VRM Intel Magazine Summer 2018

SUMMER 2018

The Rise of Brands in Vacation Rentals Promoting Safe Vacation Rentals

A Case for Advocacy

Building Trust

in Today’s World

Owner Retention Strategies

HomeAway’s Jeff Hurst and Booking.com’s Olivier Grémillon Discuss Fees, Growth, and the Future VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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PaaS

(partnership-as-a-service)

As I sat in Valerie Hawkins’ class at our Partner Conference this year, watching her shine on stage and teach other partners about phone reservation skills, I found myself thinking back to the very first time I met this tenacious property manager. It was just a few months after her company, Perdido Key Realty, joined LiveRez, and we were in her area visiting a few other Florida partners. We sat down together in her cozy office and I mentioned we were meeting later with a brand new LiveRez partner in her area who hadn’t yet gone live. Valerie got this burst of energy and said, “We would love to go help them out with the transition!”

“

We see this firsthand from partners in San Diego who are sharing their resources and experiences battling tough vacation rental legislation. From managers in Mexico who like to visit with all the new LiveRez partners in their area and help them master the software and talk best practices. And, just this past year as the LiveRez family joined forces to create LiveRelief, a movement to support partners going through tough times. Having suffered massive losses in a past hurricane, Valerie was front and center again, helping lead the charge on the LiveRelief silent auction, where LiveRez partners raised more than $80,000 to support other partners devastated by the recent hurricanes.

I’ll never forget the look on that new partner’s face when I told them about Valerie’s offer. You see, when you join with LiveRez, you quickly realize our partners are YOUR partners.”

I’ll never forget the look on that new partner’s face when I told them about Valerie’s offer. You see, when you join with LiveRez, you quickly realize our partners are YOUR partners. You become part of this passionate network of local professional property managers, that are all driven to grow their business, learn from each other, and stand united.

Sharing ideas, visiting other partners’ operations, marketing each other’s properties, and working to build each other up… That’s the norm for our community of partners. And, it’s why all of us at LiveRez believe so strongly in the power of partnership with professional property managers.

Tina Upson, COO

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

Contents

46

54 The Rise of Brands in Vacation Rentals

SUMMER 2018

On the Cover

46 HomeAway’s Jeff Hurst and Booking.com’s Olivier Grémillon Discuss Fees, Growth, and Future 31 A Case for Advocacy

The Rise of Brands in Vacation Rentals Promoting Safe

Building Trust

in Today’s World

68 Owner Retention Strategies

Vacation Rentals

23 Building Trust in Today’s World

HomeAway’s Jeff Hurst and Booking.com’s Olivier Grémillon Discuss Fees, Growth, and the Future

72 Promoting Safe Vacation Rentals

Customer Service 21 Maximizing Online Chat to Convert Online Prospects 23 Building Trust in Today’s World 41 Back-of-the-House Customer Service Training

Regulations 31 A Case for Advocacy

A Case for Advocacy

Owner Retention Strategies

Cover Photo: Veranda Beach Resort and Vacation Rentals in Lake Osoyoos, Washington

Business 26 Using Total Compensation Statements to Attract New Employees 43 Reducing Risk in the Sale of Your Business 67 Real Estate and Vacation Rental Relationship Status: It's Complicated 76 Handing Over Key to the Rockies: Michael and Julie Magliocchetti Tell Their Story

34 Avoid Regional Economic Collapse: Join an Association 37 Study Examines Noise Levels in Short-Term Rentals

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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We advertise your properties everywhere guests book travel online. Come see us at VRMA! Sign up now at join.booking.com

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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Contents Owner Communications and Property Care

64 Preventive Maintenance 68 Re-recruiting Marketing Strategies for Owner Retention 70 Anatomy of a Vacation Rental Owner Newsletter 72 Why Professional Managers Need to Promote Safe Vacation Rentals

Marketing 54 The Rise of Brands in Vacation Rentals 59 Trip Consideration: Facebook's New Advertising Feature 62 Build Guest Loyalty With Insights From Industry Experts

OTAs

46 HomeAway's Jeff Hurst Provides Insight into Company's Trajectory 50 Booking.com's Olivier GrĂŠmillon Discusses Fees, Market Growth, and Future

Technology 57 Lexicon Travel's CEO Talks Lessons Learned at LeisureLink and Future Plans 79 Smart Home Savings Using Automation

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Education 84 Inaugural Vacation Rental Women's Summit Set for February 19-20, 2019 88 Calendar of Events

68 Owner Retention Strategies 82 Great Experiences Begin with Genuine Connections

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68 VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM intel magazine

Dear Readers, Each year, when we put together the summer issue, I am always shocked the year is half over . . . halfway through our timeline for hitting revenue targets, departmental goals, and business objectives. Where did the time go?

July brings a certain annual reflection when we take stock of our businesses and the state of the industry as a whole. Looking at 2018’s vacation rental market, increased awareness of vacation rentals among consumers, strong domestic tourism spending, and an uptick in the number of drive-to vacations have contributed to a rising tide for many vacation rental managers. As we were reminded at June’s VRM Intel Live seminar in Breckenridge, it is true that a rising tide lifts all boats. However, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s celebrated poem says, “The tide rises, the tide falls.” When the tide recedes, who will remain afloat and who will be left stranded? If you ask one hundred industry experts, you will get one hundred opinions, but I believe now is the time to determine and articulate your unique selling proposition (USP).

Entrepreneur describes a USP as “the factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition.” What is it that your company does better than any other? Answering this question is critical in assessing whether a company will survive the tide’s ebbs and flows. Gather supporting evidence through comparative data, performance metrics, and testimonials and find ways to create barriers to entry that keep competitors from achieving your USP—then shout it from the rooftops. Let guests, homeowners, vendors, staff, the media, and the community know—using an authentic tone, facts, and quotes—your USP.

The summer of 2018 will come and go. Some vacation rental managers will have risen to new heights of performance, while others will determine that it is time to sell. For those who have hit their stride and are ready to move ahead to leverage technology, relationships, and marketing, the sky’s the limit. Yet in today’s market, deciding to sell isn’t a failure.

In fact, now may be the right time to get top dollar for a vacation rental company. I recently sold the data company I founded (now known as Key Data Dashboard), and I certainly don’t feel like a failure for doing so.

Consolidation is happening, and current multiples are strong.

In this issue, you will find insightful interviews with HomeAway’s CCO Jeff Hurst and Booking.com’s VP Olivier Grémillon. You will also read an eye-opening article by Justin Ford about vacation rental safety, an enlightening study comparing noise levels by David Krauss, a much-needed discussion about preventive maintenance by Jeremiah Gall, and a deep dive into the future of brands by Alex Nigg. This issue also addresses building trust, attracting new employees, managing guest expectations, and much more. At VRM Intel, we strive daily to deliver accurate, unbiased information about what is going on in this ever-changing industry.

Your feedback guides what we write, so let us know what is keeping you up at night and what issues you would like us to investigate. We don’t have all the answers, but we promise to work hard to find them.

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you at an industry event this fall.

Sincerely,

Amy Hinote

Editor-in-Chief

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

Editor-in-Chief Amy Hinote

Director of Design and Production

Donato Berbelja

Vice President Alexa Nota Contributors Ali Cammelletti

David Krauss

Shea Courtney

Durk Johnson

Matt Curtis

Sue Jones

Ben Edwards

Julie Magliocchetti

Justin Ford

Michael Magliocchetti

Jeremiah Gall

Sean Miller

Olivier Grémillon

Phillip Minardi

Jeff Hurst

Erica Muller

Doug Kennedy

Kelly Mutual

David Kornblith

Lela Newell

Joel Inman

Alex Nigg

Advertising Tracy Adams, tracy.adams@vrmintel.com Address VRM Intel Magazine LLC

1222 Chicago Avenue, Suite 604, Evanston, IL 60202 To subscribe to VRM Intel Magazine to request additional copies, contact info@vrmintel.com or go to www.vrmintel.com

© Copyright 2018 VRM Intel Magazine LLC. All rights reserved.

We cannot accept responsibility for any mistakes or misprints.

Reproduction in part or whole is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher. We cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs damaged in the post. Material sent on speculation, unless enclosed with a stamped addressed envelope, will not be returned to sender. VRM Intel is not responsible and will not be held liable for the opinions expressed by contributing authors. VRM Intel Magazine LLC reserve rights of ownership.

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Maximizing Online Chat

When Used Correctly, Online Chat Provides a New Way to Convert Online Prospects

By Douglas Kennedy, President, Kennedy Training Network

T

hese days, more and more vendors are providing chat options for vacation rental companies. While this is a new medium for some companies, others have been using chat options for a decade or longer. Either way, it is important to recognize what a fantastic tool this is for reaching out and connecting with those web-surfing guests who might otherwise book with another vacation rental company or via an expensive third-party online travel agent (OTA).

When conducting reservations sales training for all types of lodging operations, I frequently get to peek behind the scenes and see firsthand the live chat exchanges taking place in real time and via chat logs.

From what I see, the majority of chats are regarding policies or procedures or are initiated by those who have questions regarding existing bookings. Examples include: “The reservation is in my name, but my sister’s family is arriving early. Can they check in before we get there?” or “I’m bringing a baby. Do you have a crib and, if so, what size sheets does it need?”

Other times I see those who are ready to book, but who still have simple questions such as, “Are there TVs in all the bedrooms?” or “Do we need to bring our own beach towels?” Occasionally the questions are a bit more complicated but are still fairly easy to answer via chat.

For example, “I want to rent the Paradise Is Here home, which is just perfect. I see it doesn’t allow pets, but can you check with the owner and tell them about my dog?

He never barks, he doesn’t shed, he has no fleas, and he never pees.” Of course, the response is “Unfortunately, no,” which is easy to chat back.

Yet, when I look carefully at these exchanges, what always surprises me is how many times prospective guests send over complex questions that potentially take up a great deal of time (and a lot of typing) to properly and fully respond. For example, “Which accommodation would you recommend for honeymooners?” or “What’s the difference between the standard and premium category homes?” or “Is this a good choice for families? I have a five- and fifteen-year-old and a grandma. What is there to do for all of them?”

In my training programs, I always advocate for a phone call in these situations. A few of my participants resist making the phone call at first. The most common response from participants is, “If they would have wanted to talk on the phone, they would have called us! These are ‘chat’ people, Doug!”

However, once they give my idea a try, they find out that some guests are very open to talking. It’s just that, for whatever reason, they started out via chat. Based on anecdotal evidence either they don’t want to wait on hold, they don’t want to have to press a long sequence of numbers to navigate an auto-attendant, or they think

their call will go to some distant call center agent who has no clue.

I have yet to hear friends say, “It’s because I’m antisocial and don’t want to talk to a real person.”

When you think about it, we can be so much more effective in the vacation experience business when we engage an undecided guest via phone conversation than in a text-only format.

Yes, happy emoticons are nice in a chat, but we can share a real smile in our voice in old-school phone calls; we can show our enthusiasm and demonstrate empathy for their travel plans or circumstances. We can better read the guest when we can hear his or her reactions, vocalizations, and inflections. While this can also save us from spending a long time chatting back and forth, more importantly, it can have a huge impact on our ability to turn chat inquiries into bookings, which will turn web-surfing prospects into direct bookings. On top of all those reasons, we can better ensure that we are selling the right home or condo to the right guest and thus manage the guest’s expectations.

So, when you find yourself fielding complex questions that make it obvious that the sender has not yet decided to book, try click-

ing back a response like this: “That’s a great question! Are you, by chance, near a phone so I can give you a quick call to help you plan this vacation?” Of course, some might answer by saying, “No, I’m in a waiting room” or “No, I’m at my kid’s piano recital” or “No, I’m supposed to be working and my boss is in the next cubicle over!”

However, you will also find that a good percentage of them say, “Sure! Call me!”

Chat should not be looked at as a separate medium for communicating with guests but instead as a new way to entice web-surfing prospects into an authentic and genuine conversation about their vacation plans.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

By Ali Cammelletti

Building Trust

in Today’s World M

ost people are familiar with the concept of trust when it comes to personal relationships, but what about professional relationships?

I have been working with more and more companies that struggle with trust. A lack of trust in the company culture will lead to internal and external challenges. When I think of companies that struggle with trust, it’s apparent that it’s never about a single major situation; it’s about many issues that happen over time.

Ron Zemke, author of Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service, said that when working with customers, you should practice the following techniques to build trust:

 Communicate frequently  Develop openness  Show warmth  Stick to the truth  Show confidence Keep these techniques at the forefront of your mind when working with internal and external customers. I have surveyed different employees over time, and when I ask them which of the techniques are

present in their companies, I often hear, “Show confidence?” They usually say it like a question. This clues me in that there are trust challenges in the company culture.

A breakdown in communication is one of the most common issues that leads to a lack of trust. When employees and guests feel like they know what is going on, it builds trust. When they are told the company operates on a “need-to-know” basis, it compromises transparency and makes them feel like things are being hidden from them. A severe lack of communication can even create a fearbased environment. When employees are not proactive communicators, it can upset customers as well, such as when guests are not told that the home they rented is still under construction.

The best thing we can do is to be transparent and act out of love by ensuring that guests feel informed and empowered to make decisions for themselves. When we don’t share information, we are acting out of fear that the guest won’t rent the home and revenue will be lost.

When developing openness, it’s important to get vulnerable.

Vulnerability can look different to everyone. For reservation sales calls, sharing something personal that makes a connection with the caller is key. Examples include connecting with a guest about his or her hometown if you grew up in the same community or sharing some of your favorite local trails if you are an avid hiker. But keep VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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in mind that you don’t want to make a caller regret getting vulnerable by sharing something personal that overshadows the situation.

In an extreme example, this could happen if a caller shared that he or she is coming because a family member is in the last phases of life due to cancer and the employee shared that he has had family members pass from cancer in the last two years.

For leaders, the act of becoming vulnerable might be the underlying issue that has made them unapproachable or unhappy over the last year, leading to stress in the company. When we actually get vulnerable, it builds trust. Yet we are in a world that doesn’t always embrace vulnerability, and sometimes makes people feel like it makes them appear weak instead of confident. If you fear vulnerability, I encourage you to watch Brene Brown’s Ted Talk on vulnerability. It changed my life!

We are living in a world where people crave connection, and vulnerability builds this connection. Showing warmth includes empathy and compassion. If a potential guest calls and shares that he and his family are bringing his mother for her last trip back to the community where they grew up, acknowledge how hard that must be. Make sure you don’t simply say nothing at all. Instead say, “I can’t even imagine how hard this must be for you and your family.”

But don’t try to put a silver lining on it by saying, “At least she will get to see her hometown for the last time.”

 Do your job well  Be congruent  Honor commitments  Communicate transparently  Be compassionate toward others Lewicki and Tomlinson believe that trust is a function of character and competence. I have found that some employees aren’t able to live up to some of these techniques because they are held back by the desire to over-give. When they can’t or won’t honor their commitments, they are bogged down with shame, holding them back from communicating transparently. I have also found that some employees have high expectations for themselves, translating to high expectations of others that often hinder their ability to be compassionate.

Simon Sinek believes that a team is not a group of people working together. A team is a group of people who trust each other. I encourage everyone to think about the different concepts of trust.

Dig deep to see where you can improve your trust techniques as an employee or a leader, and build reliability by keeping your word.

}

Leaders can also show compassion when employees are experiencing something terrible in their personal lives by acknowledging that they need personal time.

Another example is sharing an employee’s situation with another employee. Brown references keeping information that is personal to others in the “vault.” Some people think that talking about others and their issues builds connections, but actually, it creates distrust. I always wonder, if you are talking about others to me, what are you saying to others about me?

Always stick with the truth. It sounds pretty simple, right? But “avoiding information” can also translate to not telling the truth.

If a house has dated furniture and décor, don’t sell it like it has just been remodeled. Use words such as “rustic” or “comfortable” instead. As a leader, don’t encourage your employees to lie about homes or local construction projects that are underway. It always comes back around: “What we allow, we encourage.” When situations are not communicated truthfully, it will affect how employees communicate with guests.

}

“Trust is the glue of life. It is the most essential ingredient in effective communication.

It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

Stephen R. Covey

Confidence comes through in words, tone, and body language.

Using a good amount of “ums” when communicating may express a lack of confidence (similar to dead air). I remember a past manager who used to say, “Bad on me,” when he would try new things and they didn’t work out. Instead, be confident and willing to try new things. Learn from them, and be okay with failure. Brainstorm with your team on how a bad situation could have been handled differently, and use it as a trust- and team-building experience. There is a difference between being humble and lacking confidence.

Roy Lewicki and Edward C. Tomlinson from Ohio State University found the following techniques for cultivating trust in working relationships:

Ali Cammelletti of Cammelletti Consulting has more than 28 years of experience in the hospitality industry. She has served in many capacities within the industry, from working as a frontline restaurant and lodging employee to building and owning a successful event-planning business. She currently runs a consulting company that coaches and trains frontline staff and managers and helps them improve their leadership skills. .

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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By Sue Jones, Owner, HR4VR

Total Compensation Statements

Are a Powerful Marketing Strategy for Employers

T

he national unemployment rate, as of May 2018, of 3.8 percent is the lowest it has been since April 2000.

With unemployment under four percent and the greatest number of jobs available since 2000, today’s strong labor market is putting many job seekers in the driver’s seat, which is starting to translate into increased turnover and pay increases.

With declining unemployment, it is even more important to communicate the value of your employees’ total compensation package so that they fully understand the value of the benefits the company offers to them and their families. Providing employees with total compensation statements helps businesses clearly communicate the value of their wages, paid time off, health insurance, retirement benefits, training and development, and other fringe benefits such as company cell phones, tablets, and laptops.

Most employees understand how much they make in wages. What they don’t understand and frequently miss out on is the value of the various benefits that you provide to them as part of their employment package with your company. The value of these benefits is often overlooked and is commonly referred to as your employee’s “hidden paycheck.” Total compensation statements are a great way to illustrate for your employees their full compensation package, including the amount you pay on their behalf. Your employees’ total compensation statement is one of the best employment marketing tools you can use to differentiate yourself as an employer of choice.

You can use total compensation statements to do the following:  Provide your employees with a realistic picture of their total compensation, which leads to increased motivation, engagement, and retention.

 Assist potential candidates to understand how strong your compensation and benefits are in comparison to other employment offers.  Communicate your company culture and how you value your employees through your compensation and benefits.

Creating these statements is an investment, but it is one that can really pay off. Don’t trust your paycheck stubs to communicate the value of your employees’ total compensation.

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

Several years ago, while teaching at Oregon State University, I asked students to create a presentation on their companies’ benefits.

During one of the presentations, a student didn’t mention health insurance benefits, which I knew the company offered. When I asked him why, he explained that he didn’t think about it because it was 100% paid for by his employer and not reflected on his paystub.

Imagine if this employee saw an employee deduction for health insurance of $0.00 and a company contribution for health insurance of $175.00 every two weeks on his paystub. That’s a powerful marketing message. Don’t miss the opportunity to communicate this value, both through total compensation statements and your employees’ paystubs.

What types of things should you include in a total compensation statement? Include anything and everything you can think of that your business provides as a benefit to employees, such as the following:  Base wages

 On-call wages

 Manager on duty wages  Overtime wages

 Bonuses and incentives (annual and low-cost rewards and recognition)  Paid time off benefits (sick, vacation, personal days)  Paid holidays

 Paid leaves (jury, bereavement, short-term/long-term disability)

 Government-mandated benefits (Social Security, Medicare, federal unemployment tax, and workers’ compensation)  Insurance premiums (health, dental, vision, life, short-term/ long-term disability)  401(k) retirement savings plan/profit-sharing contributions  Training and development (conferences, seminars, work shops, tuition assistance)

 Monthly subscription costs per person (apps, payroll, benefits administration)  Professional licenses and industry memberships  Cell phone/company computer/tablet  Internet/data plans

 Mileage reimbursements

 Company-provided lunches

 Company-provided logo wear/uniforms

 Company-provided vehicle/transportation  Company discount programs

 Comped stays in your managed rentals  Gym memberships  What else?

How you communicate the value of the total compensation statements is key to ensuring your employees read and understand them.

Listed below are five things to consider to be sure that your total compensation statements are compelling and attention grabbing.

B Involve your marketing department.

A total compensation statement is a marketing communication to employees. Just like your communications to homeowners and guests, you are marketing your company to your current (and prospective) employees. Your total compensation statements should promote your company as an employer of choice. It’s your brand, after all.

C Keep it simple, easy to read, and visually appealing.

Use a lot of color and blank space. Keep your language simple and clear. Try not to use acronyms such as PTO, FICA, FUTA, or other abbreviations that employees might not understand. If your statement is cluttered, boring, or difficult to understand, your employees will not easily comprehend the value of the benefits you provide. Remember, keep it simple for the greatest impact.

D Use graphs and charts to tell a story.

If an employee’s annual wages are $35,000 and the value of the total compensation including benefits is $50,000, the hidden paycheck you are providing this employee is an additional $15,000, which is equivalent to 42.8% of the wages. Imagine what that might look like in a simple pie chart.

Another chart might illustrate the employee’s missed opportunity in not participating in a company-sponsored retirement plan that provides an employer match. An employee who is earning $35,000 and is not contributing to the company-sponsored 401(k) retirement plan could be missing out on an additional $1,050 of compensation annually. This example is based on a 401(k) retirement plan that provides a 3 percent match on the first 3 percent of the employee’s contribution. Nobody likes to leave money on the table.

Show them the money they are losing out on by not contributing to the company’s 401(k) retirement plan.

E Choose the right time to distribute your statements.

Each business is different, so carefully consider the best timing to distribute your total compensation statements to your employees. I recommend that employers consider creating and distributing to-

tal compensation statements to employees in February each year.

There are a couple of reasons for this:  Employees receive their W-2s by January 31 and can easily be misled about their annual wages when they see their taxable earnings. Because taxable earnings are usually lower than annual wages due to the employee’s pre-tax, federal, and state tax deductions, employees can be disappointed with their current wages.

 Creating total compensation statements takes work to gather data residing mostly in your payroll and accounting systems.

Using your payroll information at year end to create statements in February is much easier than in other months during the year because you have already collected a lot of the data to create and distribute your employee W-2s.

Consider the following example: An employee earning $35,000 receives his W2 statement January 31 indicating that his taxable income is $30,000 after taxes, insurance and 401(k) deductions. Now imagine that this same employee receives his total compensation statement three weeks later, indicating that the total value of his compensation while working for your company is $50,000.

This paints a significantly different picture than the W-2 statement he received.

F Choose the right method to distribute your statements.

The method you choose to distribute your statements to your employees is equally important. Whether you choose to deliver the statement in person, during a conversation, or by mailing it to your employees’ residences, up-front thought is required. Which delivery option provides the most value to your employees depends on how knowledgeable your employees are about their compensation and benefits.

I recommend using your total compensation statements as an opportunity for managers to have open dialogue and discussions with their employees about their pay so that they truly understand the value of what the company offers. Investing your time to help your employees understand their total compensation makes the process even more valuable.

Communicating through total compensation statements is a good business decision when it comes to showing employees the full extent of the value of working for your company. However, don’t just think about using total compensation statements as a one-time event. They can be a very effective marketing tool to communicate the value of working at your company when you are seeing a rise in turnover or lack of qualified applicants.

Total compensation statements are highly effective when recruiting talent to your company. Let’s say you’re interviewing an employee for a position that pays $42,000 a year. Think how powerful it could be to show applicants a projected total compensation statement that lays out, in simple terms, what their total compensation might look like if they joined your company vs. others they may be interviewing with. Using total compensation statements as a part of your recruitment process is a strategic business decision that differentiates your company from others competing for the same employees in your local areas.

Market your investment in your employees, increasing their motivation, engagement, and retention in your workplace, by implementing a regular system for creating and distributing total compensation statements. There is no better time than the present to begin sharing this information with your employees.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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A Case for Advocacy

By Philip Minardi, Head of Public Affairs, Expedia Group

The direct impact of local regulations on your bottom line and three simple steps to begin protecting your local vacation rental industry It wasn’t his story that shook me. It was the way he fought back the tears.

O

n any given night, the US government and the public affairs team at Expedia Group—made up of vacation rental policy and communications staff based in Washington, DC, Austin, and Seattle—host happy hour events in communities facing new vacation rental laws. They collaborate with property managers on the minutia of policy discussions and assist in building local alliances of managers and owners to push back against poorly crafted, and sometimes nefariously intended, policies.

On June 14, the team was in Crescent City for a happy hour discussion with over 110 HomeAway partners and members of the Alliance for Neighborhood Prosperity (ANP), a well-organized advocacy group for vacation rental stakeholders in New Orleans.

Over cocktails and finger food, a lively dialogue took place covering the city’s new moratorium on vacation rental permits, the release of a new economic impact report from the University of New Orleans, and the ANP’s new video series entitled We Are the Faces of NOLA Vacation Rentals.

Once formal presentations were done, the fun started. We huddled with local managers and owners over pints of NOLA-brewed IPA and heard their stories of how they came to the vacation rental industry—some from real estate, others seeking a change from the cubicle farms of corporate America. One of those managers was East Coast Dave. Dave owns a management company that oversees properties across the city. Emigrating from the East Coast fifteen years ago and having a dangerous obsession with the city’s noodle food scene, David has come to call NOLA home. When he started telling me about his business and the impact a ban on vacation rentals would have on not only himself but also the individuals who work for him and the homeowners who rely upon him, the jovial conversation changed. Quickly, he began to get emotional when talking about all that was at stake. It wasn’t his story that shook me.

It was the way he fought back the tears.

David’s story is not unique, is it? Over the last few years, the vacation rental industry has seen an explosion in the number of cities trying to implement misguided laws or harmful bans, and the toll it takes on members of our industry is real. This year alone, we have seen similar anti-vacation rental efforts pop up in cities from Los VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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-

Angeles to Charleston to Washington, DC. To be clear, most of the vacation rental industry does not oppose regulations. Across the country, managers support reasonable regulations that protect property rights while addressing community concerns, but in too many of these cities, reasonable regulations have never been the goal.

Rather, opposition groups, sometimes well-meaning but misinformed and other times incentivized by special interests, are pushing for onerous restrictions or blanket bans on vacation rental activity. In Charleston, traditional nonowner-occupied vacation rentals have been outlawed. In Austin, they’re set to be phased out by 2020. In Boston, our nearly one-hundred-year-old industry is set to be banned. Oftentimes, the negative consequences of lost local revenue, loss of income to managers and homeowners, and the hindrance to the travel and tourism community are not adequately examined before local policymakers push through odious regulations. At the end of the day, it’s the vacation rental industry—more specifically its manager and owner community—that bear the brunt of these dangerous new laws. Whether through lost supply, increased costs, hard-to-follow regulations and registration schemes, or outright illegalization of traditional vacation rentals, rules made at city hall or the statehouse could have a dangerous impact on small and large rental management firms, platforms, and homeowners alike.

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Theodore Roosevelt

As an industry, we know the intrinsic value that vacation rentals bring to communities and economies; it’s a part of our daily lives.

But all too often we let the anti-short-term rental crowd define us. Newspapers across the nation are strewn with stories regarding “illegal hotels” and a perceived wave of fraternity men and bachelorette ladies coming into their communities. All too rarely do they hear from Dave or the millions of responsible managers who work tirelessly to welcome traveling families to their little slice of heaven. In an age of mass communication, instant digital updates, and constant social media conversation, it is critical that we manage the narrative for our industry. It is up to us to take action and organize and set the record straight regarding the benefits that vacation rentals bring to our families and communities. Your simple engagement can help protect your business from an uncertain policy landscape.

Can we prevent negative policies from being proposed in your community? Maybe not. But we can take simple steps to be prepared when they do. As local vacation rental leaders, you can heed the advice of President Teddy Roosevelt by doing “What you can, where you are, with what you have.”

Every time I engage with policymakers at the local level, I hear a similar sentiment: local officials want to hear real experiences from their constituents. They care about your opinions on this issue, your personal story managing and operating vacation rentals. You are the one who elects them, and, consequently, your voice is the voice that matters most.

It was a small band of managers who helped shape a national best practice in Breckenridge, Colorado. It was emails from over 600 managers and owners in twenty-four hours in Nashville, Tennessee, that slowed the march toward poor regulations. It was the voice 32

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

and collaboration of local managers in Palm Springs, California, who fought off a ban at the ballot box, securing 70 percent of the vote! An industry united can stand up to burdensome legislation and unite behind sensible policies.

There are many ways to get involved in local, state, and federal advocacy efforts today, and Expedia Group’s Government and Public Affairs team is here to help every step of the way. Here are three simple ways to start getting engaged today: Sign up to be an industry advocate: Simply sign up at https://actnow. io/VRMIntel to let us know you want to get involved, read more about your local regulations, and learn how you can start engaging.

Join or start a local advocacy alliance: There are over 200 active vacation rental alliances, groups, and associations in communities coast-to-coast. Reach out to fellow managers in your city, the Expedia Group policy team, or the Vacation Rental Management Association to explore what groups may already exist. If you are interested in starting a new group, Expedia Group can help you connect with fellow managers and owners in your community, develop a platform for communicating among members, and effectively leverage your collective voice with policymakers using digital engagement platforms.

Share your voice: We must stand up and bear witness to the incredible value we bring to our communities. The conversations around short-term rental policy are happening in local chamber of commerce and Realtor Association meetings, on community-based online forums like Nextdoor.com, on Facebook and Twitter, at city council meetings, or just in the aisles of your grocery store. Making the effort to share your story in some or all of these forums not only sets the record straight but inspires others to do the same.

If Dave’s passion resonates with you, you think your vacation rentals are a travel industry asset worth protecting, and you want to be an active defender of your business from onerous regulations, now is the time to get involved.

The threats to the vacation rental industry and the broader travel and tourism economy are real.

By coming together and using our collective voice to define our industry and the value we bring to communities, we can change the narrative and help craft fair, effective, and enforceable policies.

Now is the time to be a leader in your vacation rental community and protect it for future generations of owners, managers, and travelers to enjoy.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out; Expedia Group’s policy team is here to help.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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Avoid Regional Economic Collapse:

Join an Association

By Matt Curtis

R

ecently, my team and I attended the United States Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston where we heard time and time again that mayors want help from local groups to make sound decisions that can be viewed as best practices.

We also heard that regions need to work together to recognize the positive impact of cooperation and avoid the negative impact that can harm a region when local governments don’t work together.

One other thing became clear when speaking to mayors: existing, locally active organizations have the presence, the understanding, and the relationships to navigate city hall more effectively. They provide a uniform voice to a problem and a collaborative approach to a solution.

These existing, locally active organizations can help mayors—and city council members—make sound decisions based on data. And they help elected officials understand the greater impact of their decisions on the larger region.

While big-city governments are grappling with emerging technologies and the growth of online, short-term rentals, long-time property managers in vacation destination regions are feeling the re-

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

verberating impacts of new restrictions as small destination towns begin to copy those rules.

Why should this matter to a vacation rental property manager?

Because your business, and your local visitors’ industry, can be negatively affected without much warning, leaving you stunned and wondering what happened.

Your business could collapse.

In the summer of 1984 Mary Decker was an Olympic superstar headed for greatness. But in a bizarre instant, barefoot South African runner Zola Budd caused Decker to fall in a heap and lose a race she was expected to win.

That same summer my family visited a few vacation destinations that included the Shenandoah Mountains, the Texas coast, and the Poconos. I wore my Mary Decker digital watch throughout the summer, and now I feel ridiculous that I did. But the other thoughts I have from those trips are just as clear, and I will have those memories for the rest of my life.

That’s what vacation rentals give to families: great memories and tremendous experiences.

Vacation rentals also offer great opportunities to every community.

The overall economic impact of vacation rental activity includes the traveler’s daily spending, the taxes rentals generate, and the support

of local businesses. And vacation rentals also provide a greater impact: the tremendous word-of-mouth promotion of each destination for the great memories they inspired.

But there is a growing problem for vacation rentals and vacation destination communities—the growing “local economic dampening effect” based on a bizarre array of local restrictions.

And there is a growing problem for vacation destination regions— the “negative regional echo” of one community’s restrictions that affect travel behavior and spending across an entire region.

If one prominent mountain town is known for making it bizarrely difficult for a traveling family to rent a vacation home, that means retailers, restaurants, outfitters, and more across the region lose the potential for a positive economic impact.

And think deeper: if that mountain town creates a polarizing effect for travelers visiting the greater area, then vacation homes in neighboring towns also lose their opportunities to rent effectively.

And just like that, the local tourism economy faces an unexpected decline that costs them the chance to win the race. They are tripped up like Mary Decker was.

No mayor or town manager wants to impose negative regulations, but they often do not have all of the information—or engagement—to understand the impacts of their new rules.

But what can one vacation rental property manager do about it?

Join an existing, locally active association and educate its members on the importance of your business.

Local associations, such as the chamber of commerce, board of realtors, destination marketing association, or visitors bureau, have existing relationships with regional government. Those existing associations know how to work collaboratively and cooperatively with decision makers; they know how to access and organize needed data, and they know how to position an argument based on community concerns.

Our group has been working with a variety of cities around the world on vacation rental regulations, and time and time again we see that the active participation by local associations can help a vacation rental manager’s effort.

Today, in the areas where my family traveled in the Mary Decker summer of 1984, vacation rental property managers are finding success by working with locally active associations.

In the shadow of the Shenandoah Mountains, one vacation rental manager has found success through early, active participation with the chamber of commerce. The Luray-Page Chamber has studied and discussed the economic impact brought to the area by travelers using vacation rentals. While some travelers will stay in one of the area’s many hotels, traveling families and groups staying for longer periods have expressed a strong desire to rent homes.

Travelers to the Luray and Page County area take advantage of many of the area’s terrific amenities, most notably Luray Caverns, Arrowhead Lake, and the many art and music festivals.

The chamber of commerce can serve as a conduit between the area vacation rental property managers and the town and county staff. The resources the chamber can bring will help the local decision makers choose a wise path and create best practices. And the chamber also can help the property manager learn how local government works so the manager will know what to say, how to say it, and to whom.

Along the coast of Texas, property managers have found immense success in working with their local convention and visitors bureau.

The Galveston Island Convention and Visitors Bureau reviewed vacation rentals long ago and found that home rentals contributed a significant amount to the hotel occupancy tax. The state and local taxes help pay for visitors’ amenities in the area and help keep Galveston’s economy thriving.

Through early and active involvement with the visitors bureau, local property managers were able to count on its support during discussions of vacation rental regulations. The bureau was able to serve as a third-party voice and help the city council understand the importance of vacation rentals to the area economy while serving as a leader for the property managers by helping them understand how to speak effectively and persuasively.

In the corner of northeastern Pennsylvania, along the beautiful Pocono Mountains, property managers have stayed actively engaged with the Pocono Association of Realtors. That group recently held a short-term rental summit for township managers and code enforcement and elected officials to discuss the value vacation rentals bring to the community and the best and worst practices for writing regulations.

The property managers in the Pocono Mountains work closely with the association of realtors to show the positive impact of home investment, construction, and sales of vacation rentals. The collaborative effort has worked to discuss how tourism dollars positively affect area businesses and the overall economy. The group also has worked to dispel the myth that vacation rentals could become workforce or affordable housing options if severe restrictions were adopted.

How can you get started?

Do your research: Find associations that are active and have a desire to further the vacation rental industry. Three great groups to investigate are the chamber of commerce, the visitors bureau, and the association of realtors.

Start now: Local governments can act on passing regulations of vacation rentals within days of initial discussion. To check the pulse of your community, get engaged today and tell your association about the value vacation rentals offer and your role in the local economy.

When you become an active member in an existing local association you can help that group educate and inform mayors and city managers on how best to view your business. In addition, you can help your fellow association members understand the local economic dampening effect that can occur if bad policies are enacted and the potential negative regional echo that could collapse part of the visitors’ industry and negatively affect area businesses.

Do your research on area associations, join one quickly, and help promote your community as a great place to create fond memories while helping to grow your local and regional economies.

About Matt Curtis

Matt Curtis is the founder of GPS Policy Group, a government consulting firm focused on assisting local governments to create effective regulations for the “New Economy.” Matt served for years as the deputy to two mayors of Austin, Texas, spent years as a leading voice in the “Sharing Economy” regulatory discussions, and sits on the board of the Vacation Rental Managers Association.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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Summer 2018 VRM Intel Magazine | Spring 2018

A whole lot

of noise

By David Krauss, Co-founder, NoiseAware

Study compares average noise levels in short-term rentals and long-term occupied homes

W

hen Henry Ford’s Model T rolled off the assembly line in 1908, the existing rules of the road were instantly rendered inadequate. In the following decade, pedestrian and passenger fatalities caused by driver misconduct, such as speeding and drunk driving, compelled regulators to respond. Were all drivers culpable for the negative outcomes that drove the legislation? Certainly not. Was it necessary to create regulations to promote public safety? Of course.

An obvious parallel exists today as the tidal wave of legislation rises to address the (perceived) negative outcomes of the burgeoning short-term vacation rental industry.

In this article, I endeavor to look at the “noise issue” using data from two NoiseAware exploratory studies. The first study com-

pared average noise levels in short-term rentals with noise levels in long-term occupied homes. This eight-week study took place in Charleston across thirty-four short-term rentals and long-term occupied homes. Long-term occupied homes included both tenants with twelve-month leases and owner-occupied properties. This study was conducted in partnership with HomeAway.

The second study evaluated noise monitoring technology’s ability to resolve noise disturbances more efficiently than relying on code enforcement. This study compared the City of Palm Springs’ published vacation rental hotline data with the data produced by 181 Palm Springs vacation rental homes equipped with noise monitoring systems. This study was conducted in partnership with the Palm Springs Vacation Rental Tourism Association.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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What were the results?

Charleston Study: The Charleston study sampled over 2.9 million minutes and did not find evidence that the average short-term rental was louder than the average long-term occupied home. In fact, the short-term rental properties were quieter than long-term occupied homes four out of seven days of the week—Sunday through Wednesday.

As for which units appeared to have the highest average volume, sleeping capacity most distinctly correlated positively with loudness, not whether a property was used for short-term or long-term occupancy.

Short-term rentalproperties properties were quieter than long-term occuShort-term rental were quieter than long-term occupied homes 4 out of 7 days of the week — Sunday through Wednesday. pied homes 4 out of 7 days of the week - sunday trough wednesday.

SUN

MON

TUES

WED

THUR

FRI

SAT

Palm Springs Study: During the six-month study period from September 4, 2017, to March 11, 2018, an analysis of the Palm Springs Vacation Rental Department data shows that the average response time for the 348 calls was thirty-seven minutes. During the same period, in the vacation rental homes equipped with noise monitoring systems, the average time from noise alert to resolution was twenty-two minutes. Noise monitoring reduced the resolution time 41 percent from thirty-seven minutes to twenty-two minutes.

Noise monitoring reduced the resolution time 41% from 37 minutes to 22 minutes.

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 The positive correlation of maximum capacity with loudness indicates that the higher the number of occupants at a property—whether short-term or long-term—the greater the chance of potential noise issues.

The results of the Palm Springs study indicate the following:  Noise nuisance issues are more efficiently resolved using technology than relying on neighbor complaints and code enforcement.  Resolution of noise issues can be achieved using noise monitoring systems without relying on neighbors to take any action.

Why are these results important?

Vacation rental managers know that the narrative of loud party houses is overblown. Never before has there been data like this available that supports the counter-narrative: that vacation rental properties can be great neighbors. In the regulatory arena, these first-of-their-kind exploratory studies can be powerful tools in the toolbox.

Bringing data to the table is critical in legislative debates. With cities, counties, and more recently, states considering regulatory actions, having data like this should lead to more balanced consideration. We’ve all heard of the neighbors who show up at City Hall with tales of unruly, loud behavior at the vacation rental next door. Those stories have often driven the narrative that short-term rentals are incompatible with neighborliness. However, the antidote to sensational anecdotes is context and relevant additional information.

These studies help shift the regulatory conversation from punishment and enforcement to an orientation around proactive, self-sufficient solutions. Cities do not want to police low-priority noise nuisance issues—at short-term rentals or long-term residences. So, educating legislators about the existence and effectiveness of noise monitoring technology tempers the inclination to overregulate.

The ability to self-police noise issues using technology is a powerful concept, and one that both regulators and neighbors can support.

22

Just as the Model T ushered the automobile onto Main Street, short-term rentals are now squarely in the mainstream. Because history tends to repeat itself, we are smack in the middle of the reactionary regulatory period. Driver misconduct led to the first wave of automobile regulations, so it should be no surprise that the collateral impacts of short-term rentals on neighbors and neighborhoods are being hyper-scrutinized.

Noise monitoring resolution What do these results mean? reduced the With noise nuisance issues high on the list of neighbor concerns, it is minutes. critical that we have information at our disposal to make these time 41% from 37 minutes to 22

The results of the Charleston study indicate the following:

 Living next to a short-term rental does not necessarily mean you will have a louder neighbor than living next to a long-term occupant.

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

two critical points: short-term rentals do not inherently make for bad neighbors, and when noise issues do arise, there are solutions available to bring efficient resolution without relying on neighbors to lift a finger.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

39

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With top-notch service, a 24-hour claims team, and the financial strength of a publicly held insurance brokerage, you can trust that we’ll make the success of your business and the safety of your guests our top priority.

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

Back-of-the-House

Customer Service Training

R

By Durk V. Johnson, Industry Consultant and Executive Director, Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals

ecently, my wife and I spent our anniversary at a hotel on the Oregon coast. It was a unique date because it marked the first time in our lives that we have been married as long as we were single: twenty-four years.

One night, my wife called the front desk and asked for a maintenance technician to come to our room and fix the drain in the tub because it was not draining properly. Fast forward a few minutes later and the maintenance tech knocks on the door. My wife answers it. The tech says he is there to fix the drain and heads straight to the bathroom. After several minutes of plunging (yes, he brought a plunger when a Zip-It was also needed) and grunting loudly, he took apart the drain plug and promptly announced that the hair wad had been removed and that the drain plug in the tub would not work. He told us we would only be able to take a shower instead of a bath. Then, he abruptly left.

Here are a couple of items to note from this story: B The maintenance tech did not say hello to my wife. (Oh, she was super miffed about this!)

C He only brought a plunger when he should have brought two tools: a plunger and a Zip-It. D While he worked, he grunted and groaned as he plunged the drain and took the drain plug apart.

E When he left, he did not ask if there was anything else we needed or inquire how our stay was going.

The maintenance tech detracted from the marriage milestone my wife and I were experiencing. While the poor customer service did not ruin our time together, it will always be attached to our memories of our twenty-fourth anniversary at that resort.

Customer service is critically important for the back-of-the-house staff. In the podcast Sea to Ski with Sarah and T, the hosts Tim Cafferty and Sarah Bradford explain in Season 1: Episode 5 that the back-of-the-house-staff are the face of the company.

This is so true!

Think about it; who on the staff team do the guest spend the most time with and have a greatest chance of seeing? The back-of-thehouse staff.

Customer service training must be a part of the initial training a new employee receives and part of the ongoing training that all staff members receive.

Companies should train employees on the following:  How to shake hands with clean or dirty hands  How to look someone in the eye  How to announce their presence when entering a property  How to interact with guests  How to stand with confidence  What to do with their hands and feet as they stand and talk with guests Once the initial training is complete, then retraining needs to happen each week.

In a stand-up meeting, the group retraining that occurs before everyone heads out to work should include taking five minutes to review a customer service principle. Groups should celebrate and read the guest comment cards that mention instances of the great customer service given.

In a day when “old-fashioned” customer service is a rarity, making the effort, especially in the height of the season, to provide great customer service will set you and your company apart.

If you are looking for great customer service material, read The Neon Signs of Service by Hollie Stiel. It was written for hospitality professionals by a hospitality professional. You can use each chapter for a two-minute customer service training in your group each morning.

It can also help you create your company’s own customer service program.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

41

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(888) 304-1405 42

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

By Ben Edwards, President, Weatherby Consulting

Reducing Risk in the Sale

of Your Vacation Rental Business

T

he sale of your vacation rental business will be the largest and, in many cases, the most important transaction in your career. It is a material transaction that requires patience, knowledge, and diligence. Having your eyes wide open is a phrase often used in business and nothing could be truer than when selling your business. If you are considering an exit, success is determined by a number of factors. Obtaining the maximum purchase price is obviously a primary consideration, but equally important is reducing your risk before closing. When the business is sold, having contingent risk, or opening yourself up to personal liability, is a strong consideration when choosing the right buyer.

Risk can manifest itself in numerous ways. The most common risk component in the vacation rental industry is having a material portion of the purchase price tied to future unit count. As you enter the transaction, careful consideration should be paid to material issues that could arise after closing, and if a large portion of your purchase price payout is tied to the number of contracts on the program six months to a year down the road, then that may be too much risk to incur.

If you are considering a reduction in future purchase price payout for properties that terminate from the rental program, understanding the buyer’s business model and transition program is crucial.

The following are just a few points to understand before moving forward:

B Does your business model and that of the buyer align?

If your business is high touch, high service, or luxury in nature, both business models should be carefully reviewed if you’re considering a sale to a buyer who operates remotely, regionally, or nationally. Out-of-state call centers or operations and overreliance on technology, as opposed to people, are a couple of areas where the businesses may not match. If your homeowners are used to dealing with a specific person or place their trust in key staff, their allegiance may not survive the employee turnover that often times takes place subsequent to closing.

C Is the buyer willing to charge the same management commission?

In numerous cases, buyers will change the management commission of properties under management after closing. Many owners will have significant issues with contract changes, especially changes in management commission.

D Is your future purchase price payment properly secured?

Many sellers engage in some type of owner financing. Ensuring that you have a valid promissory note and guarantee is imperative. Buyers may have a clever response as to why they cannot provide a note or guarantee to ensure the purchase price is paid in full. When constructing a promissory note, special consideration should be paid to external parties who may have a first mortgage on the buyer’s business. In the event of a default, other lienholders, partners, or lenders may be legally ahead of your note position.

This will reduce the seller’s eventual recourse in the event of a default. If you decide to engage in any seller financing, it is important to ensure that your promissory note is in first position in the event of default.

Second, ensuring that you are receiving a guarantee from an entity with assets and an operating business is equally as important. We’ve seen buyers willing to offer a corporate guarantee only to find out that an LLC was set up weeks earlier to limit any recourse or shield liability from the buyer’s operating business.

In any case, if the risk seems too great to proceed in the sale of your business, it is best to keep the business. It’s better not to do a deal than to do a bad one. Selling a vacation rental business is a material event that should be thoughtfully considered before moving forward.

Prior preparation and a focus on certain key business areas will ensure the business is poised for maximum value. If you’d like more information about selling your business, please give Ben Edwards a call at Weatherby Consulting today. We routinely provide valuations at no cost to business owners who may be interested in pursuing a business sale.

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

43

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

45

D

espite increasing competition from Airbnb and Booking.com, HomeAway remains the undeniable leader in delivering third-party revenue for core vacation markets in the United States. Expedia’s purchase of the company in late 2015 resulted in significant changes to the business model which caused friction among suppliers, but the company has recently shifted its philosophy to cater more to managers and owners and to preserve its leading position in whole home vacation rentals.

We reached out to HomeAway’s chief commercial officer Jeff Hurst to take a deeper dive into HomeAway’s trajectory, business model, and technology outlook.

Hurst joined HomeAway in 2010 as the global director of strategy and planning and assisted the company in completing its IPO in 2011. In 2012 he transitioned to lead HomeAway’s commerce initiatives as the global VP of e-commerce where he was responsible for enabling easy and secure payments across the HomeAway sites as well as implementing online booking for travelers and commission-based pricing for owners. Hurst currently oversees strategy and growth businesses, including business development, global revenue, e-commerce initiatives, and HomeAway’s activities in Asia Pacific.

Industry Growth and Competition Amy Hinote (AH): HomeAway has a huge advantage in traditional US vacation rentals. Do you plan to put more focus on expanding internationally? and where does HomeAway see the most inventory growth now and in the future?

JH: Growing in markets outside the United States has been our priority for several years, and we have made significant progress, especially in Europe. The transition to a transactional business model and consolidation of our European brands has allowed us to invest more in performance marketing, which has increased bookings in Europe.

HomeAway’s Jeff Hurst Discusses Industry Growth, Technology, and HomeAway’s Business Model 46

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

To grow the HomeAway market, we are focused on not only expanding our inventory but also improving the experience for travelers as they are introduced to the idea of renting a vacation home. We see most growth opportunities in urban destinations around the world and in destinations outside the United States including emerging markets in Asia and South America. Our distribution partnership with Expedia makes both growth areas particularly compelling.

AH: Are there any key industry trends that HomeAway feels will dramatically affect the vacation rental industry?

JH: Although vacation rentals are growing in popularity, there is still a tremendous opportunity for meaningful growth: in the United States, private accommodations represent less than 20 percent of total lodging. Consistency in the vacation rental booking experience helps travelers who have been easily booking hotel rooms to become regular customers of HomeAway, and we will reach new potential travelers who may book on many different devices (mobile, desktop, tablet, phone). As vacation rentals become even more mainstream, we expect to see convergence on payment and cancellation policies. Technology and digital assistants will help vacation home rentals close the gap on concierge services and other amenities travelers enjoy at hotels.

AH: In looking at the growth of the vacation rental industry in traditional markets, as opposed to urban markets, do you believe the traditional vacation rental market is growing, maturing, or contracting?

JH: We believe there are still many growth opportunities in the traditional vacation rental industry. Just last quarter, HomeAway had $3.9 billion in gross bookings, an increase of 46 percent year-overyear. We have grown strongly and steadily for more than ten years.

We expect that to continue as awareness grows about HomeAway.

AH: Is HomeAway planning to add shared housing inventory to compete with Airbnb?

JH: Travelers who choose vacation homes over hotels tend to do so because they want more space, more privacy, and more value for their money. These features are especially important to families and groups, our core customer base. For that reason, we do not allow shared spaces at HomeAway.

AH: Do you believe Google and/or Amazon will disrupt the vacation rental funnel?

JH: Our $130 billion industry has been in a constant state of disruption since HomeAway was founded. The vacation rental market has evolved, and we have seen all sizes of competitors come and go. We are confident we can grow substantially because of our ten years of success.

HomeAway’s Business Model

AH: Some of HomeAway’s recent policies have caused anxiety among your supplier base. Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom said, “With respect to the property managers’ displeasure and how those are going… I would say that broadly speaking, the property manager and owner community are adjusting to the changes.” Do you believe that property managers will eventually adjust?

JH: As we invest more in marketing, these changes will give property managers more distribution, more data and insights, and ultimately, more bookings. Admittedly, we have made missteps, but we will continue using customer feedback to improve our service and increase its value for property managers who use our sites and products.

AH: Regarding the new off-platform attribution policy, under your terms of service, property managers are required to submit to HomeAway audits. Is there internal concern about the potential loss of supply based on the new policies?

JH: The only intent of the off-platform attribution policy is to ensure HomeAway is compensated for the value we provide property managers so they can receive bookings. We are always eager to hear feedback from managers that could improve our programs, products, and policies.

In the case of audit rights, we listened to the feedback of property managers and have removed audit rights from our terms and conditions.

AH: In your Premier Partner Pledge, you require that managers and owners “keep their rates equal to or lower than rates listed on other advertising websites for the same property.” How can a manager or owner do this if he/she doesn’t know what traveler fee HomeAway is charging to guests?

JH: We ask Premier Partners to post the same nightly rate across all advertising channels so travelers can book the same property at the same affordable rate. This is consistent with the expectation that Premier Partners will provide the best booking experience for travelers.

AH: What percentage of bookable inventory on HomeAway do you expect to add to the Expedia platform by the end of 2018? What have been your biggest challenges in this integration?

JH: While we do not update the percentage of HomeAway inventory available on Expedia sites outside of earnings, we continue to test and learn from listing HomeAway properties on sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. As anticipated, rate structures, calendar accuracy, manager response times, and pricing consistency have been challenges to adding additional listings to Expedia sites.

But with the adoption of our new rates-editor tool, instant booking and other factors have accelerated, and we expect the availability of HomeAway inventory will also.

AH: There is a lot of speculation that the subscription model is going away in favor of a pay-per-booking (PPB) model? Is there any truth to this?

AH: In terms of ranking, are recent changes to your algorithm helping property managers and owners improve their performance?

JH: The subscription model remains popular among our most loyal customers, and we will offer it as long as it continues to help us achieve our customers’ and our overall business goals. New customers seem to opt for pay-per-booking: owners and managers choose pay-per-booking when they list with HomeAway.

JH: We continually give feedback in the Marketplace Feed to help managers and owners improve performance, and we plan to add even more tools and resources. We also regularly share educational content and have a team standing by to address any questions or concerns owners and managers have.

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across multiple distribution channels. We support them and expect they will continue to help many customers access new travelers.

AH: The discipline of revenue management is still in its infancy. Do you see HomeAway educating property managers and homeowners about revenue management?

Software and Technology AH: How does HomeAway see its software division? Are you looking to acquire more software companies or thinking about spinning off the division?

JH: HomeAway Software remains an important part of our business. Property managers provide an invaluable service to owners and a great experience for travelers. We will continue investing in HomeAway Software as part of our ongoing commitment to serving professional managers with world-class tools and services.

AH: Regarding channel managers, how vital are third-party channel managers to the core OTA business? As you integrate with more and more software systems, will channel managers disappear?

JH: Third-party channel managers provide a valuable service to property managers; they ease the technical burden of working

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JH: We empower owners and property managers with data and insights so they can make the best decisions possible to accomplish their unique goals. Pricing is important for decision-making, and our tools help these professionals understand the dynamics of traveler demand.

AH: Are there any new technologies you plan to acquire that may better serve your suppliers and guests?

JH: We are interested in any technology that helps us deliver a world-class experience to travelers, owners, and managers, especially innovations that can make it easier to rent or manage a home and listings. For example, we are rolling out secure text messaging so managers and owners can quickly and easily communicate with guests, and we are introducing virtual reality tours of homes.

AH: Is blockchain technology the next game changer?

JH: Blockchain is an interesting technology with several potential applications that could improve how consumers transact in an online marketplace. We are evaluating it and other technologies to see how we can leverage blockchain to create better products and experiences for our users.

Booking.com VP

Olivier Grémillon

Offers Insights on Fees, Market Growth, and THE Future

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ooking Holdings-owned Booking.com has been fascinating to watch as it has emerged as a leader in vacation rentals over the last four years. The company launched Villas.com in May 2014 as a testing ground for what the company calls alternative accommodations, which includes homes, apartments, villas, and other unique places to stay.

In late 2016, the company shut down Villas.com and transitioned its alternative accommodations inventory onto the Booking.com platform. According to Tnooz, “the Priceline Group-owned [now Booking Holdings, Inc.] accommodations giant said there is no change in its strategy for alternative accommodations such as 50

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homes, apartments, and villas, but concedes that data has shown its consumers prefer having all their options under one brand.”

Since moving all its alternative accommodations inventory to Booking.com, inventory growth has exploded. With no traveler fee and with accommodations that are entirely instantly bookable, Booking.com has surpassed both Airbnb and HomeAway in reported supply.

We reached out to Booking.com’s vice president of the home division, Olivier Grémillon, to find out more about the company’s growth, business model, and industry outlook. Although Grémillon only joined the Booking.com team in January, he spent the pre-

vious five years at Airbnb, where he helped its transition from a short-term rental company to a more comprehensive hospitality company. Now he is helping Booking.com grow the company's business across the homes and apartments sector and working with owners and managers in 220 countries around the world.

Industry Growth AH: To what do you attribute recent vacation rental growth, and what do you see as your differentiators when compared to your competitors in this space?

Olivier Grémillon (OG): At Booking.com we have a relentless focus on our partners as well as the customers who book with us all over the world listening, learning, and driving continuous, rapid innovation that leverages technology to consistently ensure our product is the best in the space. Homes and apartments are a very big and important space for us, and we’ve been investing in both partner and customer acquisition for some time, which includes technology investments, to ensure we can remove as much friction from the sign-up, management, and booking processes as possible. Not only do we listen and respond to meet travelers’ needs—an effort that ultimately brings our property partners more guests through their doors—but we build easy, effective tools that allow our partners to simply list and manage their businesses with us, including a new process to sign up a property in less than fifteen minutes.

With more than 5.4 million listings in homes, apartments, and other unique places to stay, we offer the largest potential source of inventory in this sector worldwide. This is a competitive industry, so building a product and experience that differentiates us from others in the space and that enables us to deliver the choice and diversity travelers crave is critical to maintaining a leadership position.

AH: In which markets do you see the most inventory growth now and in the future?

OG: We’re an incredibly global business with operations in more than 200 countries and territories. As such, we’re growing inventory in multiple markets that include Europe, the USA, China, and Japan as well as emerging markets across Latin America and Asia.

We’ve been actively building our supply and business in the vacation rental segment for years, growing supply globally by 27 percent over the last year by recognizing the consumer demand for all types of accommodation, and we will continue to do so.

AH: Booking.com has a huge advantage in international markets. Do you see a path to leveraging your success outside of the United States to grow inside the United States? Or is there a reason that less of your attention is on US markets?

OG: We are a European company, and our long-term efforts across Europe have certainly led to strong brand awareness and growth internationally. However, the United States is and will continue to be a very important market for our business. We have twenty-seven offices and over 2,300 employees in the United States who are dedicated to empowering customers and supporting our partners with the commercial tools, technology, insights, and advice to grow their businesses via our platform. We’re also investing in additional and enhanced payment methods through partners such as Stripe to enable an even wider range of customers to book via our platform.

The opportunity is immense, and the more we collaborate, the faster we can have impact and further accelerate that growth. Property

Olivier Grémillon owners and managers can rely on companies like ours even more to invest in the technology, marketing, and infrastructure resources because that’s our expertise, and we can build the products and tools that will fuel more people through our platform that, in turn, drives more business for our property partners. We are better positioned than anyone in the space to bring significant incremental international travelers into the US market, given our global reach, and we absolutely intend to push that opportunity to make Booking a more scaled player in this market.

AH: Do you believe Google and/or Amazon will disrupt the vacation rental funnel?

OG: Google has long been a good partner of ours, and Amazon continues to build an impressively diverse ecommerce business.

With the constant and transformative effect technology innovation and evolving consumer expectations are having on the way we travel, I’d say that any business in this space needs to be open to continuous learning and reinvention of its approach in order to keep pace.

At Booking we focus on what we do best and what we know customers want. For us, that means constantly testing, experimenting with, and optimizing the customer experience on our platform to solve the challenges travelers face and strip friction out of the process.

AH: With the global scope of your inventory, as the industry develops, how do you see the terminology relating to vacation rentals (holiday lets, self-catering, cottage rentals, holiday rentals, holiday homes, urban rentals, etc.) changing, and which of the terms will evolve to become the dominant one?

OG: That might be for the customer to decide. In recent research we conducted with more than 57,000 travelers across thirty markets, 30 percent said they want to stay in an apartment, aparthotel, or condo in 2018—further evidence that consumer demand for accommodation beyond the hotel remains strong. In fact, in other VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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research conducted with 19,000 travelers in twenty-six countries, one in five (21 percent) said they would consider listing their own home on a travel accommodation site over the coming year. In that light, how exactly the industry defines itself is not that important.

What matters most is what’s useful for customers. We currently have thirty property types on our platform, and we keep experimenting to ensure customers can easily find what they’re looking for. Defining those properties is one example of how we’re continuously testing and listening to what gives customers the clearest and best experience.

Booking.com Business Model and Technology AH: Some of your competitors have gotten pushback from their core suppliers as they attempt to expand into other verticals or further monetize their platform. Why do you think your suppliers do not have those same struggles in working with Booking?

OG: We try to make it as easy as possible for all and welcome all types of property to our platform. We foster great relationships and ensure transparency to all our customers, partners, or suppliers so they know they can rely on companies like ours to invest even more in the technology, marketing, and infrastructure resources to bring them more business because that’s our expertise.

AH: Airbnb, HomeAway, and TripAdvisor do not appear to be backing off the traveler fee. Is Booking.com considering adding a traveler fee?

platform, which is why we look to offer the widest choices all in one place with millions of hotel listings on our website alongside millions of other unique types of property listings.

When it comes to revenue management, we provide tooling to all kinds of property partners to support them in their individual pricing strategy and execution as well as data around seasonal or high demand dates (think increased interest for a beach bungalow during the summer months) and special events such as major sports competitions or concerts.

AH: Is there a difference in how you sell to and support professionally managed inventory versus owner-managed inventory?

OG: We have historically come from the more professionally managed side, but today we support the needs of both professionally and owner-managed. Each has its own unique needs. For example, professionally managed properties face particular challenges in managing a portfolio of several vacation homes with different owners, but evolving payment solutions and chat-bot-assisted messaging can help. We also know professionally managed inventory is often connected via software or channel managers, so we are actively building our products in a way that can integrate solutions seamlessly with the systems our partners use.

We’ve never charged a booking fee to customers for our service, and this is something that we are extremely proud of.

OG: We’ve never charged a booking fee to customers for our service, and this is something that we are extremely proud of. From our point of view, charging travelers is far from optimal for the customer. At Booking.com, we want to be as transparent as possible towards partners and customers, so that means that what you see is what you get. We believe our approach is much clearer for both travelers and partners than others in this space who charge in different places, making for similar fees once guest and partner fees are added. At the end of the day, we are committed to delivering the best possible consumer experience to ultimately win more business for our partners.

Individual homeowners listing for the first time may have more questions and need a different type of support and guidance, but we’ve worked on introducing simplified cancellation policies, different workflows, a fifteen-minute sign-up, and a specific online onboarding module to help support and empower owners here.

Overall, we want to make it as easy as possible for any property manager or individual to sign up and manage one or more listings with us, so we work hard to provide the tools, flexibility, and insights that will help them grow their businesses.

AH: In terms of ranking, are there any changes to your algorithm that can help property managers improve their performances?

AH: In your US contracts, you require rate parity, but to date there doesn’t seem to be a way to enforce it. Are you looking for ways to enforce rate parity, or do you believe rate parity is a thing of the past?

OG: We believe that every property that offers our customers a great experience deserves to be discovered. That’s why our default ranking is based on an algorithm built on customer feedback. It takes into account a variety of factors and data points to present initial search results in the most meaningful way for consumers.

OG: We believe our model guarantees a transparent and consistent price comparison experience for consumers, but at the end of the day, we will always look at what the right model is to ensure Booking.com customers can have the best possible prices. That will ensure we can deliver the customers and demand our partners expect from us as one of their most critical marketing channels.

Beyond that, we have created a number of filters to help customers search for exactly what they’re looking for. That can help them quickly spot the properties that have what they are looking for, especially in destinations that have thousands of listings. The search behavior and preferences of travelers change constantly depending on the context of a specific trip.

AH: Where do you see your revenue management services going over the next year? In setting prices for alternative accommodations, is there a conflict of interest as you also look to promote your large hotel clients?

So for property managers, it is key to ensure that properties stand out from the crowd. The attractiveness of the offer plays a vital role in making a property stand out in the search results as well as ensuring you understand your market and what drives the customer experience. Everything from high-quality photos to providing great rates, responding to customer reviews, and ensuring strong availability can help here.

OG: To clarify, we don’t set prices; our accommodation partners do. We also see demand for all types of accommodation on our

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AH: Regarding channel managers, how vital are third-party channel managers to the core OTA business? As you integrate with more and more software systems, do you believe the need for a “channel manager” as we know it today will disappear?

OG: Our goal is to make booking any type of accommodation anywhere in the world digitally as seamless and as easy as possible, and we work with a vast number of partners throughout the world. The travel industry is growing at great speed, and the opportunity is immense. We want to make it as easy as possible for all our partners to work with us, supporting their connectivity choices by working to ensure all our innovations are equally available for connected partners while also fostering our relationship with connectivity providers, including channel managers, to impact and accelerate growth in the travel ecosystem.

AH: Do you see blockchain technology as the next game changer?

OG: There is a lot of talk about the potential of blockchain technology at the moment and the many applications it might have for the wider travel industry. It’s still early, but there are definitely some potential opportunities, interesting ideas, and business models beginning to be debated and developed further. As with all emerging technologies, including cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, it’s something we keep an eye on. Right now, among several potential game changers, we think the bigger opportunity is in AI and machine learning, so we’re investing more on that front, but we have very smart people looking at if and when something like blockchain can solve customer friction in travel.

AH: Are there any new technologies you are adding or technology acquisitions you are considering to better serve your suppliers?

OG: Absolutely. We're constantly experimenting with new technologies to take even more of the friction out of the overall travel experience and help deliver more customers to our property partners. For us, any application of technology must serve and enhance our partners’ and travelers’ experiences in some way. We don’t experiment with technology for its own sake—it must actively solve a customer problem, remove friction, and make our customers’ lives easier.

Right now we're actively exploring various applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the customer experience on our website and mobile apps, including everything from how we interpret search queries to providing recommendations on where to stay and where to go as well as automatically tagging photos uploaded by travelers. With our Booking Assistant bot, we’re currently using machine learning models and natural language processing technology that has all been built in-house to identify and respond to more than 50 percent of our customers’ most common enquiries automatically. Think simple questions like “Is there parking available?” or “Can I check in late?” That is immensely helpful for our partners because we can essentially handle their customer service for them. This not only saves time for our property partners, allowing them to focus on delivering incredible experiences to their guests, but it empowers travelers with seamless support. As these technologies and their applications advance, whole new levels of personalization at all stages of a customer’s travel journey will become possible as will decision-making, listing management, and optimization by property managers and hosts.

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The rise of brands in the vacation rental industry

By Alex Nigg, CEO, Properly

Branding, they say, is everything.

Hotel brands are entering the market.

f you’re starting a company, one of the first things you’ll hear is that you need a strong brand. People need to know who you are. They need to know what they can expect from you. They need to be able to distinguish what you offer from all your competitors in the marketplace.

At the national or global level, 99 percent of vacation rentals are completely unbranded compared with 40 percent of hotels. The private accommodation sector has no equivalents to Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt. Expedia, HomeAway, VRBO, or Booking.com are distribution channels.

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Yet, there are few if any national or global brands in our industry.

There are of course quite a few well-recognized US vacation rental brands—Meyer Vacation Rentals in Gulf Shores, Sun Realty in the Outer Banks, Southern Resorts in the Florida panhandle, or TaylorMade Deep Creek Vacations in Maryland come to mind—but they are typically local and mostly recognizable in drive-to markets.

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Airbnb is a hybrid: while it clearly has built a powerful global brand, with its recent expansion in scope it is arguably becoming more of a distribution channel than a brand. The company is clearly trying to address this with the introduction of Airbnb Plus: Airbnb is qualifying and inspecting a subsection of its inventory and is thus now leveraging its brand at the listing level.

Hotel brands are also entering the industry: Hyatt distributes Oasis Collection listings via its soft brand “The Unbound Collection”; Marriott distributes 200 HostMakermanaged properties in a trial in London via its soft brand “Tribute Portfolio Homes,” and AccorHotels acquired three alternative accommodation providers and consolidated them under the Onefinestay brand.

Then there are a few nascent brand contenders in the property management sector: Sonder advertises “deconstructed hotels” that are “modern and exciting” Stay Alfred is offering “upscale” and “high-end” vacation rentals specifically in downtown locations of major cities. TheGuild, Lyric, and Domio are in on the act, too, and all these new companies are building a business model on the theory that an industry that lacks branding needs new brands.

What’s a Brand?

Before I argue why creating sleek new brands isn’t necessarily the vacation rental industry’s next move, let’s take a look at what we mean by a brand. We’re talking about what distinguishes one type of product from another.

Strong brands are easy to identify on sight, and their offerings are differentiated: an Apple product is distinguishable not only because it looks like an Apple product, but because it operates like an Apple product and is backed by the service you expect from the Apple company. Because strong brands consistently deliver the experience their customers expect, their customers tend to be extremely loyal and to choose that brand over others.

Sounds desirable so far, and you can see why so many companies are striving to create the strong brand that guarantees such loyalty.

The problem is that vacation rentals, by their very nature, don’t brand.

Vacation rentals resist uniformity, but need consistency.

You can’t offer uniformity with vacation rentals because they are inherently unique. Uniqueness is the selling point—it’s why guests choose vacation rentals over hotels in the first place. They want to stay someplace that feels like a home, and every home is different.

Of course, identical vacation rentals sold in blocks like hotel rooms have existed for ages. They’re stocked with identical furniture, kitchen supplies, and decor. But those aren’t what people think of when they think “vacation rental.” Those are just hotel rooms that happen to have kitchens.

You will never be able to create a vacation rental brand that guarantees uniform spaces across all its properties, because vacation rentals are not uniform. There’s the ski chalet, the urban mid-century modern, the contemporary beach house, the quirky cabin, the tree-

house, the houseboat, the family-friendly place for family reunions, the romantic spot for a weekend getaway, or the hyper-urban loft for the millennial on a business trip—their uniqueness is what makes them what we call alternative or private accommodation, cottages, holiday houses, baches, sleepouts, serviced apartments, aparthotels, or vacation rentals.

That’s the bad news about branding uniformity. But while our customers don’t seek uniformity, they do seek consistency. Consistency doesn’t mean that units necessarily need to look the same, but it does mean that they should all meet a set of expectations consistently.

Consistency of expectation is not uniformity of place.

Because of my work, I stay in vacation rentals and other private accommodation up to 30 times per year. I very much enjoy the variety of accommodations, which have ranged from a VW bus in San Francisco booked on Airbnb to an upscale, impeccably appointed Edwardian from Oasis Collections in London. I’m rarely, if ever, disappointed by the place; however, too often the experience doesn’t quite measure up to expectations.

When industry observers talk about convergence between traditional lodging and our industry—and the growth that can drive it—lack of consistency is often cited as a main obstacle holding our industry back.

Great expectations Here’s a set of consistent standards that should be expected (and delivered) for every vacation rental:

Accuracy Each listing is accurately described in detail, with a professional, standard set of photographs. What you see is what you get, every time. Great photography is available for each main room in the listing, the photography is up-to-date, and expectations are managed all the way from listing platform through to housekeeping.

This means that the housekeeper stages the room each time exactly the way the guest saw it in the listing photos from your website, HomeAway, or Airbnb.

Health and Safety Every home has both the attributes and the processes to ensure guests’ health and safety. This includes ensuring that smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, exit information, and first aid kits are available to guests, and processes are in place to ensure proper sanitation during cleanings, as well as regular checks that all health and safety attributes and processes function accurately and reliably.

Access Guests can count on 24/7 access with backup access methods in place.

Amenities Quality sheets, linens, and amenities are available to guests during their stay. Kitchens are stocked with key necessities and process fail-safes are in place to manage quality over time.

Utilities Wi-Fi that always works, hot water, heat, air conditioning, TV, remote controls (batteries!).

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Communications Standard processes with confirmation, key code, welcome, post-arrival check-in, mid-stay check-in, post departure, etc.

Inspection processes Inspection processes are in place for every stay—these inspections can be integrated with housekeeping or stand-alone processes.

Standard Operating Procedures Standard Operating Procedures are in place for staff to follow to deal with everything that will go wrong.

Learning from hotels: soft brands For a while now, hotels have somewhat unbundled distribution from the actual brand via soft brands. If a hotel is strongly established in an area and wants to maintain its diversity or uniqueness or has its own recognizable brand, the operator may choose a soft brand, such as Marriott’s “Tribute Portfolio Collection” or Hyatt’s “Unbound Collection.”

Onefinestay also exercise granular control over most processes, even if a third party might deliver the latter.

Last is a new breed of VR brands, like Domio, Sonder, Lyric ,or Stay Alfred, which fully control not just curation and processes, but also design. Here we have come full circle with traditional hotels— these brands can delivery both a consistent service experience and a standard space.

Why does it matter, and what does it mean for VR managers?

Private accommodation and vacation rentals are different from hotels—uniqueness of inventory is a very valuable attribute in our category. However, delivering consistent services and accurately describing listings against standard criteria are critical in meeting guest expectations, supporting convergence with mainstream lodging, and driving industry growth.

The hotel chains’ early experiments in introducing brands into the category are illuminating. Soft brands focus on distribution and a set of brand standards but don’t put much value on the brand itself. This might be perfectly sufficient for our industry. It is unclear that we need new brands; there are plenty of well-established brands out there.

lack of consistency is often cited as a main obstacle holding our industry back.

Hotels choosing soft brands get the same distribution, and guests choosing a hotel with a soft brand can expect very similar services as those offered by the main flag, if in a unique place. Interestingly, franchise fees for soft brands seem to be only marginally lower than for the main brand, indicating that much of the “brand” value doesn’t stem from the brand itself but from the distribution that comes with it and from the general expectation that such soft brands are curated and vetted collections that deliver a unique service experience, if each in a unique and diverse place.

The anatomy of a private accommodation brand promise The brand promise can start with distribution: at one end of the spectrum is largely unbranded distribution (e.g. Expedia or Booking.com), where the key value proposition is around comprehensiveness and best price; at the other end of the distribution spectrum are more branded channels such as HomeAway or Airbnb, with stronger brands and exclusive inventory. Arguably, however, the branding power of distribution platforms is weakening as they add more diverse inventory. For example, in Airbnb’s case the “Live there” campaign theme strongly reflects its core inventory, but much less so for newly added boutique hotel rooms.

Next are curated collections: castles, family friendly, tree-houses, romantic getaways, and business-friendly are all examples of curated “light” collections, likely self-reported or with minimum inspection, that intend to give an additional layer of consistency.

Airbnb Plus is currently only using one-time inspections; this provides an additional layer of a brand promise by ensuring that a place has met certain requirements at least at one point in time. However, without control of management or at least of processes or brand standards, that’s still quite different from a hotel soft brand.

Next are property managers like Vacasa, which have comprehensive and consistent, fully integrated processes. Airbnb’s luxury brand “Beyond by Airbnb,” Oasis Collections, or AccorHotels’ 56

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Arguably, the real opportunity is in expanding distribution. The three main listing platforms are continuing to drive more bookings for many VRMs. As hotel chains get acquainted with this category, and as convergence continues, it would only be natural for them to source inventory from the VRMs just as Marriott did in its experiment with HostMaker in London.

This should provide welcome additional distribution channels to our industry. The entrance of the hotel brands should also further accelerate convergence, as it will drive further professionalization.

One key question will be how the hotel chains will source inventory at scale.

Likely, those VRMs with the best standard operating procedures, delivered across the most interoperable platforms, will be the winners. They’ll have access to broader distribution channels and should capture brand premiums across multiple brand portfolios, whether Airbnb Plus or hotel and other travel brands. And the more we standardize and certify processes and inspections as an industry, the more we’ll be able to cater to broader audience segments and drive industry growth.

Alex Nigg is the founder and CEO of Properly, an operations platform for shortterm rentals connecting thousands of properties across North America, Europe and Australasia with their service providers. Nigg is a frequent speaker at industry events in North America and Europe. With his partner Tammi, he also manages vacation rentals in San Francisco, Seattle, and New Zealand.

Prior to finding his passion for the vacation rental industry, Alex was a management consultant at Bain & Company, an entrepreneur, and a venture capital investor in Silicon Valley.

By Amy Hinote

From LeisureLink to Lexicon Travel Lexicon Travel Technologies Rescues Technology Assets and Sets Out to Provide a New Level of Connectivity

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n September 2016, LeisureLink, a widely used channel management company, announced that it was ceasing operations and discontinuing use of its platform, leaving dozens of property managers unpaid for completed reservations.

According to a letter the company sent to clients, “While LeisureLink attracted considerable interest from many strategic buyers and investors, management has determined that none of these parties are likely to complete a transaction before late Q4 of 2016. This timing and the continuing cash needs of the Company has created a liquidity deficit which prevents the Company from continuing its daily operations.” The letter continued, “As a result, we have no choice but to stop operations and not process any new bookings as of September 27, 2016. At this time, all employees of LeisureLink are being terminated and the platform turned off.”

For property management companies using LeisureLink’s channel management services, the fallout from its demise was tremendous, leaving in its wake hundreds of unpaid reservations.

But the story did not end there.

LeisureLink’s chief product officer Joel Inman and vice president of business development Hal Widlansky had working knowledge of the strength and breadth of the failed company’s technology

and did not want to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater.

They set out to salvage the working assets of the company to build a new kind of connectivity for property managers.

As a result, Inman and Widlansky raised capital, purchased LeisureLink’s technology, and founded Lexicon Travel Technologies. We reached out to Joel Inman to find out more about the lessons learned at LeisureLink and the duo’s vision for the new company.

Amy Hinote (AH): What did your team learn in your roles at LeisureLink that changed the way you look at the channel management business?

Joel Inman ( JI): Our team has a lot of collective knowledge—and

scar tissue. We know what works and what doesn’t in the vacation rental market. We have the privilege of not repeating the mistakes of our predecessors, and we are laser focused on doing what is right for the property manager.

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Probably the two biggest lessons we learned at LeisureLink are these: 1) don’t try to be all things to all people—you can’t please everyone; and 2) do not oversell what you can and cannot do. Our customer philosophy is one of transparency and collaboration. If we can’t do something in an expert and professional way, we will tell our partners exactly that—immediately. In fact, we sometimes will recommend our competitors if we feel we are not a good fit. In this way, we can get past all of the gamesmanship and doublespeak that sometimes happens in a selling environment and forge a true partnership from the beginning.

AH: Are you the merchant of record (MOR)? Why is that important?

JI: No, never. Being the merchant of record as a channel manager is not advisable for a number of reasons:

 Financial and fiduciary risk are issues. LeisureLink was the MOR (as are some of our current competitors), which means that the channel manager is directly charging the guest and taking responsibility for 100 percent of the booking dollars. In this model, the channel management company has possession and is able to use (or misuse) those funds for working capital. If we were ever to explore the MOR option, it would necessitate trust accounting to ensure that for every booking, the funded amount goes directly to the property manager’s bank account from the OTA. This is essentially what we already do but without taking possession of the total booking amount.  Being the MOR is actually a significant disadvantage in some channels because it can complicate access to affiliate networks and airfare bundling—two huge sources of potential bookings that are otherwise not available.  As MOR, collecting cash that does not belong to you can be an unnecessary and unhealthy temptation, which we don’t need, to fund other areas of the business. It’s always fun to imagine being a bank and charging interest on forward payments. LeisureLink did that, and it was tremendously popular.

The problem comes, however, when one must also take on the responsibilities of cash management as if one were actually a bank. This is not our core competitive advantage, and we know it.  Collecting cash means staffing up in accounting. LeisureLink had a large team of AR/AP professionals to manage a large balance sheet (as do all channel managers who act as MOR).

Again, this is not a core competency of a channel manager, nor should it be. Every property manager is able to collect cash for bookings—by definition—they already have the infrastructure required to support it and should take ownership over their own collections anyway.

AH: What sets Lexicon apart from other channel management services?

JI: Lexicon is not a channel manager; channel management is a phrase that has come to mean simply connectivity—that is, connecting rates and availability from a PMS to points of distribution channels. Connecting these information points is not enough to create a decent listing that anyone actually wants to book. Lexicon takes full responsibility for merchandising conversion on a chan-

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nel—that means curating content, clustering inventory where appropriate, professionally organizing every listing, and actively collaborating with our partners on price and promotions to make sure the pricing is where it needs to be—every time. When you partner with Lexicon, room nights booked tend to increase substantially, and staffing costs tend to go down. In many cases, our customers have reduced their own time spent managing channels from weeks to hours while at the same time doubling or tripling their previous booking volume.

AH: There is a lot of speculation that channel management is getting more obsolete as software companies are building direct connections to OTAs. Do you think channel management has a future?

JI: The practice of channel management, as defined above, is already

dead. When you think about the implications of posting a listing without curation or merchandizing, they are basically that no guests find the listing appealing, if they are able to find the listing at all buried on page fifteen of the search results. We see this happening in the marketplace all the time. When we ask customers how many bookings their channel manager got them over the last three months, the answer is often in the single digits. Ultimately, these are zombie listings that may book a handful of times a year but are certainly not effectively converting or driving higher occupancy in shoulder seasons—and they cause more work than they save.

However, as long as channels are relevant and continue to own the consumer eyeball, there will be a need for efficient and effective use of those channels. I think anyone with a connection (PMS software or other) will have to demonstrate the ability to convert listings to bookings and also save the PMC’s time and money on efforts to manage to effectively commercialize the OTAs. It’s not about whether you can build a connection—that’s the easy part. The challenge comes in making it work well for the property.

AH: Besides the technology connection to OTAs, what other services do you provide?

JI: Our software provides competitive intelligence and revenue management tools, and our account management team provides decades of revenue and channel management expertise and relationships. We act as an extension of the property’s revenue management team.

AH: Looking forward, do you think we will continue to see a traveler fee? And what is the future for rate parity?

JI: I can’t speak for the OTAs’ future plans regarding traveler fees. I

think each one will choose his or her own path. But strictly speaking as a consumer, I find it hard to stomach when my final booking price is significantly higher than the daily rate. It feels a little bit like a bait and switch. Rate parity is an interesting concept. It is in many cases considered illegal or anticompetitive for companies to try to enforce rate parity, yet I believe it is a good business practice for property managers to adopt. Varying the price among different OTAs tends to confuse the market and is somewhat analogous to competing against oneself. The real enemy of the property is vacancy, and the biggest cost you can have is not going to come from a channel commission but rather from a room that passes the night with no guest in it.

The Turning Point for Vacation Rental Advertising

Trip Consideration: Facebook’s New Advertising Feature

By Lela Newell, Client Success Manager, ICND

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argeting Facebook users can seem daunting if you’re unaware of their travel interests. Vacation rental companies once targeted potential customers based on audience demographics, with little insight on their intent to travel in the near future. With the introduction of Facebook’s Trip Consideration, ad delivery is now prioritized for a travel audience. A beginner campaign for Facebook advertising can be relatively low in cost compared to other avenues. The new feature will allow vacation rental managers to achieve results at a better price and, hopefully, at a much higher conversion rate.

According to a study released by Project: Time Off, more than half of Americans don’t use all of their vacation days. While work cultures are changing to emphasize taking time off, this statistic

reveals the $225 billion potential economic impact of America’s unused vacation days. Now more than ever, Americans need a nudge toward planning their dream vacations. Facebook’s Trip Consideration tool is the perfect way to remind potential customers to travel. (“State of American Vacation 2018,” Project: Time Off, May 8, 2018)

What Is Trip Consideration?

Trip Consideration gives advertisers the power to target an audience that has demonstrated a general intent to travel without intent toward a specific destination. Such an audience has most likely visited many travel websites but not browsed a site in-depth.

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Additionally, the feature utilizes both Facebook and Instagram to identify users whose browsing activity signifies they’re interested in planning a trip. Facebook reports that nearly 68 percent of millennials utilized Facebook to choose their most recent travel destination. This feature allows advertisers to get in front of potential customers in the earliest stages of travel planning.

Benefits of Trip Consideration Trip Consideration offers creative freedom to advertisers, uniquely allowing them to define the specific “creative” they want to use. The setup for utilizing the product has also been simplified. Not only can the feature be marketed to customers with an intent to travel, but it can also be combined to target an existing audience or a custom audience.

Overall, the most significant benefit of Facebook Trip Consideration is the novel advertising opportunity it presents to vacation rental managers. The feature allows advertisers to reach trip planners at the earliest stage possible and utilize their own content to persuade them to act.

How Do I Implement Trip Consideration?

To begin, you must create a Facebook Pixel. This is code that can be easily created via Facebook and added to your website.

From there, the process is simple. Within Ad Manager, select the

Tips to Improve Overall Brand Presence The content doesn’t stop with your Facebook advertising. While Facebook Trip Consideration targets an audience with intent to travel, it is important to keep your business’ overall brand message engaging on all platforms. If clients find your website lackluster after clicking on a Facebook ad, chances are they won’t be enticed to book with your company.

We’ve gathered four quick tips to build your overall brand presence:

 Website Visitors want to see an aesthetically pleasing, user friendly website. Beautiful Facebook ads that lead to an outdated website can leave your visitors weary. Getting users to the website is half the battle; you want them converting once there.

 Incentive Give your users a reason to book with your company. Competition is tough, especially if the audience hasn’t yet decided where to vacation. Specials are an effective way to incentivize visitors to book and can be advertised within your Facebook ad, on your website, or both. Another tactic is to offer visitors a free travel guide for your area. Information is key when targeting users who are casually browsing for their next vacation destination.

 Remarketing objective Conversions and choose your audience, budgets, and schedule as usual, zeroing in on your target demographic (including people who show interest in your area). The most important action when creating the ad is to turn on “prioritize delivery to people who plan to travel” under Optimization for Ad Delivery. Additionally, Facebook recommends selecting a broad audience of at least 7 million people. A large audience allows Facebook to use their algorithm and define the right audience with travel intent.

Because the creative freedoms allowed with this feature are unique, we strongly suggest using content that showcases a promotion, your specific destination, or your brand. This is the perfect chance to capture your audience while they’re deciding on their next vacation destination.

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After users visit your website from a Trip Consideration ad, you can remarket to them via Google or an additional Facebook campaign. This tactic will keep your brand name top-of-mind.

Remarketing is similar to billboard advertising; your ad will be present as the customer browses the internet.

 Consistency Ensure that your brand design and message remain consistent throughout every phase of your marketing, starting with the Facebook advertising and continuing through your website and remarketing campaigns. Seamless design and messaging will assist with brand recognition as you work to convert travel browsers into customers.

Facebook Trip Consideration is an exciting new opportunity for vacation rental managers. The feature is one of the more unique tactics available specifically for our industry.

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Build Guest Loyalty with Insights from Industry Experts

Interviewed and Compiled by Shea Courtney, Marketing Copywriter, Bluetent

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hether it’s tasting diverse cuisine or sailing the seas, one thing is clear: travel is about experiences. Today’s travelers seek authentic activities that immerse them in the local community, and this presents new opportunities for vacation rental managers to elevate their engagement and maximize revenue potential. When guests are aware of who is curating their experience, they will feel great about their investment, be more likely to leave positive reviews, and will be more likely to rebook their vacation with you. To help you build guest loyalty and cultivate repeat guests, we’ve asked industry experts at Bluetent, VRMB, and VRM Intel to provide their perspectives.

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How does brand consistency throughout the traveler’s journey affect a guest’s vacation experience?

Ned Lucks, Chief Technology Officer at Bluetent

“It is so important to have consistent branding at every touchpoint.

In a world of increasing distribution and intermediaries, the manager’s opportunities to get their brand in front of the guest are narrowing, which is why it is crucial to take up every opportunity.”

Brynn Flaherty, Marketing Services Director at Bluetent

Alexa Nota

Matt Landau, Founder of VRMB

Sean Kelly

“We help our clients convey their unique value propositions and offer a memorable experience throughout every touchpoint; in return, guests remember the brand that hosted them, not just the rental.”

“When a brand is thoughtfully woven throughout a vacation, guests get what I call ‘the feeling of premium’—it’s knowing hosts have gone out of their way to make the whole experience special.

It justifies the money they paid to stay, and it validates their choice to choose a professional vacation rental over a traditional hotel.”

Alexa Nota, Vice President at VRM Intel

“If your brand is a central catalyst of the guest experience rather than just a place to stay, that’s gold. Your brand will not only have a positive association with guests, making them more likely to rebook, but it also will make guests more inclined to recommend your company.”

Sean Kelly, Senior Strategic Account Manager at Bluetent

“Consistent brand messaging is essential. Educate guests about who is fulfilling their dream vacation and any needs that arise, and inform them about how their vacation will be better next time if they book direct. Also, it is essential to connect with guests about their stay. Vacation managers need to be sure not to squander the equity that was built during the vacation. Engaging on a level that says, ‘You're part of our team now’ breeds loyalty, and, ultimately, more repeat guests.”

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“Marketers have momentum on their side to tap into the positive memories made during a stay while they are still fresh and vivid, and they should harness this within days and weeks (not months) to propel guests into planning their next trips.”

“An often neglected area of the guest relationship is after they check in. So much energy is spent getting the guest in the door.

Then it starts all over again—from scratch. Not every guest will return to the same destination year after year, but for those who do, it’s an easier sell if the property manager knows how to deliver.”

Industry experts understand that establishing trust, enhancing the guest’s vacation experience by showing your appreciation, and communicating your brand at every touch point—especially after the trip ends—will drive guest loyalty and repeat business. As Sean Kelly mentioned, we need to be sure “not to squander the equity that was built during the vacation.” It’s the responsibility of vacation managers to shape the bond between them and their guests, to make the whole experience memorable, and to educate guests about who is fulfilling their trip.

To speak with Bluetent about refining your guest experience strategy, please don’t hesitate to reach out: info@bluetent.com, 970.704.3240, or bluetent.com.

In your opinion, what is one area of the guest experience that is overlooked?

Ned Lucks

“In hotels and similar operations with a front desk and wait staff, there are continual opportunities to make people feel warm, welcome, and appreciated. Vacation rental managers have to go out of their way to make guests feel that sense of hospitality. Beyond a booking confirmation and pre-arrival email, there are ways to reach out to guests with personal touches that show someone cares about their experience.”

Brynn Flaherty

“Property managers can use their local knowledge to create memorable experiences for guests while they are on the property. For instance, hand-selecting recommended places to visit and enjoy. This type of information is also great for building out content on your website and can be used in email newsletters and social media as well—so it’s a win-win.”

Matt Landau

“Up until the guest departs is when most presume the ‘guest experience’ ends, but the first stay is when the guest’s experience with your company is actually just beginning. Assuming you go on to host that guest for many years to come, thank-you notes, parting gifts, newsletters, and VIP offers are important.”

Bluetent is a digital agency with a passion for reaching travelers, inspiring guests, and attracting owners. Our eCommerce suite, Rezfusion, supports vacation rental managers in developing a well-rounded digital presence with direct-booking websites, listing distribution, guest experience tools, and marketing services.

Matt Landau is a vacation rental enthusiast who, after exploring Central America, accidentally fell into the vacation rental industry when he purchased Los Cuatro Tulipanes, the oldest existing luxury rentals in Casco Viejo. Matt is the founder of VRMB, a free resource that documents the industry’s best practices to close the learning gap between newcomers and the biggest brands in vacation rentals. VRMB partnered with Bluetent to present the Listing Site Independence Experience, which delivers actionable steps for rental managers to build marketing momentum. To explore, visit lsi.vrmb.com.

Alexa Nota is the vice president at VRM Intel and assists in the mission to provide relevant industry-specific news, information, and resources to help professionals build their businesses, to address the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, and to positively contribute to the vacation rental ecosystem.

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Preventive Maintenance

By Jeremiah Gall, Founder, Breezeway

If it ain’t broke…make sure it doesn’t!

Define Your Maintenance Plan

he reactive maintenance approach, or “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” is expensive and inefficient. Vacation rental property managers wind up spending more time and energy repairing items than they do inspecting and maintaining them. Some managers are even forced to shut down properties mid-season due to heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system malfunctions, losing thousands of dollars in rental revenue.

The first step in creating an effective preventive maintenance plan is to define your goals. Ask yourself the right questions: Is your primary goal to reduce the risk of emergency repairs or to save money on recurring costs? What are the most important aspects of your property?

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Vacation rental managers who invest in maintenance programs can reap huge dividends down the road and save their owners significant operating costs. Simple tasks like cleaning condenser coils and gaskets in a refrigerator help appliances run efficiently and extend their lives. In fact, studies have shown that preventive maintenance can reduce repair costs by 20 percent. But cost savings aren’t the only benefits here. Properties that function as advertised result in happy renters and owners, leading to repeat business and a trusted brand.

Still aren’t convinced? Let’s look at an example: On average, heating and cooling accounts for 54 percent of a residential structure’s annual energy cost (about $1,200). A well-maintained HVAC system can increase cost-efficiency by 30–50 percent, saving $360–$500 per year.

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These parameters might depend on your geographic region. For example, homes in colder climates often sit unoccupied through winter months and will need to be winterized. On the other hand, coastal homes will need thorough exterior cleaning to remove corrosive sea salt from fixtures and amenities. This includes exterior light fixtures, power outlets, furniture, and grills.

HVAC filters are very important in most plans. The frequency with which you need to replace your filters will depend on numerous factors like filter type, air quality, pets, and occupancy rates. But regardless of your environment, every maintenance plan should include electric appliances.

Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors should be cleaned and have their batteries replaced every six months. Detectors can randomly fail, so it’s a good policy to replace detectors every ten years.

Replacing light bulbs and inspecting fixtures for loose sockets or damage are also a must. Modems and routers should be cleaned and reset monthly, and batteries in wall clocks, alarm clocks, TVs, and remotes should be changed yearly.

Set Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) The standard operating procedures you create will keep your team organized. These guidelines will dictate how and when each item on your list is maintained. Meet with maintenance techs and discuss these requirements as well as the maintenance frequency (e.g., weekly, monthly, quarterly) and the estimated amount of maintenance time for each item.

Lastly, make a list of the supplies, parts, and tools needed to complete your program. This list will allow you to order parts in advance and save money with bulk discounts.

Understand Your Inventory The next step in setting up a preventive maintenance program is compiling deep property data. Begin by recording the make, model, serial numbers, and condition of all electronics, appliances, and equipment within your properties as well as your office and work spaces. (This includes relevant information on company vehicles, such as oil change dates, tire replacements, battery replacements, and repairs.) Consider organizing your HVAC appliances and equipment in different zones and include where each zone is located. Be sure to record special notes on any unique items that include several parts, as these may require extra effort to maintain.

A comprehensive list of these items will be invaluable to your company and to your homeowners.

Know Your Staffing Requirements This is key to executing your preventive maintenance program.

If your program is running properly, then your maintenance staff should be spending only 25 percent of its time on reactive maintenance. Instill a proactive mind-set in your staff.

Some companies find it useful to hire third-party vendors to meet their preventive maintenance needs. Outsourcing things like HVAC care and pest control can give you the expertise you need while saving you the time and money it would cost to train your staff. Having a list of vendors and contractors on call is a must, giving you peace of mind when issues arise.

Train the Team Every member of your staff should be familiar with the SOPs for each maintenance item. If necessary, train staff on maintenance procedures prior to starting your program. The most important component of this training is data capture, as accurate reporting is necessary for owner billing, inventory control, and future process improvement. Thorough notes should include tasks completed, time spent on each task, location, room, item maintained, and parts used.

Schedule Your Plan First, use the data from your inventory to establish your maintenance priorities. Doing so will help avoid overloading staff with busywork and will ensure that the important items are taken care of first. The highest-priority items are traditionally those involving safety or those that cost more money and time to maintain.

Next, establish what items are maintained at certain times of the year and define your maintenance windows (e.g., your off-season for annual/semiannual maintenance and the time between checkout and arrival for weekly maintenance). Only then should

you schedule your priority items, as well as maintenance for your company vehicles—knowing your degree of access to certain vehicles can help prevent logistical delays.

Your lower-priority items can fill the gaps in your schedule. Be mindful about giving your maintenance techs lower-priority items in locations near their important tasks; this will reduce unnecessary travel time.

Analyze, Adjust, and Improve Ditch the “set it and forget it” mind-set and look to improve your plan every step of the way. It takes time to develop a rock-solid program, so don’t hesitate to consult your maintenance staff on what’s working and what’s not. You can use the feedback you get to adjust your maintenance scheduling. Make note of the properties that are costing the most time and attention, and consider describing to the owners of these properties the upgrades and renovations that must be completed for their homes to remain in your rental program.

Get Homeowners on Board Developing a preventive maintenance program works best when your homeowners participate. The best way to do this is to fully communicate the work that’s being done and what is necessary to maintain the property. Provide a full list of all services included in the program and explain why these services are cost-effective.

Timing is everything—promote the program when it’s time to renew your agreement or when you’re taking on new clients. This transparent communication increases confidence in your property management services and improves owner relations.

In a competitive vacation rental market where managers are expected to provide service to their guests and owners, the efficiency gains of a preventive maintenance program are necessary to keep up with the workload—particularly in high season, when staff is stretched thin and there isn’t an hour to waste on a Saturday.

Jeremiah Gall is a serial entrepreneur and vacation rental market veteran with a history of delivering great products to rental managers over the past twelve years.

In 2006, Jeremy cofounded FlipKey.com and developed marketing tools and the first verified guest review platform for professional rental managers. He continued to manage FlipKey’s global professional services group, working with more than three thousand property manager clients. Before leaving in 2013 and after the acquisition by TripAdvisor, Jeremy grew FlipKey into one of the largest vacation rental businesses in the world.

Jeremy is the founder and CEO of Breezeway. Breezeway’s mobile app and solutions give rental managers the tools they need for optimized turn days, efficient operations, and excellent property care programs.

Jeremy has shared in-depth analyses of the vacation rental market at national travel shows and in industry publications and is a regular presenter at VRMA conferences, MIT, and Boston College. He is an avid vacation rental fan and enjoys splitting time between Boston and South Carolina.

Whether you’re looking to start a preventive maintenance program or just refresh an existing one, feel free to reach out to us. We’ve helped rental manager clients complete more than 500,000 property care and maintenance tasks at vacation rental properties by means of Breezeway’s software platform, and we can help you work through improvements to your program.

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Your Statewide Vacation Rental Managers Association The Florida VRMA represents the professional management of vacation homes, condos and resort units throughout the state of Florida. We are your statewide vacation rental management industry association dedicated to supporting and protecting the $31,000,000,000 per year economic impact realized through the Florida vacation rental industry.

The new Florida VRMA continues to deliver the educational programs, legislative advocacy and member benefits to help you to grow your segment of the industry throughout the state of Florida and beyond.

Explore what our new regional chapters can mean for your business as a professional in the Florida vacation rental industry. The Florida VRMA is the largest statewide association in the US market today supporting property managers with tens of thousands of vacation rental units. From major Florida attractions to local supporting tradesman, the Florida VRMA has various participation levels for all businesses and industry partners.

Find out what the new Florida VRMA can do for you at

www.fvrma.org or call us at 407-218-6600 THE OPMA DIFFERENCE Constant focus on the future and the shaping of the lodging industry Controlling our own destiny through leadership initiatives and not simply relying on advocacy and secondary support roles Targeted growth and strategy: Aggregating the most condo hotel rental inventory in the most popular vacation destinations.

REPRESENTING

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

CONDO ACCOMMODATIONS

& HOTEL AMENITIES

877.870.6510 THEOPMA.ORG 66

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Assisting our members in measuring and delivering their collective economic impact in the local markets they serve Develop and introduce training programs that provide uniform messaging and that enhance the sales and service levels and the proďŹ tability of the membership Minimize the number of suppliers in any product/ service category translating into more signiďŹ cant long-term relationships with OPMA onsite managers

Real Estate and Vacation Rentals Relationship Status:

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“It’s Complicated”

acation rentals and real estate are two massive industries worth billions that have long existed parallel to one another. The juxtaposition of the two reminds me of my aloof neighbors whom I see only in passing going to and coming home from work. I don’t know their names, and they most likely don’t know mine either. We don’t converse or know anything about each other beyond the fact that we live on the same street. Every now and then we throw in a friendly wave to acknowledge each other’s existence. That is how I see the relationship between vacation rentals and real estate. I often wonder how two industries this huge, with so many similarities, have existed side by side without overlapping on a mainstream level.

As a real estate agent and marketer who has exclusively dedicated the past eleven years of my career to working in the vacation rental niche, I’ve had more than my fair share of opportunities to feel like the black sheep of the industry. My babbling to other agents and brokers at real estate events about the vacation rental niche being the next huge trend—maybe even bigger than the REO boom of 2011–2013—results in a lot of head bobbing, but their responses are always the same . . . an immediate need to place the transaction in a box in better hopes of understanding it. Unfortunately, there isn’t a box available to fit such a complex yet fascinating opportunity that is part of not just a single one billion dollar industry but two.

So those two industries have continued to exist in parallel universes—until recently. In only the past two years, the crossover between the vacation rental world and the real estate world has been impossible to ignore, even on a mainstream level.

Like most everything else in life, once something catches on, it spreads like wildfire.

That seems to be the case now in the real estate investor world.

Vacation rentals have quickly become the shiny new toy that almost all investors want to add to their portfolios. It’s a sexy investment; it’s not the same old boring tenants-and-toilets long-term rental that investors have been throwing their money at for years.

The vacation rental not only offers investors a way to double their income, it also adds an emotional component and humanizes what was, for the longest time, a stoic business model.

Because of the massive disconnect between the two industries, today’s vacation rental investors still have their work cut out for them.

These investors are dedicated buyers, and they spend months doing their homework to try to sort out everything from regulations, locations, and management to transferable income, permits, listing sites, and expenses.

These people are not yesterday’s investors who would call an agent, receive a few MLS listings, and choose to buy a property based on cap rates. If only it were that easy. Those investors have to consolidate all that information on their own, and then they typically

By Erica Muller

utilize the listing agents to make offers on properties they’ve identified as being good investments. But they don’t want to be doing that; they want the agents to handle it for them.

Here’s the kicker—nine out of ten real estate agents don’t know how to do it or how to structure those investments. So who should investors call?

The big push that has to happen right now is for education on the real estate agent/broker side and a simplification of the investment process on the investor side. For that push to happen, both worlds must form a more intimate relationship. There can no longer be such a huge disconnect and burying of heads in the sand. We need to see more real estate agents stepping up and learning this niche market, going through the educational models available to them, and putting themselves out there.

We need more property managers engaged on the sale side instead of running from it in fear of losing the home in their programs. I’ve experienced that disconnect on a microlevel, not having had any qualified real estate agents to refer my clients to who wanted to purchase this type of investment outside my own market.

Currently, there are more than 660,000 US homes listed on Airbnb, and about 400,000 are listed on HomeAway. If we take out the yurts, treehouse-type listings, and duplicate listings, we’re probably left with somewhere around 700,000 homes (and growing) that need to exchange hands at some point. All of those homes have rental histories, reviews, and transferable incomes that are gold to an investor.

Who and how many are going to be the ones pioneering these transactions is yet to be determined, but one thing is certain—the vacation rental industry just keeps growing. People aren’t going to stop traveling, and the demand for private rentals isn’t going to fizzle. Given that reality, a whole new pool of investors—lifestyle investors—isn’t going to shrink.

The question then becomes whether the two worlds can afford to ignore each other any longer. I predict that compartmentalizing both industries into boxes is going to prevent innovation on both sides. I also don’t see the overlapping of these industries as a bad thing because it paves the way for start-ups with unique perspectives to jump into the scene.

About Erica Muller Erica Muller is a sixteen-year, seasoned real estate professional, particularly in the investment niche of vacation rentals in the Kissimmee, Florida, market. She has recently left the sales side to pursue her new start-up, Vrolio, which is the first platform in either industry to merge both real estate and vacation rentals by streamlining the investment process for both the owner and the investor.

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Re-Recruiting

Marketing Strategies for Owner Retention

By Alexa Nota

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t costs, on average, seven times more to sign a new customer than it does to retain one, and this stat rings true for vacation rental managers. But in today’s market, homeowner retention is far more than a huge cost saving – it’s survival. Just as it is essential to have a plan to recruit new owners, property managers need strategies to keep them in the rental program.

As VRM Intel founder Amy Hinote writes in “Owner Acquisition Strategy: B2B + B2C =B2O”: The relationship with the homeowner has both business and personal elements, so a healthy owner acquisition strategy combines business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales and marketing tactics to create a business-to-owner (B2O) plan . . . The B2B purchase process tends to be rationally and logically driven, while consumer choices are typically emotionally triggered.

B2B clientele want to be educated and provided with expertise.

B2C customers want to enjoy themselves, be happy with their purchase, and have it adequately fulfill their needs . . . Working with homeowners is challenging because they view the relationship with the property management company (PMC) in both a business and personal way: Business: The homeowner views himself as the CEO and wants the PMC as the manager to be fully accountable for increasing revenue, maintaining the quality and cleanliness of the property, achieving maximum rental rates, providing top notch accounting/reporting services, etc.

Personal: The homeowner also wants the PMC to act as a babysitter, making sure nothing is broken, monitoring who is coming in and out of the home, staying in close communication, understanding the home’s uniqueness, and personally and lovingly caring for the vacation home.

Design the messaging to highlight the advantages of your program and appeal to the homeowner in both a professional and personal way.

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Owners do not shed these needs once their contract is signed, so neither should a property manager’s internal marketing.

Recruitment never really ends; it simply becomes owner retention, which is always “re-recruiting” ahead of the next contract renewal.

Here are some easy-to-implement strategies to ponder when creating a retention marketing plan.

in your program, you have a huge upper hand in being able to communicate with each of them at this personal level of detail. Your competitors don’t, so utilize this gift at every opportunity. In an owner retention marketing plan, build in systems to keep detailed notes on each property so relaying information to individual owners is quick and thorough.

Show owners what you do—don’t just tell them.

Be proactive and demonstrate integrity in identifying and solving problems.

While traditionally used to help writers improve their storytelling, this advice is just as relevant in retention. As Jimmy Maymann writes, “the age of talking at consumers is over.”

Owners can only hear a property manager vaguely say what they’re doing so often before the words start to lose meaning.

But what if an inspector texts a photo of a housekeeper elbow deep in dust behind a fridge? Or what if the company posts a video on social media of the maintenance crew tying down deck furniture before a hurricane? Or what if a guest service team member emails an owner a group photo with a family reunion wearing matching shirts with their home’s name on them?

That personal, visual engagement has staying power, which inspires warmth and confidence. Implementing show-don’t-tell practices like these across communications is a relatively simple and often enjoyable way to maximize owner retention activities.

Pay attention and communicate with specificity.

“What are you doing for my home?” Every property management staff member gets this question regularly. Of course, much of what a company does for one home is the same as what it does for all, and owners understand this. Still, owners deserve to feel like someone is paying attention specifically to their home, which will go a long way in keeping them in a program.

Communicating with specificity can convey just that—that they’re being paid attention to.

Consider the following messages: Company A: “We market your home online.”

Company B: “In addition to our standard digital marketing activities, we’ve been pushing Beach House’s two open summer weeks in two email campaigns on 4/16 and 5/6 and in a social media feature on 5/11. We’ve also begun actively promoting your fall openings in some pet-friendly and fall events campaigns.”

Company A: “We completed all deep cleans in early spring.”

Company B: “Molly and a housekeeping team completed Mountain Lodge #43’s deep clean on March 5. We noticed quite a bit of dust buildup, so we recommend replacing filters more often this year; but your floors, bedding, and appliances are all in great condition.”

Company A: “Pool pump inspections are done before pools open for the start of the season.”

Company B: “James is scheduled to inspect your pool pump on April 3. He will be checking all mechanical equipment as well as the filters and chemical levels while he is there, and we anticipate having his full report to you by April 5.”

While both companies may be doing the exact same things, which one would an owner likely prefer to do business with? With owners

Letting a problem occur is excellent marketing—for competitors.

One huge advantage a vacation rental company has over its competition is intimate knowledge of its homes and the opportunity to be proactive. Staff can spot a potential problem, solve the root cause before it becomes a crisis, and then tell the owner specifically what they did. Not only does this demonstrate that they’re paying attention (see above), it minimizes any temptation for that owner to respond to competitors’ marketing.

Proactivity is an opportunity for everyone to participate in owner retention. Basic departmental cross-training and an easy reporting process will help teams work together better and faster, which will go a long way toward maintaining owners’ trust in the care of their home. Training for proactive communications can include empowering housekeepers to catch leaks and report them to maintenance on the spot, developing data reports that help management uncover weakening booking patterns before it is too late, and implementing thorough inspection protocols in the off-season to prevent major issues down the road.

Be willing to customize management (within reason) for high-profit homes.

In his article “Key to Exponential Growth: Fire Your Owners Regularly” in the VRM Intel winter 2018 issue, Wes Melton talks about categorizing owners on two scales, low-effort/high-effort and low-profit/high-profit, when deciding which owners to let go.

The same concepts can be applied when deciding what owners a company most needs to retain.

The high-profit, high-effort category is where managers may find themselves devoting most of their retention marketing energy, and this can likely mean personalization for members of this group. I don’t mean completely overhauling operations to cater to a single property, but rather being open-minded and not being limited to a standard PMA at the risk of losing a valuable client.

Perhaps your portfolio includes the only event-capacity home in the market, complete with a caterer’s kitchen and carriage house, and the homeowner wants to hire a live-in estate manager. If the home has the potential to generate a healthy profit and provide a huge competitive advantage in rentals, why not find ways to customize services (within reason) to accommodate the owner’s requests? Openness and flexibility could make the difference in retaining owners as well as reveal creative solutions that can be implemented in future recruiting negotiations.

Provide exclusive tools and resources to help homeowners grow their own vacation rental business.

Owners are running their own vacation rental businesses, and when they do better, property managers do better. As their business partner, you can be the key to their businesses’ growth. Go above and beyond for them in this area by delivering quality resources that their businesses can’t live without or get anywhere else. In other

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words, be their dedicated Expertise-as-a-Service (ExaaS) provider.

To uncover all the possibilities this affords, first ask owners what their biggest vacation home challenges are. They may reply with a lot of FAQs, but they may also reveal some hidden sore points, such as Mr. Smith struggling to find a good contractor or that some owners want to be more informed about what’s happening around town when they’re away.

Property managers can easily provide solutions, but only if they know what owners need. It’s likely that others are facing the same challenges or they will at some point in the future, so thoughtful ExaaS can offer immense value.

My favorite question to ask in this area is for staff: “What do you wish owners knew?” This, too, is a goldmine of information. In his article, Melton shares an example of one putting a $500 duvet in her rental home. A housekeeping team may share that this is a common issue and slows laundry processes. With information like this, the PM can create easy guides that benefit its entire portfolio and make the staff ’s jobs easier. Who wouldn’t love this information?

Developing informational tools like these does not need to cost significant time or money. Quick video tutorials, monthly news-

letters, quarterly town-hall style webinars around FAQs, or download-and-print checklists can be easy, affordable, and even fun ways to share information.

Integrate owners into company growth.

Just as vacation rental managers can invest in owners’ business success, owners can be invested in theirs. This is especially effective in retention of high-profit, high-effort owners. Invite them to focus groups, give them exclusive early access to test new products and programs, send them surveys, or simply ask for their feedback from time to time. Giving owners an opportunity to be heard and offer their own ExaaS will further strengthen the owner-manager relationship. As a bonus, the company could also find a deep well of valuable ideas it may not otherwise have tapped.

Completing the acquisition-retention loop, property managers can also use this integration by way of referrals. Owners talk with others in competitors’ programs, and they have the power to be more influential than any other recruitment marketing campaign.

Consider making evangelizing your company an extra sweet proposition by offering a referral fee in return for every lead or signed contract they provide.

Owner Communications Anatomy of a Vacation Rental Owner Newsletter

I

n its blog post, “10 Eye-Opening Email Marketing Stats You Need to Know,” Constant Contact estimates that for every $1 spent on email marketing, companies can expect an average return of $38. Furthermore, the company reports that 80 percent of professionals said email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention.

For vacation rental managers, the implications of this data are huge.

Email marketing affords a can’t-miss opportunity to maximize limited budgets for big returns, and industry discussions on guest bookings solidly reinforce this.

But what about marketing to owners? If a property manager isn’t acquiring and retaining owners, this highly competitive industry will swallow it whole.

Enter: the email newsletter. Done well, newsletters to owners can perform a key function in owner recruitment and retention marketing plans. The countless tech and software options available today make creating a successful newsletter program more accessible than ever. There’s no time like the present to add one to your toolbox or refresh your newsletter if it’s been around for a while.

For content planning, inbound marketing leader HubSpot recommends 90 percent educational and 10 percent promotional content, but I think this leaves out an important category for property managers: emotional content. Owning a vacation rental home is in many ways a highly personal and emotional experience, and news70

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letters can be a meaningful link between owners, their homes, and the destination they love. As such, a content balance I like to aim for is around 80 percent educational, 10 percent emotional, and 10 percent promotional.

Go-to sources for ideas across these categories include owner needs, the local market, and relevant industry news. Infuse your unique property management expertise into articles that answer owner questions and help them make the best decisions for their homes, and you’ll create a newsletter that will keep them coming back for more. Consider including the following sections in each issue:

Internal and External Policy Updates Owners need to be kept in the loop on internal changes such as new lease terms or changing program requirements, and newsletters provide a quick and easy way to communicate these things en masse. They’re also a great tool for delivering consistent messaging around external policy information from local regulations to HomeAway rule updates to GDPR. Leading educational discussions about heavy and complex subjects like these can position a company as the go-to source in its market.

New Program or Product Announcements When rolling out a new product to owners, a newsletter announcement supports the overall product launch campaign without being

too hard a sell. Use this touchpoint as a sneak peek or an invitation to get more information and ultimately take the desired action of signing up or making a purchase.

Market Snapshots Owners appreciate transparent discussions about their company’s booking patterns and take interest in larger trends. This is a good opportunity for a property manager to highlight where it’s beating the competition and where performance could be improved.

Owners understand that a company may not always be ahead of the game every month or quarter, so directness and honesty with what’s being done to adjust course inspires owners’ trust.

Checklists For the things owners should or must do throughout the year, draw attention to reminders in the form of a checklist. For example:  Time to schedule your 2018 deck inspection! Contact us for recommended inspectors.

 Pro Tip: Consider investing in a printed newsletter. At VRM Intel, we have found that printed materials are stickier than you might think.

Once you’ve found the right content balance, keep the overall topic areas relatively consistent and make sure each newsletter is delivered punctually on a set schedule so owners know what to expect and when they’ll get it. Mix up how information is formatted to keep it fresh and engaging. Not every article has to be a several-paragraph write-up; try lists, Q&A-style interviews, guides, photo feature stories, and charts or graphs. For more ideas on crafting your VR newsletter, check out the helpful resources from the email marketing pros at HubSpot, MailChimp, and Constant Contact.

 Internet service documents are now due. Please sign and return yours within fifteen days.  Please RSVP to the Summer Brunch Bonanza by May 31 to reserve your spot. We’d love to see you!

A brief to-do list simplifies the message and visually reinforces the actions required.

Upgrade Advice Homes need smart upgrades over time to stay competitive with their neighbors. Newsletters let property managers provide bitesize tips at regular intervals to keep these updates top of mind without becoming overwhelming. They can include product suggestions, décor dos and don’ts, project ideas for when to DIY and when to hire a pro, recommended contractor contact lists, and other helpful guidance.

Staff Picks Readers love inside scoops, so invite owners to live like a local when they’re in town and include area favorites handpicked by staff.

Share things like must-try activities, best regional specialty cuisine, or secret spots they may not yet have discovered.

Company Events, Profiles, and Behind-the-Scenes Looks With so much owner–manager interaction now happening over phone, email, and text, property managers can quickly lose the human element. Remind owners about all the hard work that goes into caring for their homes. Snapshot company events, profile staff, or go behind the scenes to showcase the work that the public doesn’t usually see, like laundry production.

Celebrations Inside and Outside the Office Taking time to express pride in a team member’s accomplishments invites owners to share in that company pride. Share accolades for staff earning a job-related certification, reaching a significant milestone, getting married, having a baby, or achieving a big personal goal like running a first marathon. Property managers can celebrate owners here, too! Consider short blurbs welcoming new owners to the program or shout-outs to owners who recently closed on another vacation home.

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Safe Selling

Why Professional Managers Need to Promote Safe Vacation Rentals

By Justin Ford, President, A & A VR Consulting

A

nytime NBC’s Jeff Rossen does a news report on vacation rentals, rental managers around the country shudder at the effect his report could have on their business.

However, this past spring, the most recent, big story on protecting vacation homes from carbon monoxide poisoning and fire shouldn’t have been a wake-up call but a call for the vacation rental industry to unite worldwide to ensure basic safety codes are addressed in vacation rental homes. Now is the time for managers to offer safe rental homes, and it’s time to use that as an advantage and promote their business using safety as a selling point.

In 2008, the US vacation rental industry was shocked by the death of a family of four from carbon monoxide poisoning in a vacation rental home in Aspen, Colorado. Colorado quickly became the first state to require carbon monoxide detectors in vacation rental homes, and now almost every state in the United States requires them. Unfortunately, Mexico didn’t follow their lead. This past March, in Tao, Mexico, a family of four was found dead inside a professionally managed vacation rental condo. Authorities linked the cause of their deaths to carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty hot water heater. There were no carbon monoxide detectors on the rental property—forty-dollar devices that likely would have saved their lives. Why is something like this still happening in our industry ten years after the Aspen incident?

At the end of Rossen’s report following the death of the family in Mexico, NBC’s Carson Daly muttered aloud that the solution to the problem was to stay in a hotel instead. Rossen suggested that vacation renters travel with their own carbon monoxide detectors.

Neither of these solutions address the problem.

All around the United States, vacation managers have slowly worked to address safety for their vacation rental homes over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, this has been mostly reac72

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tive to all of the deck collapses, fires, and drownings in pools that have caused renter injuries and deaths. However, these incidents should serve as wake-up calls to vacation managers that they need to protect their guests and do all that is necessary to ensure they have a safe stay. Some credit is due to managers who are making a great effort to care more. In Big Sky, Montana, Kirsten King, owner of Book Big Sky, joined in when the Kidde Fire Extinguisher recall came out last November and has been leading her agency through the difficult process of swapping out recalled fire extinguishers in all of its rental homes. Lori Smith, general manager at Seaside Vacation Rentals in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, has led her team in creating safety inspections to ensure all their rental homes meet basic safety standards. Others are following their example after attending safety presentations at VRMA and VRM Intel Conferences.

Still, accidents keep happening. Julie Gilbert lost her son and boyfriend while she was badly burned in a professionally managed Boothbay, Maine vacation rental house fire a year ago last October.

All three had been sleeping upstairs when the fire started in the vacation rental. Gilbert’s niece and nephew, then eight and four, were sleeping downstairs and woke up before the rest of the family. They discovered some matches and started playing with them.

Investigators later determined that the couch caught on fire while one of the children was playing with the matches. The kids didn’t have access to matches in their own home, and family members had never really reviewed the dangers of matches with the kids. This is why matches or real, flame-burning candles should never be permitted in any vacation rental.

After starting the fire, the eight-year-old niece ran upstairs to Gilbert’s room, pounded on the doors, and said, “Everybody get out! There’s a fire! Get out! Bart, Lucas, Julie, get out!”

When Gilbert got up from the bed, the room was full of black smoke. Her niece ran back downstairs. The three of them reached the top of the stairs to follow her niece, but the stairs were already engulfed in flames.

Gilbert was able to escape out of a second-floor window, but her son and boyfriend were overcome with smoke and didn’t make it.

Their bodies were discovered inches from the window.

Gilbert estimates that only fifteen to twenty seconds passed from the moment she woke up to the moment she jumped out of the window. “Twenty seconds and they died,” she said.

What Gilbert said next is something every vacation manager should read slowly and absorb. “There was no way to get through the smoke and the fire,” she said. “It comes at you like a black, crawling monster. It makes noise. It’s hot, and you feel it, but your adrenaline is going so much that I believe they did not really feel the pain.”

Gilbert was in a home she had only spent one night in and her surroundings were unfamiliar. This is how it is for all vacationers in a rented vacation home. Everything worked against her and her family to get out of the house quickly in an emergency. In addition, recently published studies show that newer homes, with more modern contents, burn faster and with more toxicity than ever before.

If you’ve ever attended one of my safety presentations, you know I begin by asking attendees to close their eyes and envision arriving at a rental home at 11:00 p.m., in the dark, after a full day of travel, with kids fighting, traffic, and wrong directions. Then imagine climbing into bed exhausted. Suddenly, you wake to smoke in your bedroom at 2:00 a.m. Open your eyes. Did you as a vacation manager do everything in your power to ensure that these guests, who trusted you to alert them to danger and guide them on what to do to get out alive? This is the most powerful message a vacation manager must absorb when deciding to offer a vacation rental to generate income. Ultimately, the vacation manager is responsible for ensuring guests have a safe vacation rental experience.

While investigators from the Maine Department of Public Safety said there had been three functioning smoke detectors in the house, Julie remembered hearing only one from a distance in the kitchen or somewhere downstairs. Why weren’t all the smoke detectors interconnected so they would all go off, regardless of the source?

While laws don’t yet require this functionality, managers should make sure all of their homes have interconnected alarms. Shouldn’t your guests have the best?

one area where the OTAs and RBOs are leading the professionally managed industry—they are starting to embrace safety and promote it. The deaths in Maine and the recent deaths in Mexico should be a call to action for universal safety standards in all vacation rentals, regardless of location or management.

As the vacation rental industry continues to grow, it’s inevitable that regulations will be passed requiring managers to have safety features similar to a hotel’s in rental homes. In fact, it’s already happening. Many localities around the United States already require vacation rentals to have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, emergency exit lighting, and fire extinguishers in place. One popular vacation rental destination in Maine, the town of Cape Elizabeth, requires posted exit plans in the bedrooms of vacation rentals, much like a hotel.

So why not embrace safety? Instead of offering a 10 percent discount on a week at a rental property, why not sell the fact that your rental homes are inspected and will provide a much safer vacation experience for a family than one offered through an OTA or by a competitor? Volvo has been selling safety for years, and it works!

How about this slogan on your website homepage instead of announcing specials: “Our homes are thoroughly inspected for safety annually and prior to each arrival.”

Maybe have this conversation with a guest who wants a discount.

Potential renter: “I see the property is being offered for $2,000 a week. Is there any way you could rent it for $1,800?”

Reservationist: “That’s a great question, and I appreciate your asking it.

We thoroughly inspect the homes annually to ensure our homes meet the highest quality and safety standards. Additionally, we provide some incentive to our cleaning and maintenance teams to make sure nothing is overlooked safety-wise prior to your arrival. Ensuring you and your family are safe in a home that you aren’t used to living in is our top priority. Now, let’s make sure you and your family are in a safe place on vacation and not let a few dollars keep us from doing business together.”

How about the following notes in picture captions?

The last thing Gilbert expressed when she discussed the events of the fire, which was also published in news stories across the northeast, is frustration. Gilbert said she “isn’t likely to rent another home through [name of website removed] or similar websites due to the rentals’ relative lack of regulations and safety features, like fire alarms and sprinkler systems, in comparison to hotels.”

Address the Problem—Make Them Feel Safe.

OTAs are improving their vacation rental safety outreach, but they have a long way to go. Unfortunately, professional managers have even further to go. RBO properties on Airbnb, VRBO, and FlipKey still show safety flaws, such as deck railings that are not up to code, pools without lockable gates, and bedrooms and hallways with no visible smoke detectors in marketing photos. Anyone can list a home on an OTA site without providing proof that the home is safe (there is no excuse for a professional rental agency to list homes that don’t meet national building code standards). Still, many of the big OTAs have webpages dedicated to safety. This is

A beautiful and well-built deck overlooking the ocean with extra safety netting for the kids.

Stairs with handrails lead up to the second floor.

Includes a washer and gas dryer. A gas and carbon monoxide detector are located in the laundry room.

Gorgeous king master bedroom with incredible views. A combination smoke/carbon monoxide detector is located in this room.

Includes a well-equipped kitchen with quality appliances and smoke detectors.

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Highlighting safety items in property descriptions should be something that managers consider doing. HomeAway and Airbnb have sections in each web listing where RBOs can post safety features.

Yet, a scan of most professional manager websites shows none are doing this yet. If it’s not easy to add a table to your property descriptions for safety, then find ways to include safety features in the property advertising and description. Here is an example.

“Surf’s Up” Rental House Description Impeccable Interior Design, Safe Home within Walking Distance of the Beach Exceptional style, spacious bedrooms, and a convenient location just steps away from both the beach and an array of local restaurants and attractions makes “Surf ’s Up” a fabulous and safe choice for your family’s next vacation. This home is inspected annually for safety and features the top, Consumer Reports rated dual ionization/photoelectric interconnected smoke detectors throughout the home. Digital readout carbon monoxide detectors are located near all sleeping spaces.

Boasting three large bedrooms, each with its own deck and emergency escape ladders, this oceanside vacation rental home in Kitty Hawk offers something for everyone to enjoy. The large open-concept kitchen with ample dining space features a loud protective smoke detector, sharp cooking knives, and a fire extinguisher.

Access to the main deck is just off the kitchen. Inspected annually, the pressure-treated deck boards and support beams are all fastened using the best screw fasteners, and the deck is strong enough to support more than twice the occupancy of the home. Views over the railings, which are up to code and will ensure none of the little ones in your party can slip through, are of the distant lighthouses in the area.

The main level features sliding glass doors with alarms that will let you know if anyone too young to access the pool has entered the pool deck area. Just outside, the pool has a fence around it with a secure pool gate.

Additionally, the pool has a floating alarm. The nearby hot tub faces the ocean and features locking snaps to keep the cover on.

As part of our commitment to the safety of our vacationing guests, we ensure that each home in our rental inventory receives an inspection by a professional building inspector to ensure it meets national building code standards. After that, our maintenance team inspects each home annually. We require all of our homes to follow the recommendations of the National Fire Protection Association and only use smoke detectors that are less than ten years old and carbon monoxide detectors that are less than seven years old. In most cases, we go above and beyond to install more detectors than required by law. Finally, our cleaners are educated on how to identify new safety issues that need to be addressed before each stay. Here are some of the many things we check for in each home:  The decks and deck railings are securely fastened and designed to stand up to maximum weight loads.

 Two options for egress are available from every bedroom in the home. The rooms preferred for use by children have easier egress options established.

 Barbecue grills are located a safe distance from dwelling structures with proper instructions on their use.

 Outside lighting is properly aimed to ensure access around the property is properly lit at night.

 Property accessories, such as exterior chairs, hammocks, kayaks, hot tubs, pools, swings, and more, are checked for quality and to ensure they are safe for use. We place an emphasis on making sure pools are properly gated and hot tub covers are secure.  Appliances are all inspected to ensure they are clean and safe to operate, and this includes laundry dryer vents.  Electrical systems, including ground fault interrupters, are checked for proper operation.

Get the Guest Involved.

Finally, the lower level features a bunk bedroom. There are two points of egress for your basement guests, and although the laundry and utility systems are located on the lower level, both have alarm systems in place to monitor for smoke and carbon monoxide.

While this description may seem a bit overboard, some of it can be used as an example to get started.

Create a Webpage Devoted to Safety.

As noted earlier, many OTAs are already devoting webpages to safety, and Airbnb is leading the way: https://www.airbnb.com/ home-safety.

So, why aren’t professional managers focusing on safety? Vacation managers can do some things, like create a page that links off the main menu and list the safety items in each rental. Promote the inspections! Make and post a short, one-minute YouTube video for the page, and show the agency owner walking through a vacation home in its inventory and pointing out their dedication to safety. Here are some things a vacation rental agency should promote about safety.

Ocean Waves Vacation Rental Safety Commitment

Here at Ocean Waves Vacation Rental Agency, we are committed to ensuring you and your family have a safe and satisfying stay in our rental homes. If at any time during your stay you see something that isn’t safe in one of our homes, please call us immediately at 800-555-5555, so we can address the issue.

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On the Water in Maine Inc. Vacation Rentals has posted preprinted post-it notes on mirrors in all of the bathrooms in its rental properties for several years now. This simple and inexpensive way to grab the guest’s attention prompts them to think about safety just for a moment and may save lives. These custom post-it notes can

be made online and ordered from companies like Vistaprint for less than a hundred dollars to cover the whole season for any agency.

IT IS Not Just the Rental Home.

The summer of 2018 immediately started off with the death of a vacation home renter in Michigan, but the death didn’t happen at the property. This highlights an opportunity for vacation managers to share safety guidelines that guests should practice—even when guests are not in residence.

Other items to address include advising guests against renting scooters from a local business, a source of injury for many tourists; informing them of dangerous rip currents in the ocean; and sharing which ski trails are best to begin skiing and avoid injury.

Finally—Befriend the Local Fire Chief.

According to a Michigan Department of Natural Resources press release, “At about 3:30 p.m. Monday, June 5, 2018, regional dispatchers received a call from a man who said his son and a friend had taken kayaks from their vacation rental property out into Lake Michigan.”

The temperature of the water was fifty degrees and the wind was blowing hard, but the renters chose not to wear life jackets. The son’s deceased body was found near the kayak, in eight to ten feet of water.

Could a sign near the kayak or a message in the listing description have prevented this tragedy? What about a note from the rental agency stating that, although kayaks were provided, caution was needed regarding their use until lake temperatures warmed?

Caption on the listing photo: Two kayaks are included with the rental along with life jackets. Guests are required to wear life jackets when using the watercraft.

Sign by the kayaks: The provided life jackets must be worn when using the kayaks. Children, sixteen years and younger, should not go out unsupervised in the kayaks. All guests should review safety procedures and proper kayak operation.

As you begin the journey to ensure your vacation rental agency embraces safety and uses it as a tool to help your guests have a good rental experience, get your local fire department involved. Around the country, the fire chief is always at the table when it comes to creating local regulations for vacation rentals.

Get your fire chief involved and take him or her on tours of your vacation homes. Show your fire chief that you are committed to good business with a strong commitment toward safety, it will benefit you. Later, when your local government tries to create regulations that may adversely affect your business, you’ll have an ally at the table who will hopefully speak up and point out that the professional managers in your town are already working to exceed any regulations that may be proposed.

Give guests information on how to be safe.

Should young children be allowed to use a kayak? Should they use a life jacket?

About Justin Ford

As a former US Coast Guard Safety Inspection Office and as a former firefighter, Justin Ford has focused on safety and standards for vacation rental homes. His Facebook page "Vacation Rental Safety" provides ongoing tips and resources for the industry. Ford provides consulting services to professional vacation rental managers and has produced conference presentations on vacation rental safety around the US. VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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c ki e s

d n i n a go H

e Ro

v

y e t K o r th e

By Mike and Julie Magliocchetti

What it was like selling our

vacation rental business

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Michael and Julie Magliocchetti tell the story about the recent sale of their business, Key to the Rockies, to Vacasa.

Mike: It all started when we converted the

tiny hot-tub room in our Keystone, Colorado, townhouse into an office using a piece of plywood. We worked six days a week for the next twenty-eight years building a successful property management business on the wave of the Colorado ski industry. We loved every minute.

This year, we sold that business and went to work for the buyer. To the surprise of friends and family, we couldn’t be happier. This is our story:

Julie: Mike and I met on a blind date at

Keystone Ranch. That was back in the 1980s, when I used to Scotchgard my jeans. I’d spent spring breaks skiing with family in Colorado, and the mountains never stopped calling. After graduating from Michigan State University, I packed up my golden retriever and headed west to the Rockies where I fell in love with Keystone’s Soda Creek Valley—and also with Mike.

Mike: I followed my brother

from the Philadelphia area to Colorado in pursuit of powder. It was 1977: the golden age of skiing. I moved to Keystone where Keystone Resort was developing condominium lodging throughout the valley. I landed a job as a night auditor for their condominium operation, moved to manager of employee housing, then found myself in rental operations, running commercial laundry for the resort (we did 12,000 lbs. of linens every day). Ultimately, I was promoted to director of property management for the resort, where I helped manage convention business during the off-season. That’s how I met Julie.

Julie: After getting mar-

ried, Mike and I decided to start our own property management corporation in Keystone; we’d named the business Magliocchetti Rentals. But on a business trip to Chicago, we had some potential clients tell us the name sounded like a pizzeria. They suggested we call it Key to the Rockies instead. We trademarked the name and began growing our portfolio. For families with second homes in Keystone, having a local contact was a much-desired service. We just needed to get the word out.

Mike: The scope of our marketing was classified ads and romancing

the travel agents. Whenever the industry took a little evolutionary step forward, it was easy to keep up. Travel agents turned into travel wholesalers who packaged bulk lodging and bulk air. As a small company, we didn’t have marketing capital, so we relied on these third parties and sweat equity to keep heads in beds.

Julie: Back in the 1980s, I used to drive from Colorado to places

like Nebraska and Iowa to visit travel agencies. I’d show up with donuts and say, “this is our company and these are our properties; let’s do this thing.” It’s hard to even imagine now. I just drove around visiting travel agents, youth groups, churches, and anywhere else I could think of throughout the Midwest to make presentations. I didn’t care; we just wanted guests.

Mike: The vacation rental industry wasn’t for everybody back when

Julie and I got started. It was a specialty market catering to a certain type of guest at primarily beach or ski resort destinations. It wasn’t always glamorous work, but, as a property manager, if you were willing to put in the elbow grease, you could run a profitable business in a beautiful location that you loved.

Julie: I would say the early 90s–during the dotcom

boom—was when things started to get harder.

Everybody was starting to develop websites— that was a big change for the industry and for us. We jumped on board as much as we could.

I think Key to the Rockies went through half a dozen websites during that time, each bringing new complications to connecting things like our booking engine, back-office accounting system, and property management software.

Mike: As the years progressed, it became possible to wrap those business elements into one fully integrated system, so we did. Then everything went cloud-based. Changes in technology kept coming at us, and they kept coming fast. We’d put our eggs in one basket only to see they were already hatching in another.

Julie: One day, we realized that we needed an employee fully ded-

icated to business development and another to marketing just to keep up. We didn’t have the capital to bring on new staff, so we added to our staff ’s steadily increasing workload. For the first time, we began talking about what it might look like to one day sell our business.

Mike: Over the years, we’d had a number of

companies offer to buy Key to the Rockies, but either the timing wasn’t right, the numbers were wrong, or they were too pushy. Then one day I received a fantastic email from Sandra Brahn at Vacasa, and it changed everything.

Julie: Mike didn’t show me that email for two weeks. Then one day he pulled me aside and said, “Julie, I think you should take a look at this.” Sandra had attached a video of herself. She greeted us my name, and proposed a partnership-style acquisition that would enable us to continue working under Vacasa’s banner. There was a comfort level with that partnership approach that appealed to us.

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After four months of researching and getting to know Vacasa and how they do business, we called Sandra and said, yeah, this is a good fit. She flew out with the transition team and a road map. They walked us through what would happen, when, and told us what we needed to do to prepare.

I think I wrote six or seven drafts of the announcement letter before I sent an announcement to our homeowners. I explained who Vacasa was and told the truth: we didn’t have our company on the market. We’d talked with Vacasa in-depth about the mutual benefits of partnering with them.

The more we talked, the more Julie and I learned that there were huge advantages for all our stakeholders.

Mike: Plus, Vacasa’s 35% commission, which is the same as our

commission, was attractive. Likewise, the terms of Vacasa’s service were similar to ours. What was most appealing to us was Sandra’s interest in creating continuity with the two of us. In addition to working for Vacasa, she told us we could carve out our real estate business and operate with a mutual referral relationship with Vacasa: if we referred our clients to Vacasa, she said, Vacasa would refer their homeowners to us. We thought, what’s not to like about that?

Julie: We met Sandra at a time when it felt like the walls were be-

ginning to close in around us. Every month we hesitated seemed to bring a new reminder that we needed help. That winter in Colorado, we didn’t get a lot of snow. Looking at our competitor’s rates, I thought, holy smokes, we have to do some discounting, but it was like pulling teeth to change rates on our website. Realizing that we weren’t providing our homeowners the service they deserved was a huge eye-opener for us.

Mike: We weren’t performing in yield management because I didn’t

have the marketing talent to really understand how to optimize it across the reservation grid. I knew the concept. I was exposed to it at Keystone Resort, where we had an entire marketing team at our disposal, but I wasn’t in a position to put it in place in our small business. We were faced with very real limitations in our ability to measurably improve performance for our homeowners, and there were other stakeholders to consider.

Julie: With Vacasa, our team (and Mike and I) would have con-

tinued employment—with benefits. And that’s a big deal because Summit County, where we live, has the highest insurance premiums of any county in Colorado (which has the highest premiums in the United States). The idea of securing 100% free health insurance—including dental and vision—and paid vacations for the team was pretty awesome.

Mike: Key to the Rockies needed a shot of capital in the arm. We

knew from Sandra that Vacasa had recently made an acquisition in Key West, Florida. We called up the former owner and principal broker (who now also works for Vacasa) and asked about his experience. He warned us that selling our business would be an emotional rollercoaster. He also told us that just after he’d sold to Vacasa, Hurricane Irma hit. “Vacasa came through for us with full support,” he said. “They booked our homes and helped house our team. They’re a good company.”

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Julie: In his letter, Mike told our homeowners that, based on

Vacasa’s historical performance, we thought it was in their best interest to take advantage of the opportunity. Furthermore, he told them, it was a great financial opportunity for us and an opportunity to give something more to our team.

Mike: The reaction from our homeowner base was overwhelmingly

positive. Over a dozen of them called to congratulate us. I attribute that to the integrity and trust that we’d built up with our clientele.

Plus, it was a good story to tell: they get the same care plus a bigger opportunity for marketing with a global company.

Julie: Our professional colleagues reacted with a mix of congrat-

ulations and envy. There was the feeling that we ran a successful business; it was perceived to be valuable, and we just took the next step in its growth. People know that Mike and I went to work six days per week and were hands-on.

Mike: Given my experience managing HOAs here in Keystone, Vacasa asked me to further develop its HOA business across the Colorado market. It’s a good fit for me, and I’m happy to say that all our HOAs agreed to the assignment of their contract with Vacasa.

Julie: Now I’m a community manager spreading the good word

wherever I can: community events, chamber events, and I’m here for our homeowners. My job is really to put a local face behind Vacasa. I know the community, and I know the benefits of Vacasa.

It’s fun.

Mike: Probably the biggest change for us has been the speed at which things move. It’s a big change in our lives. We’ve been chugging along for twenty-eight years doing the same thing. Now we’re part of a big corporation, learning new things every day.

Smart Home Savings Cool Down Your Summer Season with Smart Home Automation

By Sean Miller, President, PointCentral by Alarm.com

A

s the vacation rental summer season heats up, so do many of the costs paid by owners and management companies. But before you have a meltdown, know this: PointCentral’s property automation system has solutions that can reduce energy, equipment, and labor costs while at the same time increasing guest satisfaction.

Occupancy-Based Thermostat Rules (OBTR) Guests want their vacation rental property cool and comfortable as soon as they walk in the door. Owners don’t want to pay to cool vacant properties, nor do they want guests running the HVAC system too hard (i.e., keeping the property excessively warm or cold).

Property managers also don’t want owners controlling thermostats remotely and annoying guests. PointCentral’s connected thermostat brings harmony to these three groups by utilizing our OBTR rules to coordinate with your property management system and enable every one of your properties to automatically begin the cooling cycle before the guest arrives, resulting in a comfortable temperature preset by you.

Once inside the property, guests have full control. As soon as the guest departs, PointCentral will automatically return the property to an energy-saving temperature. Guests love this attention to detail, and owners love the 10 to 15 percent energy savings and system preservation.

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Health Check One of the major vacation rental expenses, both in terms of capital and maintenance, is HVAC. When HVAC systems fail, it’s all hands on deck to fix the problem as swiftly as possible, especially if the property is occupied by unhappy guests. But what if your HVAC could show you when it’s not performing well? PointCentral Smart Home solutions can do just that—thanks to HVAC analytics.

If a guest calls to complain that a unit is not cooling, your maintenance staff can analyze how the system is performing from any location before having to roll a truck to the property. Assuming the guest isn’t setting a ridiculous temperature compared to the outside temperature (PointCentral temperature limits can help protect HVAC units from this abuse), your staff can determine if there is a problem and get the right person out to fix it before it becomes a more costly repair.

Later this year, in addition to the analytics data, you will start to see proactive notifications from the PointCentral system when we notice that a unit is not performing well—before the guest notices the problem. These proactive notifications are generated by our powerful AI system, which analyzes over twenty billion data points collected from the five million homes on our platform from the previous year.

The system will help you get ahead of maintenance needs and take care of them at optimal cost points with minimal guest disruption (e.g., by scheduling maintenance when the property is vacant).

Refrigerator Blues What do guests typically do when they first check in at a house?

They stock the fridge with a week’s supply of food that they either VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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bring with them or that they purchase at the grocery store on the way to the property. Of course, when you fill an empty fridge with warm food, it can take some time for the refrigerator to cool everything down. In the meantime, your staff may get a call from the guest saying the refrigerator isn’t working. You end up sending maintenance staff to check it out, only to find out there isn’t anything wrong with the fridge.

With a sensor from PointCentral, you can see the refrigerator’s temperature remotely and avoid having to send maintenance staff on a wild goose chase. When a guest calls about the fridge, you can access the sensor and assure them everything is working properly— except for their patience.

Open Doors Open Up Problems When a guest leaves a door or window open, it can really cause your energy costs to spike. Sometimes the guest just wants to listen to the ocean. Other times, housekeeping or other staff forget to close a door or window. Either way, you and your owners pay dearly, not only with higher utility bills, but also with greater wear and tear on your HVAC system.

Don’t Sweat the Humidity Another common problem of many vacation rentals, especially in the South, is humidity. Excess humidity can cause mold and mildew problems, which can affect the health of your guests and result in damage to the property.

PointCentral smart thermostats end this problem by monitoring humidity levels in unoccupied homes. When levels approach a point that would invite mold growth, the system automatically activates the air conditioning for a short while to bring humidity levels down, saving your guests and owners from health concerns.

Smart home solutions from PointCentral help make hot summers less costly for you and your property owners and will give your guests a much cooler experience. To learn more about why we are the leading provider of property automation technology, please visit us at PointCentral.com.

PointCentral door and window sensors are an economical solution to this problem. When the sensors detect an “open,” the system will automatically shut off the air conditioning after a grace period (you get to set the grace period to balance the guest experience). Once the guest closes the door or window, the system will automatically restart the air conditioning. This results in significant energy and appliance wear and tear savings.

Sean Miller is the President of PointCentral, an Alarm.com subsidiary, which is the leading developer of enterprise scale smart-home solutions for short-term and long-term property managers and their tenants.

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

Great Experiences

Begin with Genuine Connections

By David Kornblith

G

reat experiences are the cornerstone to driving new and repeat guests. Creating memories are what a vacation is all about. Because not all guests are the same, property managers must find ways to curate a wide selection of activities to fulfill their expectations. To help you provide the best experiences possible, and get the credit you deserve, here are some recommended tips for connecting modern vacationers with the best local activities.

Technology has transformed vacations. With just a smartphone, guests can now plan a vacation in seconds. Quality customer service no longer begins when guests check in. It starts when they dream of sitting on a golden beach or skiing from the top of a mountain, and that dream is sustained throughout every experience along the way.

It’s important to use modern tools and maintain your voice. Every email you send and every photo you post on social media gives potential guests an impression of what it’s like to stay with you.

As big players continue to enter the travel industry, brand recognition is more challenging than ever. Online travel agencies (OTAs), such as Expedia and Airbnb, are targeting every vacation aspect, paying special attention to experiences. Separating your company from the crowd requires being visible throughout the vacation cycle and providing real value to your guests. To see how you can strengthen these connections, let’s take a close look at the different phases of the vacation cycle.

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VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

Dreaming During the dreaming phase, guests may not even know where they want to go yet. While they are sitting on a cold bus, they imagine someplace warm, and they look at their phone. To connect with guests during the dreaming phase, try the following:  Be inspiring.

 Reach out with messaging that highlights the current weather at your destination.  Encourage past guests to share their experiences and tag your brand on social media.  Post photos of people having fun together.

 Create content about top activities in your area.

 Don’t be sales driven; help your guests imagine all the experiences they might have.

Planning Planning is different from dreaming. When people plan, they search for useful information. This is where you want to begin to get credit for their experiences. By connecting guests with the top activity providers in each area, PMs can:

 Differentiate themselves from the crowd.  Demonstrate all that their areas have to offer.  Highlight new and exciting experiences.

If your company is the resource for activities, you—not TripAdvisor or Airbnb—will be associated with the amazing memories. Be sure reservationists are familiar with the area and can provide expert advice.

Booking Booking is the most difficult, yet most important phase of the vacation cycle. To secure bookings, you must be relevant and professional. While guests are searching for properties, they expect the highest level of technology, including the following:  A mobile-friendly website

 Accurate property photos and descriptions

 Properties updated with features such as Nest Thermostats, Alexa, and smart TVs  Floor plans using tools like TruPlace, an interactive floor plan tool that allows guests to see the properties on a deeper level and gain confidence in their decision to book  “Free to guest” activities that drive value. It’s not all about price. Make sure guests understand your value proposition

Pre-Arrival Your guests have booked. They are excited about their upcoming vacation. Now is the time to get everything right. During the pre-arrival phase, it’s important to ensure the following:  Be both inspirational and informative.

 Encourage guests to begin planning their activities and view your past guests’ posts on social media.  Make their vacation Instagramable.

 Set up fun photo opportunities at check-in to ensure guests are posting to social media about your brand.  Present information with a personal voice.

 Be sure guests are aware of important details, in addition to making your pre-arrival emails fun and exciting.

Anakeesta opened in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, featuring the first “chondola” in the United States (imagine a gondola combined with a chairlift), we created a partnership right away. Connecting your guests with the newest local activities shows that you’re engaged with your destination and excited to share your expertise.

Unexpected Issues On occasion, things go wrong. The air conditioning may break or you may not be able to honor an early check-in. These are the keys to solving these issues:  Have a system in place, rather than searching for a manager to solve every problem.

 Make the system simple, allowing any level employee to re solve the issue in minutes,  Present solutions that let guests know you care.

 Design the system to protect earned rent for you and the property owner.

Guest issues are an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive and create a loyal guest. The key to resolving such issues is to exceed guests’ expectations. For example, offer guests a high dollar value experience, such as a round of golf or a family dolphin tour.

A positive experience usually outweighs the negative and leaves a long-lasting positive impression.

Post-Vacation When your guests leave, the first thing they will think is, “How can I go back?” To embrace this phase of the vacation, ensure you do the following:  Follow up right away.

 Ask your guests for feedback.

 Use personalized data, such as the activities they enjoyed, to send them special, targeted offers.

 Send emails with messaging that reminds them of anniversaries, such as “Last year you were deep sea fishing in Florida.”  Add photo contests to encourage guests to share their memories on social media.  Allow the vacation to come full circle.

The Stay

About Xplorie

After all the planning and anticipation, this is the ultimate moment, the actual vacation. First impressions matter. Think about how small treats and welcome baskets at check-in can make a big difference.

To ensure guests have a great experience, Xplorie works with property managers and local activity providers to connect travelers with top experiences across the United States. We understand that genuine connections are essential for long-lasting success.

We believe there’s no substitute for the real thing, so reservationists at Xplorie partners are encouraged to experience their area’s activities for free (provided by Xplorie).

 Add a memorable touch, like personal notes and area guides.

and our Xplorie Extras program helps to resolve customer service issues right away, leaving guests happy and your earned rent intact.

 Check that the property is equipped with paper towels and other vacation essentials.  Ensure the activities program is easily accessible for guests.

 Monitor guests’ feedback and ensure you are sending them to the best experiences in the area.

Xplorie has helped property managers provide free activities for over twenty-five years, and we’re still finding new ways to engage with guests. In the past two years, we’ve expanded to over fifty of the nation’s hottest vacation rental markets. Even as technology transforms vacations, one thing remains the same: the importance of genuine connections.

For example, at Xplorie we are always searching for new and exciting activities in our markets. When the family theme park VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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Inaugural Vacation Rental Women’s Summit February 19-20, 2019 The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana

Early Registration Fee: $649 through AUG 15 th

vacationrentalwomen.com

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VACATION RENTAL WOMEN’S SUMMIT

Join us for an incredibly special event celebrating women in the vacation rental industry with inspiring keynote speakers, presentations from industry leaders, unique events, workshops, and content tailored to the conversations professional VRM women are having about the industry. Plans for the inaugural Vacation Rental Women’s Summit are being prepared with great care, and we promise you will be treated like the queens and princesses you are.

Located on the corner of Dauphine and Canal, the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans is a truly extraordinary hotel, and they have given our group a very special room rate of $239 to $259 per night (or upgrade to the Club Level for $339). Use code VQLVQA when making your reservations.

Space is limited, so register and book your room early to secure your spot.

A Royal Experience The Vacation Rental Women’s Summit is set for February 19-20, 2019

By Amy Hinote

It’s official!

T

he inaugural Vacation Rental Women’s Summit, sponsored by VRM Intel and the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA), is coming to the spectacular Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans, February 19–20, 2019. Words cannot express how incredibly excited we are.

We initially conceived this event in October 2015 in a conversation with property managers at a VRMA small-group discussion, and it has taken us almost three years of planning and resource development to get it off the ground.

In most destinations, women dominate the vacation rental industry, from the back offices to the executive offices, and as women, we face a unique set of challenges in this rapidly changing sector. Our objective for this event is to bring the smartest and most influential women in the vacation rental industry together to inspire and empower attendees, encourage a sense of community, and discuss high-level topics specific to this unique audience. We will also be offering opportunities for creativity, innovation, and discussion that have the potential to dramatically change the trajectory of our businesses; and we will be celebrating the pioneering women who helped build the vacation rental industry into the force that it is today.

The Vacation Rental Women’s Summit is thrilled and humbled to announce two amazing keynote speakers (I still am pinching myself as I write this): Elizabeth Gilbert and Lady Fiona Carnarvon, the Eighth Countess of Carnarvon.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic, and if you haven’t seen her Ted Talk “Your Elusive Creative Genius,” check it out. Gilbert has been inspiring women to be bold and creative for decades and is a true voice of our generation.

Lady Carnarvon resides at Highclere Castle, the foundational setting for the hit series, Downton Abbey. I had the privilege of meeting Lady Carnarvon on my recent trip to England earlier this year for VRM Intel Live London. She exemplifies true hospitality in the most genuine way I have ever witnessed, and her objective of

preserving the castle’s future for generations to come is executed with a genuine spirit of grace, openness, and authenticity.

In addition to these incredible keynote speakers, the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit will cover the following topics: the art of delegating, exit strategies and locating funding, change management, diversity, interviews with successful CEOs and entrepreneurs, building an influential executive presence in the community and in the media, disruptive versus traditional models, navigating risk and competition, mentoring and coaching a winning team, 2020 hospitality and customer service, talking tech with tech providers, balancing data with intuition, work–life balance, conflict management, and more. We will also have two dozen hands-on workshops, peer group discussions, and focus groups.

About Elizabeth Gilbert Educated at New York University, Elizabeth Gilbert hails from an ascetic childhood in rural Connecticut. Fearless reporting skills and an abiding appreciation for working-class values have colored her writing from the beginning. Meanwhile, a persistent longing to understand the world and her place in it have made her not merely a writer but an explorer. Gilbert worked in a Philadelphia diner, on a Western ranch, and in a New York City bar to scrape together the funds to travel: “to create experiences to write about, [to] gather landscapes and voices.” Gilbert’s writing has been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Spin, and The New York Times Magazine. Her work in Spin caught the attention of editors at GQ, and she quickly became a stalwart at that publication, producing vivid, provocative pieces, including the article “The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon,” which became the basis for the hit 2000 film Coyote Ugly.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, was called “a generation’s instruction manual” by The Toronto Sun. Exploding onto the scene in 2006, the bestseller famously chronicled the year Gilbert VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

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spent traveling the world after a shattering divorce. Translated into more than 30 languages, Eat, Pray, Love has sold over ten million copies worldwide. The book—which The New York Times Book Review says is “fueled by a mix of intelligence, wit, and colloquial exuberance that is close to irresistible”—catapulted its author from a respected but little-recognized writer to a woman Oprah Winfrey called a “rock star author.”

In the decade since Eat, Pray, Love was published, people around the world have sought Gilbert’s advice on how to lead bold and inspired lives, and she has dedicated herself to exploring the mysteries of courage and creativity. Out of this period of introspection came Gilbert’s brilliant nonfiction treatise, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. In this book, she digs deeply into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective on creativity. Gilbert lives in New York, where she is a columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. She is currently at work on a new novel.

About Lady Fiona Carnarvon Lady Fiona Carnarvon is the eighth Countess of Carnarvon and lives at Highclere Castle, the real-life setting for Masterpiece’s Downton Abbey. With dedication, innovation, and bold moves, Lady Carnarvon turned Highclere Castle into a destination. She was inspired to share the true story of Highclere Castle’s conversion

to a hospital during WWI. From diaries, letters, and photos straight out of the castle archives, she produced her New York Times #1 bestselling book, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey.

Her stories are highly entertaining and told as only English aristocracy can—covering Royal visits, the leading ladies of Highclere, the 200+ rooms at the Castle, and the 1,300 years of colorful history. The show’s writer, Julian Fellows, who used the castle and its history of “upstairs” and “downstairs” characters as inspiration, is a longtime friend of the Carnarvons. The popularity of the show has caused the number of visitors to Highclere to skyrocket, with visitors coming from all over the world.

The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans has been a wonderful partner in planning this event, and they have given us a room rate of $239– $259. This hotel is special. Its location on Canal Street is central to New Orleans history and culture, and its attentive staff and impeccable décor will ensure a royal experience for all of us. You will also enjoy Downton Abbey– and Eat, Pray, Love–inspired events to honor our speakers.

We only have 500 seats available for this inaugural conference, so sign up early at vacationrentalwomen.com. Although many events are often described as “can’t-miss,” we believe that this is truly a can’t-miss event for women in the vacation rental industry.

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NOVEMBER

2730

 Las Vegas, NV  MGM Grand Las Vegas Hotel & Casino  www.vrma.com

NOV

NOVEMBER NOVEMBER NOVEMBER

ITB ASIA

 Singapore  Marina Bay Sands  www.itb-asia.com

OCT

OCTOBER

OCT

OCTOBER

 Lake Tahoe, NV  Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel (Embassy Suites)  www.software.homeaway.com

1719

NOVEMBER

HOMEAWAY SOFTWARE ROADSHOW

OCT

OCTOBER

17

1920

INAUGURAL VACATION RENTAL WOMEN’S SUMMIT

 New Orleans, LA  Ritz-Carlton  www.vacationrentalwomen.com

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Business Directory ASSOCIATIONS

Comparative Data

Florida Vacation Rental Managers Association (FVRMA)

Key Data Dashboard

fvrma.wildapricot.org 407-201-0120

www.keydatadashboard.com 410-829-0711

PAGE: 66

PAGE: 66

Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals (VRHP) www.vrhp.org 252-455-4121

PAGE: 86

Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) www.vrma.org 202-367-1179

PAGE: IBC

PAGE: 1

TRACK www.trackhs.com 866-757-8229

PAGE: 49

PAGE: 20

PAGE: 30

Lynnbrook Group www.lynnbrookgroup.com 919-761-1560

FINANCIAL AND ACQUISITION CONSULTING SERVICES

PAGE: 39

Weatherby Consulting, LLC. www.weatherbyconsulting.com 888-304-1405

PAGE: 42

INTERACTIVE FLOOR PLANS AND PHOTOGRAPHY

PAGE: IFC

INTERNET SERVICES AND VACATON ATTENDANT Silicon Travel

Red Awning

90

PAGE: 17

go.truplace.com 301-972-3201

Lexicon Travel Technologies

www.redawning.com 888-733-2964

TruPlace

CHANNEL MANAGEMENT www.lexicontravel.com 453-631-2391

www.ascentprocessing.com 888-721-9301

www.c2gadvisors.com 850-699-1828

NAVIS

Ascent Processing

C2G Advisors

CALL TRACKING AND LEAD MANAGEMENT www.thenavisway.com 866-712-3439

PAGE: 33

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING

Onsite Property Managers Association (OPMA) www.theopma.org 877-870-6510

VRM Intel Magazine | Summer 2018

PAGE: 29

www.silicontravel.com 800-459-2256

PAGE: 53

INDEX

INTERNET MARKETING AND WEBSITE DESIGN

CiiRUS www.ciirus.com 321-251-8020

BizCor www.bizcor.com 877-736-4250

PAGE: 48

Blizzard Internet Marketing www.blizzardinternet.com 888-840-5893

PAGE: 13

Bluetent Digital Marketing Agency www.bluetent.com 970-704-3240

PAGE: 19

InterCoastal Net Designs (ICND) www.icoastalnet.com 910-575-6095

PAGE: 61

Dormakaba

Booking.com

www.dormakaba.com 817-468-3555

www.homeaway.com 877-238-2287

PAGE: 3

The VRM Consultants

Breezeway

www.vrmconsultants.com 970-456-4564

PAGE: 36

www.tomkconsulting.com 443-310-5110

Vacasa

TRAVEL INSURANCE

PAGE: 44-45

Barefoot Technologies Corporation www.barefoot.com 877-799-1110

PAGE: 92

PAGE: 14

PAGE: 80

PAGE: 87

PAGE: 81

PAGE: 40

PAGE: BC

CBIZ www.cbiz.com/vri 888-883-5696

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

TomK Consulting Group

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANIES www.vacasa.com/ready 503-345-9399

PAGE: 6-7

TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING SERVICES

PROPERTY CARE TECHNOLOGY www.breezeway.io 857-600-2799

PointCentral www.pointcentral.com 888-532-3032

HomeAway

PAGE: 15

SMART HOME AND KEYLESS ENTRY

OTAS AND LISTING SITES PAGE: 11

www.streamlinevrs.com 888-590-1946 www.virtualresortmanager.com 866-849-0817

PAGE: 4-5

Maxxton

NoiseAware

www.booking.com (888) 850 3958

www.liverez.com 800-343-2891

Virtual Resort Manager PAGE: 16

PAGE: 25

LiveRez

NOISE MONITORING

www.kigo.net 855-977-0843

Streamline

www.noiseaware.IO 888-847-5538

PAGE: 22

Kigo, a RealPage Company

HR4VR PAGE: 28

www.guesty.com 202-409-7489

www.maxxton.com 214-559-7158

PAGE: 8-9

Guesty

HR CONSULTING SERVICES www.hr4vr.com 541-213-2075

Red Sky Travel Insurance

PAGE: 2

www.redskyinsurance.com 866-889-7409

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