As you know, Barefoot considers vacation rental scams to be one of the biggest issues our industry is facing at the moment. Therefore, we have decided to highlight as many cases as we can to spread the word and make people more aware of this problem.
As markets grow more mature it is typical for companies that have common ground to join forces. Royal Shell and Waterstone, both strong leaders in the Florida vacation rental industry have done just that. The purchase as you can read about in the article makes a lot of sense, and Barefoot expects to see other industry leaders doing similar projects, there are significant economic and marketing advantages. Barefoot Technologies focuses on those companies that want and are cutting edge with the most innovate rental software in the industry as well as consulting services to assist clients in getting to the next level.
HGTV builds a dream home each year and in 2010 the house was built in Stowe, VT. It is truly a dream home with 3,400 square foot. The house is on Adirdondack great camps with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking Vermont’s highest peak, Mt. Manfield. Features include a gourmet kitchen with top-of-the-line appliances, and oversized outdoor hot tub, a fully equipped outdoor dining area, a deluxe dorm-style bunk room, and fine decorator furnishing.
As you probably know by now, HomeAway is about to go public. They filed for an IPO in March and will join other web companies aiming to go public this year, such as Groupon and Zillow.
Not too long ago we published an article talking about the money flowing into our industry. Now, Wimdu, an online vacation rental portal, has raised $90 millionfrom Germany-based Rocket Internet and Sweden-based Kinnevik to keep the company going as it is taking more listings and customers away from main competitor Airbnb.com and other sites, such as HomeAway.com and VRBO.com.
The Founders of HomeAway, Brian Sharples and Carl Shepherd, talks about how they founded HomeAway.
The vacation rental industry is always on the lookout for scams. Scams have usually been based on sites like Craigslist, but have recently moved to more legitimate websites like HomeAway.com and AlwaysOnVacation.com. From Barefoot’s perspective, this is an important topic and one that is under- reported by the media. Most of our clients have heard of a scam in their market, but no local press seems to be made aware or it is not deemed newsworthy. This may be in part because the victim is often embarrassed or is trying to salvage their holiday and they deal with it when they return home. In this case, it is more of a legal complaint than an emotional on the spot human-interest story.
The vacation rental industry is always on the lookout for scams. Scams have usually been based on sites like Craigslist, but have recently moved to more legitimate websites like HomeAway.com and AlwaysOnVacation.com. From Barefoot’s perspective, this is an important topic and one that is under- reported by the media. Most of our clients have heard of a scam in their market, but no local press seems to be made aware or it is not deemed newsworthy. This may be in part because the victim is often embarrassed or is trying to salvage their holiday and they deal with it when they return home. In this case, it is more of a legal complaint than an emotional on the spot human-interest story.
In a previous post we discussed the current rise in gas prices. Although gas prices have dropped slightly, a few cents in the past few weeks, the market for vacation rentals is still feeling the effects of expensive oil. Americans are still planning on utilizing the concept of “staycations”. The shift has a great opportunity for vacation rental companies to capitalize on people looking to save on gas prices.
