Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

Using Your Vacation Rental Owners to Engage New Tenants

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Aug 26, 2014 4:28:00 PM

By understanding your vacation rental owner base, you will derive some important clues
and demographic information about your potential tenant profile. After all, your property owners we

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, How to market vacation rentals, Marketing Vacation Rental, Rental Management CRM

Beyond Social Media… Let’s Talk About Social Reach

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Aug 5, 2014 10:30:00 AM

If you’ve read one blog about social media you’ve read five. I’ve even written about social media before for the Barefoot blog. But what if we thought about social media and its channels as just a small piece of the puzzle for vacation rental management companies. These are just the tools that you might use to really leverage the actual goal of gaining social reach.  

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Rental Management CRM, Rental Management Company

Cause Marketing and Your Vacation Rental: A how to

Posted by Adam Zippin on Mar 25, 2014 5:16:00 PM

For years we have been preaching the benefits of cause marketing to our prospects but it never appears to take hold as much as we at Barefoot would like.  Today, I was reading a blog posted by Hubspot, can be found here, and thought the translation was perfect for the vacation rental market.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Barefoot, How to market vacation rentals, Rental Management CRM, Cause-Marketing

How to Seasonally Market Your Rental Properties

Posted by Adam Zippin on Nov 14, 2013 5:48:00 PM

Well it’s the time of year up here in New England where rumors of snow are backed up by frigid mornings and mildly warmer days, most call it winter but I am lucky enough to call it hockey season.  Now some may not see the difference between a winter enthusiast and a hockey fan but differences like this can distinguish your business from the rest.  With the winter coming in, the rental market shifts drastically up here, and in any location with winter snow.  So how does this resonate through with your business?  Here are 8 ways to beat the winter with simple marketing tools

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Vacation Rental, Vacation Rental Software, rental industry competition, How to market vacation rentals, Rental Management, Second Home, Property Management Software, Management Software, Competitive Advantage, Rental management Software, rental marketing, Property manager marketing, professional management, rental indusrty competition, Offerings, rental management business, Rental Management CRM, CRM, CRM Tips

A Fresh View On The Vacation Rental Managers Association Conference

Posted by Adam Zippin on Nov 1, 2013 3:41:00 PM

Barefoot newcomer, Claiborne Yarbrough, attended the VRMA Conference with the team in Nashville this month.  With less than a month under her belt and being stuck in a booth with 3 annoying gents, this would be quite a task for the new member of our vacation rental software team.  Read on to see how she handled it, her key takeaways, and an overall introduction to the newest member of our sales team!

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Tags: Barefoot, Client Expectations, Vacation Rental Software, How to market vacation rentals, Rental, Rental Management, Property Management, Property Management Software, Management Software, Airbnb.com, rental management business, Rental Management CRM, VRMA, VRental management Software

Will Your Website Ruin Your Business?

Posted by Adam Zippin on Oct 30, 2013 5:11:00 PM

In short, yes, but let me elaborate.  Last week the Barefoot team travelled to the VRMA conference in Nashville TN.  Aside from some great music, awesome food, and southern charm, there were some great things to be learned at the conference.  Douglas Quinby, the VP of research at PhoCusWright gave an eye opening speech at the close of the show.  If you left early you missed out but I will do my best to shed some light here as to why your website may ruin your business.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Barefoot, Vacation Rental, Client Expectations, VRBO, Vacation Rental Software, rental industry competition, How to market vacation rentals, Management Software, Competitive Advantage, rental marketing, future of vacation rentals, Property manager marketing, Vacation Rentals, rental management business, Rental Management CRM, CRM Tips

The Vacation Rental Merry Go Round – Are You Onboard?

Posted by Adam Zippin on Jul 2, 2013 4:05:00 PM

 The vacation rental industry is changing, almost daily, as you are well aware.  Home Away, Wyndham, Marriot, Trip Advisor and other large companies are moving us to places we have never been before.   It can be a very challenging environment to work in.   The good news is that these companies all bring awareness to our industry that there hasn’t been here before.   PhoCus Wright, which is a travel research company, recently published a report,  PhoCusWright’s U.S. Vacation Rentals 2009-2014:  A Market Reinvented.   It is a very expensive report, but brings some very valuable information to us.  It was said that only 10-15% of travelers knew or considered vacation rentals.  Well in this report, 20% of the travelers surveyed stayed in a vacation rental in the past two years.  An additional 27% considered a vacation rental, but ultimately chose another option.  Why?  Well, part of it is the misconceptions of our industry, that vacation rentals are only suitable for longer trips and larger groups, as well as vacation rentals not having the “amenities” that hotels offer.  Today, this is not necessarily the case. 

So the good news is that more and more folks are looking at vacation rentals, but the bad news is that still, only 20% of travelers are actually choosing our industry to meet their vacation needs.   How did it get from the 10% that it was 5+ years ago, to the 20%?   And how do we get it from 20% to 30% and more?  Most of us will agree that the national economy hasn’t improved that much.  Unemployment is going back up, and so many people are still out of work.  So why is it that our business is so much better?   I would suggest that the marketing awareness created by these large companies, as well as the internet providing more and more innovation, is finding the average consumer, and we need to take advantage of it.  So some thoughts on how you can get on board:

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Tags: Barefoot, Vacation Rental, Rentals, Rental Market, Rental, Rental Management, Property Management, Property Manager, Property Management Software, Management Software, Competitive Advantage, Rental Software, Rental Management CRM, CRM, Break

It's Not Too Late To Capitalize On National Vacation Rental Month

Posted by Adam Zippin on Jun 28, 2013 12:44:00 PM

So its national Vacation Rental month this July and we hope that you are preparing for the blast of business and overwhelming amount of guests.  What’s that you say, you’re not doing anything to push this news to your potential guests?  Surely there is a mistake here as this is some free publicity.  If you have not been publicizing this then you are falling into the shadows of large companies like Wyndham, who are playing on the national level.  Fear not, here are 5 ways you can still make the most of the free publicity of this month!

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Vacation Rental Industry, Barefoot, Vacation Rental, Rentals, Rental Market, Vacation Rental Software, Rental, Rental Management, Property Management, Second Home, Property Manager, Property Management Software, Vacation Advice, Management Software, Competitive Advantage, Rental Software, Vacation Home, Vacation, Rental Management CRM

A Bold Claim From Homeaway CEO

Posted by Adam Zippin on May 29, 2013 4:25:00 PM

An article published over the weekend has shed a promising light on the vacation rental industry.  In an interview with Carl Shepherd, co-founder of Homeaway, said that he and his company believes that vacation rentals are the future of the vacation industry.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Vacation Rental Industry, Barefoot, Vacation Rental, Rentals, Rental Market, Rental, Rental Management, Property Management, Second Home, Property Manager, Property Management Software, Management Software, Competitive Advantage, Rental Software, Vacation Home, Vacation, Rental Management CRM, CRM

Change Your View: Vacation Rental Property Vs. Asset Manager

Posted by Adam Zippin on May 21, 2013 4:55:00 PM

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Vacation Rental Industry, Barefoot, Vacation Rental, Software, Rental Management, Property Management, Second Home, Property Manager, Vacation Advice, Management Software, Rental Software, Vacation Rentals, Rental Management CRM, Golden Number