Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

Lately we have written many posts regarding what is going on in our industry, as well as posts regarding property management software and other things. Today, we figured we would give you some more information on bed bugs. Again, we have gotten the permission from Mr. Paul Belo to publish one of his articles.

Taos Ski Valley used to be all about several phone calls and emails before you found the right lodging. Now, northern New Mexico's largest ski and snowboard mountain has gotten into the reservation business, thanks  to Barefoot's property management software. The hope is to streamline the reservation process and reducing customer frustration. You can read more about it here.

It is becoming tougher for VRBO’s to keep up with all the changes and new legislations and rules that are coming into effect. Recently, we reported that all owners must now file Form 1099, and we also reported that the Colorado Association of Ski Towns (CAST) wants to crack down on vacation rental owners who aren’t paying lodging taxes or paying necessary business license fees.

About six days ago someone posted a question in PayPal’s online Community Help Forum. The Question was:

Craigslist is not the only place vacation rental fraud occurs. Scam artists are getting more daring.  Recently we picked up an article from the Daily Times about an incident with a portal.

Hotel operator Marriott International, Inc said on Monday it plans on splitting into two publicly traded companies by spinning off its timeshare operations into a separate company. Under the spin off plan, the new company will focus on the timeshare business under the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton brands, while Marriott International will concentrate on the lodging management and franchise business.

HomeAway, the world’s largest vacation rental website with more than 540,000 vacation rental listings in 120 countries is starting the process officially going public. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Homeaway is said to be choosing bankers to handle an IPO.

The SummitDaily.com reports that the Colorado Association of Ski Towns (CAST) has delayed their plans for cracking down on vacation rental owners who aren’t paying lodging taxes or paying necessary business license fees.

As we are almost through the first month of the new year and start looking ahead, we can see show season coming up. At Barefoot we enjoy going to these shows and conferences, since it provides us with the opportunity to meet up with existing clients, as well as meet other members of our industry. We believe these conferences play a huge part in the development of the vacation rental industry.

Predictions for 2011

January 4th, 2011

At Barefoot we develop vacation rental software, and are obviously an advocate for the vacation rental industry. We have said it before and we will say it again: We think the vacation rental industry will grow from 9% to 25% in the next 10 years. We also believe that those who will be successful will need to niche or segment.  In an earlier blog post we discussed some of the recent changes to the vacation rental industry, and how it will affect all involved in the long run.