Barefoot Technologies Blog- Vacation Rental Industry News

Running a Lean and Efficient Vacation Rental Business

Posted by Mike Todd on Aug 8, 2016 4:00:18 PM

I love the Olympics and in the true spirit of competition let’s talk about the Vacation Rental Industry.  As the Vacation Rental Industry grows so does the competition.  From the Vacation Rental (VR) Company perspective the competition is fierce.  There is competition to attract new and returning guests, competition to attract the best properties and home owners, competition to attract and keep great employees, competition against hotels, competition against marketing channels (VRBO, Airbnb, etc.…). 

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry

Vacation Rental Companies as Source for State Revenue

Posted by Ed Ulmer on Nov 16, 2015 4:00:00 PM

We are starting to hear that states are using vacation rental companies as a hub to get information both directly and indirectly that affect taxes, insurance and workmen’s comp issues. 

Consider this. A state revenue agent knocks on your door. They require you to provide data of reservations and that you trust accounts are correct.  In doing so, they capture owners who work with you.  They then have the ability to monitor the owner’s income to see if they are including that for tax purposes. The Revenue Agent also ask you about how you do cleaning and property management, if they are in house staff, they look to see if you fall in or out of insurance guidelines. If cleaners and property managers are independent contracts, they know who they are (thanks to you) and they track them down to see if they are filing taxes and more importantly, if that independent provider is hiring assistants that may fall into insurance and workman’s comp issues.   

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry

What’s Next for Zillow?

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Jan 21, 2015 12:56:00 PM

In less than 90 days, Zillow’s agreement with ListHub will come to an end making it more difficult for Zillow to keep up with the most current MLS listings across the country.  Essentially, the go-to real estate website will have to secure separate agreements with brokers and MLSs. 

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Zillow, Real Estate Brokerages, MLS

Considerations for the Vacation Rental Industry for 2015 from Barefoot

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Dec 30, 2014 10:50:00 AM

With over twenty years in the vacation rental management industry, Ed Ulmer has a breadth of knowledge and expertise that keep him not only manning the helm at Barefoot Technologies, but often providing thought leadership in the industry.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Barefoot, future of vacation rentals

CanadaStays: Canada’s Largest Vacation Rental Resource

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Nov 20, 2014 11:29:00 AM

We know you have heard the saying “It takes a village.”  In the vacation rental industry, it takes the world for companies to be successful.  At Barefoot, we could not manage without our many partners who count on our vacation rental management software to ensure their rental business is accurate and up to date.  Over the next few weeks, as a way to say thank you, we are going to feature several of our partners without whom we would not be where we are today. 

First up, is Canada’s largest vacation rental resource, CanadaStays.  This successful outfit offers up over 40,000 vacation rental properties across all of Canada in addition to having access to rental properties in other parts of the world.  They work hard to provide a wide variety of accommodations to travelers who want to vacation in any part of Canada.  For property owners who want to increase exposure and, ultimately, reservations, CanadaStays is probably one of the top resources to achieve those goals.  In a recent interview with us, Mark Bordo, CEO and Founder of CanadaStays, took some time to answer a handful of questions about his business and our partnership.  Here is what he had to say:

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Marketing Vacation Rental, OTA Portal

Every Vacation Rental Management Customer is Unique

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Nov 4, 2014 8:41:00 AM

We had a wonderful time last week meeting so many vacation rental and property
management companies at the Vacation Rental Management Conference in San Diego last week.  It is always wonderful to reconnect with familiar faces, speak with customers in person, and have discussions with our partners (have you see our partner page lately? The list is growing www.barefoot.com/partners). One main takeaway I took from the conference was that each and every one of you is unique in how you need to run their business.

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Vacation Rental Software

How Vacation Rental Management Companies Prevent Fraud

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Oct 31, 2014 10:15:00 AM

The Franchise Herald reported last week that in a study conducted by the New York Attorney General’s office, 72 percent of rentals under Airbnb between early 2010 and June 2014 were illegal.  Citing that they many local and state laws, one of the stand out violations was that “an estimated 200 units were booked as short-term rentals for more than 365 days in a year, meaning multiple transients rented the space at the same night.”

Booking vacation rentals online via an online travel sites like Airbnb and others can be risky as everything is done online.  It is essential to remind property owners about the advantages of working with authentic, brick and mortar vacation rental management companies rather than a company on a cloud. 

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Vacation Rental Industry, vacation rental trends

How Vacation Rental Management Companies Compete in the Hospitality Market

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Oct 22, 2014 10:58:00 AM

What is a “hospitality market” anyway?  Simply put, the hospitality market consists of hotels, convention centers, visitors’ bureaus and any other category that helps grow the hospitality business and tourism industries.  Vacation rental management companies have become an integral part of the hospitality market by offering alternatives to hotels and resorts at and near their destination.  Whether locally-owned or as an online reservation company like Homeaway.com or VRBO.com, this segment of the industry has begun to move towards the hospitality market that hotels seem to have dominated. 

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Tags: Vacation Rental Management, Vacation Rental Industry, Competitive Advantage

Barefoot Announces New Customer Collins Vacation Rentals, Inc.

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Oct 8, 2014 12:41:00 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Vacation Rental Software, Vacation Rental Partnership

A Great Example of How You Create a Vacation Experience

Posted by Claiborne Yarbrough on Oct 2, 2014 3:22:00 PM

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Tags: Vacation Rental Industry, Vacation Rental