Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

Barefoot Technologies is pleased to announce the continuation of their commitment to innovation in the vacation rental management industry through its integrated partnership with HomeAway’s transactional model. Barefoot customers now have access to transactional technology that automatically creates bookings from properties listed on HomeAway, the world's largest vacation rental network.

This is the second of Barefoot’s blogs about cultivating delight with a focus on a huge part of the customer lifecycle, customer service. I have been doing some research on how vacation rental management companies can provide outstanding customer service.

We’ve all been asked to complete a survey when we’ve purchased something online, dined out or stayed at a hotel. I just received a very prompt survey from my stay last week in Anaheim. Since I received outstanding service from the hotel, I was happy to take a few minutes to reply.

Make Portals Work for Your Vacation Rentals

This is one of the last blogs Adam Zippon had in the archive to publish for the blog… so the first paragraph is from his point of view.

When you log onto the internet, and you get the log in screen for any cloud based system, do you ever wonder where that data actually is?    When folks go to your website, and click on "book now", do you ever wonder where that data is stored?   For those of you with a "smidgen" of curiosity, allow us to offer some information that can give you the confidence your data is in very safe hands.   

Buzz is a hot word now that everyone wants, to have buzz about their homes or properties.  But how do you build buzz, as it doesn’t happen randomly or without cause.  “Buzz” can be called many things but largely, it is when people are talking about your product, so how can we help create some buzz for your vacation rental home?

1. Staycations- A staycations is a shortened vacation that because of the short timeframe, travelling is out of the question so one stays locally but gets away at the same time.  Things like a one night stay away from the family or a spa day at the local resort are ideas for staycations.  The staycation becomes powerful when in the right hands, like local reporters, bloggers, social media guru’s and more.  Give a short stay to someone local, it keeps their costs low and the return can be huge as they begin to tell your story.
2. Social Media- did you know that there is a social media for almost every form of expression?  Video, thoughts, pictures, websites and more can all be leveraged on these sites to gain some attraction for your vacation rental properties.  Share beautiful pictures, amazing videos of sunsets, and anything you can get your properties to more people.
3. Contests- Contests are a great way to build buzz and also to generate some loyalty.  Contests are not limited to any one idea but some include “tell us your best rental story” or “share your best picture” and so on.  These contests get people engaged as compared to other mediums that just get them looking. 
4. Rewards- This one is slightly different than contests but the idea is similar.  Be sure to, when people “check in” via 4Square or any other social medium, to occasionally reward people for the action.  I went out for Yofurt not long ago, took a picture of my fiancée and me enjoying our snacks and was given a $10 coupon to use the next time I came in.  Everyone in the store immediately followed my footstep in attempt to win their own coupon.
5. Be Creative- There aren’t many rules in trying to generate new ways to get people talking about your product.  You could try a tried and true method or perhaps be innovative and branch out.  As long as you are actively trying and learning from your failures and successes your company will benefit

If you set your company up to embrace the mentality to create buzz, be active, and reward those contribute you will see success. It is important to remember that if one of these methods does not work to your liking, you can rework the campaign however you desire.  “Always Be Testing” is a marketing phrase in today’s offices that pushes people to always try things, even if they fail, you will at least know what does not work!

By Claiborne Yarbrough, Business Development, BarefootTechnologies, with comments from Brent Bellm, COO of HomeAway

TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel review website, has just made the acquisition of LaFourchette for $140 million in an all cash deal. LaFourchette is one of the leading Internet and mobile restaurant reservation systems in France and Spain with over 12,000 participating restaurants.  With this purchase, TripAdvisor is diversifying their offerings to more than just rental reviews.  This move is one that vacation rental management companies should start to follow for several reasons.  You can read the full article here.

I’ve been hearing from some vacation rental management folks in summer markets that the season is off to a slow start. The reason for the lower occupancy is probably attributed to the fact that so many school systems on the East Coast had to add days to the school year to make up for the MANY MANY MANY snow days (can you tell I am Mom of kids who were out of school 21 snow days this year?).