! https://rented.com
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RevPARTY is a boutique consulting firm that specializes in revenue management strategy in the vacation rental, short-term rental, and traditional hospitality industries. RevPARTY combines unique experience with analytical expertise to drive growth in revenue, direct bookings, brand loyalty, marketing, and listing optimization. revpartyconsulting.com
Build a best-in-class revenue strategy team and culture. In collaboration with you, we analyze your data and market data to uncover valuable insights, so that your systems, business processes, and revenue can be optimized. Our superpower is our ability to bring technology, revenue management, and distribution together. With a combined 25+ years of revenue management experience and graduate-level degrees, the Richer Logic team combines the learnings of resorts, casinos, hotels, restaurants, and vacation rental experience to inform an integrated approach so you can steal market share like a boss. https://www.richerlogic.com/
StayFi is vacation rental WiFi that collects valuable guest data. StayFi makes it easy to brand WiFi, collect guest emails, and increase direct bookings – all while providing a better WiFi experience for guests. There are no monthly costs for your first property with StayFi. Go to stayfi.com and try creating your own custom branded WiFi splash page. https://stayfi.com/free-service-with-your-first-device/
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Streamline is a powerful vacation rental/property management software built by property managers to help maximize conversions, efficiency, and revenue. Features include: - CRM/Lead Management Pro for higher conversions - RevMaxMD/Dynamic Pricing Tools/Revenue Management to increase revenue - HomeOwner Recruitment Tools to grow your business - Next Gen Communication/Automation to improve the guest experience - StreamPhone/Call Technology for better guest relationships - Direct OTA Distribution for seamless bookings with OTA partners - Open API to build your business how you want to build it Streamline is the industry’s TRUE All-in-one solution. Find out why so many of the industry’s largest and most successful vacation rental companies partner with Streamline. https://www.streamlinevrs.com/
TravelNet Solutions (TNS) is on a mission to transform how hospitality works. Our Atlas digital marketing and website services help independent hoteliers and property managers of all sizes reimagine how they drive direct bookings, while our flagship Track software platform makes their operations more efficient and sophisticated. Modern tools have helped level the playing field, but the game is changed, and you can’t keep playing it the same way. Capture and convert more guest leads, operate more smoothly, and outperform your competition with TNS. We are on a mission to transform how hospitality works. Our Atlas and Track solutions make your operations more efficient and sophisticated. We help capture and covert more guest leads, operate more smoothly and help you level the playing field. https://tnsinc.com/
TruPlace improves the overall guest experience by providing vacation rental brands with full-service photography, virtual tour and video needs. Launched in 2003, TruPlace is known for its one-of-a-kind Interactive Floor Plan and knowledgeable customer service. With over 100,000 virtual tours created and 16 million photos processed, TruPlace is a trusted source in the vacation rental industry. Visit www.TruPlace.com/truplacetours to learn more. https://go.truplace.com/
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The #1 Property Acquisition Platform - Vintory is the first and only CRM and Sales & Marketing Automation Platform designed exclusively for Vacation Rental Managers to grow their inventory. Growing your business is hard, and managing the many demands that come with it is even harder. Vintory is your simple to set-up, easy to use solution to cut the clutter and consistently add new properties to your program. Grow smarter, faster and bigger with built in automation that will keep you organized and one step ahead of the competition. - Capture more homeowners through our omnichannel marketing approach - Convert more leads with automatic lead nurturing and personalized AI - Know which campaigns are hitting the mark with centralized dashboards Whether you’re a new business or growing enterprise, Vintory has the technology, community and expertise to accelerate your growth. Capture more leads, close more deals, and grow your revenue with Vintory-your inventory growth machine. https://vintory.com
We’re all about happy guests! Touch Stay digital guidebooks help hosts and property managers put a bigger smile on their guests’ faces. Happy guests ask fewer questions and leave better reviews. They remember, refer, and book again too. Replace in-accommodation binders with a digital version of everything your guests will ever need to know - before, during and after their stay. Guests feel communicated with. Hosts and managers have a single point of property information. Answering guest questions is as simple as pointing them to a section of the guide, if they ask at all. App-like in functionality, completely customize it to your brand, including your brand colors and logo. Your insider inspiration and practical tips are supported by easy and intuitive navigation. Touch Stay is designed to improve communication with guests and reduce the headaches of guest management. In helping to make guests happier, it’s part of your revenue growth arsenal. https://touchstay.com/
Wheelhouse’s story started seven years ago when we began building the best revenue management and business intelligence tool designed for professional operators in the short-term rental space. We built this best-in-class, date-science-backed Pricing Engine complete with the only Bookings Based Model in the industry to fulfill our promise of maximizing revenue and optimizing occupancy for our users while taking the guesswork out of pricing. Our mission is to turn hosts, property managers, and homeowners into superheroes through education by empowering them to make our pricing recommendations their own while benefiting from game-changing automation and insights. Today we publish our research to encourage our community of thousands of operators to understand and audit our recommendations and hold us accountable to data transparency. Wheelhouse is a tight-knit community where you can always reach someone to talk to, build a pricing strategy you’re confident in, and accomplish your most aspirational business goals to become the highest performing operator in your market. https://www.usewheelhouse.com/
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The Whichard & Woolard Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors specializes in helping business owners, especially those in the VRM industry, plan for successful financial outcomes. Through conversation and discovery, we help clients prioritize what is most important and craft plans that are result oriented. It’s all about having a plan; whether it is retirement lifestyle, business transition planning, estate and legacy or philanthropic, with a plan in place, we can evaluate results and make adjustments when priorities change. The practice is managed by Bill Whichard and John Woolard, who both are Private Wealth Financial Advisors, as we are able to coordinate with a team of specialized professionals and leverage the vast resources of Wells Fargo & Company. These resources allow us to work with clients who have highly complex and demanding wealth management needs. Our practice is passionate about making a meaningful difference in the lives of our clients. We enjoy helping people achieve meaningful life financial goals http://www.whichardwoolard.wfadv.com/
We partner with the best vacation rental managers and build relationships with the top activities each destination has to offer, to provide the leading guest experience program in the USA and Canada. Since 1996, we have delivered turn-key activity programs to many of the vacation rental industry’s most successful and prestigious property management companies. Our activity programs are integral to our participating partners’ efforts to boost occupancy, drive revenue, and differentiate each property they manage from that of the competition. With Xplorie, partners can provide guests an unforgettable vacation experience with our free-to-guest activity programs, Xplorie Enabled Voice Assistants, a full suite of Xplorie Program marketing assets including dynamic program emails, and so much more. To learn more visit, xplorie.com/partner/ https://xplorie.com
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2021 Vacation Rental Women’s Summit presented by Rented and VRM Intel
December 1 – 2
Ritz-Carlton New Orleans
Join us for this epic holiday celebration designed to inspire, educate, and support the women of the vacation rental industry.
New Keynote Announcement We’re excited to welcome keynote speakers, Drs. Emily and Amelia Nagoski, authors of the best-selling book, Burnout: The Secret to Completing the Stress Cycle. Featured on Brené Brown’s podcast, the Nagoski twins show us that women experience burnout differently than men, and they provide a simple, science-based plan to help women minimize stress, manage emotions, and live a more joyful life.
“This book is a gift! I’ve been practicing their strategies, and it’s a total game-changer.” — BRÉNE BROWN, PHD, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Dare to Lead
The cost to attend is $849, and the Ritz-Carlton’s room rate is $249 per night. Visit website for hotel group code.
Our goal is that you and your team will leave this special event feeling celebrated, educated, inspired, rejuvenated, and ready to take on the future and embrace all the opportunities it has to offer! Tickets and hotel rooms are going fast. Sign up soon to secure your spot.
vacationrentalwomen.com
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The #1 Trusted Data & Analytics Provider Key Data is the trusted data & analytics provider of real-time vacation rental market data for the short term rental industry. Through seamless integrations with property management systems, Key Data provides business intelligence tools which replace hours of compiling spreadsheets and provides property managers with accurate, reliable data that is anonymized, confidential, and trusted.
1,600+ Property Managers Track & Improve their Performance with Key Data
KeyDataDashboard.com
Sales@KeyDataDashboard.com