Share VRS290 – 10 Great Plugins For Your Vacation Rental Website If you want to #BookDirect you need your own website. If you go the WordPress route, there are thousands of plugins that can increase the functionality of your site, make it look professional and are easy to use. Jason Beaton, partner at Vacation Rental Formula, and digital marketing expert talks us through 10 plugins you […]
Share VRS289 – Remote Management, Leasing The House Next Door, and VRWS in Como with Antonio Bortolotti According to Malcolm Gladwell in ‘Outliers’ It takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice at something to become a master at it. This applies to our business too and sadly we see too many quasi ‘experts’ proclaiming how they can teach their skills in a short course or an ebook, and make millionaires out of a […]
Share VRS288 – Is PR Still Relevant for Vacation Rentals? The world of PR has changed from the days we thought a spread in a Sunday newspaper travel supplement was the holy grail. People pay attention to a different range of media now, and podcasts, blogs, Instagram and Facebook groups hold a much bigger grasp of customer attention. Most of these sources have much greater […]
Share VRS287 – Transformation, Expansion and Explosion – Lehmann and Landau on the changing nature of the vacation rental industry Three articles were published recently all dealing with the same question – ‘What is happening in our industry, and do we need to be concerned?’ The authors – Amy Hinote of VRM Intel, Matt Landau from the Vacation Rental Marketing blog, and Simon Lehmann, co-founder of AJL Consulting – are all well-qualified to answer that […]
Share VRS286 – Tyann’s Take – A Glimpse into the Workflow of a Vacation Rental Superstar If you are looking for some independence from the listing sites, you need to make it worth your guests’ time to find you. Having a personalized approach that will be commented upon, shared and well-reviewed is the key to moving guests away from the sterile instant-book ‘relationship’ forced on us by the OTA’s. And Tyann […]
Share VRS285 – Boost Your Vacation Rental Business With Referrals When you are lost in the sea of other homes in your location and despair of ever getting seen, a referral from a past guest, a friend, or even another homeowner could be your lifeline to increasing occupancy. Rather than asking for referrals, today’s guest Matt Ward says we simply need to create the environment […]
Share VRS284 – Making Your First Vacation Rental Staff Hire with Sue Jones of HR4VR This can be an overwhelming business and deciding to hire your first employee is daunting, even if the goal is to free up your time. Where do you find the right person, how do you choose what they should do, what will the first weeks be like, and how do you make sure they like […]
Share VRS283 – The Aftermath of Hurricane Michael 2018 gave North America more than its fair share of disasters with flooding, wildfires and deathly tornadoes. But none of these were more devastating to PR company owner, April Salter, than Hurricane Michael. Now designated a Category 5 hurricane and one of the worst storms to ever hit mainland USA, Michael barrelled ashore on Mexico […]
Share VRS282 – Why you always need a Plan B to take the drama out of a crisis Sometimes things happen out of the blue and you are completely sidelined. In our business, this could be anything from a breakdown in a booking system, a guest complaint, an about-turn by one of the OTAs, and it does more than mess up the day. It’s time-consuming, annoying and frustrating and you just wish you’d […]
Share VRS281 – Getting Ready for Another Season of Vacation Rentals It’s that time again! Another winter comes and goes and here we are getting ready for a new season of rental. Doing an annual audit makes a lot of sense and it’s an exercise we encourage our owners to do in the spring. In this episode, I share how we do our annual check and […]
