Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Council has mandated that support for early TLS protocols must be disabled no later than by June 30, 2018.

Guest blogger -- Clint Harritt,  LuxuryFractionalGuide.com

To many, the idea of a perfect getaway involves indulging in nature. Ecotourism, another disruptor to the vacation rental market, is defined as “tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, especially to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife.”  Essentially, it is a unique opportunity to relax while exploring and appreciating exotic wildlife. Places like Costa Rica is not only a popular country to vacation, but it is recognized as one of the world leaders in ecotourism.

Winter and its weather is critical for the vacation rental and resort mountain markets. Skiers and snowboarders watch the weather the way the surfers watch for hurricanes and a big snow storm encourages them to rush to the slopes at their favorite mountain resort. With colder temperatures the ability to produce snow lengthens the season for the mountain markets which is a close second for many ski resorts. Here we take a look at current trends in the vacation rental and resort mountain markets involving weather and other factors.

I have been reading a lot of articles on the changes that will occur in 2018 to the vacation rental market. Most of this year’s trends seem to follow what I listed as my expectations for 2017. So, my 2018 trends will include much of what I suggested in 2017 with some additions and more detail.

Barefoot clients own their data. It is started very clearly in the subscription license between Barefoot and its clients:

As a vacation management company trying to get a new owner to come to your program, I am sure you have a page that outlines your value proposition. This of course must be more than a discussion about price. Here are a few items to consider when crafting your owner onboarding value proposition:

Barefoot Partner PointCentral, offers some thoughts on automating energy management for vacation rental management companies and homeowners.

Ed Ulmer took some time to speak with DojoLive on Wednesday, November 22, 2017. In this interview, Ed further discusses how to use technology to dominate the vacation rental market and compete against the larger portals.

At the most recent National VRMA, Orlando, October 16-18, 2017, I coordinated a presentation on Owner Growth, Retention and Competing Against RBO with three clients, Mike Connolly (Triumph Mountain Properties in Vail CO), Kelley Cotton (Young’s SunCoast in Orange Beach, AL) and June Buttner (Killington Group in Killington VT).  The topic resonated for the attendees, attested to by the fact that we had attendees stay 20 minutes after the scheduled session end.