Share VRS352 – It’s a Matter of Trust with Direct Booking For Short Term Rental For a guest booking with an online platform such as Airbnb, there’s an emphasis on trust. It’s one of the primary ways they persuade guests their platform is safe to use and why ‘off-platform’ whether booking or messaging, is somehow sending them off to the dark side. And it’s also why we should be paying […]
Share VRS351 – Creating An Awesome Vacation Rental Newsletter Matt Landau (VRMB) calls himself a ‘Newsletter Nerd’. He’s spent over five years researching what constitutes a great newsletter that you look forward to every week and always open, as opposed to the one that pops into your inbox and out into trash without a second glance. According to the author of Everybody Writes, Ann […]
Share VRS350 – Getting Ready for Your Next Tipping Point Tipping points occur when something changes to tip the balance of a system and brings about a larger change. For example, someone integral to your business resigns, or VRBO penalizes you for too many cancellations or software you’ve relied on closes down. There are many opportunities for something to happen within your carefully structured business […]
Share VRS349 – Why Safety Should Be Your Top Short Term Rental Property Priority with Justin Ford Do any of your properties have a deck? A pool or hot tub? Wooden steps or an outdoor staircase? A gas grill? I’m thinking most of you are saying yes to at least one of those. And if you shake your head to them all, how about a source of carbon monoxide within the home, […]
Share VRS348 – How to Create a Consistent Vacation Rental Brand with Louise Brace of Rental Tonic As more guests are seeing the light and rebelling against paying service/traveler fees it’s time to build your brand so once they find you, they’re hooked. A powerful branding strategy is what makes us choose Pepsi over Coke, Apple over Microsoft, or Nike over Adidas, and although we’re just tiny versions of those mega-brands, the […]
Share VRS347 – Short Term Rentals In The Age Of Entitlement We’ve all experienced entitlement at some time in our business. Guests who demand something that was never shown on a listing, or wanting house rules waived. The ones who want to bring their lapdog to property that’s not pet-friendly or squeeze a few extras in when the maximum occupancy is clearly stated. And the ones […]
Share VRS346 – 10 Mistakes To Avoid on Your Short Term Rental Website While we all know the number one requirement for a Book Direct strategy is a website, getting one built is another matter. You might try and do it yourself, go for a freelancer on Upwork or shell out some serious money on a high-end design company. But, whatever you do it’s easy to make mistakes […]
Share VRS345 – The Most Powerful Page on Your Vacation Rental Website & How To Make It Special As more owners and managers embrace a book direct strategy, tactics to build trust and confidence with guests are becoming more important. They won’t entrust you with their business If they don’t feel comfortable doing so. This means you have to tell them who you are and why they should feel safe booking directly with […]
Share VRS344 – What A Decade This 6 Months Has Been with Andrew McConnell When I did my annual look back/look forward discussion with Andrew McConnell in January, little did we know what was in store. A Politico article at the end of 2018 was titled, What a Decade This Year Has Been and I think that’s been topped by the past 6 months that seems as if we’ve […]
Share VRS343 – An overview of the 2020 VR Tech Award competition The last few years have seen a huge growth in innovation, with start-ups targeting every sector of our industry. The VR Tech Award has focused on businesses less than two years old and is now in its 4th year. While Covid-19 has forced some to pause their growth and wait for markets to pick up, […]