Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

2019 will be an interesting year for vacation rentals.  We seem to be coming of age. I can see a lot of change, some good for the professional. Some of what I have predicted the past two years continue to come true, some of it faster than I expected and for other things it is taking longer.  Here are my expectations for 2019:

For those of you who came to the Barefoot User Conference, this is a follow up on my asset management presentation. For those of you who couldn’t join us, over the next few months I will continue to send out more information on this topic. I also hope that this starts a conversation, because overall, you are innovative.  We are focused on helping you become a property asset manager.

I have been reading a lot of articles on the changes that will occur in 2018 to the vacation rental market. Most of this year’s trends seem to follow what I listed as my expectations for 2017. So, my 2018 trends will include much of what I suggested in 2017 with some additions and more detail.

As a vacation management company trying to get a new owner to come to your program, I am sure you have a page that outlines your value proposition. This of course must be more than a discussion about price. Here are a few items to consider when crafting your owner onboarding value proposition:

Ed Ulmer took some time to speak with DojoLive on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. In this interview, Ed further discusses how to use technology to dominate the vacation rental market and compete against the larger portals.

At the most recent National VRMA, Orlando, October 16-18, 2017, I coordinated a presentation on Owner Growth, Retention and Competing Against RBO with three clients, Mike Connolly (Triumph Mountain Properties in Vail CO), Kelley Cotton (Young’s SunCoast in Orange Beach, AL) and June Buttner (Killington Group in Killington VT).  The topic resonated for the attendees, attested to by the fact that we had attendees stay 20 minutes after the scheduled session end.

Like most of you, I have seen a few expectations articles for 2017. While I agree with them on most of the trends, I feel they should go further to suggest to you how you might be impacted or to position yourself to take advantage of the current market conditions.

I know we are all busy with the details of our business, but I believe that it is important as a vacation rental manager to regularly step back from time to time and take a look at the big picture.  From my perspective the big picture is that while we book rooms, those that come and enjoy those rooms are here for something much bigger. They are here for a vacation and a vacation is not about the unit, it is about the memory. 

In April, we hosted our annual Barefoot User Conference prior to the Eastern VRMA Conference. I was completely surprised to discover that out of the 50 attendees only 5 where staying on to attend the EVRMA conference.  When I asked the folks why this was the case the response, in general, was that they “just didn’t see the value in the conference”.

I recently had the opportunity to do a tour of the Balsams Resort, which is Les Otten’s (formerly of American Ski Company) new project. For those of you not aware of the resort here is some background. The historic resort, first opened in 1866, has been closed for the last 5 years.  It is basically its own town in New Hampshire and is the site of the first in the nation voting in Presidential elections and primaries — there were nine votes cast in this year’s primary.  The Balsams Resort is an ambitious project to revitalize one of the grand, old resorts in the country.  It is truly a beautiful setting, with a world class golf course, hiking, biking and potential to create the largest ski area in the East.  Historically, the Balsams, for any of you lucky enough to have ever stayed there, was also known for its cuisine, formal dining and cooking school.