There are times when we are so down in the weeds of our vacation rental businesses dealing with non-stop email inquiries, leaky taps, and laundry issues, that it’s easy to miss what's going on in the big wide world of the industry.

Andrew McConnell of Rented.com joins me to talk about the wider perspective, the big 3, the millions of independent owners, and why we might have a fundamental misunderstanding of what travelers value.

Andrew shares his opinions regularly on the popular travel news sites, Skift, and Tnooz and for this hour we get the benefit of his views on a range of topics including:

• What he considers the biggest surprise of 2017
• Why guests probably don’t care about the service fee.
• How Google might offer ways for independents to succeed and why that may not be a good thing
• Why getting mad at the big players could cost in distraction
• The importance of focusing on what guests value over what you think they need
• Delivering unparalleled service to guests – delivering what they care about and not what you care about.
• Why he quotes GB Shaw in relation to the fight against OTA dominance. “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

You can connect with Andrew on https://twitter.com/mamcconnell

Links discussed in this episode:

Skift

Tnooz

Luxury Retreats

VRM Intel

Smarthosts.org

Vacation Rental Success Summit