There are two types of vacation rental owners. Those that accept bookings, and those that make bookings. So says today’s guest, the one and only Alan Egan. For those of you who know Alan, he has been in and around this industry for over two decades and was one of the first owners/managers blogging about how we should create niche sites for ourselves and become independent from the pack, before the pack really evolved into what it is now.

Alan believes strongly that our current marketing is failing us, and while we may be booked solid now, this won’t be the case in a few years’ time if we continue to go along with the dictates of the current behemoth listing sites. His argument is that we need to create massive and brilliant content that can be used to guide travelers back to our own websites, and it’s an argument that has proved successful for a lot of owners he has coached and trained over the years.

Alan has featured on this podcast twice before – the first time to discuss his strategies for Google Plus which he still feels are effective for those who are using it the right way. On the second occasion, we moved onto his real passion – WordPress websites. More recently, Alan has been giving away websites to anyone willing to do the work to set one up under his video tutelage.

In this episode Alan shares:

• His views on the current state of vacation rental marketing
• Why we need to stop griping about traveler fees and start working on the alternatives
• Why we cannot go back to the ‘way it used to be’
• The five core topics you need to create content around
• The need to understand how social media works
• How one family flew from China just to go to a remote California location
• The real reason owners don’t create content

Sites mentioned in this episode:

Holidays on Bornholm (Alan’s site)

The WordPress Website Giveaway

Rent More Weeks

Smoky Mountains.com

Emerald Coast By Owner

St Johns Villa Rentals

Wherewaterfalls.com (Amy Blomquist)

Amy’s Google Plus page