Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

One of the best parts of my job is being able to talk to so many vacation rental companies and their employees, whether they are using Barefoot Vacation Rental Management software or another competing product. This industry is changing so fast for so many of you, with more and more costs, margins that are being squeezed, and the absolute mandate for you to look for additional sources of revenue.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

I attended the Mountain Travel Symposium in Keystone, CO the week of April 4^th.  There were many great presentations and interesting things to hear about in the mountain resort industry and the vacation rental industry, but one presentation stood out to me. The sharing economy and millennials.  As you can imagine the ramifications that come with this are deep, but I wanted to take a closer look at how this generation impacts the workforce.

Being in the service industry we all know how important your paying guests are to your business.  Barefoot also recognizes that our clients are much more than Property Managers in fact we recognize that our clients are Vacation Managers.  With that distinction of being a Vacation Manager a lot of responsibility comes with helping to provide an amazing experience and create long lasting memories for families and friends.  In most cases people that stay in a vacation home have planned and saved for that very special trip for a very long time.  Expectations are very high and that is why it is important for all Vacation Managers to have a plan in place to handle social media complaints. 

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. 

Choosing a Vacation Rental property management system (PMS) is a decision that requires time and commitment to the process. In a simple list of where to start, the one factor that must always be considered is time. The time spent on the process will be time well spent when you can look back on the time you wasted wondering why your competitors had more bookings, or managing manual reports/communication/work orders. With a new PMS you can now have the time to market your properties efficiently!

Here's another perspective from our internet marketing partner InterCoastal Net Design about the opportunity that might exist for vacation rental managers.

This is more in a series of responses to my initial blog about the new traveler's fees being implemented by HomeAway. In this reply, VacayStay Connect offers another perspective.

"Having worked with professional vacation property managers for many years, we understand why significant HomeAway business policy changes can invoke anger and frustration within the industry - a normal human reaction to change.

Last week I posted a blogabout the HomeAway traveler's fee that are now being applied to booking generated through any of HomeAway's US portals. There is an opportunity for the savvy vacation rental manager who looks to their internet marketing expert. This is the first blog in a series of blogs on this topic.