Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

A deep dive from VRM Intel into the new pricing tools from Airbnb and HomeAway. Do you want to share your data? 

From time to time we have guest contributors on our Blog. In this instance, it is Jamey King of Point Central. 

July 25th and 26th Barefoot attended VRM Intel Live in Denver, CO.  The theme of this series is the Tech-Enabled Vacation Rental Manager.  The show had many great education sessions, and panels discussing how the Vacation Rental Manager needs to approach the industry and their market to have an advantage over their competition. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

I am a stat guy and love looking at numbers and I love analyzing data related to the Vacation Rental Industry.  The goal in my opinion with all this data is to increase revenue or have the best insight to make great decisions that will yield the best profit possible.  If you have read things I have written you will know I talk about how our industry is changing rapidly and you will see that echoed by other folks throughout our industry.  One of those changes I keep seeing and hearing about is related to ancillary revenue or activity services property managers have an opportunity to bring into their business.  

To bring home that point I thought I would share with you some statistics I found through a Travel Statistics and Tour Operators Survey that was posted online by Rezdy.  If you want to look at the entire survey you can download it here.  Keep in mind that the results are not specific to the VR industry and based on international participation.  However; I feel this is relevant and appropriate information that the VR industry can learn from.  We know that every year our industry is growing and taking share from the hotel industry.  When people book their trips, they are looking for things to do and the ancillary revenue potential is very exciting to think about.  

• In the US, there are about 67,000 businesses worth an estimated $20 billion in the tour and activity space.  
• Top things travelers are more likely to spend more money on as a treat: 
  • Sight Seeing 53%
  • Special Dining 41%
  • Accommodation 41%
  • Activities 35%
  • Shopping 24%
• 40% of tour and activity bookings are made online
• 97% of people prefer to find business online
• 92% of consumers say they trust social media, word of mouth, recommendation from friends and family above all forms of advertising. 
• 85% of consumers expect businesses to be active in social media
• 70% of travelers look at up to 20 reviews before booking
• 30% of all direct online booking are made on mobile devices.  
• Mobile Phones are the #1 item to bring on holiday.  
• 94% of TripAdvisor customers are using mobile devices to research local things to do. 
• 23% of leisure travelers use their mobile devices to book vacation activities.  

I am always interested and looking to see what the new trends and best practices are for Vacation Rental businesses related to technology.  As we all know this has changed so much over the past 10 – 15 years that it is hard to keep up.  Some of the obvious trends that are the new norms in the VR world are using social media as a platform to get your message out and get reviews back.  Think Facebook, Twitter, Google, TripAdvisor/FlipKey, YouTube, etc.  Also, what seems to have been around forever is the ability for guests to book online.  When you think about this technology it is only about 15 years old.  However, there are so many avenues a guest can go down.  (directly on your website, OTA’s, Channel Managers, Individual Owner Sites, and the list goes on). 

Being a part of the Vacation Rental industry for the past 15 years or so I have seen many changes and the growth is amazing.  However, there are some constants that I feel will always need to be part of a vacation rental home.   

For those of you who have been using legacy products that were purchased by HomeAway for a long time, we understand that the time has come to make a change. You may feel that you don’t have other options, but you do. Now is the time to experience what it is like to work with a software company that understands that you are unique and will work with you to meet your business goals.

Each March – May and September – October I know I can count on two things to happen in the Hospitality Industry…The seasons change and Tradeshows occur.  I won’t go into detail about the seasons, but I thought I would talk a little bit about tradeshows. I have been attending many types of tradeshows since 2005. The first one I attended for the Vacation Rental Management Association was the National VRMA in Atlanta.