I caught up with the founder of VRMB and star of the Vacation Rental Show, Matt Landau as he just got back from a week-long getaway to Mexico. In this first Mash Up With Matt for a long time, we talk about the best (and the worst) of 2019 and what’s ahead for us all in 2020.

Matt shares some insights from his upcoming report, currents which highlights what you should be doing this year to meet the challenges that are ahead.

He talks about ways to ‘reset’ your business by updating branding, addressing underperforming inventory (in PM companies), ‘tightening bolts’ by dealing with different components of the operation including revenue management, and touching on the ultimate decision – ‘should we sell’.; He shares some information on why and when you might think about that choice, and who to get help from.

A recent article on VRMB triggered the next part of our discussion.

Cottage 3.0 essentially said that for a small business to survive there are some specific things operators need to understand and do, concerning individuality, technology and fragmentation.

While you can download and read the article, Matt gave a broader explanation of this thinking for this piece along with some ideas on how to implement Cottage 3.0.

Matt is a catalyst for getting things done – for bringing people together and using collaboration as a tool – and this was demonstrated in the group of advocacy experts he gathered for a brainstorming session in New Orleans last October.

The group represented academics, suppliers, property managers, lawyers and general short-term rental advocates and they spent a good part of a day sharing experiences and findings.

This resulted in the Vacation Rental Advocacy Playbook which is a collection of the videos from the day, each one containing an actionable nugget.

I’ll be working from this playbook when we head into some regulatory issues in our area this year.

Finally, we get to hear what’s in the works for the Vacation Rental Show this year, as well as a new production called The Professionals that explores the world of property management.

There’s a teaser there too for something else – did he say ‘a vacation rental movie’? I guess we have to watch this space.

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Links:

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VRMB's Currents 2020 Report
Vacation Rental Advocacy Playbook
Wetherby Consulting (Ben Edwards)
C2G Advisors
Avalara MyLodge Tax
Noise Aware
Savannah Bananas
Touch Stay