Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

Top 10 Tips to Hiring the Best Vacation Rental Management Staff

Posted by Adam Zippin on Jun 4, 2014 9:00:00 AM

While at the eastern VRMA show I was fortunate enough to meet with a few clients, one of them introduced me to their HR Manager and we discussed staffing.  With the vacation rental industry being so personable, a solid staff is crucial in both keeping your business running, and in keeping your guests happy. 

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Vacation Rental Partnership

Barefoot Welcomes Newest Vacation Rental Management Client: The Long & Foster Companies

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on May 30, 2014 2:35:00 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                    

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Vacation Rental Software, Barefoot Technologies, Press Release, Long & Foster Companies

Marketing Your Vacation Rental: Inbound Part 5

Posted by Adam Zippin on May 21, 2014 4:13:00 PM


Congratulations, your web traffic is higher than ever, you are seeing more leads now and you are closing and bringing in more guests than years past.  I guess this means your inbound marketing program is over, right? Not quite, social referrals and social medias are worth their weight in gold and now is the time to turn your guests into advocates!

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, How to market vacation rentals, Property Management, Rental management Software, rental marketing, Property manager marketing, Inbound Marketing, Vacation Rentals, Rental Industry Changes, HubSpot Tips

Marketing Your Vacation Rentals: Inbound Part 4

Posted by Adam Zippin on May 16, 2014 3:17:00 PM

So your web traffic is increasing and you have been getting more leads than ever through your site, so what’s next?  Que the sales pitch right? Wrong.  This is arguably the most crucial part of inbound marketing, where we turn those leads you've nurtured, into renters or guests.  If we look at this from a typical sales process, these leads are fresh and you need to flood them with your sales pitch to both inform them and sell them at the same time.  However, this is not your typical sales funnel, this is your inbound funnel, and the leads that you are looking at have found you because of something you offer that interests them.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, How to market vacation rentals, Marketing, Marketing Vacation Rental, Property manager marketing, professional management, Inbound Marketing

Vacation Rentals: What I learnt at Barefoot

Posted by Aj Mudford on May 14, 2014 2:23:00 PM

Being a marketing intern for Barefoot Technologies has been a great experience. My knowledge about Vacation rentals and the industry was very limited before I joined the Barefoot team. I knew it consisted of renting a furnished house, apartment or condo but I wasn’t sure how you went about it or made it happen. I had no idea this was a $23billion industry in the US in 2012 and that it is growing in popularity, but after all the information I have red I see the potential in investing in Vacation rentals.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Software, Marketing, Guerilla Marketing, Florida, Sporting events, Barefoot intern

New Vacation Rental scam reminds us to be vigilant

Posted by Adam Zippin on May 7, 2014 12:37:00 PM

Summer is right around the corner which means now is the perfect time to look into booking your next summer vacation. Consumers must remember to be vigilant when making their booking online because the potential for scam artists has never been more prevalent. We wrote a blog on February 6th titled Avoid the Pitfalls of Vacation Rental Scams if anyone wants to refresh their memory click the title.

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Tags: Scams, rental industry competition, vacation rental scam, Property Management, Vacation Advice, Rental Scam, Marketing Vacation Rental, Barefoot Technologies

Future of Vacation Rentals uncertain in Florida

Posted by Aj Mudford on May 2, 2014 2:07:00 PM

I wrote a blog on April 2nd titled “Preparing your Florida vacation rentals to be ready for changeand now change is one step closer. But the changes may not be as drastic as some local full-time residents had hoped for. The Florida Vacation Rental Bill-SB 356 just passed the Senate with compromise language. It will now go to Governor Scott. The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday with a 90-27 vote that gives local governments’ limited control over rentals but not the regulatory power many were seeking.

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Tags: future of vacation rentals, Vacation Rental Legislation, Florida

Marketing Your Vacation Rentals: Inbound Part 3

Posted by Adam Zippin on Apr 24, 2014 4:06:00 PM

The third segment will focus on how to convert your new visitors into leads.  In segment 1 we discussed the background of inbound marketing, in segment 2 we covered how to get your message through the traffic of the internet, to the right person.  Once you have increased your traffic, the next step is to begin converting that traffic to leads.  After all, what good is a more qualified lead funnel if your conversion rates stay the same?  You have gone through the work to get your message to the people who want to hear from you, now make the most of this targeting and increase your close rates.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, How to market vacation rentals, Marketing, Marketing Vacation Rental, Property manager marketing, professional management, Inbound Marketing

Marketing Your Vacation Rental: Inbound Part 2

Posted by Adam Zippin on Apr 10, 2014 12:34:00 PM

In the constant struggle that is marketing, getting more people to your website is not always the answer, sometimes it’s getting the right people.  This week I will address the Paveya infographic’s first stage which is “attract website visitors”.  This is the starting point for all your inbound marketing tactics for your vacation rentals and can impact your business immensely.  The point of this stage is to move “strangers” to become “website visitors” and improve visibility for your website.

In years past, this one have been done with one word, “SEO” or search engine optimization.  Many people use the term SEO to this day but the old definition of SEO bears a minimalistic resemblance to the current methods of optimizing your website.  The first page on Google or other search engines has led to some interesting tactics in web design.  It also led to the creation of an entire industry that would focus on helping you beat the google algorithm.  However, Google has evolved and its latest stage of algorithm has left the SEO hotshots of old in the dust.  The new way to think about SEO should focus on content creation.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, How to market vacation rentals, Property Management, Rental management Software, rental marketing, Property manager marketing, Inbound Marketing, Vacation Rentals, Rental Industry Changes, HubSpot Tips

Marketing Your Vacation Rental: Inbound Part 1

Posted by Adam Zippin on Apr 3, 2014 2:00:00 PM

As I did my daily reading of blogs, news, and other industry topics I came across this amazing infographic designed to help you understand Inbound Marketing and how it can be applied to your vacation, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missed.  Here at Barefoot, I personally oversee our inbound marketing plan and it has garnished some great success!  We have moved to the first page of google search results, we have seen a 70% increase in contact rates and most importantly, our content has never been fresher.  All of this was thanks to an inbound marketing strategy implemented here so naturally, when I saw someone made an image to help you out there do the same, I was excited to read it. 

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Tags: Vacation Rental, Marketing, rental marketing, Inbound Marketing