There are few people in this industry with a better finger on its pulse than Amy Hinote – editor and publisher of VRM Intel. She joins me today to give her overview on the VRMA conference we just attended in Las Vegas, and to talk about some of the highlights…..and lowlights. As always Amy is insightful, frank and open about her conference experience as we hear what she feels are the current vibes around our business.

We explore the best and the worst of the three days, from some of the insights gained from the general sessions and the breakouts to the quality of the accommodation and why she doesn’t like our business to be compared to the hotel industry.

Our wide-ranging conversation goes from creating an end to end experience to the relevance of long-tailed keywords and issues of trust in our industry.

We finish off by talking out upcoming conferences including the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit in New Orleans next February and an exciting announcement about the next Vacation Rental Success Summit.

In this episode Amy talks about:

• Why we should think twice about emulating hotel and airline hospitality.
• Funding, investment and flipping in this industry and how it impacts owners and managers.
• The type of discrimination we need to apply when listening to ‘experts’.
• The importance of communication between owners/managers and guests and why OTAs may be coming around to this.
• How New Zealand PM Leslie Preston achieves a high level of direct bookings.
• Reducing reliance on OTAs and providing more of an end-to-end experience for guests.
• Knowing where you are in the VR ecosystem and marketing accordingly.
• Opinions, fact and what you can (and cannot) trust in the industry.

Links to resources in this episode:

VRM Intel – Amy’s take on the VRMA International Conference

Vacation Rental Women’s Conference – New Orleans February 2019

Sykes Cottages (UK)

Bachcare (New Zealand)