Vacation Rental Formula: Recent Episodes
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Sharon Michie is the owner of Cottages to Castles of Sanibel and Captiva. When it became apparent Hurricane Ian was headed to Florida, her emergency hurricane plan kicked in, but no one could have imagined the devastation that Ian would bring. In this episode Sharon shares her story of that day and the months of recovery since then, to build back a business that had been a staple on the islands for decades.
The post VRS499 – After Hurricane Ian – The Road to Repairadise in Sanibel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Searching for software solutions in our business feels like being trapped in a whirlwind of options, where each one promises to solve problems but leaves you even more frustrated in the struggle to find the right fit.
Does this ring true for you?
The post VRS498 – How to Unravel the Tangled Web of Short-Term Rental Software with John An appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When 80% of your business is booked direct; 50% of guests are repeats and 20% of those have stayed 5 or more times, it’s clear you are doing something right. Mountain Laurel Chalets in Gatlinburg celebrated 50 years in business in 2022, so have had a lot of practice in creating a great hospitality experience for their guests and their stats show it’s working.
The post VRS497 – Surprise & Delight: 50 Years of Creating Repeat Short-Term Rental Business with Tom Goodwin appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Staying in an aparthotel in Berlin; a city centre apartment in Barcelona; a lodge on the owner’s property in Northampton, and a seaview cottage in Cornwall, delivered some leaning points and a few AHA moments.
In this episode I share what was great and not so great about the stays, all in the spirit of constructive feedback.
The post VRS496 – Four Short-Term Rentals and a Conference appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Luxury is a subjective word. To some it means opulence, sumptuous surroundings and lavish spending while to others it can refer to an experience, like a candlelit bubble bath after a busy working day or a day at the spa. To Dr Rachel Gainsbrugh, travellers seeking a modern luxury experience are looking for something very different.
The post VRS495 – How to Create A Luxury Short-Term Rental Brand with Dr Rachel Gainsbrugh appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A few weeks ago, Vintory founder Brooke Pfautz had an idea. Why not ask some of the leading property managers to reflect on their Top 10 Mistakes?
The resulting list of over 500 contributions is a fabulous learning resource in itself as it’s like sitting down with 50+ managers and picking their brains on what they would do differently if they had the time over again.
The post VRS494 – Learning from Property Management Mistakes: Insights and Strategies from Industry Experts with Brooke Pfautz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Learn the importance of sustainability in the vacation rental industry, and how it can give operators a competitive advantage with Sustonica's criteria for sustainability accreditation is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which range from simple changes like switching to 100% renewable energy to more complex measures like installing energy-efficient appliances.
The post VRS493 – Sustainable Vacation Rentals: Making a Positive Impact on the Environment and Your Wallet appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Neely Khan shares her thoughts on the continued importance of storytelling in our short-term rental industry, and how storytelling can help hosts and managers stand out from competitors to create memorable guest experiences.
The post VRS492 – Unlocking the Power of Storytelling for Short-Term Rentals: Insights from Hospitality Writer Neely Khan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With 90 properties under management and living in the same building as most of them, Daniela Derin can lay claim to being the prime architect of her guests short-term rental experience and an expert of book direct marketing.
The post VRS491 – Expert Advice for Building a Strong Book Direct Strategy For Your Short-Term Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you are a growing business there will come a time when that overwhelm needs to be dealt with or you will never make progress. At that point hiring someone makes a huge amount of sense, but what roles do they fill?
The post VRS490 – Why You Need Rocket Fuel To Power Your Short-Term Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are a lot of advantages to promoting a specific niche to a smaller audience. You can command premium rates, develop a brand identity around the niche, build stronger relationships with your guests, and market more cost-effectively. But… most hosts and managers don’t do this.
The post VRS489 – Capturing More Short-Term Rental Bookings By Finding Your Niche appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, Mark Simpson, founder of Boostly, joins Heather to discuss the importance of guest communication in the vacation rental industry and how building lasting relationships with your short-term rental guests can create a positive reputation for your business.
The post VRS488 – Building Lasting Relationships with Your Short-Term Rental Guests: Strategies for the Hospitable Host with Mark Simpson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Being passionate about where he lives and what the area offers to guests was just one of the values Caleb Hannon brought to Stay Lake Norman and a reason he bought into the company when the sole owner decided to take a step back.
The company specializes in luxury accommodation in a specific area and targets the affluent market. This means that all properties have to meet and exceed a high set of standards and criteria, and can often require the company to step in from the purchase point, with an interior designer and a hefty budget. It also means they are highly selective about the properties that are accepted into the rental management program.
The post VRS487 – The Business of Luxury Short-Term Rentals: Caleb Hannon’s Stay Lake Norman Insights appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Technology is moving fast and if you aren’t using it, you are missing out on massive opportunities to save time, create amazing content and boost your business in so many ways.
In this episode, we explore the many ways ChatGPT can be used to elevate our businesses and take us into uncharted territory.
The post VRS486 – What to Ask, and How to Ask – A Chat GPT Masterclass for Short-Term Rentals with Bart Sobies appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Engagement isn’t something that is much talked about by those who live eat and breathe Airbnb. There may be an exchange of messages on the platform, but there’s no real opportunity to show off local knowledge and destination authority. And that is what anyone exploring direct booking options needs to be doing.
The post VRS485 – Marketing Engagement – The Key To STR Booking Conversion with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Running a vacation rental business without considering the legal aspects of its operation is like driving a car without a seatbelt. You might think everything is fine until you hit a bump in the road, and you suddenly realize you are not as protected as you thought you were.
In this episode, Keith Brady of Florida Vacation Rental Law, offers a deep dive into the legal side of owning and managing a vacation rental business.
The post VRS484 – On the Right Side of Vacation Rental Law with Keith Brady appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today we're exploring the impacts of short-term rental development in an Austin community, Matt once again brings his thoughtful and well-researched perspective into our day-to-day world and has us thinking hard about the nature of our business, as it continues to grow and develop.
The post VRS483 – Making guests feel special – the hospitality edition with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Since launching Seaside Vacations in early 2016, vacation rental power couple, Lance and Elaine Stitcher, have seen a steady growth of 25% - 35% annually in their Chincoteague Island and Ocean City market.
Yet with that growth to multiple offices and more staff, the dynamic duo are still eager to maintain the local connections and impact that have brought them such success.
The post VRS482 – Vacation Rental Power Couple Spill Their Secrets for Growing 25-35% Annually! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There is something addictive about this business, and Tyann Marcink, AKA the Queen of Guest Experience, founder of two growing short-term rental brands in Missouri, photographer, board member, and multiple property owner, is passionately immersed in it.
The post VRS481 – Inside the Mind of a Short-Term Rental Entrepreneur – A Conversation with Tyann Marcink appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The 100 Collection is the brainchild of the co-founders of Blue Cedar Partners, entrepreneur Travis Wilburn, and marketer, Rebecca Lombardo, both of whom have extensive experience in the vacation rental industry. Together they bring their passion for quality, hospitality, and community leadership to a much wider audience.
The post VRS480 – Aiming For The Stars – The 100 Collection with Travis Wilburn and Rebecca Lombardo appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Jill Highsmith McGee is a digital marketing specialist for ICND and she shares why booking direct has so many benefits both for owners and guests.
The post VRS479 – Book Direct Day 2023 with Jill Highsmith of ICND appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Robert Geller is the founder of Fabstayz, the niche listing site for the LGBTQ+ community that promotes inclusive hospitality, and joins Heather to share tips on how to foster a welcoming space and remove barriers to safety and inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community.
The post VRS478 – Everything You Need To Know About Inclusive Hospitality with Robert Geller of FabStayz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If there is a recipe for a successful property manager, it starts with owners who are 100% committed to hospitality and the guest experience. They get into their guests’ shoes every step of the way to ensure everyone’s expectations are met and mostly exceeded.
The post VRS477 – A Masterclass in Hospitality: The Sweet Success Story of Chalets Hygge Elite Hosts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
ChatGPT hit the public domain in December and more people are discovering uses for artificial intelligence and machine learning within the vacation rental business. From local research to blog posts, keyword analysis for SEO, listings, and automated emails, to writing code for Chatbots, the possibilities are numerous.
The post VRS476 – ChatGPT, Predictive Hospitality and The Impact on Short-Term Rental Websites appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been an eventful 3 years on every front and as we enter 2023 and reflect on the last one, there have been plenty of changes to review. Andrew McConnell from Rented.com has shared his thoughts on the passing of another year in the industry every January and we’re happy to hear them once again.
There is a lot that isn’t clear about the upcoming year.
The post VRS475 – How To Navigate The Ever-Changing Short-Term Rental Business In 2023 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If the Covid 19 era taught us anything it was that being unprepared for what might happen was a dangerous scenario. It was one that left some hosts, managers, and larger companies struggling or even collapsing.
There is a lot that isn’t clear about the upcoming year.
The post VRS474 – How to Future-Proof Your Short-Term Rental Business for 2023 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The annual Hostfully survey on Hospitality Trends in the Short-Term Rental Industry highlighted a number of areas that owners and managers can take note of and act upon, and in this episode, Hostfully co-founder David Jacoby shares his analysis of the results.
The post VRS473 – Hospitality Trends and what to look for in 2023 with David Jacoby appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s shocking to me that many short-term rental owners and vacation rental property managers have never experienced making a booking and staying in an STR property. Shocking, because it is only by being a guest that you can truly understand what your own guests feel and experience as a traveler.
The post VRS472 – Ciao Italia – Lessons Learned From Being an STR Guest with Andy Meddick appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Catherine Ratcliffe, the owner of Lost Together Stays, one of this years Destinationaire award winners and in this episode shows how remarkably able she is, to not only meet the criteria of a Destinationaire, but vastly exceed them.
The post VRS471 – Going Above and Beyond with Short-Term Rental Hospitality – Catherine Ratcliffe? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Data can be a dry topic, but when the information provider can tell a good story and inspire curiosity, it comes alive. Evan Dolgow, Head of Predictive Hospitality at Aidaptive (formerly Jarvis ML) did just that at the Book Direct Show in Miami in October, and joins us in this episode of the podcasts.
The post VRS470 – eCommerce, Google Analytics and how Hidden Data can Boost an STR Business, with Evan Dolgow? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, Bob Garner, owner of Casal del Fichi in Italy and founder of EnviroRental, shares his thoughts on the Sustainable Travel Report 2022 from Booking.com and what we can learn from it.
The post VRS469 – How Being Sustainable Brings More Short-Term Rental Bookings with Bob Garner? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Using scarcity strategies is a solid way of driving traffic to your short-term rental website and encouraging conversion to a vacation rental booking when they get there, and here’s how.
The post 7 Scarcity Tactics for Marketing Your Short-Term Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Converting lookers to bookers is the holy grail of short-term rental whether you list on the OTAs or have a direct book site. However, unless you want to roll the dice on algorithms and hope your listing rises to the top, you have no real control in the larger world of STR marketing.
The post VRS468 – The Conversion Conundrum – Turning Lookers into Bookers? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We are heading into some challenging times. Reduced demand, increased supply, and a growing pushback on rates may combine to create a perfect storm in 2023. Getting ahead of the potential for trouble means you’ll need to be proactive in your planning strategy.
The post VRS467 – Preparing for the perfect storm by creating a business success plan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you have a brand for your Short-Term Rental business? Not just a logo or consistent site colors and fonts, but a real brand that you are becoming known by? What is a Vacation Rental brand anyway?
The post VRS466 – Branding Your Vacation Rental Business Brilliantly with Jason Byer of Crowdspring? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There was a lot to unpack from the 2022 Book Direct show that had a single stream so, although there wasn’t a massive amount of content, the presentations were all of a very high quality with a few excellent panel discussions.
The post VRS465 – What I learned from the Book Direct Geniuses in Miami? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Referrals can be the cheapest form of marketing, particularly when they are of the word-of-mouth variety. Someone loves your business – they had a wonderful experience with you and want to share it with others. They become your raving fans.
The post VRS464 – Marketing For New Short-Term Rental Guests Through Word of Mouth Referrals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Jodi Bourne, talks about the technical aspects of getting your valuable content into the hands of your audience and then nurturing them through an automated email sequence. Using practical examples and a deep knowledge of the components of successful email marketing campaigns, she makes a complex topic simpler to understand.
The post VRS463 – Building an Email List Pt 3 – Putting It All Together with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are you wired to create remarkable experiences for your guests? If so, you may be a Destinationaire, according to Wil Slickers, the founder of Hospitality FM, a network of podcasts focused on the hospitality industry.
The post VRS462 – Are you wired to create experiences for your guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Leo Walton, co-founder of Superhog talks about all things that go on behind the scenes of our business as we attempt to verify our guests, manage risks efficiently and avoid fraudulent activity and chargebacks.
The post VRS461 – How to Screen Guests and Minimize Damage with Leo Walton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A Key Data statistic states the average stay value (ASV) for direct bookings is more than double the ASV on Airbnb. It’s just one reason more owners and mangers are embracing the book direct movement.
The post VRS460 – How To Get Your Control Back From the OTAs with Damian Sheridan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting into a short-term rental, whether it is a single home or managing on behalf of others, means you are running a business. According to Bruce Ikelheimer of Banjoe Vacations, that is non-negotiable, so all aspects of the operation should be given a business perspective.
The post VRS459 – Making a Business out of Short Term Rental with Bruce Ikelheimer of Banjoe Vacations appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Investing in property in three very diverse markets, mostly off-grid, and in wildly different locations may not be unusual, but doing it simultaneously, and on a small budget, requires a very unique perspective. And when the investors' motto is Plan Less – Live More, you may wonder how this all comes about.
The post VRS458 – Building a unique short-term rental business with minimal investment with Kelly Cronin of Cronin’s Castles appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How does someone with no experience in the short-term rental business, buy a company, close on the deal at the beginning of the busiest season in the company’s history, and sail through the summer with a record intake of new owners…..and live to tell the tale?
The post VRS457 – Hitting The Ground Running…Buying a Property Management Company – with Justin Keller-Hobson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, we explore the highly charged topic of damage management from big-ticket items to the more mundane, with lots of practical examples.
The post VRS456 – The Cost of Doing Business & Dealing with Damage To Your Short-Term Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting people to join an email list is just the first step, and this episode focuses on the types of content you will need to create to keep people on there, once they have parted with their email address.
The post VRS455 – Building an Email List Pt 2 – Creating Content – with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If there is one thing every property owner and manager should do frequently, it’s to be a guest in someone else’s property, because, however much you do for your own guests, you can never truly understand the experience of staying in a short-term rental, unless you have done it yourself. And not in your own place.
The post VRS454 – We Stayed Here – Reflections on Being a Short-Term Rental Guest appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, Dana Wolfe of Aipex technologies shares his passion for voice technology and how it can be used effectively to give you a competitive edge in your rental market.
The post VRS453 – How to use voice technology in your short-term rental with Dana Young appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
PMS companies trumpet features that offer everything you could possibly need to run a sizeable vacation rental company from owner and guest portals to website and channel management, housekeeping and maintenance schedule to trust accounting …and much more.
So, how do you choose the one that is right for you?
The post VRS452 – Out From the Shadows – The Owner Rez Success Story appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this first part of a 3-episode series on Growing Your Email List, Jodi Bourne shares ideas and recommendations on creating the type of lead magnets that people will want to download.
The post VRS451 – Building an Email List Pt 1 – Creating Lead Magnets – with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From a tree house in Hawaii, a giant potato in Idaho to a Hobbit House in Washington state, Kristie Wolfe, has engaged massive creativity and ingenuity to build some of the most unique short-term rental properties currently available.
The post VRS450 – Building the Unique – From Potato House to Hobbit Village and Beyond with Kristie Wolfe appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are a lot of transactions going on right now as property management businesses are acquired by investment companies, consolidators and other managers seeking to grow. It may seem an attractive notion if your company has some good growth and you feel the time is right to get out and move on.
From some of the best-known people in the industry selling their property management companies to webinars suggesting rates should be adjusted down in preparation for 2023, and a lot in between, there was a lot to unpack.
The post VRS449 – How To Sell Your Business Successfully with Sarah Bradford (former owner of Steamboat Lodging Co. and Winterpark Lodging Co.) appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Given Andrew McConnell from Rented.com used one of my favorite words to describe the last 6 months, it was fun to talk with him about some of the mass movements in the short-term rental business in the first half of this year.
From some of the best-known people in the industry selling their property management companies to webinars suggesting rates should be adjusted down in preparation for 2023, and a lot in between, there was a lot to unpack.
The post VRS448 – It’s All Gone Bonkers with Andrew McConnell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Sometimes, we have owners who balk at having to spend extra money and resent the expectations of our new generations of rental guests. In fact, the majority of this list represents lower cost items, the provision of which could contribute to raising a rating to the essential 5-star we are all looking for.
The post VRS447 – 14 Things you must have in your vacation rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Guests who come to a rental property have one thing in mind and that is to enjoy their vacation in comfortable and attractive surroundings. They will take it for granted that the place is safe for them to use, and that everything that’s left will be for their use unless they are specifically told otherwise.
The post VRS446 – 14 Things you Should Never Leave in a Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In the introduction to 0 – 500 Properties in Five Years, Brooke Pfautz shares his story of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship and his eternal optimism. From growing a mortgage company to a thriving 100-employee business with over $350 million in loans to the depths of the financial crisis of 2008, to starting up in a completely new field, he delivers an enthralling start.
The post VRS445 – 0 to 500 Properties in Five Years, A Playbook with Brooke Pfautz of Vintory appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Ali Cammelletti joins me to talk about how leaders, managers, supervisors etc can support their staff before, during and after these busy times.
The post VRS444 – Getting Your People Ready for the Season – Building Resilience in Your Team with Ali Cammelletti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From ensuring auto-messaging sequences are in place to checking every listing for accuracy, completeness, and currency; getting staff in place with scheduling allowing for absences and the unforeseen, to reiterating the emergency plan.
All these spring checks and more are shared in this episode.
The post VRS443 – Getting Ready For The Best Vacation Rental Season Ever – 7 Essential Checks appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Andrew McConnell is a writer and contributor for Forbes, Skift and Huffington Post, he is no stranger to the publishing world, and now his first book Get Out Of My Head will be released in early June. Heather talks with Andrew about the book and dives a little deeper.
The post VRS442 – Get Out of My Head by Andrew McConnell – A Book Review appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Lance and Elaine Stitcher are owners of Seaside Vacations in Ocean City, MD, and Chincoteague Island, and have experienced massive growth since they were last on the Vacation Rental Success podcast. In this episode, we catch up on what’s been happening in their world and ask them to talk about their experience of the Spring Forum.
The post VRS441 – VRMA Spring Forum Report with Lance & Elaine Stitcher appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The days of marketing a property with a sign on the front lawn and an ad in the Classifieds were much simpler. But they are long gone, and the task of marketing now requires extensive planning, creativity, and a lot of effort. It’s also costlier.
The post VRS440 – The Short Term Rental Marketing Mix with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Statistics show that guests may now be making their vacation rental choice with technology as a primary criterion and we cannot afford to ignore these figures.
The post VRS439 – Getting Smart With Short Term Rental Technology with Jim Netska of Point Central appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We know there is value in a common voice and in these days of continued regulatory challenges to our industry, it has never been more important. When you have 1300 members representing over 80K units that common voice is understandably powerful.
The post VRS438 – Growing a Vacation Rental Alliance with Denis Hanks appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Andrew Bate of Safely has been involved in insurance as well as travel and hospitality for a decade and joins the podcast to talk about liability, screening, safety, and above all, why an insurance policy needs to be written for your property.
The post VRS437 – Lies, Video, and Why Screening and Good Rental Insurance is Essential appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A year on from her first interview where she shared the challenges of launching a business in a competitive market, she talks about networking, creating trust with new owners, growth, and the importance of hiring someone to hold her accountable.
The post VRS436 – Property Manager Spotlight – Brittany Blackman of Breathe Easy Rentals – One Year On appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
During the pandemic 29 million families in the US adopted a pet, increasing the total of households with at least one or more animals, to over 69 million. That’s a lot of four-legged additions.
The post VRS435 – Tapping Into The Short-Term Rental Pet Niche with Sara Sokol appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The digital format of the old welcome binder has become the gold standard in short-term rentals for hosts and managers worldwide, so if you haven’t already done the switch to a digital guidebook for your rental home, it’s time to consider the benefits.
The post VRS434 – How To Create The Best Digital Guidebook for Your Short Term Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Having a set-it-and-forget-it attitude about pricing is no longer a viable option if you want to maximize income and occupancy so we’ve reached out to the experts in dynamic pricing at Beyond for some advice and tactics.
The post VRS433 – Building a Better STR Pricing Strategy with Ryan Saylor from Beyond appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From the simple acts of changing all light bulbs to LEDs and using refillable bottles for cleaning products to using eco-friendly web hosting and a tree-planting program, Bob clearly walks the talk – and now he is paying attention to all the events – conferences and workshops – that we attend as well.
The post VRS432 – What is in Your Swag Bag and Other Green Event Ideas with Bob Garner appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been 20 years since I met up with the founder of Ontario’s first rental listing site, for an hour-long meeting which extended to over three and a half, as the ideas just kept on rolling. The partnership that was formed that day has remained strong as we’ve together built an amazing business.
The post VRS431 – Things I Wish I’d Known When Starting Out – and What I’ve Learned in 20 Years in STR Management appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Starting a property management company in your own home town is going to be challenging but when you battle red tape and bureaucracy in another country, it’s another story.
The post VRS430 – Pura Vida: The OSA Property Management Story appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Guest expectations have given rise to changes in standards over the past decade and few people understand this more than Jeremiah Gall, the founder of Flipkey and subsequently, the operations platform, Breezeway.
The post VRS429 – The New Approach to Meeting Guest Expectations with Jeremy Gall of Breezeway appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The importance of evaluating your success as a vacation rental operator has never been higher. Traveler behaviour is changing; innovative owner acquisition strategies are vital, and competition is growing.
The post VRS428 – How to Evaluate Your Success in Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode Mark Simspon of the UK-based short-term rental consultancy Boostly, talks about why some people should think twice about offering any type of direct booking service. A little tongue-in-cheek maybe, but it’s food for thought.
The post VRS427 – Why You Shouldn’t be Booking Direct with Mark Simpson (Boostly) appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What exactly is channel management? How does it work? How much will it cost? How many channels are there? These are questions anyone new to the short-term rental business should ask, however until recently there haven’t been any real definitive answers to raise the curtain on the topic.
Every episode has brought A-HA moments, and nuggets of information that have improved and advanced my business.
I hope it’s been the same for you!
The post VRS426 – Short-Term Rental Channel Management Demystified appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Over eight years of producing this podcast; talking to hundreds of knowledgable, experienced and professional owners, property managers and industry experts, I have learned so much.
Every episode has brought A-HA moments, and nuggets of information that have improved and advanced my business.
I hope it’s been the same for you!
The post VRS425 – Reflections on One Million Vacation Rental Success Downloads appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are you one who uses the passage of the old year into the new one as an opportunity to make some changes?
If so, better efficiency and productivity is likely to be on your list of improvements.
Dana Lubner – Head of Leadership Development at Rent Responsibly – shares her top ten list of productivity hacks that will kick start your goals and plans for 2022.
The post VRS424 – The Best Productivity Hacks for a Busy STR Professional with Dana Lubner appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From teen mom, to creative executive at one of the largest Marriot hotels in the world, to motivational speaker and business consultant, Amber Hurdle is, in her terms, a ‘bombshell business woman’. In this episode she shares her philosophy on building a brand, creating a business plan and offers plenty of tips and advice on how to develop and manage a small business.
The post VRS423-Building Your Short-Term Rental Brand with Amber Hurdle appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What were the highlights of 2021?
What were the biggest surprises and what came as no surprise at all?
These were some of the questions posed to Andrew McConnell from Rented.com in our annual review of the year.
The post VRS422 – Meeting the Challenges of a Constantly Changing Rental Business with Andrew McConnell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The 2021 Report of Hospitality Trends in the Vacation Rental Industry was released recently by Hostfully, and in this episode David Jacoby of Hostfully, summarises the report and offers additional insights into what the results indicate for the future.
The post VRS421 – Insights from the 2021 Hostfully Hospitality Survey appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The opening keynote at the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit, delivered by Amber Hurdle, talked about creating confident, compassionate and influential leadership. Compared to so many other conferences we’ve all attended, the kick off to the Summit was different, and much needed.
The post VRS420 – VRWS Review & Self Hypnosis for Just About Anything appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As vacation rental owners and managers we want to hit our demographic right where they are scrolling, and in this episode we’re focusing on Instagram and the millennial and Gen Xers who are now heading up their young families and travelling more widely.
The post VRS419 – Make Instagram Work for Your Business – Tips for Vacation Rental Owners & Hosts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From guest communication to social media, our tech stack to owner acquisition and onboarding, there are a lot of moving parts to this business. And we are all busy people. This is why it’s worthwhile taking a focused look at what needs to be reviewed, revisited, discarded or revamped, and use a slower time of the year to work through it all.
The post VRS418 – 10 Winter Projects for a Short Term Rental Property Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you didn’t get to any, or many conferences this year, you may have felt some FOMO. All those networking and educational sessions missed. And from all accounts, a year off from in-person events meant they bounced back with renewed energy and a lot of new content. Get your round up here!
The post VRS417 – Keynote Summaries & Conference Takeaways with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Statistics on pet ownership in the UK and North America have shown a dramatic increase since the pandemic began, with 3.2 million households in the UK acquiring a new pet and the overall pet owning households in the US surpassing 67%. This means more people are expecting to take their dogs on vacation than ever before.
The post VRS416 – How To Really Welcome Pets (And Not Just Tolerate Them) appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
After a long summer of maximum occupancy and demanding guests, Andy Meddick of Seachange Vacation Rentals is now relaxing and reflecting on what went well, what didn’t go so well, and all the things that could be done differently.
The post VRS415 – What we Learned from a Summer of Vacation Rentals in 2021 with Andy Meddick appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve been told for years that video works to attract traffic, keep it on your website and aid in conversions, but how many of us have taken that to heart and built it into a strategic marketing plan.
The post VRS414 – Creating an Award-Winning Video Marketing Strategy appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For some property managers, the landscape of owner acquisition has changed in the past two years. Some owners are wanting to rent in order to fund the investment and have high expectations of income and occupancy; others bought to escape urban living and have no intention of getting into short-term rental – but may do so in the future.
The post VRS413 – Changing Strategies for Owner Acquisition with Brooke Pfautz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m always on the lookout for things that make life easier. With the workload of the last two summers, it’s been even more important to shave off time where possible, ease the stress on our staff, and have systems and processes that streamline the workflow.
The post VRS412 – Productivity Hacks for Busy Short Term Rental Owners and Managers appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s a daunting prospect for any new property manager to come into an established market and throw the doors open to a new idea. Jane McCaw did this with Jayne’s Cottages, which after 7 years has built to 300+ properties and is growing daily.
The post VRS411 – Bringing Luxury & Disruption to a Traditional Market – Spotlight on Jayne’s Cottages appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Once you have a guest in a property, what are you doing to make sure they come back… either to that same home or another in your portfolio? What is your repeat guest strategy?
The post VRS410 – I’ll Be Back – How To Make Moments Of Magic So Your Guests Keep Returning appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode is part two of a 2 part series. I delve into the seven remaining key components that will assist in securing a strong base for your short-term rental business.
The post VRS409 Small But Mighty – The Foundations of Property Management – Part Two appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode (Part One) looks at the creation of an Executive Summary and what should be in it, why a regular SWOT analysis is essential and how your unique selling point or niche can be introduced and refined at any point.
The post VRS408 Small But Mighty – The Foundations of Property Management – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Is time spent on social media worth it? How can you tell if it is bringing more enquiries and conversions? Which platforms are best for which purposes? Should I be using TikTok or Youtube? All these questions and more are answered in today’s episode with vacation rental marketing strategist, Jodi Bourne.
The post VRS407 – 5 Great Reasons to Use Social Media in Your Short-Term Rental Marketing with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Alan Egan has been prominent in the vacation rental world for the last twelve years. A former property manager, well respected VR photographer, Wordpress expert, and all-round nice person, Alan has a lot of knowledge about marketing that he freely shares.
The post VRS406 – Renting More Weeks with Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode I am joined by the founder of the Book Direct Show - Damian Sheridan- and co-director, Deborah Labi, to talk about the BD movement and where it stands after a year and a half of lockdowns and restrictions.
The post VRS405 – Direct Booking Strategy & Tactics with Damian Sheridan & Deborah Labi appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you listen to this podcast, you might listen to others….but maybe not. If that’s the case this first episode of the podcast swap is a great taster of other amazing shows out in listener land.
The post VRS404 – PODCAST SWAP: Unlocked By Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is the perfect origin story. The one where someone sees a gap – in this case a yawning hole – in a system, and then designs a solution that elegantly meets the needs of all the stakeholders.
The post VRS403 – At Ease – A Niche Online Travel Agency with Anthony Gantt appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are dozens of podcasts out there talking to owners and managers and offering advice on how to create a great experience for your guests, but few that focus on the guests themselves. The Guest Cast – a new show by Touch Stay – does just that.
The post VRS402 – Managing STR Complaints with Empathy & Apologizing with Style appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are dozens of podcasts out there talking to owners and managers and offering advice on how to create a great experience for your guests, but few that focus on the guests themselves. The Guest Cast – a new show by Touch Stay – does just that.
The post VRS401 – Tuning in to the STR guest experience with Tyann Marcink & Andy McNulty appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Matt sees four commonalities or ‘pillars of success’ underpinning the limited edition model – family, local, specialities, and surprises (FLoSS). These are what successful operators and managers all have in common as they create robust businesses that are becoming more independent of the online booking platforms. In this episode Matt talks through each of the pillars and shares many examples from the last five years of talking with the best in our industry.
The post VRS400 – The 4 Pillars of Limited Edition Hospitality with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Airbnb has posted its list of the ‘The number one most hospitable Host in every US state’. To even be considered, hosts had to have achieved 100% 5-star ratings in the categories of Cleanliness, Check-in and Communication. Then ‘to raise the bar even further’, they set the minimum number of reviews at 100.
The post VRS399 – Secrets of the Airbnb Super Hosts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode I’m sharing some of the strategies I was taught to help maintain balance while dealing with other people’s stress and emotions. I hope you take something away that will help you cope with whatever comes at you in this summer of crazy vacation rentals.
The post VRS398 – 10 Coping Mechanisms for a Summer of Crazy Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode we talk about the common aspects of our businesses in terms of new-owner management; what the challenges are in today’s world of second-home investment, and why it’s so important to clarify early on the responsibilities of each party.
The post VRS397 – All Aboard! An STR Owner Onboarding Masterclass with Andy Meddick of Seachange Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Is your listing captivating? Are you doing enough to stop visitors scrolling past so they don’t get to see you have a 96 Jet tub with satellite TV built-in, buried in an amenity list? Do you have branding that will stop them in their tracks? If you answered yes, then move on. There’s nothing to see here. But for most of us, even if our listings are doing well, a little tweaking to up the game can’t hurt. And the tips in this episode are enough to propel some to full-occupancy status.
The post VRS396 – Building a Short-Term Rental Listing That Beats the Competition – 7 Principles of Listing Optimization appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been in the vacation rental business for over 25 years, 19 of them as CEO of a property management company, and over those years we’ve made plenty of mistakes. Things we’d not do if we were starting up again. In this episode, I talk about five of the most common errors new short-term rental property managers make when they embark on this fun journey.Let’s be prepared.
The post VRS395 – The 5 Biggest Mistakes New Short-Term Rental Property Managers Make appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode we explore what’s been in the news over the last half-year; analyze some comments from one of the industry’s super-experts from a Skift Live event, and talk about different ways of growing a business as V-Trips and Vacasa build their behemoth organizations.
Let’s be prepared.
The post VRS394 – The Post-Covid World of Short-Term-Rentals with Andrew McConnell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This year will be an eye-opener for those who’ve been used to a wealth of five-star reviews from happy guests. As my office manager is prone to say, “They are pre-soured”. After 15 months of shutdowns, work-from-home, homeschooling, indoor dining deprivation, and mask-wearing, they are emerging in fighting mode.
Let’s be prepared.
The post VRS393 – Getting Ready for Summer – The Laundry List Edition appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Revenge Travel will be all the rage for the next few years - so says an article in Huffington Post. I wanted to unpack this, find out what ‘revenge travel’ actually means, and explore what it means.
The post VRS392 – Revenge Travel & The Impact on Short Term Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There have been changes over the past year we have to recognize are here to stay for a while so knowing how to manage the first and subsequent hires to ensure your short-term rental business gets the right employees for the right jobs can be challenging.
The post VRS391 – How to Hire the Right People in a Post Pandemic Environment with Sue Jones appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Back in 2018, Hubspot re-engineered their method of delivering content and it’s been proven this method called the Pillar-Cluster model works. I might be a little late to this game but it’s showing traction for our company right now so I’m sharing how it works. Now, after a year of lockdowns, restrictions, and disappointments, travelers have grasped at whatever they can get, often paying a premium for it.
The post VRS390 – How to Build Pillar Posts That Will Drive Traffic To Your Short-Term Rental Website appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
New property management companies are forming and growing with passionate leaders at their helm. Alanna Miel is one of these, and Sweethaven Rentals in Lincoln City, Oregon is benefiting from her years of experience in community action and humanitarian work.
Now, after a year of lockdowns, restrictions, and disappointments, travelers have grasped at whatever they can get, often paying a premium for it.
The post VRS389 – Spotlight on Property Managers – Alanna Miel of Sweethaven Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It used to be easy to wow a guest. Make sure the place gave a great first impression, was clean and well equipped, and was exactly as described in a listing. They would be happy.
Now, after a year of lockdowns, restrictions, and disappointments, travelers have grasped at whatever they can get, often paying a premium for it.
The post VRS388 – How to Wow Your Short Term Rental Guests in 2021 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Evelyn Badia is a pioneer of Airbnb, she has become an icon to thousands of homeowners who have followed her advice and recommendations on how to manage both the shared experience and whole-home hosting.
The post VRS387 – Evelyn Badia – Icon of Airbnb & Founder of The Hosting Journey appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Inaugural Vacation Rental Women’s Summit was held in New Orleans in 2019.
This winter (Dec 2021) we can get together in New Orleans at the same beautiful venue, The Ritz Carlton Hotel on Canal St, for a pre-Christmas, post-Covid celebration of all the best of the short-term rental industry.
The post VRS386 – Women In Vacation Rental and the VR Women’s Summit appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Way back in the time before Airbnb we used to have relationships with our guests. In this discussion, we focus on relationships in our industry and how they can have huge benefits to a book direct strategy.
The post VRS385 – Revolutionize Your Customer Service with the Starbucks Formula appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Way back in the time before Airbnb we used to have relationships with our guests. In this discussion, we focus on relationships in our industry and how they can have huge benefits to a book direct strategy.
The post VRS384 – Getting Relationships Back Into A Rental Strategy with Mark Simpson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most people involved in short-term rentals, there is a finite value on a property.
Once it has been rented, regardless of revenue management techniques, there’s nothing to add to the bottom line.
More experienced operators have a different perspective and maximize every opportunity to upsell or cross-sell – that is to increase the average sales value per customer.
The post VRS383 – Creating Your Own Destination with Wil Slickers of the Slick Talk Podcast appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most people involved in short-term rentals, there is a finite value on a property.
Once it has been rented, regardless of revenue management techniques, there’s nothing to add to the bottom line.
More experienced operators have a different perspective and maximize every opportunity to upsell or cross-sell – that is to increase the average sales value per customer.
The post VRS382 – Creating Property Management Software From The Ground Up with Na’ím Anís Paymán of Zeevou appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most people involved in short-term rentals, there is a finite value on a property.
Once it has been rented, regardless of revenue management techniques, there’s nothing to add to the bottom line.
More experienced operators have a different perspective and maximize every opportunity to upsell or cross-sell – that is to increase the average sales value per customer.
The post VRS381 – Do you have a Plan B for your Short-Term Rental Business? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most people involved in short-term rentals, there is a finite value on a property.
Once it has been rented, regardless of revenue management techniques, there’s nothing to add to the bottom line.
More experienced operators have a different perspective and maximize every opportunity to upsell or cross-sell – that is to increase the average sales value per customer.
The post VRS380 – Are You A Responsible Rental Business Owner Thinking About Safety First? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most people involved in short-term rentals, there is a finite value on a property.
Once it has been rented, regardless of revenue management techniques, there’s nothing to add to the bottom line.
More experienced operators have a different perspective and maximize every opportunity to upsell or cross-sell – that is to increase the average sales value per customer.
The post VRS379 – Boosting Short-Term Rental Income with Add-Ons – Upselling with Tyann Marcink appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Keystone Awards were founded in 2019 to explore the world of PMS platforms and to help owners and managers navigate the pathways of all the different options.
With hundreds to choose from – many of which promise the earth – it’s hard to drill down and find the right one to suit a business.
The post VRS378 – How to Choose Your Property Management Software – The 2021 Keystone Awards appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Planning an exit strategy is probably the most commonly overlooked step when starting a business.
In fact, many small businesses don’t even think about it until the time comes to sell and they realize the amount of work involved in preparation for it and wish they had started sooner.
The post VRS377 – How To Create a Short-Term Rental Exit Strategy With Jacobie Olin of C2G Advisors appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you get the pre-arrival process right, you’ll set the tone for a fantastic stay. Want to know how to perfect your pre-arrival process? Keep on reading to find out.
The post The Pre-Arrival Process: How to Set the Tone for a Five-Star Short-Term Rental Stay appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The annual Hostfully survey on Hospitality Trends in the Short-
Term Rental Industry highlighted a number of areas that owners and managers can take note of and act upon, and in this episode, Hostfully co-founder David Jacoby shares his analysis of the results.
The post VRS376 – Hospitality Trends and what to look for in 2021 with David Jacoby appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
February 3, 2021, is the fourth annual Book Direct Day where owners and managers share messages with the hashtag #BookDirect and educate guests about the benefits of working directly with them.
Those who drew the positive straw are still reeling from the massive business boost, while those who suffered through wave after wave of cancellations and no re-bookings are still struggling to figure out what to do next.
The post VRS375 – The How’s & Why’s of Book Direct appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Starting a property management business from scratch is a challenge. It takes passion, enthusiasm, and a lot of determination.
Brittany Blackman of Breathe Easy Rentals has all these and much more, and it has taken her from being employed by a company in a variety of roles, to launching her own company in Destin in a few short months.
Those who drew the positive straw are still reeling from the massive business boost, while those who suffered through wave after wave of cancellations and no re-bookings are still struggling to figure out what to do next.
The post VRS374 Spotlight on Property Managers – Brittany Blackman of Breathe Easy Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With 2020 behind us and a still-uncertain 2021 ahead, the fallout from a feast or famine year is apparent in every short-term rental market.
Those who drew the positive straw are still reeling from the massive business boost, while those who suffered through wave after wave of cancellations and no re-bookings are still struggling to figure out what to do next.
The post VRS373 – The Art of Story Telling To Attract Guests And Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With 2020 behind us and a still-uncertain 2021 ahead, the fallout from a feast or famine year is apparent in every short-term rental market.
Those who drew the positive straw are still reeling from the massive business boost, while those who suffered through wave after wave of cancellations and no re-bookings are still struggling to figure out what to do next.
The post VRS372 – Vacation Rental Feast or Famine with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast is sponsored by NoiseAware Prevent parties, property damage, and loss of rental revenue with one simple solution Every time a New Year comes around I get excited and motivated to do things differently, to make improvements, and to optimize successes from the previous year. Things, of course, […]
The post VRS371 – 10 Resolutions Short-Term Rental Business Need to Make in 2021 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast is sponsored by NoiseAware Prevent parties, property damage, and loss of rental revenue with one simple solution This interview has become an annual staple of the Vacation Rental Success calendar as I talk to Andrew McConnell of Rented.com and find out what he thought were the highlights […]
The post VRS370 – The times they are a changin’ with Andrew McConnell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
No-one can deny it’s been a challenging year, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and it’s impacted everyone in this business. Guests have been less tolerant, less relaxed, and voiced more frustrations and annoyance – often over the smallest things. Our version of front-line staff, dealing with that frustration, anxiety, and irritation have done so while experiencing […]
The post VRS369 – Handling Hard to Please Short-Term Rental Guests in Challenging Times appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Our property management company has been in business for 17 years and we’ve dabbled with paid ads over time. Over the years we’ve built up a solid reputation and through the development of content, we regularly hit Page 1 of Google for our keywords. In other words, we do well on organic search even for […]
The post VRS368 – How to Win With Paid Advertising with Conrad O’Connell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The resources, apps, and platforms we use can make or break our business. I know this from personal experience, as a poor choice many years ago nearly did break our business. So, learning from other property managers, which I do now all the time, is so helpful in defining what works, what doesn’t, and how […]
The post VRS367 – Building a Short-Term Rental Business with the Best Resources appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As we approach 2021 there’s still a lot of unpredictability, and in our industry, this is something we’re used to. Owners and managers want to keep control of their business but continued changes from the OTAs just add to the uncertainty many are feeling. We see this growing concern in the questions about direct bookings […]
The post VRS366 – Direct Booking Hot Topics with Mark Simpson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Earlier in 2020, I started a Facebook group for managers and property owners. You are probably a member of it. If not please check it out – info below. The reason I mention it is that it has grown to nearly 2000 members in just 9 months and has become a useful resource for anyone […]
The post VRS365 – Using Facebook Groups to Grow Community (Leads) appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’re so focused on creating the WOW moment at the time our guests arrive, that we can forget the opportunities we have to create similar moments during their ‘journey’ from booking to arrival. However, if we become architects for building anticipation and excitement by engaging travelers in their imagination and their planning process, it forges […]
The post VRS364 – Creating Raving Fans By Making the Most of Tumbleweed Time appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In those times when your mind is cluttered and it feels like a tangled web of wires or pipework, what do you turn to? This is me on far too many occasions but over the years I’ve built up a library of resources – some tried and true, others new and relatively untested – that […]
The post VRS363 – 11 Methods of Organizing Your Short-Term-Rental Life appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast is brought to you by ConvertBox. The best lead generation tool to help you build an email list as part of a solid book direct strategy. Investment in real estate is not a new thing, nor is a focus on short-term rental. But in these volatile times, […]
The post VRS362 – How to be a Savvy STR Real Estate Investor with Rebekah Converti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast is brought to you by ConvertBox. The best lead generation tool to help you build email list as part of a solid book direct strategy. Reviews are often seen as the lifeblood of any product, service, or business and the threat of a negative one can […]
The post VRS361 – The Formula for a perfect short term rental review appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast is brought to you by ConvertBox. The best lead generation tool to help you build email list as part of a solid book direct strategy. Amy Hinote is a powerhouse in our industry. With a background in finance and over 15 years of experience being in […]
The post VRS360 – A Fireside Chat About The Vacation Rental Biz with Amy Hinote appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“When does hospitality begin? It is not at the moment your guests arrive. It is not at the time of booking, either. Instead, it begins at the moment you decide to create a short-term rental business.” At this point, you’ve become a provider to the tourism and travel industry and that brings a lot of […]
The post VRS359 – Are You Meeting Your Short Term Rental Hospitality Touchpoints? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Great homeowners (and homes) are the foundation of every vacation rental management business. We all know this, but how many of us run the numbers and fully understand how valuable they actually are over time? Do we consider the value of a new home in the inventory? The cost of each acquisition and how long […]
The post VRS358 – Knowing Your Numbers – The Metrics of Owner Acquisition appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The pandemic has brought many challenges, not least of which is getting new ideas, products and services out to the short-term rental audience. In a normal year, conference halls would be bustling with attendees discovering what’s new in the market and getting into deep discussion on what would work best in their businesses. In previous […]
The post VRS357 – 2020 VR Tech Award Finalists appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Summer of 2020 was a season of feast or famine according to many property managers. There didn’t seem to be much in between. For urban markets and those that rely on international travelers it’s been a difficult time, but for hosts and managers in drive-to destinations, opening up delivered a frenzy of demand that was […]
The post VRS356 – The crazy summer of 2020 with Andy Meddick of Seachange Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“If we didn’t do something, we would have lost all our abilities to do short-term rentals” – Dana Lubner Short term rental bans and restrictions are here to stay and we will all be impacted at some point. Even if there are regulations in place right now, there’s a good likelihood they will change in […]
The post VRS355 – A Short-Term Rental Advocacy Masterclass with Dana Lubner appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
‘It’s our time’ according to Heather Richer, the President of The Association For Short-Term Rental Homeowners. We are seeing an unprecedented upswing in interest in vacation rentals as travelers the world over are encouraged to staycation in their own countries and find our mode of accommodation to be safer than hotels and resorts As our […]
The post VRS354 – It’s Our Time – Why We Need A Route To Professional Development appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Steve Elsey has a simple outlook on the vacation rental business. Create an attractive environment without the knick-knacks, loon artwork, and moose blankets. Always buy Tiffany lampshades and use the best linens. Treat guests with respect and they will return the favor. He doesn’t like the words luxury or rustic or perfect to describe a […]
The post VRS353 – Following His Own Path with Steve Elsey > A Vacation Rental Maverick appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For a guest booking with an online platform such as Airbnb, there’s an emphasis on trust. It’s one of the primary ways they persuade guests their platform is safe to use and why ‘off-platform’ whether booking or messaging, is somehow sending them off to the dark side. And it’s also why we should be paying […]
The post VRS352 – It’s a Matter of Trust with Direct Booking For Short Term Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Matt Landau (VRMB) calls himself a ‘Newsletter Nerd’. He’s spent over five years researching what constitutes a great newsletter that you look forward to every week and always open, as opposed to the one that pops into your inbox and out into trash without a second glance. According to the author of Everybody Writes, Ann […]
The post VRS351 – Creating An Awesome Vacation Rental Newsletter appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Tipping points occur when something changes to tip the balance of a system and brings about a larger change. For example, someone integral to your business resigns, or VRBO penalizes you for too many cancellations or software you’ve relied on closes down. There are many opportunities for something to happen within your carefully structured business […]
The post VRS350 – Getting Ready for Your Next Tipping Point appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do any of your properties have a deck? A pool or hot tub? Wooden steps or an outdoor staircase? A gas grill? I’m thinking most of you are saying yes to at least one of those. And if you shake your head to them all, how about a source of carbon monoxide within the home, […]
The post VRS349 – Why Safety Should Be Your Top Short Term Rental Property Priority with Justin Ford appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As more guests are seeing the light and rebelling against paying service/traveler fees it’s time to build your brand so once they find you, they’re hooked. A powerful branding strategy is what makes us choose Pepsi over Coke, Apple over Microsoft, or Nike over Adidas, and although we’re just tiny versions of those mega-brands, the […]
The post VRS348 – How to Create a Consistent Vacation Rental Brand with Louise Brace of Rental Tonic appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve all experienced entitlement at some time in our business. Guests who demand something that was never shown on a listing, or wanting house rules waived. The ones who want to bring their lapdog to property that’s not pet-friendly or squeeze a few extras in when the maximum occupancy is clearly stated. And the ones […]
The post VRS347 – Short Term Rentals In The Age Of Entitlement appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
While we all know the number one requirement for a Book Direct strategy is a website, getting one built is another matter. You might try and do it yourself, go for a freelancer on Upwork or shell out some serious money on a high-end design company. But, whatever you do it’s easy to make mistakes […]
The post VRS346 – 10 Mistakes To Avoid on Your Short Term Rental Website appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As more owners and managers embrace a book direct strategy, tactics to build trust and confidence with guests are becoming more important. They won’t entrust you with their business If they don’t feel comfortable doing so. This means you have to tell them who you are and why they should feel safe booking directly with […]
The post VRS345 – The Most Powerful Page on Your Vacation Rental Website & How To Make It Special appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I did my annual look back/look forward discussion with Andrew McConnell in January, little did we know what was in store. A Politico article at the end of 2018 was titled, What a Decade This Year Has Been and I think that’s been topped by the past 6 months that seems as if we’ve […]
The post VRS344 – What A Decade This 6 Months Has Been with Andrew McConnell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The last few years have seen a huge growth in innovation, with start-ups targeting every sector of our industry. The VR Tech Award has focused on businesses less than two years old and is now in its 4th year. While Covid-19 has forced some to pause their growth and wait for markets to pick up, […]
The post VRS343 – An overview of the 2020 VR Tech Award competition appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Two weeks ago, Damian Sheridan told us the first thing you need for a successful book direct plan is a website. The second is a powerful content creation strategy. Kim Doyal is here to tell us that content is not just king…it’s everything. I came across Kim when I was on the search for something […]
The post VRS342 – Content Creation for Short-Term Rental Conversion with Kim Doyal appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Just a year ago we were looking at some worrying figures as we faced something new – the changing nature of traveler behavior. Guests were booking later and for much shorter times and we began looking at our decades-long practice of only offering weekly rentals in high season. How times change. Within a few short […]
The post VRS341 – What to Expect From the New Vacation Rental Traveler Persona appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
So, you list with an OTA and they use their mighty clout and billion-dollar ad budgets to get right on top of Google & Facebook. Then what happens if you want to get more independent and take more direct bookings? How do you get seen? Vacation rental owner, SEO strategist, and Book Direct Show conference […]
The post VRS340 – SEO And Your Short Term Rental Book Direct Strategy with Damian Sheridan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This pandemic has delivered a lot of lessons and they aren’t all about getting the spinach out of your teeth before joining a Zoom call! It’s got many people thinking seriously about the amount of control the OTAs have and what we can do to take that control back. While #BookDirect isn’t a new term, […]
The post VRS339 – 6 Stages of a Short-Term Rental Book Direct Strategy appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Back in the day before Home Away and Airbnb came on the scene, we booked our homes directly with the consumer. We used fax machines for booking forms, cheques or cash for payment, and spreadsheets to ensure we didn’t double book. Now we have platforms and apps and plenty of resources to make it so […]
The post VRS338 – Book Direct Basics with the Vacation Rental Formula Team appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If we can capture guests while they are on a ‘happiness high’ and help extend that beyond the first excitement of booking a vacation, we can create more loyal guests who ultimately become our ambassadors. This is the vision of vacation rental entrepreneur Nancy McAleer, and one that underpins all her activities on both her […]
The post VRS337 – Maintaining The Happiness High – Nurturing your Vacation Rental Guest appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Inspiration for podcasts comes from many places, none more richer in ideas and content than Matt Landau’s weekly newsletter. If you didn’t get the mailer it’s reproduced below. In this episode, Matt joins me to discuss the future of vacation rentals in light of the pandemic and share some practical and actionable things you can […]
The post VRS336 – The Short Term Rental Covid-19 Reset with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most property managers these unprecedented times have forced us into territory we’ve not encountered before. Rapidly changing scenarios; cancellations; policy reviews and government edicts are just a few of the situations we’re dealing with. We have to be proactive, creative, and above all, optimistic if we want to come out the other side with […]
The post VRS335 – In The Vacation Rental Trenches with Lance & Elaine Stitcher of Seaside Vacations appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s difficult to know how to get the marketing balance right in these times. Should you be talking about vacations when your guests are wondering when they will get a full pay cheque again? Is it right to email them at all? Matt Bare of Q4 Launch shares his thoughts on how we can best […]
The post VRS333 – Vacation Rental Marketing Through and Beyond Covid-19 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For most property managers these unprecedented times have forced us into territory we’ve not encountered before. Rapidly changing scenarios; cancellations; policy reviews and government edicts are just a few of the situations we’re dealing with. We have to be proactive, creative, and above all, optimistic if we want to come out the other side with […]
The post VRS332 – In The Short Term Rental Trenches with Sharon Michie of Cottages to Castles appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As we move into another week of the Covid-19 crisis governments worldwide are launching various aid packages. In the US a section within the CARES Act called the Paycheck Protection Program could benefit small business cash flows with federally guaranteed loans. As with any of these aid programs, there’s a lot of information contained within […]
The post VRS331 – Navigating Covid-19 Aid Programs For Short Term Rentals with Brook Pfautz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In times of uncertainty and anxiety, our natural instinct is to focus on the here and now and avoid looking ahead to speculate on where we might be in the next few months or years. However, given the enforced downtime we have choices. We can bemoan our fate, worry and catastrophize, or we can plan […]
The post VRS330 – 9 Projects to Help You Reboot Your Short Term Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With the current Covid-19 crisis at the forefront of our minds, this week’s episode builds on the discussion of cleaning vacation rentals covered in VRS328 with Durk Johnsons of Vacation Rental Housekeeping Professionals Association. Tammi Sims divides her time between the home she shares with her partner Alex Nigg in New Zealand and the US […]
The post VRS329 – Setting Vacation Rental Standards with Tammi Sims appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Cleanliness is always the top of guests lists of priorities when they book a vacation home, and with Coronavirus (Covid-19) sweeping the world, the importance of property sanitizing and disinfecting a property between guests has never been more important. For the majority of property managers and hosts, there shouldn’t be much in the way of […]
The post VRS328 – Coronavirus & Vacation Rental Cleaning with Durk Johnson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Successful property management companies often start in the same way. An owner of a home has a challenge in finding the right company to manage their property and decides they could be more profitable if they applied their own ideas and passions to it. For Jennifer Frankenstein Harris the search for a technology-forward manager in […]
The post VRS327 – A Masterclass in Growing a Vacation Rental Company appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I started out in property management 17 years ago there were a handful of companies offering booking software. Now, according to Terry Whyte, owner of Anna Maria Island Beach Condos, there are more than 1400. That’s an astonishing number and it makes the business of choosing one so much more challenging. As well as […]
The post VRS326 – How To Choose Property Management Software appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Our brains are wired to respond to a well-told story. It’s the best way to capture attention and create rapport. It’s why the best presentations and TED Talks start off with a good narrative. Just check out Shawn Achors talk on the Happy Secret to Better Work for a demonstration of this. So, how can […]
The post VRS325 – Your Creation Story and Why You Should Tell It appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The last morning of the VRMA conference is typically a quieter one as the Exhibitor hall is being taken down and many delegates are heading to the airport. So, when a final presentation was so popular the organizers had to open the doors between rooms to create more space, I knew it was going to […]
The post VRS324 – Growing Your Short Term Rental Inventory with Brooke Pfautz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Taking the leap from looking after your own properties to managing for other people, is a logical step for many owners who want to make a full-time business out of short-term rentals. It’s how most property management companies got started. However, given the massive growth in the industry, there’s a Wild West feel about it […]
The post VRS323 – Taking the Leap: How To Start a Short Term Rental Property Management Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are thousands of small property management companies around the world run by passionate hard-working people who love this business and have massive experience of hands-on management. Richard and Sophie Smith own Beside The Sea Holidays in Cambersands, a beautiful beach town in East Sussex, UK, and between them, they manage 43 beautiful homes. […]
The post VRS322 – Setting the Vacation Rental Standard Beside the Sea appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I caught up with the founder of VRMB and star of the Vacation Rental Show, Matt Landau as he just got back from a week-long getaway to Mexico. In this first Mash Up With Matt for a long time, we talk about the best (and the worst) of 2019 and what’s ahead for us all […]
The post VRS321 – Short Term Rental Business Mash Up With Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We spend a third of our lives in bed, so it’s natural that guests on vacation demand exceptional comfort. But do we give it? Are the beds in the second and third bedrooms as comfortable as the master? Do we invest sufficiently in the best linens we can provide? Alanna Schroeder of The Distinguished Guest […]
The post VRS320 – Sleeping Comfortably in a Short Term Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Vee Le is a real estate powerhouse. From flipping more than 150 properties in a five-year period to exploring residential rental, she is now firmly establishing herself as an expert short-term rental investor. Vee is an outlier amongst most of the new entrants into short-term rentals. She’s not out for the quick buck following the […]
The post VRS319 – From Flipping to Property Management – Pivoting in the Short-Term Rental Space appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is the third year to hear from co-founder of Rented.com, Andrew McConnell as he talks about the wider perspective on our industry, looking back over 2019 and his thoughts on what might happen in 2020. Sharing insights that include a shout to paleontology, unicorn definitions and why he believes the direct booking movement is […]
The post VRS318 – 2020 Vision of Short-Term Rental with Andrew McConnell of Rented.com appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is a crazy business. And the crazy isn’t going to stop any time soon. Regardless of whether you’re an independent owner or host, a small property manager or in charge of a gazillion properties in a consolidated environment, change is inevitable. We’ve just got to roll with it and do our best to meet […]
The post VRS317 – How to Succeed in This Crazy Short Term Rental Business with Andy Meddick appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Did you know that the LGBTQ market spends in excess of $200 billion dollars a year on travel? On top of that, 77% of the community have valid passports (compared to 40% of the US population as a whole) and are likely to take at least two trips a year. This is a huge market […]
The post VRS316 – How to be a ‘Fab’ short term rental host with Robert Geller appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We can learn a lot from the information we get from guests in inquiries and message threads and phone calls. Good use of questioning can elicit all sorts of detail on what they like to do on vacation, who is in their group, what special occasions they may be celebrating and what their dream holiday […]
The post VRS315 – How to Deliver Short Term Rental Secret Service Surprises appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve talked a lot about digital marketing this year and after our crazy summer, it’s going to be a major part of our strategy for 2020. We are going to be proactive and not reactive this time around. Jason Beaton, Chief Marketing Officer of Vacation Rental Formula joins VRS today to help you plan your […]
The post VRS314 – Your Short Term Rental Digital Marketing Strategy for 2020 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A few years ago your place might have been one of 50 or so in your area, and although it was a challenge to push up the rankings, your listing was likely to be seen at some point. Today there are probably thousands of properties – whole homes, shared houses, tiny spaces, yurts, Airstreams, converted […]
The post VRS313 – How to Create Amazing Short-Term Rental Content and Get Your Website Seen appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Good design, décor, and furnishings can do a lot to boost interest and promote conversions for a property and no-one knows this more than the founders of 1ChicRetreat – Mercedes Brennan and Karen Campbell. The popular blog has inspired many readers to experiment with color, seek out curiosities (not accents) and ditch their beige furniture […]
The post VRS312 – Creating Instagram Worthy Vacation Rental Homes with the 1Chic Retreat team appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this third episode in the niche building series, vacation rental powerhouse, trainer, consultant, Touch Stay Ambassador and one of my favorite people, Tyann Marcink joins me to talk about the mega-house she is building in Branson. According to Newsweek, “Branson (Missouri) is often compared to Las Vegas, just with a lot less sin. Instead […]
The post VRS311 – Tyann’s Take – Getting into the Large Group Short Term Rental Market appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you’ve ever been contacted by someone wanting to stay at your place for free in return for some promotion on a social media platform, you’ve probably been advised to run a mile. The question comes up frequently on Facebook groups and owner forums. However, is it something you should consider? In this episode, influencer […]
The post VRS310 – How to Make Influencer Marketing Work for Your Short Term Rental Business with Shane Barker appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Once upon a time we could set it and forget it. That meant we decided on a rate for say a season, plugged it into a rate chart and let the booking commence. And in those days it pretty much worked out OK. Our competitors were all doing the same and very few of them […]
The post VRS309 – Short Term Rental Revenue Management Made Simple with Ian McHenry of Beyond Pricing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From forums to Facebook groups, blog posts to podcasts, hosts are encouraged to go the extra mile and up their game in the name of exceeding expectations. Sallie Mitchell owns the beautiful Casa Mar Azul in Mexico and argues we may be creating ‘impossibly spoiled guests’ in this mission to create perfection. In a blog […]
The post VRS308 – Creating a Solution for Impossibly Spoiled Short-Term Rental Guests with Sallie Mitchell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Growing a property management company isn’t easy. There’s so much involved from building inventory to setting up operational practices; understanding channel management and book direct strategies; hiring the right people to manage guest and owner relations. It can be very tough. Over the 16 years I’ve been running a PM company there’s been a lot […]
The post VRS307 – 15 Tweaks to Help Build a Profitable Short-Term Rental Management Company appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
According to Figures from Cornell University’s DisabilityStatistics.org over 319 million people with disabilities in the US may experience issues when it comes to travel. While we don’t all have the resources to custom build a property for the market, there are retrofitting opportunities for owners to create more accessible spaces. In an article on the […]
The post VRS306 – Find Your Short Term Rental Niche Part 2 – Creating an Accessible Property with Andy Renals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For property managers and most short-term rental owners, the major listing sites are a source of the majority of our bookings. Guests seem immune to the nature of service fees that drive the overall cost of a vacation up by as much as 12% in excess of the base rental rate. They say it’s ‘quicker, […]
The post VRS305 – How To Win In Short Term Rentals With Direct Bookings Featuring Nancy McAleer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week I’m talking Tiny Houses with Michelle Boyle – the designer, builder, and host of a tiny house village in Oregon, There’s not much you can’t rent as accommodation today. An article in on House Beautiful.com has 10 of the most unique Airbnb rentals from around the world. From a bamboo house in Bali […]
The post VRS304 – 48 Square Feet & Solidly Rented! – The Tiny House Phenomena with Michelle Boyle appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Building for a niche market has worked for Rick Oster. Over the years, he’s built 7 homes with another to break ground shortly, with a model developed from understanding the needs of his rental demographic. They are purpose-built homes with a specific layout including multiple master suites, entertainment areas, and custom kitchens, and much of […]
The post VRS303 – Find Your Short Term Rental Niche Pt 1 with Rick Oster & Oster Golf Houses appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s a lot of new tech out there on the short-term rental market. In fact, if you have a problem, there’s probably a platform or a resource or an app to help you out. That’s why there was a crowded market of 20 entrants to the 3rd VR Tech Competition sponsored by Rentals United. Three […]
The post VRS302 – The Vacation Rental Tech Competition 2019 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As the summer season came to an end over the Labour Day weekend, our team drew a collective sigh of relief and it was time to debrief on what worked, what didn’t and what we should do to make it better next year. Looking back over the preparation for summer 2019 and reflecting on some […]
The post VRS301 – Another Vacation Rental Summer Bites The Dust appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you’ve just found the Vacation Rental Success podcast and wonder which of our back-catalog you should start with, we’ve made it easier for you by picking out the most popular. From interviews with industry leaders, investors and Netflix stars to solo dialogues about my own experiences in a property management company, this selection will […]
The post The 7 Best Vacation Rental Success Podcast Episodes appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, I’m joined by Amy Hinote of VRM Intel and we talk about the impact of events in the industry over the past few years and what we can do to prepare for changes in the future. This is a milestone for me – I started the podcast back in 2013 but didn’t […]
The post VRS300 – Alternative accommodation, booking direct and a changing industry with Amy Hinote appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When you are born to parents who run a vacation rental business and your first real job is cleaning hot tubs in rentals you are likely to learn a lot about the industry from the ground up. Having that sort of experience is what prompted Jodi Taylor Refosco to launch Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations & […]
The post VRS299 – Born Into The Vacation Rental Business with Jodi Taylor Refosco appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As a property manager, it’s often reassuring to talk to others who are experiencing the same day to day issues looking after our owners’ properties. From marketing in an ever-changing environment, delivering end-to-end customer service, responding to guest issues during a stay and making sure changeovers are done efficiently and quickly, it’s necessary to have […]
The post VRS298 – The Seachange Vacation Rental Blueprint for Successful Property Management appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For the last 15 years, we’ve seen a continuous pattern of high demand and low inventory in our property management business in July and August. It’s why we’ve been able to almost guarantee 100% occupancy to new owners, providing they priced competitively and delivered an attractively presented property. Until summer 2019, when in mid-June we […]
The post VRS297 – How We Saved The Summer For Our Vacation Rental Agency appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been a while since I last chatted with my buddy, Matt Landau and a lot has been going on since then. So this week we catch up with a few of the great blog posts featured recently on VRMB. In particular, I wanted to talk about the Keystone Awards for the top suggested software; […]
The post VRS296 – Mash-Up with Matt Landau of Vacation Rental Marketing Blog appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This year’s Vacation Rental Tech Awards, founded by Rentals United, is going to be a tough one to judge, and since I’m on the Expert & Investor panel, I’ve been looking closely at all the entrants. And once again, the quality of entrants is excellent. The range of tech supporting the VR industry is enormous […]
The post VRS Bonus – Vacation Rental Tech Awards 2019 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“The Rent Responsibly initiative began in late 2016 when the NoiseAware Team rented a Winnebago to drive from Seattle to Los Angeles, stopping at City Halls and meeting with short-term vacation rental advocates along the way. The mission then is the same as the mission today: to advocate, educate and celebrate the positive impacts of […]
The post VRS295 – Take the Pledge & Short Term Rent Responsibly with Dave Krauss of Noise Aware appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The moment we exchange our property (or a part of it) for money, we are operating a business, and that brings with it all manner of risks. And if you don’t cover yourself for those risks it could become very costly – in fact, it could mean the loss of your business altogether….and more. We […]
The post VRS294 – Are You Covered If A Vacation Rental Guest Makes A Liability Claim? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If there is one thing we can be sure of, it’s that technology will keep advancing, giving us more ways to improve the experience we can offer to guests. From advanced keyless entry systems that will activate at check-in to automated messaging welcoming guests, the opportunities are now endless. In this episode, Michael Driedger from […]
The post VRS293 – Personalized Vacation Rental Technology with Michael Driedger appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In today’s episode of Vacation Rental Success, I’m joined by my son and business partner, Mike Bayer to discuss a topic that’s concerned us both recently There’s a worrying trend in the social media sphere where some folks feel it’s OK to judge, demean, and to generally be unkind. We see it everywhere, and sadly […]
The post VRS292 – A Vacation Rental Hospitality Mindset, Extended appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We are two days away from the real start of our high season and as ever, kicking off with a bang – the Canada Day weekend. For many of our properties the rentals starting this weekend are the first of the season, and from here on they will be back-to-back. To get ready for the […]
The post VRS291 – Preparing for a Long Hot Summer Of Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you want to #BookDirect you need your own website. If you go the WordPress route, there are thousands of plugins that can increase the functionality of your site, make it look professional and are easy to use. Jason Beaton, partner at Vacation Rental Formula, and digital marketing expert talks us through 10 plugins you […]
The post VRS290 – 10 Great Plugins For Your Vacation Rental Website appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
According to Malcolm Gladwell in ‘Outliers’ It takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice at something to become a master at it. This applies to our business too and sadly we see too many quasi ‘experts’ proclaiming how they can teach their skills in a short course or an ebook, and make millionaires out of a […]
The post VRS289 – Remote Management, Leasing The House Next Door, and VRWS in Como with Antonio Bortolotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The world of PR has changed from the days we thought a spread in a Sunday newspaper travel supplement was the holy grail. People pay attention to a different range of media now, and podcasts, blogs, Instagram and Facebook groups hold a much bigger grasp of customer attention. Most of these sources have much greater […]
The post VRS288 – Is PR Still Relevant for Vacation Rentals? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Three articles were published recently all dealing with the same question – ‘What is happening in our industry, and do we need to be concerned?’ The authors – Amy Hinote of VRM Intel, Matt Landau from the Vacation Rental Marketing blog, and Simon Lehmann, co-founder of AJL Consulting – are all well-qualified to answer that […]
The post VRS287 – Transformation, Expansion and Explosion – Lehmann and Landau on the changing nature of the vacation rental industry appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you are looking for some independence from the listing sites, you need to make it worth your guests’ time to find you. Having a personalized approach that will be commented upon, shared and well-reviewed is the key to moving guests away from the sterile instant-book ‘relationship’ forced on us by the OTA’s. And Tyann […]
The post VRS286 – Tyann’s Take – A Glimpse into the Workflow of a Vacation Rental Superstar appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When you are lost in the sea of other homes in your location and despair of ever getting seen, a referral from a past guest, a friend, or even another homeowner could be your lifeline to increasing occupancy. Rather than asking for referrals, today’s guest Matt Ward says we simply need to create the environment […]
The post VRS285 – Boost Your Vacation Rental Business With Referrals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This can be an overwhelming business and deciding to hire your first employee is daunting, even if the goal is to free up your time. Where do you find the right person, how do you choose what they should do, what will the first weeks be like, and how do you make sure they like […]
The post VRS284 – Making Your First Vacation Rental Staff Hire with Sue Jones of HR4VR appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
2018 gave North America more than its fair share of disasters with flooding, wildfires and deathly tornadoes. But none of these were more devastating to PR company owner, April Salter, than Hurricane Michael. Now designated a Category 5 hurricane and one of the worst storms to ever hit mainland USA, Michael barrelled ashore on Mexico […]
The post VRS283 – The Aftermath of Hurricane Michael appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Sometimes things happen out of the blue and you are completely sidelined. In our business, this could be anything from a breakdown in a booking system, a guest complaint, an about-turn by one of the OTAs, and it does more than mess up the day. It’s time-consuming, annoying and frustrating and you just wish you’d […]
The post VRS282 – Why you always need a Plan B to take the drama out of a crisis appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s that time again! Another winter comes and goes and here we are getting ready for a new season of rental. Doing an annual audit makes a lot of sense and it’s an exercise we encourage our owners to do in the spring. In this episode, I share how we do our annual check and […]
The post VRS281 – Getting Ready for Another Season of Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
First impressions have lasting effects. We are wired in a way that allows us to more easily recall the first and last impression of an experience than anything that happens in between. Think about the last time you flew to a vacation destination and got delayed. If it was stressful, annoying, and was dealt with […]
The post VRS280 – The First 10 Minutes – How to Delight or Dismay Your Vacation Rental Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Expectations of hospitality have never been higher in our business. The bar has been set high for new entrants and it’s far more than providing two rolls of toilet paper and a reasonably clean home. Hosts and owners are meeting the challenge as the 2019 Hospitality Survey results show. In this episode, the founder of […]
The post VRS279 – The 2019 Hospitality Survey With Alanna Schroeder appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Managing a vacation rental by owner property (VRBO) can be challenging. Updated March 2019… There is so much involved in creating a profitable vacation rental business that getting it right from the start is tough — manageable but tough. It is more than learning from a few websites and hoping for the best; adopting a […]
The post 10 Mistakes VRBO’s Often Make – #5 Will Kill Your Business Before It Gets Started appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a lead magnet to attract your website visitors to share their email address and have spent hours on Canva creating something that has massive value for your audience, looks professional and is going to bring loads more leads to your email list. Now what? How do you get […]
The post VRS278 – Digital Marketing and Google Analytics for your Vacation Rental Business with Jason Beaton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We hear the words ‘Responsible Rental’ but what do they mean? From the perspective of Billy O’Sullivan, Director of the vacation rental division of Property Management Inc, they encompass transparency, hospitality, professionalism, and integrity. In this episode, we explore the qualities needed to run a successful short-term rental business in this dynamic market, and Billy […]
The post VRS277 – Hospitality with Heart with Billy O’Sullivan of PMI Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Direct marketing to our potential guests is tough. Invariably the OTAs will get to them first with an instant booking, and they are making it increasingly difficult for owners and managers to create any form of relationship with guests before their stay. But, if we were to capture their emails before they get to the […]
The post VRS276 – Growing Your Vacation Rental Email List with Lead Magnets appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Jodi Bourne is first and foremost a travel marketing expert. Bring in the knowledge of the vacation rental market and you have a priceless combination and I’m happy to have her back on the show to talk about how we can use Pinterest to capture the dreamers, the planners, and the bookers. I’m an early […]
The post VRS275 – Why You Should Be Using Pinterest For Your Vacation Rental with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Having just returned from the Vacation Rental Women’s Summit, I’ve had a week to reflect on the takeaways and to also hear from other attendees about their thoughts. Conference organizer and publisher of VRM Intel, Amy Hinote, joins me to talk about the event and give us her highlights from an amazing two days in […]
The post VRS274 – Nawlins wrap up – The Vacation Rental Women’s Summit appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A few years ago I wrote a blog post that went on to be one of the most popular on Cottage Blogger. It was called 10 Mistakes VRBO Owners Often Make. It listed a number of things owners frequently did that could be detrimental to their rental business – and downright catastrophic if they did […]
The post VRS273 – 5 Mistakes That VRBO’s Often Make (2019) appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest has been a realtor for 16 years in the Orlando area. She’s one of a few real estate agents who really understand the vacation rental business and the challenges involved in selling a short-term rental. Earlier this year the vacation rental real estate listing site, Vrolio, was given a soft launch. The listing, […]
The post VRS272 – Investing in Short-Term Rental Property with Erica Muller of Vrolio appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Last year, the inaugural #BookDirect Guest Education Day reached an estimated 3.5 million travelers with direct email campaigns and had a social reach of over 24 million consumers. A year later, the movement hasn’t lost any momentum as more and more owners, and property managers release their dependence on the major OTAs and increase their confidence in […]
The post VRS271 – Let’s Book Direct! With Annie Switzer and Joe Godar appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How do you get seen in a market that is so crowded? When there are thousands of similar properties vying for travelers attention it’s pretty near impossible to get to the top of the search. In this episode, we explore 7 different ways of getting your property in front of prospective guests long before they […]
The post VRS270 – 7 Alternative Ways to Promote Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The customer experience applies across every transaction we have, and a poorly executed experience can result in an unhappy client or even a lost one. Fortunately, we have the power to develop, control and play out the best experiences ever for our customers. We just need to know how. Brad Martineau of Sixth Division lives, […]
The post VRS269 – Getting Personal with Automation Part 2 with Brad Martineau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s over a decade since Flipkey disrupted the vacation rental industry with the concept of publishing live reviews. We hated the idea then. It was awful to think that guests could post a review without it being screened by the owner or manager. What would happen if it was negative and we didn’t agree? Flash […]
The post VRS268 – Seeking Perfection: How To Generate 5 Star Vacation Rental Reviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, I’m joined by real estate maverick, Peter Lorimer, to talk about the Netflix show, Stay Here. If you are a fan of makeover shows, you’ve probably already checked out Stay Here on Netflix, where Genevieve Gorder and Peter Lorimer help property owners turn their short-term rentals into successful businesses. If not, binge-watching […]
The post VRS267 – The Business Of Short-Term Rental With Peter Lorimer from the Netflix Original Series Stay Here appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A year ago, I sat down with the co-founder of Rented.com, Andrew McConnell and talked about the wider perspective on our industry. We pledged to have this discussion annually so Andrew could share his views on the year just past and make some predictions on the year ahead. Andrew shares his opinions regularly on the […]
The post VRS266 – Vacation Rental Reflections and Forecasts with Andrew McConnell of Rented.com appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A vacation rental business is a continuous process of managing projects – some new and extensive, others smaller and more routine but nevertheless, important. And, after 15 years of running a busy property management company, it’s still exciting to start a new round of planning. In this episode, I share ten of the programs we’ll […]
The post VRS265 – 10 Projects for Growing My Vacation Rental Business in 2019 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Designing a website is more than piecing together a bunch of pages showing a listing, rates, and availability. The team at Lodgify are great at developing their own content, and founder Dennis Klett joins me on this episode to share his tips on planning out a website, branding and making the components of a good site […]
The post VRS264 – Planning and Executing a Great Vacation Rental Website Plan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We talk a lot about creating content, through building websites and blogging, but not so much about the how of it all. This episode explores the practicalities of producing quality material that will not only attract site visitors but will also appeal to the ever hungry Google machine. Alan Egan has been in the vacation […]
The post VRS263 – Turning Short Term Rental Hosts Into Travel Bloggers With Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you’d like to turn your Amazon Echo or Google Home into a concierge service for your guests, Dana Young from Virtual Concierge Service is here to tell you how. From responding to a request for a wifi password to sharing information on the best local restaurants and even providing white noise on demand for […]
The post VRS262 – The Virtual Concierge – How to Turn Amazon Echo into A Digital Voice Assistant appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, I’m joined by industry strategist and consultant, Simon Lehmann to discuss what the future holds for start-up property managers – those with a couple of properties now who are focusing on growth in the future. There were 500 new attendees at the Vacation Rental Managers Association Conference this year in Las Vegas. […]
The post VRS261 – The Future for Start-up Vacation Rental Property Managers With Simon Lehmann appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Season 2 of Sense of Place will premiere on YouTube on December 19th as host, Matt Landau takes us around the globe showcasing passionate owners and managers and their fabulous locations. Matt made a brief appearance at the VRMA conference in Las Vegas in October with a trailer of the new series, sponsored this time […]
The post VRS260 – Sense of Place: Season 2 Review with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Property management software has made massive advances in the last ten years. The fully-featured options offer everything you could possibly need to run a sizeable vacation rental company from owner and guest portals to the website and channel management, housekeeping and maintenance scheduling to trust accounting …and much more. Once you decide you need a […]
The post VRS259 – How to Choose the Right Property Management Software for Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are few people in this industry with a better finger on its pulse than Amy Hinote – editor and publisher of VRM Intel. She joins me today to give her overview on the VRMA conference we just attended in Las Vegas, and to talk about some of the highlights…..and lowlights. As always Amy is […]
The post VRS258 – 2018 VRMA International Conference Review with Amy Hinote of VRM Intel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this second part of the series on building a vacation rental website, the Chief Marketing Officer of Vacation Rental Formula talks about the thorny topic of theme selection. Finding the right theme to showcase your property and the location content you are going to build is a necessary but often time-consuming task. There are […]
The post VRS257 – Building My Vacation Rental Website – Part Two appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
You know that feeling when it seems like another person just ‘gets you’? You feel respected, understood and comfortable that they know what your likes and dislikes are, and that you are being cared for. In today’s episode, VR Mastered founder Tyann Marcink helps us explore how to get on our guests’ wavelength, and deliver […]
The post VRS256 – Getting On Your Vacation Rental Guests Wavelength with Tyann Marcink appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When the time comes that you’re just too overwhelmed with working in your business, that you can’t work on it to make it more successful, you are pretty much in need of help. If the thought of employing someone full-time is too much to consider, a virtual assistant might be a great alternative. I suppose […]
The post VRS255 – How To Free Up Time With A Virtual Assistant appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What do you want your guests to feel when they walk into your home? If it’s instant contentment, comfort, and a feeling of ‘I got this so right,’ you are on your way to mastering the Danish art of Hygge (Pronounced “hoo-ga”). “Why are Danes the happiest people in the world? The answer, says Meik […]
The post VRS254 – Creating a Vacation Rental Hygge Experience with Sarah Bradford appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode, we take a broader view of our business with long-time travel professional, Ian Ackland who is Booking’s Regional Manager for Connectivity and Vacation Rentals. For starters, he talks about what he does and what ‘blended accommodation’ actually means. As Ian explains traveler preferences are steering the need for a wide variety of […]
The post VRS253 – Exploring the Blended Accommodation Landscape with Ian Ackland of Booking.com appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This video is kindly supported by Avalara MyLodgeTax. The best solution for the automatic remittance of your rental taxes. avalara ** Successful vacation rental owners and hosts are organized. Their calendars are up to date on every listing platform; booking processes are streamlined and easily monitored; payments are processed efficiently, and lodging taxes are collected […]
The post The Administration Portfolio appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This video is kindly supported by Avalara MyLodgeTax. The best solution for the automatic remittance of your rental taxes. https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/avalara ** While a great many owners are happy to operate their rental business independently, others want a more hands-off approach and want a dedicated property management company to handle some or all aspects of the […]
The post Using A Vacation Rental Property Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We hear a lot about marketing automation so I was excited when I heard that Brad Martineau of Sixth Division would be Keynoting at VRSS earlier this year. Brad didn’t disappoint, giving an inspirational and thought-provoking presentation that challenged attendees to look at the way they handled the process of sourcing leads and turning them […]
The post VRS252 – How to Make Vacation Rental Marketing Automation Personal with Brad Martineau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Building your own website isn’t the easy task it’s made out to be, and now I’m about to start creating my own, I’m taking on board some expert help from today’s guest and my business partner, Jason Beaton. If you missed it, I’ve just moved into my new house which is a 4-minute drive from […]
The post VRS251 – Building My Vacation Rental Website – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
While owning a short-term rental can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience, the time will come when you want to move on. Whether that’s to release capital to buy another vacation rental property or to get out of the business altogether, the dilemma is to get the value it deserves based on the income generated […]
The post How To Sell A Vacation Rental Property appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We live in an ever-changing world. As technology advances, making life arguably easier, systems and processes get adapted, amended, and in some cases replaced altogether. And we have to keep up or get left behind as our industry progresses. I’m part of the generation that grew up without the internet; I was in my 20s […]
The post Keeping Up With Changes in the Vacation Rental Industry appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Welcome to episode 250! That’s quite a milestone, and I hope to deliver the next 250 with as many information packed and insightful interviews as you’ve come to expect. For this one, I’m going solo to share what we learned from this year’s summer of rentals. So, was this summer different? Well, the weather always […]
The post VRS250 – 7 Lessons Learned From a Hot and Steamy Summer of Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Amy Hinote is one of the top influencers in our industry and it was a huge pleasure to sit down and chat with her about the current state of the industry and to hear about some of her upcoming projects. As editor and publisher of VRM Intel, the must-read magazine for anyone interested in short-term […]
The post VRS249 – Vacation Rental Industry Update with Amy Hinote of VRM Intel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode is for you if you want to seriously look at driving traffic to a website or listing, and are willing to work at it. Content marketing has been around for a long time, but it’s never been more important in our market as it is now. With millions of short-term rentals vying for […]
The post VRS248 – Content Marketing & Copywriting to Boost Your Vacation Rental Traffic appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s no denying it now – I have to get to grips with Instagram. I'm currently watching my daughter-in-law, Andrea, building her audience on Instagram with my son, Mike, as they document their sailing adventures via @BayerFootTravels and I am seeing and hearing how much fun they are having figuring it all out. Statistics suggest there will […]
The post VRS247 – Social Media Marketing for Vacation Rentals with Jodi Bourne appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The expression ‘There’s an app for that” fits the vacation rental business very well, as the multitude of tech resources available for hosts and property managers continues to grow by the day. Whether you want to track your cleaner’s progress, monitor the noise levels in a property, check on the number of devices in use, […]
The post VRS246 – VR Tech Award 2018 with Vanessa de Souza Lage appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are you doing dull, repetitive tasks that have you saying, “I shouldn’t be doing this”? Is your time spent on boring jobs that prevent you from working on projects that can deliver much greater value to your business? Is that a yes? I’m sure it is for many small business owners who plow through myriad […]
The post VRS245 – How to Outsource and Other Vacation Rental Tips with Craig Reid appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“When I tell people we are close to Cancun, they envision umbrella drinks, beach, relaxation … my reality is Home Depot, Costco, Mega, etc.” (Post on Facebook group) Ask vacation rental owners how many hours a week they spend on managing their vacation rental property, and you’ll probably receive vague replies. Few owners accurately assess […]
The post 10 Ways to Build Your Vacation Rental Business and Still Have Free Time appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting independence from the OTAs usually means a couple of things. You have to work hard at it and have to know what your goals are. It’s no good just cutting ties with Home Away or Airbnb and declaring you are going it alone. Not if you want to continue to drive traffic to your […]
The post VRS244 – Achieving Vacation Rental Listing Site Independence with Lynne Arbuthnott appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We are in a new era of our business. We’ve moved from talking about ‘vacation rentals’ to using the term ‘short-term rental’; Airbnb has become a verb; major hotel groups are moving into our space with years of hospitality experience and a strong competitive edge, and we have to watch our backs every day as […]
The post VRS243 – 10 Things You Must Do To Stay In Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of resources available to help you manage your vacation rental business. It seems every day something new is launched, and each with the promise of saving you time and stress. So much new tech can have the opposite effect, if you jump onto every new bright […]
The post How To Invest Wisely In Your Vacation Rental Education appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Regulations – Legislation – Advocacy – Licensing – Lodging Taxes. These are words that are a part of our short-term rental vocabulary and they aren’t going away. In light of the decision by San Diego’s City Council to ban rentals in secondary homes the importance of getting up to date on the current and pending […]
The post VRS242 – Getting Ahead Of Vacation Rental Regulations with Megan McCrea appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There is something addictive about this business, and Tyann Marcink, founder of the VR Mastered Bootcamp, knows this more than most. She is a talented vacation rental photographer, has undertaken numerous VR makeovers and is the owner of multiple properties, the latest of which is a fully renovated former bank in the small town of […]
The post VRS241 – Vacation Rental Renovation Stories with Tyann Marcink appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Few of us are offered this business on a plate. In fact, I know very few property managers who didn’t start with their own place and built it into a solid business with hard graft and passion. Today’s guest is one of these. CJ Stam owns Southern Comfort Cabin Rentals in Blue Ridge, Georgia. You […]
The post VRS240 – Creating a Lifestyle Vacation Rental Business with CJ Stam appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Should we charge for pets? Do I refund a guest who has ‘extenuating circumstances’? Do I leave oils, spices, and condiments, or nothing at all? Do I have to wash comforters and blankets on every changeover? My guests left a huge mess – do I charge on their damage deposit? These are some of the […]
The post VRS239 – Polarizing Vacation Rental Arguments – My Take On Them appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
David Angotti is the former manager of 100+ units in the Smoky Mountains, owns multiple properties, and with his business partner Wes Melton, runs a niche listing site – Smoky Mountains.com. He’s also an accomplished speaker and recently held an audience in rapt attention at VRSS18 in San Antonio. A few weeks later he repeated […]
The post VRS238 – Evolve or Die with David Angotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Arguably, the single most important aspect of a guest’s vacation rental experience is the cleanliness of the property. If it’s not sparkling clean, smells fresh and welcoming, and looks like the photos on the listing, the poor first impression will likely be the one that lasts through the entire vacation. So, how do we make […]
The post VRS237 – The Cleaning Issue with Durk Johnson Of Vacation Rental Housekeepers Professionals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m joined by my son, business partner and tireless VRSS18 implementor, Mike Bayer, in an exploration of what we learned in San Antonio this year. PLEASE HELP SUPPORT FUTURE VRSS EVENTS TAKE 2 MINUTES AND COMPLETE THIS SURVEY There was so much good stuff, from keynotes presented by industry leaders such as Matt Landau, Andrew […]
The post VRS236 – What we learned in San Antonio a Recap of VRSS18 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Steve Milo, founder and CEO of VTrips (formerly Vacation Rental Pros), was managing 125 properties before he hired his first full-time staff. He explained how he did this in this interview on the Vacation Rental Success Podcast. VTrips now manages over 2,000 properties across the U.S., and is one of the largest independent property management […]
The post Five Vacation Rental Management Tasks to Outsource and Automate appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
While the quality of your property and the way it is presented are important, it’s what goes on behind the scenes that contribute to great memories for your guests. From cleaners, caretakers and maintenance staff to the tradespeople who ensure smooth operation of home systems and the array of virtual staff that maintains listings […]
The post Building Your Vacation Rental Team appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest has been a realtor for 16 years in the Orlando area. She’s one of a few real estate agents who really understand the vacation rental business and the challenges involved in selling a short-term rental. In a few weeks, Erica Muller will be launching a new platform – a vacation rental real estate […]
The post VRS235 – Selling a Vacation Rental with Erica Muller of Vrolio appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Taking the leap from looking after your own properties to managing for other people, is a logical step for many owners who want to make a full-time business out of short-term rentals. It’s how most property management companies got started. Steve Milo of VTrips (formerly Vacation Rental Pros) heads up one of the largest property […]
The post Taking The Leap – From Vacation Rental Property Owner to Property Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We hear the stories regularly. A family dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in a vacation rental. In another, a fire engulfs the home after children played with matches left in a kitchen drawer. An owner is sued for damages after a balcony collapses and guests are injured. There are many smaller incidents that don’t make […]
The post VRS234 – Vacation Rental Safety with Justin Ford appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are a mind-boggling number of resources available to vacation rental owners, and it seems a new start-up is launched every week. It’s easy to jump on a new platform if you get taken in with the bright, shiny features on the flashy websites, and far from making life easier, selecting what will work […]
The post The Vacation Rental Tech Stack appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Traditionally, a vacation rental homeowner wanting to move into property management would follow a route that meant investing in expensive software, learning email automation systems and multi-tasking like crazy. Then along came Airbnb with new terms like co-hosting, master leasing and rental arbitrage. Airbnb has recognized that not everyone wants to be standing at the […]
The post VRS233 – Co-Hosting and Master Leasing with Anna Rawlins of Airbnb Investor Style appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Investing in short-term rental properties has come out of the shadow of residential rental investment and is a widely seen as a profitable alternative to the old rental model. While there are plenty of arguments as to the sustainability of operating in a short-term market mostly citing the risk of regulations, tourism fluctuations and increasing […]
The post VRS232 – Using Data for Successful Vacation Rental Planning with Scott Shatford of AirDNA appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Building a vacation rental business involves a lot of moving parts. From staging the property, taking photographs, and sourcing the right linens and towels, to choosing the best reservation system, communicating with guests, and everything in between — it can be tough to manage it all. Occasionally, something will slip through the cracks, and when […]
The post The Things We Forget – Being Proactive and Not Reactive appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Season 1 of Matt Landau’s A Sense of Place has highlighted the amazing work that owners and managers do to create what he calls the ‘Limited Edition’ style of vacation rentals. These aren’t sterile locations that bear no relation to the comfort and style we’ve come to expect from our unique brand of accommodation. They […]
The post VRS231 – Vacation Rental Masterclass with John Oden appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This video is kindly supported by Avalara MyLodgeTax. The best solution for the automatic remittance of your rental taxes. https://www.vacationrentalformula.com/avalara ** As the short-term rental industry grows so do the number of people considering investing in this lucrative market. Getting the research right from the start can save time and money, and these tips will […]
The post Researching for Vacation Rental Investment: 5 Key Factors appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Successful vacation rental owners and hosts are organized. Their calendars are up to date on every listing platform; booking processes are streamlined and easily monitored; payments are processed efficiently, and lodging taxes are collected appropriately and remitted promptly. Relations with guests are managed in a methodical and strategic manner, emergencies are dealt with swiftly, and […]
The post How to Set Yourself Up for Successful Vacation Rental Management appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you haven’t yet seen A Sense Of Place, now is the time to binge-watch. It’s been a labor of love for Matt Landau as he and his film crew traveled to Spain, Italy, Kauai, Mexico and across the United States, in search of hosts and owners who go beyond the ordinary and bring a […]
The post VRS230 – 13 Takeaways from A Sense Of Place With Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The ‘guest experience’ is an expression being used a lot in vacation rental circles. It’s a catch-all for everything from providing a concierge service to delivering personalized emails via an automated platform. While most attempts to deliver this experience are laudable and often effective, unless there is consistency across the complete cycle from pre-booking to […]
The post VRS229 – Mastering the Vacation Rental Guest Experience with Andy McNulty appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Back in the good old days of renting out a vacation home, when a sign on the lawn and a classified ad was all you needed to score a fully occupied season, there was nothing technical about it. All you needed was a calendar, a spreadsheet, a fax machine, a telephone (yes, we spoke to […]
The post How Tech Can Elevate Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are you a vacation rental owner or a host? Do you own a vacation rental or an STR property? Many people will think these are odd questions – after all, aren’t they all the same thing? But, the terminology you use can define whether you primarily market with what have become known as the ‘traditional’ […]
The post VRS228 – Optimizing Your Airbnb with Danny Rusteen appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s a lot easier to self-manage a vacation home than it was 10 years ago. Online vacation rental companies like Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO make it less time-consuming by taking care of the processes that used to be manual. Updating calendars, managing rate tables, altering text, and uploading photos can be done with minimal effort. […]
The post Do-It-Yourself Short-Term Vacation Rental Management appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been a couple of months since #BookDirect Day, and the momentum is still high. More and more regional sites are being launched, and I see the results of owners creating their own websites and throwing off the OTA bonds. And they are seeing success. We also heard from Amy Hinote in an excellent blog […]
The post VRS227 – The Short-Term Rental Direct Booking Disruptor with Joe Godar appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Cottage Life Show in Toronto is the introduction to spring for thousands of Ontario’s recreational property owners. Over 40,000 visitors throng the International Centre in Toronto over 4 days, and many of them are cottage owners who either already rent out their properties or are thinking of doing so. So, in my day-job as […]
The post VRS226 – The Questions Owners Are Asking Of Vacation Rental Managers appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Back in 2016 at the first VRSS I did a session on Emergency Planning. It wasn’t that well attended – there were other workshops that may have been seen as more interesting….Tyann Marcink was talking about photography and there was a great session on social media marketing. Both of which were much more exciting than […]
The post VRS225 – Vacation Rental Emergency Planning Made Easy appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A trip to Paris is going to be outstanding at any time of the year and hearing that VRMA would be holding the 2018 European Conference there was exciting. I prepared and submitted a presentation proposal that was accepted, booked my flight and an apartment for 4 days and planned to meet friends for dinners […]
The post VRS224 – Reflections on VRMA Paris and VRM Intel London with Jessica Gillingham appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The key to any successful marketing campaign is to know who you are targeting. This is no exception when you are building a vacation rental marketing strategy. The first step is to develop the persona or avatar who will be the focus of your marketing efforts. Let's start with how they are used. How Advertisers […]
The post Vacation Rental Marketing: Using Personas to Help Increase Your Bookings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s an easy way to look at the business of running a vacation rental property. “The moment you start taking money from travelers in return for accommodation you have become a provider to the tourism economy.” This is no small responsibility, as a breakdown in any of the systems that contribute to the traveler having […]
The post Why Your Vacation Rental Business Needs a Strategic and Operational Plan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We have always advocated the importance of attending conferences and we will continue to do so…even if we sound like a broken record. The boost in motivation, productivity, and all-out enthusiasm when you surround yourself with people doing the same thing as you is infectious. Mike (our CEO) and Jason (CMO) just attended the largest […]
The post VRS223 – Vacation Rental Marketing Takeaways From Traffic And Conversion appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As the short-term rental industry grows, demand continues to increase. This is now making investment in short-term rental property a more attractive prospect. It might be part of a retirement plan; an opportunity to pursue a digital, location independent life, or to achieve a family goal to own a second home. Buying a vacation property […]
The post Short-Term Rental: 7 Things You Need to Know Before You Invest appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In 25 years of being in this business I’ve learned a lot but don’t for a moment claim to know everything. The industry is in a period of rapid change, and there is always something new to learn, which is why I follow a lot of people and learn from them. So when Rick Oster […]
The post VRS222 – Rick Oster Interviews Your Vacation Rental Success Host Heather Bayer Pt 2 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When Rick Oster of Oster Golf Homes suggested he turn the tables and interview me, I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to do. While I love talking to my guests, I don’t feel quite the same talking about myself, and it took nearly 8 months to decide that maybe it was OK, […]
The post VRS221 – Rick Oster Interviews Your Vacation Rental Success Host Heather Bayer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When was the last time you thought about all of the different things that happen before a guest books a stay at your vacation rental? Sometimes guests find you from an Online Travel Agency (OTA) like Airbnb or HomeAway. Others might come from a listing. Other times a guest may come across your website (you […]
The post 5 Critical Phases Every Vacation Rental Guest Experiences appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The look and feel of a property can have a big impact on how guests experience their vacation, and what may have been spot on a few years ago, might now be considered ‘tired’ or in need of an ‘update’. These expressions are commonly seen in reviews. Your choices on design and décor will be […]
The post VRS220 – Vacation Rental Décor and Design with Mercedes Brennan and Karen Campbell of 1 Chic Retreat appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This special episode brings together four top vacation rental experts to share their thoughts on this first Guest Education Day. With the hashtag #BookDirect, February 7th is the day designated to bring the attention of the travelling public, media and other interested parties, to the benefits of booking directly with a property owner or manager. […]
The post VRS219 – Vacation Rental Book Direct Round Table Discussion appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Occupancy tax collection can be confusing. If you list with Airbnb, they will collect and remit for you, however, if you are doing some direct bookings, the onus is on you to ensure compliance with local tax requirements. In general local authorities require quarterly filing, so this is not something you can leave to a […]
The post VRS218 – Vacation Rental Occupancy Tax 101 with Rob Stephens appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are times when we are so down in the weeds of our vacation rental businesses dealing with non-stop email inquiries, leaky taps, and laundry issues, that it’s easy to miss what's going on in the big wide world of the industry. Andrew McConnell of Rented.com joins me to talk about the wider perspective, the big […]
The post VRS217 – The Wider Perspective of the Vacation Rental Industry with Andrew McConnell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are property managers a dying breed? Is this the end of property management as we know it? These questions are coming at us from a variety of sources and the latest was an article from Wes Melton at Smoky Mountains.com, published on Matt Landau’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog. In this insightful but inconclusive argument, Wes […]
The post VRS216 – Getting Back To The Basics Of Vacation Rental with Wes Melton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Have you considered home automation for your vacation rental? Can you control your door lock: the temperature; turn the music on for your guest's arrival; and offer a welcoming message on Google Home or Amazon Echo, all from the comfort of your own home? If not, today’s guest explains how all this will become the […]
The post VRS215 – Vacation Rental Home Automation Made Easy with Sean Miller of Point Central appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Most property managers start out as one or two-man bands; managing everything in the rental process. They will source and onboard new owners; create listings and manage rates, communicate with guests and answer every question that’s asked. They cover all the bases and often find, even when they start to take on staff, that they […]
The post VRS214 – How to Break Free and Become Independent of Your Own Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
On January 1st 2018, the Association of Vacation Rental Operators and Affiliates (AVROA) will be officially launched as a non-profit Association. Dubbed AVROA 2.0, the organization has evolved over the past seven years to an entity that will be stronger, more focused and ready to enter a new era of independent vacation rental ownership and […]
The post VRS213 – Launching AVROA 2.0 with April Salter appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s no doubt, being in the vacation rental business becomes more challenging every year. While we love the growth of the business it’s brought with it an increase in competition, a rise in guest expectations, and the need to be on top of technology. In this episode, I wanted to share what I think we […]
The post VRS212 – 7 Activities To Grow Your Vacation Rental Business in 2018 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Who hasn’t dreamed of quitting the day job and enjoying life in an idyllic location, following a passion of meeting people and helping create amazing experiences? This is what Bob Garner did in 2005 when, together with his long-time partner, Ian, they gave up their corporate careers in London, bought a derelict farmhouse in a […]
The post VRS211 – Paying it Forward with Vacation Rental Owner Bob Garner appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In episode 206 I spoke to digital marketing expert Jason Beaton about the importance of growing your email list. We discussed the issue that impacts everyone – how difficult it is to get people to give up their email address. Without that essential piece of information, it’s tough to start a book-direct campaign. Growing your […]
The post VRS210 – How to Create a Great Lead Magnet with Jason Beaton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
You can have the best guests in the world but accidental damage will still happen. Things get spilled, knocked over, misplaced and sometimes damaged beyond repair, simply because your guests haven’t the time to get comfortable in a new space. When people congregate in unfamiliar surroundings they don’t have that awareness of space they have […]
The post VRS209 – 20 Ways to Guest Proof your Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When you rent properties to the likes of Mark Cuban and Katie Perry and have properties that can command up to $250,000 per week for the Superbowl, it’s clear you have a good grasp on the luxury market. We often see the words ‘luxury’, ‘executive’ and ‘high-end’ used in listing text, often to describe what […]
The post VRS208 – The Luxury Vacation Rental Niche with Ryan Liebentritt appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This industry is full of lovely people. I guess it’s because we are grounded in hospitality and creating great experiences that we are generally nice to each other as well! I have a long list of favorite VR folks, and if you’ve ever met or corresponded with me, you are probably on it. I don’t […]
The post An Interview with A Vacation Rental Industry ‘Sage’ appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There have always been challenges and threats to our vacation rental industry from the outset. It wasn’t that many years ago when Home Away introduced live reviews and the outcry could be heard across the planet. How would it be possible to allow people to post a review without a home owner checking it first […]
The post Thought Leader Spotlight From Abode PR appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Regardless of the size of your company, getting new owners is a challenge. With the larger OTAs claiming they can do what we do, it’s getting tougher to convince owners that doing it themselves is more than posting a listing and waiting for guests of customers to arrive on their doorstep. If property owners are […]
The post How To Attract New Owners To Your Vacation Rental Management Company appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve interviewed Matt Landau of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog and the Inner Circle numerous times over the past few years, and he never fails to deliver excellent advice on managing our businesses better. On many of those occasions, Matt has mentioned how important video has become in the marketing mix – to the point […]
The post VRS207 – Growing Your Vacation Rental Business With Video With Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Until the spring of 2016, there were few venues where vacation rental business owners could get together and talk about their vacation rental businesses, hear from a range of industry experts and network with fellow owners, managers and suppliers, free from the influence of the major listing sites and continues sales pitches. Before then, Homeaway […]
The post Vacation Rental Success Summit – What’s It All About? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The end of a busy vacation rental season always comes as a huge relief. Instead of 150+ emails a day, there are less than a few dozen; the phone rings less incessantly, and there’s much more time to reflect on what went well, and what we could have done better. Now the hard work is […]
The post Looking Back And Planning Ahead For Vacation Rental Success appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For anyone familiar with digital marketing and all it entails, the phrase, “It’s all in the list”, will be a mantra they have heard before. That list of email addresses forms the basis for all marketing efforts and campaigns, and without a substantial one, it’s tough to get to the next level in the mix […]
The post VRS206 – How to Grow an Email List For Vacation Rental Marketing with Jason Beaton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Just 18 months ago, Annie Switzer was, in her words, a model VRBO user. She complied with everything they required including online booking. For that she was rewarded with being one of the first to have traveler fees attached to her rental quotes. Resistance was futile, she explains, as her arguments posted on the Home […]
The post VRS205 – Do You Say No to VRBO? With Annie Switzer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When Cottage Blogger started over 12 years ago, there wasn’t much in the vacation rental space to help owners and property managers learn about this great business. It was before the massive growth of online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Home Away, Airbnb and Booking.com began to depersonalize the relationships we had with our guests. […]
The post The Top 75 Vacation Rental Blogs Revealed appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As any vacation rental manager is aware, keeping and growing inventory is an on-going and ever-present challenge. The competition in many places is significant, and issues of supply and quality control can drive managers to contemplate their future in the business. A glimmer of hope in the sometimes bewildering onslaught of industry changes is present […]
The post How to Compete with 800lb Vacation Rental Gorillas appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There were over 1400 attendees at the national 2017 Vacation Rental Management Association Conference in Orlando – the largest gathering of property managers in VRMAs history. What struck me the most was the diversity of companies, with representatives from the largest – Vacasa in particular – to individuals who had less than five properties under […]
The post Getting Started in Vacation Rental Property Management appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Barcelona-based Vanessa de Souza Lage leads the field in vacation rental tech know-how. Her VRTech Meet-Ups are held in major European cities and bring the best minds together to talk about apps, digital technology and the future of the industry. She’s spoken at 8 conferences this year, including our own Vacation Rental Success Summit. Vanessa […]
The post The Group of Seven – The Vacation Rental Industry’s Top Influencers appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This year’s VRMA National Conference was the biggest yet. Over 1400 property managers convened in Orlando for 3 days of networking, education and technology inspiration, and we had a lot of fun. I was privileged to spend time with so many industry influencers, movers and shakers, and meet up with a lot of old friends, […]
The post VRS204 – The Future of the Vacation Rental Business with David Angotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Fresh from his successful Vacation Rental World Summit in Florence in September, Antonio joins me to reflect on the event, the networking and educational content. Antonio owns a property in Sardinia that he talked about in a previous episode, and has drawn on his experience as an owner, to build the Vacation Rental Secrets brand. […]
The post VRS203 – Vacation Rental World Summit Review with Antonio Bortollotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This article is courtesy of MaidThis! Cleaning. MaidThis! is a California-based cleaning service specializing in vacation rental cleaning. They currently serve the greater LA, Orange County, and San Francisco areas. As the owner of a vacation rental, you want to ensure all your guests have a fantastic experience while they are staying with you. Many […]
The post Make the Most of Your Cleaning Service Provider: 10 Ways to Perfect Your Vacation Rental Turnovers appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Making sure your vacation rental guests have the perfect welcome when they arrive at your property is very important. The first 5 minutes will determine their happiness for the next few days and that first impression lasts. You can read a little more about first impressions and the ‘WOW' factor or maybe you want to […]
The post The Perfect Vacation Rental Welcome appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In 2006, Steve Milo of Vacation Rental Pros had 15 properties under management and a lot of ambition to grow his company. By 2015 when I interviewed him last on VRS094, VRPs inventory had increased to just over 900. In this episode, Steve describes how that number has doubled in the past two years with […]
The post VRS202 – Survival of the Fittest With Steve Milo Of Vacation Rental Pros appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Alan Egan has been prominent in the vacation rental world for the last ten years at least. A well respected VR photographer, WordPress expert, and all-round nice person, Alan has a lot of knowledge about marketing that he freely shares. At the Vacation Rental World Summit in Florence last month, he launched a new platform […]
The post VRS201 – Free Vacation Rental Websites, Content and Collaboration with Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
200 podcasts and well over a quarter of a million downloads, and we are still going strong! In this episode, Mike and I talk about the changes we’ve seen over the past four years and some of the things that have caused us to scratch our heads and wonder where the industry is headed. One […]
The post VRS200 – 200 Episodes Of Vacation Rental Success appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“I do think we will see another disruptor in this space. I do not think that the booking paths that Airbnb, Homeaway, Trip Advisor and Booking.com are currently utilising are the best for our industry. Someone is going to crack that code.” – Amy Hinote We are blessed in this industry with some highly intelligent […]
The post VRS199 – Can Vacation Rental Owners Regain Control with Amy Hinote of VRM Intel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you asked a property manager what the hardest decision has been in their business so far, most would put choosing reservation software, right at the top. Not only is it a big financial decision, but the time taken in implementing a new platform and learning how to use the software can be a huge […]
The post VRS198 – Selecting the Right Property Management System for your Vacation Rental Business with Terry Whyte appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We protect our homes in many ways with safety and security systems; video cameras; apps to prevent overcrowding or noise; monitors to prevent overheating or freezing; smoke and CO2 alarms etc., but how many vacation rental owners have a guest agreement? If my last few reservations are anything to go by, it’s not as common […]
The post VRS197 – The Essentials of a Vacation Rental Guest Agreement with Bryan Geon of Vacasa appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Vacation home owners are facing challenges if they need to sell. Many are turning to rental as an alternative to having a property on the listings for many months. There are a large number of owners choosing this route because they have either tried selling, or are not prepared to lower their asking price and […]
The post 10 Keys To Vacation Rental Success appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Insurance may not seem the most exciting of topics but it is one that impacts every single one of us, whether it’s a single condo or multiple properties. The moment we exchange our property (or a part of it) for money, we are in business, and that brings with it all manner of risks. In […]
The post VRS196 – Vacation Rental Insurance Explained with Darren Pettyjohn appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Creating a family-friendly vacation home is challenging, not least because children of different ages have different needs. Unless you have recent experience of vacationing with a lot of kids in tow, how can you really know what is going to make the experience the best possible? Should you provide lots of baby stuff? What types […]
The post VRS195 – Welcoming Vacation Rental Families in Style with Mary Ostyn appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you adjust your pricing according to the seasons? I’m sure you do, if as is the case up here in Ontario you have clearly differentiated high and low periods of occupancy. When demand is super-high and inventory is low you’ll have a much higher rate than at times when there’s a lot of properties […]
The post VRS194 – Dynamic Vacation Rental Pricing Explained with Andrew Kitchell of UseWheelHouse.com appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week’s solo episode reflects on how this business has changed over the past twenty years, as I deal with numerous issues at properties through the first 6 weeks of the summer. Back in the good old days we dealt directly with our guests, often took their cash when they arrived, trusted they would clean […]
The post VRS193 – Mid Summer Madness – A Diary of A Vacation Rental Property Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this solo episode I’m getting back to some basics as I talk about the first 30 minutes your guests experience at your property, and why that is so important to the overall enjoyment of their vacation and to the review they subsequently may write. There is a magic that accompanies arrival at a vacation […]
The post VRS192 – 10 Sure-fire Ways to Upset Your Guests at Check In appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest is an investor, home renovator, and Airbnb entrepreneur; the host of the upcoming Airbnb Mastery Summit and founder of Hometel – a luxury property Airbnb management service. Erics expertise in home renovation and investment is rooted in an early interest in the topic after reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad at age […]
The post VRS191 – Airbnb Mastery with Eric Moeller appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Part 2 of the Adventures of Travelling Matt (Landau) takes us to Italy, and Matt’s journey to Rome, the Umbrian town of Guardea and Le Marche in the eastern Italian region of Ancona. Matt’s telling of the trip takes us to out of the way places and shares his experiences of visiting a renowned silversmith’s […]
The post VRS190 – The Vacation Rental Adventures of Travelling Matt Landau – Part Two appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode in our Successful Owner Series introduces the owner of Wicked Awesome Maine Vacations – a small property management company comprising the owner’s three houses, one belonging to a cousin, and two third party homes. When I heard that, it reminded me of how my own property management company started – three of my […]
The post VRS189 – Wicked Awesome Vacation Rentals with Maria La Barbera Lamb appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Have you ever been a guest in a vacation rental in a location you are unfamiliar with? I’ve asked this question of many home owners to find that most have never experienced what it’s like to be a guest. And you should do this, at least once. Owners will often say they’ve stayed in their […]
The post VRS188 – The Vacation Rental Adventures of Travelling Matt Landau – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The death knell of property managers may be sounding if some vacation rental experts are to be believed. Martin Picard of VReasy talked of this at a VR Tech conference in Rome earlier this month. OTA’s are taking over much of what a property manager does, from marketing properties to an array of consumers; offering […]
The post VRS187 – The 2017 Vacation Rental Hospitality Survey with David Jacoby of Hostfully appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m joined today by Jason Beaton of Airtight Marketing to talk about jargon in online marketing. As we build our vacation rental businesses, most owners realise that simply listing isn’t enough. We’re at a time in our industry when control over how we market and advertise has been wrestled from us, and without being overly […]
The post VRS186 – Vacation Rental Marketing Automation Explained with Jason Beaton of Airtight Marketing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are you planning on building a new website, or want to make some changes to your current one? If so, this episode could be for you. The topic came about in response to a request from Sanjiv Sandhu, a member of our Vacation Rental Formula Facebook Group (VRF members only), and at the start seemed a […]
The post VRS185 – Are you planning on building a new vacation rental website? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Marketing for your vacation rental business can seem like a hard slog. There’s always something to do and be planning, even when you only have a finite number of weeks to rent. It can be overwhelming and often feels like an uphill challenge given the nature of OTAs and their ever-changing demands. The first thing […]
The post VRS184 – Vacation Rental Marketing 2.0 with Mike Bayer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are two types of vacation rental owners. Those that accept bookings, and those that make bookings. So says today’s guest, the one and only Alan Egan. For those of you who know Alan, he has been in and around this industry for over two decades and was one of the first owners/managers blogging about […]
The post VRS183 – Why Content Will Win For Your Vacation Rental Business with Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As we saw at the recent Vacation Rental Success Summit, getting together can be the start of something awesome. We saw owners and managers deep in conversation and hopefully, they went onto exchange contact details and promise to stay in touch. We all know that when the busy-ness of business takes over, that these intentions […]
The post VRS182 – How to Create a Vacation Rental Mastermind Group With Ellory Wells appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Where do you look for education and resources to help you manage your vacation rental business better? Maybe you have a go-to expert, or regularly visit a Facebook group or forum, or you’ve bought a book from Amazon that claims to be the A-Z of the industry. Wherever you go, it’s clear that education in […]
The post VRS181 – Where to find knowledge in the vacation rental business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
After a great first day at the Vacation Rental Success Summit, we set up our podcast studio in the ‘goldfish bowl’, a small room off the social centre and bar, and invited whoever wanted to come in to chat, to join us on the sofa. It was so great to have a stream of owners, […]
The post VRS180 – Direct from VRSS17 Vacation Rental Sofa Talk From The Goldfish Bowl appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Whatever you do to protect your interests, there is risk in this business. It could be from potential overcrowding, noise, liability, general damage and use of amenities such as hot tubs or pools, or any number of other issues. Mitigating those risks is an important element in your business plan and isn’t something that you […]
The post VRS179 – Vacation Rentals – A Risky Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do vacation rentals make a good investment? This is a question you see occasionally cropping up on the investor websites such as Bigger Pockets, and is invariably answered in the negative. The argument is that they are too time-consuming, are way more involved to set up than a traditional residential rental, and don’t have consistent […]
The post VRS178 – Practical Vacation Rental Investment Part 2 with Michael Hamilton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s a lot of talk about independence in our industry; how to achieve success without being swallowed up by the behemoth listing sites, and whether branding is worth the time and effort. I have a personal stake in all this. As a small property manager facing the challenge from sites wanting to wipe out our […]
The post VRS177 – The Vacation Rental Collaboration Revolution with Vince Perez of Fetch My Guest appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Matt Landau from the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog (VRMB.com) and the Inner Circle, joins me in one of our occasional rambles on various vacation rental topics. We talk about collaboration and learning in the industry, best books on business, forums and Facebook groups, Airbnb experiences and why branding for independent owners may not be as […]
The post VRS176 – April Vacation Rental Mash Up with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Have you ever wondered how to get your vacation rental mentioned in a media article, or thought you may have a story that would be interesting enough to feature in a travel blog? Some years ago when I was running our UK based company, Clearwater Holidays, we wanted to get the message out about our […]
The post VRS175 – PR for Vacation Rentals with Jessica Gillingham appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Our industry is growing exponentially, and with it comes a wealth of apps, new platforms for advertising, physical gadgets and resources. It can be tough to sort through all of these and find the right one that suits your property and your needs. Our new series of product reviews aims to cut through the marketing […]
The post VRS174 – The Digital Welcome Book with Henry Bennett of YourWelcome appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m embarrassed that it was only two years ago I was questioning the relevance of Airbnb, and being remarkably short-sighted on the movement of a platform that has since come to dominate the vacation rental space. I’ve just read ‘The Airbnb Story' by Leigh Gallagher and enjoyed it immensely, learning about how Brian Chesky et […]
The post VRS173 – The Airbnb Perspective With Andrea Diamond appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We are just a few weeks away from the Vacation Rental Success Summit (May 6-7) and on this weeks episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast we will be releasing the details of the last and final keynote speaker. If you have not seen our amazing line up of speakers yet, you can view […]
The post Who is the VRSS17 Mystery Speaker? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you ever wonder if your listing is attracting people to inquire about your property? Perhaps you see the stats that show how many have looked at it…but you didn’t get the inquiries or bookings that would make that number seem realistic. Could it be something in your listing that is moving them onto the […]
The post VRS172 – 10 Reasons I Will Not Be Inquiring About Your Vacation Rental Property appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We have talked at length, both in blog posts and on the podcast, about the importance of welcoming your guests to your property and how that first impression is invaluable to the outcome of a happy guest. One of our most popular blog posts (The Vacation Rental Welcome Book) covers the in's and out of […]
The post YourWelcome – A Digital Vacation Rental Welcome Book appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting great photos of your property is undeniably the best start to a successful vacation rental listing. You can have all the bells and whistles in terms of amenities, but if the photos don’t inspire your guests to book, you’ve lost their interest before they even get to the bit about all the flat-screen TVs […]
The post VRS171 – Taking Great Vacation Rental Photos with Amy Greener appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My guest today took his interest and knowledge of real estate investment and has turned it into a vacation rental business. With three properties currently listed on Airbnb & VRBO, Michael Hamilton was about to fly off to North Carolina to close on the fourth, when I was able to talk to him from his […]
The post VRS170 – Practical Vacation Rental Investment with Michael Hamilton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What could be better than exchanging a cold and snowy Ontario for 10 days in sunny Belize? Or Eleuthera, or Exuma, or Costa Rica, or Maui? For the past 7 years, we’ve taken a break in winter to enjoy the sunny south and stayed in a different vacation rental every time. It’s been great, not […]
The post VRS169 – Don’t Wear Flip Flops in the Jungle & Other Things Your Vacation Rental Guests Need to Know appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Many vacation rental owners manage their properties from a distance but most have just one, or a few in one location. Ralph Morehouse owns an apartment in Paris, one in Nice, and manages three others. All from his home base in Houston, Texas, which goes to show you can do this business from anywhere as […]
The post VRS168 – The French Connection with Vacation Rentals in Nice and Paris appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It was a long-time goal for Utah resident, Sherene and her husband John. One day they would buy a vacation rental property and from the get-go they wanted it to be a professional business. No short cuts for these guys. They looked at different places in their beautiful state and finally settled on Kanab – […]
The post VRS167 – A Year In The Making with Sherene McLellan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Editor of the VR industry’s only online magazine for travelers, Beth Carson is a seasoned traveler (45 countries stamped in her passport!) and knows travel from both sides of the check-in desk. Beth dishes about the ins and outs of running a magazine, her gift to vacation rental owners, and delves into surviving one of […]
The post VRS166 – Vacation Rental Travels with Beth Caro Carson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When Matt Landau closed on a deal he couldn’t ignore and became the proud owner of what is now Los Cuatros Tulipanes in Casco Viejo, Panama, he didn’t appreciate that over the next few years he would earn the equivalent of an MBA in vacation rentals. He learned a lot about the neighborhood, the people […]
The post VRS165 – Hard Lessons Learned with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Social media experts David Thompson and April Burns fromInterCoastal Net Designs, join me in this episode to talk about the importance of engagement on social media for vacation rental professionals. We’re often told to ‘Be Everywhere’ and it’s tough to keep up. Posting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest is time-consuming and can be frustrating. […]
The post VRS164 – Facebook Marketing for Vacation Rentals with April Burns and David Thompson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you went to the Airbnb Open this year it’s likely you’ll have come across Alex Nigg and Tammi Simms from Properly. Or you may have met them at last year’s Vacation Rental Success Summit or a Home Away event. This is because one or the other, or both of them show up just about […]
The post VRS163 – Collaboration and The Vacation Rental Guest Experience with Alex Nigg from Properly appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With the industry growing exponentially, professional owners have to be on their toes to manage the changes that will come at them from all angles. Whether it's dealing with OTAs moving the goal posts yet again, or the potential of short term rental legislation, or the massive competition we’ll experience, there is a challenge on […]
The post VRS162 – The Five Things You Must Do For Vacation Rental Success in 2017 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When we were thinking about the why of putting on a face-to-face conference back in early 2016, we brainstormed a ton of reasons people would have to attend. And then I saw this blog post from the founder of the Agents of Change podcast and organizer of the Agents of Change annual conference. It listed […]
The post 8 Reasons to Attend the Vacation Rental Success Summit appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What a year this has been! From launching the Vacation Rental Formula, to being part of the team behind the mega-successful Vacation Rental Success Summit, to having the best year ever in our management company, it’s been a blast. In this episode I share the ups and downs of 2016 as we navigated a full-scale […]
The post VRS161 – 2016 A Year in My World of Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
2016 has been a turbulent year for the vacation rental industry and it seems that there’s something in the air. An unrest and dissatisfaction that is going beyond simple griping about traveler fees and the control that OTAs are tightening around our business models. In September, UK based Rentivo sent out a survey asking their […]
The post VRS160 – Crowdfunding For The Future Of Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Here’s another great conversation with Matt Landau from The Vacation Rental Marketing Blog. In this episode we explore our first experiences with Airbnb – Matt tried it out in a New York apartment, and I have just booked a house in Ottawa for a 3-night stay in February. It’s been a bit of an eye-opener […]
The post VRS159 – December Vacation Rental Mashup With Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
After over 40 years in the vacation rental business, Twiddy and Co have amassed a lot of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in the industry. In this episode, I talk to President, Ross Twiddy, about his experience with the family company, what’s behind its growth and success and what he considers to be […]
The post VRS158 – Why You Need Emotional Gunpowder For Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s episode is the second in our two-parter on design and décor in vacation rentals. As we are planning the Vacation Rental Success Summit for 2017, I’m reminded how valuable the face-to-face networking is, and just why I love going to conferences to make new connections and learn a bunch of new stuff. I met […]
The post VRS157 – Vacation Rental Stager & Designer Sally Lauren Nichols appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Design and décor is an overlooked topic in most vacation rental expert websites and podcasts, including this one! When I looked back over the last 150+ episodes, there’s only been one that really focuses on design and that was back in September 2014, with Mercedes Brennan. With so much emphasis on staging and great photography […]
The post VRS156 – Vacation Rental Design Made Easy with Sarah Honaker appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I have a lot of questions about email marketing, and my go-to person for the answers is my son and business partner, Mike Bayer. Mike has made digital marketing his specialty and he not only talks about it – he is consistently walking the talk. From our early days of using Aweber to our business […]
The post VRS155 – The Vacation Rental Conversion Conversation Part 2 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
First things first! If you have never been to a conference, in person, that is focused around a topic or industry that you are passionate about, then you are missing out. I don’t mean like you missed out on the last cookie or you didn’t make it to the grocery store before is closed. […]
The post VRS154 – The Vacation Rental Conversion Conversation Part 1 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I get questions every day from new owners (and sometimes not so new) about things they are doing. Should I do this, supply that, charge for a service or amenity etc. Forums and Facebook groups abound with similar questions, so I thought it would be useful to address some of the most common ones here. […]
The post VRS153 – 20 Common Vacation Rental Questions Answered appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Over the course of a year, I’ll talk to hundreds of influential vacation rental professionals from owners and managers to technology product developers, insurers, web designers and other providers to the industry. And talking over Skype or on the phone is great but nothing beats the face-to-face connection that a good conference brings. So it […]
The post VRS152 – Vacation Rental Managers Association Conference Review appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode might trigger some argument and I think that’s a good thing. It’s a discussion that’s populated forums across the the VR world since the business really began and as we move into the mainstream of tourism accommodation we might need to revisit our practices. Why do we insist on punishing 98% of our […]
The post VRS151 – The Case For Abandoning Vacation Rental Damage Deposits appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In that time I’ve interviewed some of the most influential people in the vacation rental world. I learned about Airbnb in an early episode with host Glenn Cooley, and more recently interviewed superhost Evelyn Badia. Matt Landau of the Vacation Rental Marketing Blog has joined me on a dozen or more sessions of the ‘Mash-up […]
The post VRS150 – The Best of 150 Episodes of Vacation Rental Success appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest is a sailor, adventurer, ardent traveler, software developer and founder of Vreasy – the Guest Experience Authority ™ – Martin Picard. I met Martin in Barcelona at the European VRMA conference and attended his presentation where he talked about the value of knowing your guests and creating a personalized experience for them. It […]
The post VRS149 – Turn Your Vacation Rental Guests Into Ambassadors with Martin Picard appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Following on from Episode 141 when I sat down with Matt Landau to compile our Ultimate List of People and Companies to Follow, we’ve added some more. We wanted to include some of the great communities and resources available for owners and property managers, as well as some great people we love and trust. […]
The post VRS148 – The Ultimate Vacation Rental List of People and Companies to Follow Part 2 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This year has seen an upsurge in new owners coming into the rental market – at least in my neck of the woods. Our rental agency has had the highest rate of new owner inquiries since the business started in 2004, and in talking to them the message we are receiving is loud and clear… […]
The post VRS147 – From Vacation Rental Rookies to Seasoned Veterans appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If ever there was legislation governing the operation of a vacation rental property I would want there to be a clause requiring owners to have stayed in a property other than their own on at least 3 separate occasions, with a group comprising the maximum number of occupants. Why? Because that’s the real way of […]
The post VRS146 – Three Weeks, Three Countries, Three Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Buying a vacation home has become far less of an emotional journey for many new owners, and more of a carefully balanced investment. With the rise in popularity of vacation rentals, the plan to rent out a second home when it is not in family use has become part of the overall purchase strategy for […]
The post VRS145 – How to Invest Wisely in Vacation Rental Property with Erica Muller appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“Yes, I have dealt with missing guests, a broken door, two hurricanes, and the never-ending laundry. I’ve been rewarded by getting to know the amazing people that have come to my home. Yes, I still do all the cleaning!” This is from Evelyn Badia’s About Me page on her website, and you may think it’s […]
The post VRS144 – What it really means to be an Airbnb host with Evelyn Badia appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Technology has revolutionized the vacation rental business in ways you wouldn’t realize unless you have been involved in it for a couple of decades. From print catalogs, classified newspaper ads and road signs being the only way of communicating a listing, to mailing keys or hiding them under a flowerpot, the old ways of doing […]
The post VRS143 – Getting Automated in Your Vacation Rental with Brad Huber appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I last interviewed Lynne Martin, she had just published her book, Home Sweet Anywhere, was excited about having an article featured in the Wall Street Journal, and had stayed in half a dozen vacation rental homes on their worldwide adventure. Just over 2 years on, I wanted to catch up with Lynne and find […]
The post VRS142 – Building a Vacation Home on the Experience of 5 Years Vacation Rental Living with Lynne Martin appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The ever popular mash-up with Matt is back again – this time with the list of companies and vacation rental experts we love. Over the last year or so I’ve interviewed some great people, from established niche listing sites to tech startups to independent authorities on topics relevant to our business. Matt came up […]
The post VRS141 – The Ultimate Vacation Rental List of People and Companies to Follow appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Having worked in the vacation rental industry for over 20 years, as an owner of multiple properties, and latterly as the CEO of a rental management agency, I know how easy it is to get mired in the detail and to lose sight of the big picture. In the day-to-day running of any type […]
The post VRS140 – Consolidation and Convergence with Andrew McConnell of Rented.com appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It looks pretty much like conference season at the moment, and while political conference are not my thing, I’m fascinated by the emotions they evoke and how enthusiastic and passionate the delegates are. Our Vacation Rental Success Summit was a drop in the ocean compared to these massive events like the DNC and RNC and […]
The post VRS139 – Conferences and Why Vacation Rental Business Owners Need to Go to Them appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every business has to adapt to changing times and our vacation rental business is not immune. Customer expectations and perceptions can change rapidly due to media and peer influence and we have to keep up to stay competitive. We find this constantly in our rental agency business as issues arise over the course of a […]
The post VRS138 – Why We Need to Adapt to Stay Competitive in the Vacation Rental Market appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“We need another cart” are the words that Gary Miller never wants to hear again. He also wants to share that there is no such thing as ‘passive income’ in this business because it’s really hard work. Gary is one of the thousands of new owners who will enter the vacation rental business this year. […]
The post VRS137 – Lessons From Buying Your First Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I learn something new about this business every day, and most often it’s from other owners. From those who have been around a long time, and equally as much from the newbies, the disruptors and the innovators. It really is a learning business and the education from our peers in this industry is often second-to-none. […]
The post VRS136 – Successful Vacation Rental Owner Series With Celine Girard appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I first started in this business I didn’t have much of a clue as to what to do to make a success of it. In fact it wasn’t until I was into equipping my second property that it dawned on me that cheap wasn’t working. I’m not a slow learner – it was the […]
The post VRS135 – Learning in the Vacation Rental Industry appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s always a pleasure to talk to owners about their properties, and even more so when they are as unique as Dianne Denton’s Sea Horse Diamond Beach Cottage. Not only is this a gorgeous property, with a swimming pool and a short walk from the beach, which would be an attraction for anyone, but it’s […]
The post VRS134 – Filling a Unique Niche in Vacation Rentals with Dianne Denton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s that time of year again. The cottage country tradition in Ontario has been part of the culture for generations, and in many areas the families that make the trip have been going to the same cottage for years. Then there’s the new Canadians – our most recently arrived immigrants who learn that the annual […]
The post VRS133 – Getting Ready For My Vacation Rental Season appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I had the pleasure of co-presenting a workshop session at the Vacation Rental Success Summit with Darik Eaton of Seattle Oasis Vacation Rentals. In my discussions with Darik beforehand we explored the differences between our two companies and they could not have been wider. In this episode he explains why his model works and how […]
The post VRS132 – Vacation Rental Property Management with a Difference with Darik Eaton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I had the great pleasure of meeting Alex and Tammi at the Vacation Rental Success Summit in Toronto last month, and although I wasn’t able to attend their workshop, I heard it was a resounding success. Since they had already delivered a presentation to a packed house at the Airbnb Summit in Paris, we knew […]
The post VRS131 – Remote Vacation Rental Hosting with Alex Nigg & Tammi Sims appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It was a real pleasure to invite Conrad back onto the podcast for Part 2 of our interview – this time featuring his great insights into paid advertising. Our property management company has been in business for 12 years and we’ve never seen the need to use paid ads. Over the years we’ve built up […]
The post VRS130 – Paid Advertising For Vacation Rental With Conrad O’Connell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I like talking with Matt on months beginning with an M – it gives a nice alliterative title! This month’s mash-up covers a good range of topics from the Vacation Rental Success Summit to the upcoming release of Matt’s beginners course to vacation rental. We covered the use of Prezzi for presenting information; why owners […]
The post VRS129 – May Vacation Rental Mash-up with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Mike had this great idea at the Vacation Rental Success Summit, to set up a podcasting studio so we could record at the event. So, on the Saturday night we took over one of the small rooms – the goldfish bowl, so called because of the windows that gave everyone a great view of what […]
The post VRS128 – Live from The Vacation Rental Success Summit Goldfish Bowl appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As I looked around the now-empty auditorium with just the audio tech finishing off his packing up, I felt a little emotional. Maybe it was still the adrenalin in my system, or the euphoria generated by the goodbye hugs and farewells from new friends who I knew I’d be in touch with again soon. Or […]
The post Well, that’s a wrap! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For two days in Toronto, there was a place where everywhere you went the conversation was on the same topic. In the hallways, the social center, the dining room, and even in the fitness center – the talk was vacation rentals. The Vacation Rental Success Summit brought together some of the most interesting, influential and […]
The post VRS127 – Takeaways from the Vacation Rental Success Summit 2016 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Renting out a property professionally is no walk in the park. It’s arduous at times. It eats up hours with marketing, activity on social media and keeping abreast of changes in the marketplace. And sometimes it feels as though all that work is for nothing when the inquiries you answered don’t convert into bookings, and […]
The post VRS126 – 5 Habits Every Vacation Rental Owner Should Develop appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A few years ago, enquiries were simpler. They referenced a simpler way of vacationing and underpinned why vacation rentals were becoming so popular. People asked about the outdoors; the waterfront access; how good the fishing was, and whether there were any board games and videos. Fast forward to 2016 and the questions are changing. They […]
The post VRS125 – What Your Vacation Rental Guests Really Want appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I first got into this business nearly 20 years ago, there were a lot of niche listing sites. They were started by people with vision and passion who wanted to create the portals for homeowners to take advantage of the fast-growing interweb. Then, along came Home Away and the beginnings of the end of […]
The post VRS124 – Listing with a Niche Vacation Rental Site appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
People buy cottages for many reasons and they have different types of perceptions and expectations. Many buyers are now considering rental as part of their investment plan, so it’s important to be able to present them with appropriate and comprehensive detail so they can make informed decisions on their cottage purchase. Having this information to […]
The post 5 Things Your Cottage Buyers Need To Know If They Want to Rent appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Take three beautiful properties, a content-rich website and a passionate owner who understands the value of blogging and focused social media activity, and you have a recipe for vacation rental success. As an executive with Canadian retail company, Jacob, Nancy McAleer had a high-powered job that ended with a ‘golden parachute’ offer when the company […]
The post VRS123 – Pinterest For Vacation Rental Impact – with Nancy McAleer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Once upon a time, vacation rental accommodation was called self-catering, and that is what people did. They self-catered. They were self-reliant and generally looked after themselves. If a light bulb went out, the guests were happy to change it; if the toilet paper ran out, they would go out and buy some more, and if […]
The post VRS122 – Handling Vacation Rental Complaints and Staying Sane appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Looking back over the years since I started in this business, I’ve tried hundreds of apps, resources, and systems, read books, and articles, and am always on the lookout for new and innovative ideas that will improve my businesses. It’s been a while since I shared my favorite productivity resources, and the books I’m reading, […]
The post VRS121 – Books, Productivity and Bright Shiny Things appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As a property manager I’ve always been curious to see how other companies brand themselves, and am constantly on the lookout for new ideas. Quite frankly I’ve found it fairly depressing to see the sameness in so many web sites, and that includes my own company. We’ve just created a new mobile responsive site, and […]
The post VRS120 – Creating a Vacation Rental Travel Portal with David Angotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The advent of booking fees has caused quite a stir across the industry in the past few weeks and I invited VRS regular, Matt Landau, to give his viewpoint on the topic and to share what he believes owners should be doing to adapt to what seems to be ‘the new normal’ in this business. […]
The post VRS119 – March Mash-Up With Vacation Rental Marketing Expert Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I love to talk to owners who have been so successful with their vacation rental business, that it grows beyond one property, and sets them on a path they hadn’t envisaged at the start. That is the case with my guest on this episode. Dean Curtis and his wife (who is a realtor) wanted to […]
The post VRS118 – Successful Owner Series – Dean Curtis appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Next week I’m off to Barcelona to the VRMA Europe conference. I’ll fly from Toronto to Heathrow then onto Spain and spend two and a half days there before heading home again. It seems a long way to go for such a short time, but I’ll pack as much into it as I can. Will […]
The post VRS117 – The Vacation Rental Success Summit 2016 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
0″ /> On my desk, there is a mighty tome called The Art of SEO. It is well used with highlighted sections, underlining and lots of notes in the margins. It’s an old friend because it taught me a lot about this weird world of search engine optimization and is always at hand when a […]
The post VRS116 – Digital Marketing for Vacation Rentals with Conrad O’Connell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I last spoke with today’s guest a year ago and we discussed his passion for the vacation rental industry and the background to his fledgling community organization, the American Vacation Rental Owners Association. At that time, Rod was working on yet another iteration of his website, and although he had a lot of motivation to […]
The post VRS115 – Association of Vacation Rental Operators and Affiliates (AVROA) with Rod Fitts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I got into the vacation rental business in the 1990s, it was simple. You just advertised in a local paper or put a sign outside the property. That worked pretty well. After all, my place was one of very few available for summer rental in our area. Most guests came year after year and […]
The post VRS114 – Channel Management Uncovered with Vanessa de Souza Lage appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest lives in one of my bucket list spots – the Mediterranean island of Cyprus – and it is one of my destinations for 2016. In fact, we are booked into his Villa Carpe Diem for a week in September, and can’t wait. Apart from being beautifully located on the ancient island of Aphrodite, […]
The post VRS113 – Accessible Vacation Rentals with Andy Renals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I talk to an owner about delighting guests and what that means to them, they will invariably talk about the first impression their guests have of their property, the guest gift they leave, and the amenities they provide. But there is so much more to creating happiness than the origami towel in the shape […]
The post VRS112 – The Step by Step Foolproof Process to Delight Your Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest is the owner of three vacation rental properties in Oregon, one of which sleeps up to 20 people. She has remodeled all three homes and markets them successfully via a comprehensive website, a blog, and a powerful Facebook presence, alongside her third-party listings. Kim Bergstrom was brought up enjoying the northern part of […]
The post VRS111 – Successful Vacation Rental Owner Series With Kim Bergstrom appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It was hard to put a title on this episode as I covered such a lot with today’s guest that if I’d included everything it would have run to a paragraph! For a start, Matt Ward is one of Vacation Rental Success’s most loyal listeners having binge-listened to every episode over a 4 week period. […]
The post VRS110 – Getting Off To A Great Start with Matt Ward appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As 2015 winds down and we get ready for yet another new year, it just strikes me that time is whipping by, and if we don’t get going to achieve our goals, they may never happen. This is one of the reasons Mike and I have created The Vacation Rental Formula – our new site […]
The post VRS109 – Launching the Vacation Rental Formula appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every year brings new learning, and 2015 has been no different. Mike owns one property and I have two, along with the 190 managed by our PM company, so there’s always some issues we’ve not come across before. In this episode we talk about the year and share what surprised us, a few new trends, […]
The post VRS108 – 2015: A Vacation Rental Year In Review appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve booked accommodation at vacation rentals several times this year and each one has had a different method of payment. From a wire transfer that cost us an additional $80 + the travelling time to drive to the bank and back (70km round trip), PayPal (great system), online with credit card (even better) to the […]
The post VRS107 – Payment Options, Online Courses and Blabbing with Heather Bayer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The story of how startup Smart Host came into being is a metaphor for the innovation we are experiencing in the vacation rental industry. When the Startup Bus left New York in early 2014 heading for San Francisco, today’s guest Evan Hammer was at the start of a 72 hour trip that would culminate in […]
The post VRS106 – How Dynamic Pricing Works with Evan Hammer of Smart Host appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From the early days of vacation rentals, families have found them to be a great alternative to hotels, and all the listing sites tout families as being a prime group to target. So, why do so many owners fall short of expectations and fail to provide many of the essentials to modern day parents? Probably […]
The post VRS105 – Is Your Vacation Rental Really Family Friendly? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Long before I bought my first rental, I’d experienced many different vacation rentals in Europe, the UK and Canada, so when the time came to open my own doors, I knew what I wanted it to be like. It had to reflect my vision of hospitality and include all the little things that had made […]
The post VRS104 – A Million Little Things with Richard Craft appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With 400 million monthly active users, and 70+ million users who access the platform daily, there’s clearly some potential for adding Instagram to our vacation rental marketing toolbox. And since it is free to use, and relatively easy to learn, there are few barriers to entry. Some owners and VR marketers have embraced Instagram as […]
The post VRS103 – How to Be a Location Influencer on Instagram with Thibault Masson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It wasn’t unexpected. The acquisition of Home Away by Expedia should not have come as a surprise, but for many owners and managers, the announcement delivered a wake-up call. And who better to ask about the impact, repercussions and potential fallout of this than Mr. VR Marketing himself, Matt Landau. Fresh off an interview with […]
The post VRS102 – Expedia, Home Away, Airbnb and Giving Back with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been on Twitter since 2008, off and on. Yes, I’ve blown hot and cold on it over the years…bingeing occasionally and then letting the account go dormant for a few months. Over this time, the pattern has become clear. Twitter is like my vegetable garden. When it is fed, watered and nurtured it grows, […]
The post VRS101 – How to Become a Vacation Rental Twitter Expert appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Wow. Episode 100 and in the same week the Vacation Rental Success Podcast surpassed 100,000 downloads. Its a big week but since I am in New Orleans for the VRMA conference this episode is a little shorter than most and covers some of the highlights from the seminars and the Vendor Showcase. Mike and I […]
The post VRS100 – From the VRMA 2015 Conference in New Orleans appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s no secret that video will give you an edge in social media marketing. Stats from Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus suggest that a short video can boost engagement and increase traffic to a website. So why aren’t more people using it? Most would argue that the cost of equipment, time involved in editing, and […]
The post VRS099 – The Digital Handshake With Will Franco appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
One of my favourite parts of interviewing vacation rental professionals is that they are from around the world. And today’s guest called in from Greece so that’s another country to add to my geographical portfolio! Seb Grosjean could be called a hybrid developer because he’s a mix of software engineer, property manager and vacation rental […]
The post VRS098 – Choosing the Right Vacation Rental Reservation System with Seb Grosjean appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Mark the 6th – 8th November in your calendars for the Vacation Rental World Summit 2015 and settle down for 3 days of VR immersion. That is what Antonio Bortolotti, the creator and host of VRWS15 would like you to do, and he is here to tell us why in this episode of Vacation Rental […]
The post VRS097 – Vacation Rental World Summit 2015 with Antonio Bortolotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Did you hear us Blab? We had a great time and welcomed several owners and property managers into the seats to join the discussion. Thank you to Debi Hetert for reminding us to record the session ( only about 10 minutes missed!) and you can check the replay here. From here on, we’ll be hosting […]
The post Vacation Rental Q&A Oct 3rd, 2015 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I met Vince Perez in San Diego at the 2014 VRMA conference and was immediately taken with his passion and enthusiasm for the vacation rental industry and particularly some of his ideas for bringing control back to owners and managers. Since he is also a speaker at this year's Vacation Rental World Summit, it was […]
The post VRS096 – Regaining Control of Your Vacation Rental Business with Vince Perez appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you think about the last time you read a good novel, it probably wasn’t the story that got you immersed in the book to start with, it was the opening lines; the way the writer drew you into the narrative, and the descriptive text that had you identifying with the characters from the get-go. […]
The post VRS095 – Hooking Your Guests with Great Copywriting with Jessica Vozel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week’s guest tells the story of how he went from a handful of properties under management to 950 over a period of 10 years. At one point he was managing 125 single-handedly. Like many people, Steve Milo started in the business with just his own vacation rental property in Florida. At that time the […]
The post VRS094 – Vacation Rental Pros with Steve Milo appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
On August 15th, an open letter was delivered to the CEO of Trip Advisor, Steve Kaufman, outlining a multitude of issues property managers were experiencing with the Flipkey/TA platform. Endorsed by over 100 vacation rental managers the letter covered 5 areas managers were struggling with: Technical issues of inaccurate listings, non-functioning API feeds, expired listings […]
The post VRS093 – What’s Going On With Trip Advisor with Amy Hinote appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Ben Edwards was one of the first people I met at the Vacation Rental Managers’ Association conference in San Diego last year, at the meet and greet. As President of the Association he has a lot of insight into the vacation rental industry; as a manager at Newman-Dailey Resort Properties he’s got hands-on experience of […]
The post VRS092 – Buying and Selling a Vacation Rental Business with Ben Edwards President of the VRMA appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest is a vacation rental industry professional in the widest sense. Having honed his skills with some of the biggest names in the business, Eric Mason brings all his multi-faceted skills to the industry and is impacting it in many ways, from advising dynamic start-ups to moderating the largest LinkedIn group in the vacation […]
The post VRS091 – Eric Mason From Vacation Rental Professionals Group appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve had friends staying from UK for the past two weeks, and been in long discussion about the differences between the UK and Canada, from driving on the other side of the road, to their expectations of shopping and eating out. I remember my first trip to the US and being completely thrown by four-way […]
The post VRS090 – How to Make Your International Guests Feel at Home appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode Mike and I sit down and chat about two issues that affect every vacation rental owner – neighbour relations and general safety, and discuss the importance of emergency planning. I brought up the topic of keeping on side with the neighbours because I’m personally affected by super-noisy rental guests next door this […]
The post VRS089 – Keeping on the Right Side of Your Vacation Rental Neighbours appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This month Matt and I talk about a couple of issues raised on the Inner Circle in the last few weeks. One member reported that his agency calls for his Home Away listings are being diverted to a call centre in Jamaica which has raised some interesting questions. It seems that HA are having some […]
The post VRS088 – August Mash-Up With Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Some years ago when Cottage Blogger was in its infancy, and the cottage rental market here in Ontario was meeting some challenges of change, I came across a new listing site. Cottage Country.com was a start-up and at first glance seemed like every other listing site that was sprouting up at that time. They were […]
The post VRS087 – CEO and Founder of Canada Stays Mark Bordo appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Each week as the summer goes on, our rental agency deals with myriad issues. Most of them are minor – items left behind, appliances needing repair, requests for early check-in and late check-out etc. Occasionally, a bigger problem arises like this past week, where an administrative error on our part had a family arriving at […]
The post VRS086 – 10 Ways to Create a Great First Impression appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It is always a real pleasure to speak to another podcaster and in this episode my guest is the host of the Holiday Let Success podcast – Elaine Watt. Does that sound familiar? Well yes, Elaine also interviews vacation rental experts, owners and rental guests. She is also a vacation rental owner and passionate about […]
The post VRS085 – Elaine Watt from Holiday Let Success appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From macerating toilet issues to a visit from an Al Jazeera journalist to the future of the vacation rental industry, Matt and I explore what’s happening in our different parts of the world and within the wider business. I wanted to know what he thought about the sort of damage issues that can impact owners […]
The post VRS084 – July Vacation Rental MashUp with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Happy Canada Day! (and US Independence Day in a few days) I love this time of year and the pride I feel as a ‘New Canadian' but I do have a price to pay as the CEO of a Vacation Rental Management agency as the green flag is lowered on our high season. The festivities […]
The post VRS083 – A Week in the Life of a Vacation Rental Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I am a member of Matt Landau’s “Inner Circle” which is a great forum for owners to share resources, experiences and to learn from each other. That’s where I first came across Donna Martinez. Donna has been renting her property in Sea Ranch, California since 2013 – a short time to turn this beautiful home […]
The post VRS082 – Successful Owner Series With Donna Martinez of Sea Ranch, California appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In a week where we have dealt with hundreds of requests from groups of people in their 20’s and early 30’s, looking to book larger properties from our inventory, it was timely to read Matt Landau’s latest post on the Vacation Rental Marketing blog. He has recently returned from a trip he took with 3 […]
The post VRS081 – How Millennials Book Vacation Rentals with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I go to a lot of vacation rentals – as a guest. The only time I ever stay in a hotel is near the airport before an early morning flight, or when I’m at a conference and want to be on-site. Of course I’m ultra-critical just because I’m in the business, but I select carefully […]
The post VRS080 – The 5 Most Important Elements of Your Vacation Rental Welcome Book appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you find your vacation rental taxes confusing? Would it help to have a little help with licensing and remitting the appropriate taxes? For us up here in the frozen north (not so frozen now since spring and humidity have arrived ) we are in a fortunate situation. We don’t pay tax on our vacation […]
The post VRS079 – Vacation Rental Tax Talk with Hot Spot Founder Rob Stephens appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I have a big confession to make and it’s a little embarrassing. We do not have a mailing list…………yes I hear the crickets too. I don’t mean for Cottage Blogger – that’s different. If you check out the top of our home page you’ll see there is my free book – Staged to Rent (our lead […]
The post VRS078 – Landing Pages and Lead Generation For Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
One of the best parts of my job as a vacation rental manager is to visit new properties, meet enthusiastic owners and talk rentals non-stop. I love to hear their goals for their property and to discuss marketing opportunities for them. On many occasions, I know they have called in other agencies and am always […]
The post VRS077 – 6 Questions Every New Vacation Rental Owner Asks appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been hearing a lot from owners of smaller agencies about the challenges they are facing with growing their companies, so I thought it would be great to talk to some of these owners about their most pressing issues. Eleven years ago I went into partnership with the owner of a listing site here in […]
The post VRS076 – Managing Down Under with Nick Marshall of Cairns Holiday Homes appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The title of this episode refers to a recent Skift article that pointed to a challenge that’s been in front of the big listing sites and OTAs from the outset: “Major players from Airbnb and HomeAway to the Priceline Group and TripAdvisor have tapped into only about one-fifth of the addressable $100 billion vacation rental […]
The post VRS075 – Pesky Vacation Rental Owners and Social Media Tips with Lynn Abaté Johnson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you are a reader of this blog and you listen to the podcast, it will not have escaped you that I have listed my two river front cottages for sale. I need to sell them before we begin to build on our Bahamas land, so as you can imagine, I’m quite keen to get […]
The post VRS074 – Selling a Vacation Rental Home with Rick Oster appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In 2002, Mike moved out to Ontario after leaving the British Army. He’d just finished a 6-month tour in Kosovo and at the age of 21 had seen enough grimness to last him a lifetime. He moved into one of our rental homes while he set up his property management business and began working for […]
The post VRS073 – Scott Shatford Airbnb Super Host & Founder of Renting Your Place appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been a long winter of waiting for Cottage Blogger’s own Mike Bayer, and his wife Andrea. It was back in the fall of 2014 that the popular home renovation show, Income Property, and its dynamic presenter Scott McGillivray worked their magic on their Lake Ontario property, Sea Breeze. The wait is over and the […]
The post VRS072 – Destination Payoff with Scott McGillivray of Income Property appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It only seems a short while ago that Airbnb was seen as a platform for home owners who wanted to make a few dollars renting out a room in their place to a short-term tenant. In fact when I listen to the episodes of VRS with Jasper Ribbers of Get Paid for Your Pad and […]
The post VRS071 – Airbnb Management Services with Guesty co-founder Amiad Soto appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Another month, another Mashup with Matt and in this one we cover a lot of ground, from Matt’s vacation in Mexico (in a rental of course), my recent weekend at the Cottage Life Show in Toronto, a shout out to an Ontario owner, the Inner Circle and a Twitter rant. If you follow Matt’s Vacation […]
The post VRS070 – March Madness Vacation Rental Mashup with Matt Landau! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Rachel Miller is a food writer, chef and cheese lover who joined me to talk about her experiences of being a vacation rental guest who loves to cook. I came across Rachel after she wrote a piece for the Phoenix New Times called Tips and Hacks for Baking in Your Vacation Rental. Needless to say […]
The post VRS069 – What’s Cooking at Your Vacation Rental with Rachel Miller appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I know first-hand the frustration a vacationer experiences trying to book a vacation home – it can take days – and it was a question my guest on this episode posed to me. I’m usually the one asking the questions but Jen O’Neal, the founder of Tripping used my response to explain why she launched […]
The post VRS068 – 2.5 Million Rentals in 100,000 destinations with Jen O’Neal, CEO of Tripping.com appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Vacation homes provide owners with the opportunity to lease part-time, unlike traditional rental property investments requiring year-long commitments. Short-term rentals, depending on locale, are generally profitable and convenient. Owners have the option to claim dates for their personal use while charging premiums during peak holidays. Vacation home investors might consider purchasing waterfront properties, but […]
The post 5 Waterfront Markets for Profitable Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For the first 12 or 13 years of my life, the last thing my mom said to me when I went to bed was: “Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite” After that I went off to boarding school and the nighttime routine was different, but this little rhyme always stuck with me. […]
The post VRS067 – Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite In Your Vacation Rental Property with Jeff White appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode I talk once again to vacation rental bookings expert Alan Egan from Rentmoreweeks.com. The last time we connected on the podcast was just over a year ago and it was at the time Alan had launched his course on Google Plus – Bookings Plus 4G so we caught up with what has happened […]
The post VRS066 – WordPress for Vacation Rental Owners With Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this week’s mash-up Matt and I are exploring different options for creating a website; we answer a couple of listener questions and shout out to some owners who are doing a spectacular job marketing their properties. Over the past week I have been immersed in Alan Egan’s WordPress for Vacation Rental Owners course, building […]
The post VRS065 – February Vacation Rental Mash-Up With Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Am I a nit-picky guest? Yes, I probably am. After all, I have rented countless vacation homes over the past twenty years, in the UK, Europe, Canada, the US and the Caribbean. Each comes with its own quirks, and I am very tolerant of most. I’ve owned many rental homes too and learned a lot […]
The post 12 Pleas from a Vacation Rental Guest appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Reviews are more than just an opportunity to pat yourself on the back and bask in the glow of compliments about your home and the service you give. They are also a reservoir of suggestions, recommendations and ideas that can provide you with so much information on what you could do to improve the experience […]
The post VRS064 – How to Use Reviews to Grow Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve bought and rented out seven properties in the past dozen years or so, and am getting quite adept at knowing what will please our guests and keep them coming back for more. And that is the key….if the new addition will attract more guests and repeat renters, then I’ll evaluate the decision to buy […]
The post VRS063 – I Really Want a Pool for My Vacation Rental but….Does it Sell More Chickens? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been interested in the AVROA for a few years – the fledgling organization that aims to unite vacation rental owners in a common goal to support each other and become more independent of the behemoth listing sites. The founder, Rod Fitts, is the owner of several Gulf Shores condos and has a passion for […]
The post VRS062 – The American Vacation Rental Owners Association with Founder Rod Fitts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As promised, here is the January monthly mash-up with the one and only vacation rental marketing maestro, Matt Landau. We just hit the record button and let it flow and what a lot we covered. From how to turn questions into blog posts to a couple of featured owners, Matt and I explored the inner […]
The post VRS061 – January Vacation Rental Mash-Up with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
From the founder of Getaway Earth and Vacation Insider Guides, comes Touch Stay – the “Online Welcome Pack for the Digital Age”, and it was a real delight to have Andy McNulty back on the show to talk about it. This testimonial from a Touch Stay client shows that Andy has found that sweet spot […]
The post VRS060 – Touch Stay: The evolution of the welcome book with Andy McNulty appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
One of my goals for 2015 is to create video content for my agency site. I want to help guests make great vacation choices and provide information to our owners on how to make their properties even more welcoming. But….I have been putting it off, because it seemed way too complicated and my perfectionism is […]
The post VRS059 – Make Video For Vacation Rental Your Goal for 2015 with Lou Bortone appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today was a big day for us. It was the online equivalent of being invited up on stage to sing with Bruce Springsteen or being asked by online sensations Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker to share our website and have them critique it. Oh wait…. that is what happened…… the bit with Pat and Chris […]
The post Cottage Blogger featured on the 1 Day BB Podcast with Pat Flynn and Chris Ducker appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Vacation rentals and customer service go hand-in-hand, and we have it covered– or so we believe. We all like to think we are offering amazing service to our guests – we respond quickly to their inquiries; deliver a beautiful home with lovely décor and comfortable beds, and provide them with comprehensive information on the property […]
The post VRS058 – A Customer Service Revolution in Vacation Rentals with John DiJulius appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Mike and I sat down to reflect back on 2014, and share our plans for the new year. We agreed that information overload and overwhelm was a great part of our experience of the year so wanted to bring you the resources we’ve been using to chart our way through the myriad blogs, podcasts, digital […]
The post VRS057 – Get Productive in 2015 with 7 Free Resources to Free up your time appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When Matt Landau emailed me to say he was launching the Vacation Rental Marketing Makeover 2015, and looking for his next willing ‘victim’, I had to get him on the show to talk about it and we ended up discussing much more. From moving his Inner Circle Facebook group to a new forum platform, to […]
The post VRS056 – Forums, Makeovers and Vacation Rental Marketing Analysis with Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Spain is home to thousands of vacation homes, villas, condos, many of which are owned by UK residents who have been vacationing there for decades. At a little over 2 hours from London, UK, and having a beautiful climate, it’s a perfect destination for a vacation at any time of the year. My guest in […]
The post VRS055 – Rich Guest Profiling for Vacation Rental with Louise Brace of Rental Buzz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Marketing for your vacation rental is a serious business and needs a budget, a strategy that delivers a positive ROI, together with time and attention. And, it can also be a lot of fun. My guest in this episode is Adam Norko, Sales and Marketing Director at PointCentral smart home control. Before that, Adam spent […]
The post VRS054 -12 Tips to Boost your Marketing Presence with Adam Norko appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Wherewaterfalls is Amy Blomquist’s vacation rental property in Loma Mar, California. A beautifully presented and photographed off-the-beaten-track home that delights every guest that visits. I could just say that, but in fact there is far more to it …..a fascinating story of Scandinavian immigrants who crossed the ocean in the 19th century, built a business […]
The post VRS053 – Amy Blomquist – Vacation Rental Owner and Memory Creator appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been podcasting for around 2 years now and it’s been a blast. Not only has this grown my community online but it’s given me the opportunity to meet so many other podcasters and find out how it is benefiting them as well. I put a lot of this success down to the Podcasting A […]
The post VRS052 – How podcasting can benefit the vacation rental industry with Cliff Ravenscraft The Podcast Answer Man appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been a while since I had a rant so I guess the time is ripe to get back to basics and list out all those things that give vacation rentals a bad rap. In my day job as the CEO of a Vacation Rental Management Agency I see a lot of properties. Owners send […]
The post VRS051 – 12 Things That Shouldn’t be Seen in a Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Yay! We’ve reached Episode 50 and have more than 35 interviews recorded. It was a pleasant exercise to go back through them all and review the learning points so in this milestone episode, Mike and I discuss some of the best lessons we’ve learned and applied in our own marketing and VR operations. Mike and Andrea […]
The post VRS050 – Lessons from Vacation Rental Experts – What we’ve learned from 35 Interviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Imagine spending 3 days of networking, attending presentations and learning sessions, interspersed with talking to industry suppliers and you’ll appreciate I’ve got a lot to share from the Vacation Rental Managers Associiation conference in San Diego! The final count of attendees was over 1000 – a new record for the event and further proof that […]
The post VRMA 2014 Conference Round-Up appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Just a few years after a ‘Save the VRMA’ campaign was launched and membership had slumped, this year’s VRMA Conference hit a record with over 1000 attendees, and it was great to be there and be immersed in the industry for 3 days. It’s not inexpensive to attend a conference. Flights, hotel room, meals and […]
The post VRS049 – How One Sentence Ignited a Firestorm and Other Highlights from the VRMA Conference 2014 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A Guest Post From Paul Montreal over at turnaroundtuesday.org About the author Paul Montreal runs Turnaround Tuesday. A weekly, website makeover clinic. For Entrepreneurs who have a website and a dream, but aren’t getting the results they expected. Anyone can apply for a free marketing makeover at http://turnaroundtuesday.org/apply/ I’m doing a mash-up marketing makeover […]
The post Vacation Rental Website Marketing Makeover – From Paul Montreal appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Today’s guest tells a great story about what happens when you don’t go with your gut about a reservation inquiry, and end up with a call from the Sheriff’s department at 2am. This could happen to any of us and it’s a salutary tale we should all take note of. Brea Gratia is a Houston […]
The post VRS048 – Going Local in Asheville – How Brea Gratia Tells Her Story and Gets Bookings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Over the past ten years in my cottage rental business as well as through this blog and podcast, I have talked at length with hundreds of vacation rental owners, many of whom have been amazingly successful. Those who have achieved great success share a set of perspectives and beliefs andhabits. They: 1. Treat their vacation […]
The post The 10 Habits of Remarkable And Successful Vacation Rental Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Julia Hill is a dynamo! In a mere 2 years she’s taken her ‘wonky pink cottage’ on Florida’s Atltantic coast to maximum occupancy, just about finalized the purchase of a second much larger property, and been a panelist at the Home Away summit in Fort Lauderdale. In this episode you’ll hear how all that has […]
The post VRS047 – Getting to 100% Vacation Rental Occupancy with Julia Hill appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve never done a statistically significant study in our rental agency to see who makes the vacation rental decisions but we do know that women are the primary inquirers, and feature predominantly on rental agreements as the lead guest. Increasingly, we are hearing from them that they were not the final arbiters in the choice […]
The post Move Over Mom! – The Kids are Making the Vacation Decisions appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I don’t like to label myself, but in issues of technology I find myself overwhelmed sometimes with the speed of progress, the wealth of new gadgets and gizmos, and most of all, the ability of my 2 year old granddaughter to operate an iPad. My label would be ‘recovering dinosaur’! I’ve seen the light and […]
The post Are You a Dinosaur….or Vacation Rental Mobile Ready? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When a vacation rental experience is bad, most people would just write a poor review, shrug it off and put it down to experience. Fortunately for us, the founder of Dwellable, Adam Doppelt didn’t let it rest. In the same way he helped people discover new restaurants when he co-founded Urban Spoon, so Dwellable aims […]
The post VRS046 – The vacation rental mobile revolution with Kirby Winfield of Dwellable appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A late night phone call on the Friday of a holiday weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). An expectation that there would be ‘instant gratification’. After all, it’s possible to order a pizza, book a flight to San Diego, and speak to a help-desk person in India to deal with a computer issue, so why not book a […]
The post Instant Gratification and Other Guest Expectations – How the Vacation Rental Business is Changing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Guest post by Alan Egan – RentMoreWeeks.com In this article we are talking social media and Heather has asked me to share some tips on the ins and outs of Google plus. There's a lot to Google Plus so I thought that I would share some basic reasons for signing up and getting involved and […]
The post On the Plus Side – A look at Google+ with Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Debi’s story of buying, renovating and marketing four separate (and very different) vacation rental properties is motivating and inspiring. From a career in patient care to a rewarding business in guest care, Debi has used all her skills of understanding the needs of people to create a welcoming environment and it shows in the consistent […]
The post VRS045 – Managing Multiple Vacation Rental Properties with Oregon Owner Debi Hertert appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As part of my day job as an agency owner, I regularly view vacation homes and continue to be surprised by the perceptions of owners as to the rental potential of their properties. To prevent a wasted journey I have a lot of requirements to be met before a viewing, one of which is that […]
The post Let’s rent out our vacation home…. appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you are a reader of Matt Landau’s excellent Vacation Rental Marketing Blog, you have probably been following his amazing website makeover series. If you are not familiar with Matt, this is a great introduction to some of his work. Several months ago, Matt launched the Makeover – a project where he took an under-performing property […]
The post VRS044 – Extreme Vacation Rental Property Makeover with Amy Firmani and Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Being competitive in this industry gets more difficult by the day. There’s no easy route any longer. Just piling more and more money into the big listing sites may get you to the top of the pile, but that’s no guarantee people will stay any longer on your listing. You know you have to have […]
The post Create A Vacation Rental Marketing Funnel – How to suck your guests in! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Over the past 12 years I’ve owned seven vacation homes – at one time we had five on the go – but mostly we have bought and sold as the market has evolved. Currently, I’m managing two – Osprey Cottage (bought in 2005) and Kingfisher Cottage (bought in 2012). The process of selection has always […]
The post It’s Time to Buy the Next Vacation Rental Home appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My guest in this episode is a microbiologist turned vacation rental guru, or maybe just an everyday genius who made a career change that is benefiting hundreds of owners and agencies worldwide. If you are a regular on the vacation rental LinkedIn groups you will have come across Richard Vaughton, who shares insightful views and […]
The post VRS043 – A Melting Pot of Complexity – Reinventing the Vacation Rental Industry with Richard Vaughton appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As this business attracts more people who want to really succeed, many are seeing the benefits of either buying additional properties or helping others manage theirs. Perhaps you are an Owner Manager. You have your own vacation rental properties – maybe a couple of condos or houses in the same complex or area. Many followers […]
The post From 7 Properties to 200 – Tips for Starting a Vacation Rental Agency appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Some years ago I had a ‘discussion’ with my better half about the value of using images in our pre-arrival information material which I thought were pretty boring and dense with too much text. He’s an ex-military man who spent a full career following protocols and standard operation procedures, so he felt the idea of […]
The post 5 Super Useful Information Sharing Platforms for Your Vacation Rental Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My guest on this episode is passionate about the vacation rental business, and although he doesn’t own a property himself, he has been a powerful advocate for delivering great information to guests, for many years. Back in 2007, Andy McNulty, together with a business partner, founded Getaway Earth. The site aimed to create a space […]
The post VRS042 – Creating a Vacation Insider Guide with Andy McNulty appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s that time of year again. The dock will be coming out of the water; the boat has gone to be shrink-wrapped for winter; and I’m going to clear the garage out in the vain hope that we can actually put a car in there this year And… with summer over, we are in full […]
The post The Information Super Highway – The Key to Vacation Rental Guest Satisfaction appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Source (formerly Radio Shack) in Canada has been running an ad for a couple of years with the ‘I Want That’ theme. A little weird, but it says where we are now in the crowded retail space – if something grabs our attention sufficiently, it’s usually enough to draw us in to finding out […]
The post The Anatomy of a Successful Vacation Rental Listing Part One- The Headline appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Earlier this year I interviewed Rex Brown of Holiday Rental Mastery in Melbourne and he shared his excitement at the success of his Airbnb listing in booking his city apartment. A few months later, Jasper Ribbers promoted his new book, Get Paid for Your Pad – a host's guide to Airbnb. And now, this week I […]
The post VRS041 – How to be Successful in Airbnb with Glenn Cooley appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Marketing your vacation rental is an investment – it takes time and can eat up a significant amount of money – but done well can be profitable. But deciding on where to advertise, which social media platform to concentrate on, and how much to spend is challenging. It’s easy to part with money and hope for […]
The post Do You Know Your Customers Persona – A Guide to Targeted Vacation Rental Marketing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is a guest post by Tyann Marcinck of Marcinck Designs – Photographer, multiple vacation home owner and Mom of 3 boys. We wonder if she ever sleeps! 10. Clean the property. It may be common sense, yet it’s so very important. Have the housekeeper thoroughly clean before your photoshoot. Photographs show every little […]
The post Tyann Marcink’s Top Ten List for Vacation Rental Property Photography appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I first started in this business the overriding attitude seemed to be that the rental was the last resting place for everything no longer wanted in the primary home. It was where mattresses, old sofas and relics of yesteryear went to die. Sadly, a short time spent looking at listing sites shows these properties […]
The post VRS040 – Affordable Design, Sexy Bedrooms, and Vacation Rental Branding with Mercedes Brennan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How do you pick the property you will stay in on your next vacation? Do you go for the price? Perhaps the location, or maybe the beauty of the landscaping and exterior? Or is it the interior photos that will make or break your decision? I recently recorded a podcast inteview with Mercedes Brennan who talks about […]
The post 5 Images that would drive me to book elsewhere – and it only needs one! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I live on a dead end cottage road, with one property beyond me before the road ends. It's a quiet spot and we are rarely disturbed by neighbours. But for the last few nights, the rental crowd in the property next door have partied into the early hours with pounding bass, raucous screaming and shouting. […]
The post How to Create a Vacation Rental Alliance and Beat the Bans appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The growth of the big listing sites and the move away from a relationship based transaction between guests and owners is driving more owners towards ways of connecting with customers on a more personal level. Having your own website, becoming a local expert by blogging and podcasting, and creating a solid presence on social media, […]
The post VRS039 – Creating a Vacation Rental Owner Network appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve just come back from a great weekend where I was immersed in the podcasting world and can now proudly call myself a ‘geek’. At least that’s what the immigration officer at the airport seemed to think I was when I said I was going to a podcasting conference. I got that look. The one […]
The post What this Vacation Rental Owner learned from a Podcasting Conference appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I spent the weekend at the Podcast Movement Conference in Dallas, where I spoke on a panel about podcast promotion, networked with 600 other podcasters, and had a thoroughly good time. It was such a diverse crowd of people with shows on topics ranging from juicing to body building, WordPress hacks to selling on Ebay; […]
The post VRS038 – Dealing with Vacation Rental Complaints and Damage appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Has anyone noticed how this year renters seem to have much higher expectations than before? I remember when the most asked question was, ‘Does it have running water and electricity’, and feeling amused and slightly smug saying that not only did my cottage have the luxury of an indoor toilet, but it also had a TV. Now, some of the most frequently asked questions are, ‘What size is the TV and does it get the sports channel?’, and ‘Is there hi-speed internet?’
Just a few weeks ago, I heard a complaint from a renter who had completed their vacation at a cottage on a lake local to us. The cottage has grass to the shoreline then shallow water with a hard sand bottom with a few rocks. I would say water shoes are advisable but then I’d recommend that anyway. The listing for the cottage said:
“Sandy, shallow walkout to the water, deepening gradually toward the end of the dock”.
The renter complained that the ‘beach’ that was advertised was not there and her daughter was unable to play in the sand. Apparently, using the word ‘sandy’ in the listing gave the impression that there was a portion of Bondi Beach on the shoreline, dunes stretching in every direction, and an expectation her children of the family spending happy hours building Buckingham Palace type sandcastles.
The post Meeting Vacation Rental Guest Expectations appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I am about to share my ignorance. Back in school, oh about 40 years ago (although it really does feel like yesterday), I prided myself on being pretty good at geography. I knew the capital cities of most countries in the world, could recite every state in the US and province in Canada, and I […]
The post The Vacation Rental Welcome Book appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Heather Bayer – Post-Production Promotion Power Pack How do you get your interviewees to market their episode for you? They are busy people like we are so unless you have a power list and it really makes sense for them to promote their interview to their list, they just may not think it is worth […]
The post PM14 – Promoting Your Podcast Panel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all know the value of great photos, and as listing sites become more sophisticated and WordPress themes offer greater choice, higher quality images are going to become necessary in order to compete in this market. Dwellable is leading the way with this and owners who are listing with HD photography are blowing the competition […]
The post VRS037– How to get a Professional Photoshoot at No Cost with John McElligott appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Part One of this post explained why I really believe that podcasting should be in your marketing plan, and this Part briefly explores how you can get started, and just how easy it is. I am not going to go into this too deeply as there are some really great tutorials available that provide everything […]
The post Why vacation rental owners and agencies should be podcasting – Part Two appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Take 4 vacation rentals, numerous dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, goats, ducks and a llama, and a passion for hospitality, and you have the dynamo that is Tansy Forster, the owner of multiple properties in Normandy, France. Since 2001, when Tansy and her husband, former royal photographer Mike Forster, jumped the channel to make their home […]
The post VRS036 – The Vacation Rental French Connection with Tansy Forster appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m super excited because as I write this, it’s only 10 days till I fly to Dallas for the first ever Podcast Movement Conference. This looks to be an amazing event showcasing some of the top experts in podcasting with keynote presentations, topic specific sessions and a range of panels featuring podcasters who are making […]
The post Why vacation rental owners and agencies should be podcasting – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Put together 12 vacation rental industry experts, ask them to share their best information in a dozen outstanding presentations, and you have a package that might just catapult your business to the next level. Since the Summit aired in June, I have already put many of the things I learned into practice with positive results […]
The post VRS035 – Quick and Easy Tips from VRWS 2014 with Antonio Bortolotti appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all know that guest exepectations continue to rise and what was tolerated 10 years ago, would be grounds for a complete refund today, but some areas are slower to catch on than others. There are a lot of reasons for this, not least of which is the traditional nature of vacations in places where […]
The post VRS034 – How to Increase Vacation Rental Guest Happiness in 10 Easy Steps appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
One of the great benefits of creating this podcast is that I get to speak to so many experienced owners on so many different topics. I also get to hear about their fabulous locations and properties. My guest in this episode may be in one of the most coveted spots in the world with a […]
The post VRS033 – Fiji Vacation Rental Owner and Writer – Beth Carson appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We asked for your questions and we got them! Thank you so much to all who sent us questions about your vacation rental businesses. It was great to hear from you and to learn about different locations and the issues that are on your mind. Keep them coming! For this episode, we chose two that […]
The post VRS032 – Your Vacation Rental Questions Answered with Heather & Mike appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve reached summer and passed the longest day, and as the nights start drawing in and my annual vacation is a mere 12 weeks away, I figured it was a good time to reflect on our busiest month of the year as June closes with Canada Day (July 1st) and for those south of the border, […]
The post A Month in the Life of a Vacation Rental Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Have you checked out The Book of Awesome? Written by Canadian Neil Pasricha who The Toronto Star called “the guru of small joys”. This collection of 1000 little pleasures we all share will have you laughing and nodding on every page. #858 – The Other Side of the Pillow – is one of my favourites. […]
The post VRS031 – How to Give Your Vacation Rental Guests a Great Nights Sleep – with Alanna Schroeder appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A few weeks ago I came across a press release from the owner of a luxury St Barth’s villa. The release was not about the property or the island – it was on the topic of securing a great deal for a vacation rental – and it was a great way of creating a newsworthy […]
The post VRS030 – Successful Owner Series with Thibault Masson – From St Barths to Bali appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Just a few years ago, when Airbnb hit the market, it was seen as the platform where you advertised your spare room for a few dollars, and on occasion you could actually have people to stay there when you were on vacation. It seemed to target the ‘couch surfing’ market in urban areas so if […]
The post VRS029 – How to Get Paid for your Pad – The Airbnb Experience with Jasper Ribbers appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What a great weekend! Three days of excellent content from 12 industry experts, six thousand attendees and a hugely active forum bringing many owners together – the Vacation Rental World Summit appeared to be a big success. No doubt there will be a lot of feedback over the coming weeks, but from what I heard, […]
The post How to get your Vacation Rental guests to market for you – send them a photo book! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Welcome to the show notes for my presentation from the Vacation Rental World Summit 2014 and I just want to thank you for not only taking the time to watch my presentation but also taking the time to come over here to view the show notes and the rest of vacationrentalformula.com. If you have found this […]
The post Vacation Rental World Summit 2014 Show Notes appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This episode features Antonio Bortolotti, who I also had the pleasure of interviewing earlier this year in Episode 16 before he began assembling his stellar cast for the upcoming Vacation Rental World Summit. If you haven’t registered yet, you still have a couple of days before the event commences on 13th June. Antonio has put […]
The post VRS028 – The Vacation Rental World Summit with Antonio Bortolotti and Heather Bayer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Over the past few years we have written and produced many articles, downloads and videos about accepting pets at your vacation rental property and if you have read any of them you will know that Heather and I are dog owners and we advocate that VR owners welcome the furry members of your guests family to […]
The post The debate over accepting pets in vacation rentals continues…. appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you have ever wondered how great it would be to be able to guarantee your income as a vacation rental home owner; not worry about occupancy levels or the commission your agency is collecting, then there is a new player on the block that may have the answer. Vacation Futures, co-owned by Andrew McConnell […]
The post VRS027 – Guaranteed Vacation Rental Income Explained with Andrew McConnell of Vacation Futures appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been following Matt Landau’s makeover of Amy Firman’s website with huge interest, as he’s brought in a skilled copywriter to help with text, a professional photographer to take amazing images and Jay William from Villa Marketers to create a stunning website. So, I was delighted to welcome Jay to be my guest on this […]
The post VRS026 – The Vacation Rental Makeover Edition with Jay William appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Oh no…..a negative review! The day you get the first of these is never a happy one and there’s always a knee jerk reaction that will throw you into defensive mode. How dare they? Don’t they know what damage publicly displayed bad feedback can do? It’s completely unfair and we have to get it removed. […]
The post 10 Ways to Prevent Complaints and Negative Reviews For Your Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In the 1990’s, I spent three years studying hypnotism and hypnotherapy for my post graduate psychology diploma in pyschotherapy & counselling, and after being in private practice for several more years, moved into management training specialising in marketing and communication skills. Woven through all my seminars, presentations and workshops was a focus on the power […]
The post VRS025 – How to Use Hypnotic Language to Create Great Emails and Vacation Rental Listings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I regularly listen to podcasts by an amazing entrepreneur called Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income – a site that offers help and advice to anyone who does business online. Pat is a great inspiration to me – often if I’m struggling a bit to think of what to write about for the blog or […]
The post VRS024 – 5 Vacation Rental Fears And Why I No Longer Struggle With Them appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s a lot of discussion about whether you should have your own vacation rental website, and many owners happily rent with a listing alone. However, in areas where there is a lot of competition, being able to send incoming traffic to your own web site, deliver additional content, create new pages and be in total […]
The post VRS023 – Create Your Own Vacation Rental Website with Sarah Brubaker of Web Chalet appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In our part of the world (Ontario, Canada), we have to wait until the spring before we can get to many properties that have been closed up for the winter. May is the hot month for listing new cottages onto the rental market as sales close and the snow finally disappears, and I’ve already been […]
The post VRS022 – Your Burning Vacation Rental Questions Answered appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
While I’ve been busy in the European and North American vacation rental market, I hadn’t really paid much attention to what was going on in the industry ‘down under’, so it was a delight to welcome Melbourne-based Rex Brown as my guest on the podcast. Rex is a speaker at the upcoming Vacation Rental World […]
The post VRS021 – Rex Brown – Successful Vacation Rental Owner Series appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My son and business partner, Mike, had no idea I was writing this post, so it’s coming as a surprise to him, but when I saw the latest review for his property, Sea Breeze, and read all the previous ones, I thought it was time to share his success with you. Our cottage rental agency rented […]
The post The Apple Does Not Fall Far From The Tree appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There is so much I have to learn about the vacation rental business and am always delighted to see someone new on the scene with valuable experience to share. Steve Sasman owns a successful rental property in Flagstaff, Arizona, and even though it is in an area dominated by larger resorts and established accommodation, he […]
The post VRS020 – SEO for Your Vacation Rental Website with Steve Sasman appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I wrote my book on vacation rentals in 2003, there weren’t many people writing on the topic. Homeaway wasn’t founded until 2005, and even when I started Cottageblogger.com in 2007, Flipkey had just launched their blog and there were only a few people actively delivering information on how to set up and operate a […]
The post Who’s Who in the Vacation Rental Industry appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My guest today in episode 19 is Sue Zimmerman – a social media powerhouse, entrepreneur extraordinaire, and thoroughly nice person! Since starting her first business at age 13, Sue’s passion and drive for helping others to achieve success has had her founding eighteen separate businesses which made me ask which hour of the week she […]
The post VRS019 – Sue B Zimmerman the Instagram Gal appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
More from Lynne Martin of ‘Home Sweet Anywhere' I love talking to vacation rental owners to find out what they do to create quaility accommodation, but like talking to their guests even better. After all, if we are not pleasing our clients there’s something that needs changing. So, following my podcast interview with Lynne last […]
The post Nuggets of Vacation Rental Wisdom appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Lynne Martin is the author of Home Sweet Anywhere, a wonderful story of love lost-and-found, the joys and pitfall of world travel, and a renegade retirement. While most people are done with their travelling in their twenties and thirties, Lynne and her author husband Tim are exploring the world in their later years, with joy […]
The post VRS018 – A Story of Renegade Retirement & Vacation Rentals with Lynne Martin appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Good question. Why should you? And if you have the time and inclination to advertise and market your property; handle hundreds of email and phone enquiries; screen your renters; collect a deposit and final balance; generate a rental management agreement and Terms and Conditions of Rental; and follow up after the rental, then you should […]
The post Why should you use a rental management agency? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s not often you’ll hear me say that I’m looking forward to talking about insurance, but I was actually eager to talk to today’s guest as he is not only a vacation rental owner himself, but is also an expert on vacation rental insurance. Phil Schofield is head of inbound marketing at Schofields insurance, specialist insurers […]
The post VRS017 – Are You Covered or Exposed? With VR Insurance Specialist Phil Schofield appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Who does the changeovers in your vacation rental property? Do you use a property management company or a local independent cleaner? Perhaps you do it yourself and are considering handing the task over to someone else. Regardless of who is doing the job for you, are you confident they understand the nature of our business, […]
The post Are Your Cleaning Staff in the Hospitality Business? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode I talk with vacation rental expert Antonio Bortolotti about his Sardinia property in the first of our Owner Excellence Series. Antonio and his wife Christina took their love of architecture and interior design and created three beautiful villas in the small Sardinian village of Teulada that have since achieved raving reviews. […]
The post VRS016 – Vacation Rental Owner Excellence with Antonio Bortolotti of Casa Teulada appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you have enough hours in your day? Are you spending more time working IN your vacation rental business rather than ON it? Are you overwhelmed with the amount of small tasks you have lined up to do? If so, it might be time to outsource some work. Back in the 1960s when I was […]
The post How Outsourcing Can Save You Time and Money appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this session of Vacation Rental Success I share 25 ways you can make an impact on your guests that will contribute to them writing a great review on your listing. I know from personal experience how much reviews can impact a vacation decision. We use vacation rentals wherever we travel and the reviews are […]
The post VRS015 – 25 Ways to Attract 5 Star Reviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this week’s episode I talk to author, multiple vacation home owner, and activist, Joel Rasmussen. Joel is President and Founder of the Austin Rental Alliance, one of the largest non-profit association of vacation rentals owners in the U.S. He’s also author of Vacation Rental Success – Volume 1 – From Start to Profit. […]
The post VRS014 – From Start to Profit with Joel Rasmussen appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what happens when things go wrong at a vacation rental and how easy it is to screw up all the goodwill you have created with guests by simply mis-handling the situation. When I say ‘mishandling’ I mean not having the systems and procedures in place to manage a […]
The post The Sure-Fire Way to Get Negative Reviews – and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Tyann Marcink is one very busy person. A mom to 3 boys, web designer, vacation rental owner and professional photographer, she balances a lot of activities and still had time to talk with me in episode 13 of The Vacation Rental Success Podcast. I’m a mediocre photographer and rarely stray from automatic mode on my […]
The post VRS013 – Creating Killer Vacation Rental Photos with Tyann Marcink appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
You may have noticed over the past few months, the design of the website has been changing. It’s been a bit of a do-it-ourselves effort to make the blog more readable and we’ve been experimenting with different elements and design features. It’s been a bit like trying to cut your own hair – you can […]
The post We’re getting a makeover! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Orlando based realtor and vacation rental specialist, Erica Muller, is a powerhouse in the Florida real estate market. Her new e-course “Everything you wish you knew about buying a vacation rental home” is a comprehensive and content packed guide for anyone considering buying a property from a distance. Tweet: Find a #realtor that understands the […]
The post VRS012 – Buying a Vacation Home with Confidence to Succeed – Erica Muller of The Flamingo Group appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’re back from another great winter vacation in the sun and if you read my previous post describing what happens When the Sun Doesn’t Shine in Paradise, you’ll know there wasn’t as great deal of the sunny weather we were expecting. However, we had a great time, most of it due to the excellent accommodation […]
The post Reflections on Being a Vacation Rental Guest – 10 Takeaways from Thevine House appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been searching through online listings in the Bahamas recently because we are considering buying a property there and renting it out. As part of the research I was looking at rental rates, occupancy levels and reviews, to see what works for owners, and what doesn’t. This is totally unscientific and a statistician would no […]
The post VRS011 – Words that Sell – Travel Copywriting with Erin Raub appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Many years ago we planned a vacation in the Cahors region of France – in a rental villa. It was a small place just for the two of us, but it was in a beautiful region and we were excited about exploring; eating out on terraces in old villages; relaxing by the pool at the […]
The post How to Please Guests When the Sun Doesn’t Shine in Paradise appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There were two things I found about today’s guest that I didn’t know, and found fascinating. The first is that he founded a vacation rental listing site in Portugal in 2004, and the second, that he has been a full-time sailor for many years and spent two years cruising in the Caribbean, which is doubly […]
The post VRS010 – Plain Sailing to Success with Google+ Featuring Alan Egan appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When you are a far-away owner, and by that I mean an airplane ride away – not a couple of hours by car – managing a property becomes a whole lot more of a challenge. I spoke about this with Lisa Presley Sedore in episode 2 of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast (VRS002). She ‘manages’ […]
The post You don’t have to be on-site to be a great host – It’s all a matter of management appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week saw a milestone at Osprey Cottage and our 60th review. It was from a group who have been to the cottage before but this was the first time they had posted a review so it was a delight to hear from them. Since we have had such great success with this property, I […]
The post How we got 60 Reviews and created a loyal band of repeat guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The state of the economy in the last few years has presented a dilemma to many owners who have a vacation home but may not have considered renting out before. For some it has become the only way they can afford to hold onto the family vacation home; for others it’s a way of maintaining […]
The post 4 Key Steps to Renting Your Vacation Home Without Stress appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I make no secret of being a Twitter user. In fact if you take a look at my profile it won’t be long before I cross the 8000 tweet mark, which isn’t a big deal if you look at the likes of Perez Hilton at nearly 180,00 but for someone in a small niche (vacation […]
The post Marketing Yourself and Your Vacation Rental on Twitter – Making Connections in 140 Characters appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Key to Attracting the Right Rental Guests We are real people, not anonymous booking staff. We’ve sweated years to create a beautiful space we want to share with our guests. And we are offering it to real people – not anonymous families that will come and go without us knowing a thing about them. […]
The post Getting Personal appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In today’s show we’re talking about Home Exchange and specifically vacation rental home exchange. This is not a new concept and has been around for a long time. In fact, fifteen years ago, before I got into the vacation rental business, my family did a home exchange with another family from California’s Sonoma valley. It […]
The post VRS009 – Home Exchange the Vacation Rental Way with Larry Klimczyk appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I first got into the vacation rental industry in the 1990’s it was markedly different to what we see today. I remember going to rental cottages in the UK and being completely tolerant of the thin sheets, dust bunnies under the beds and the long lists of rules and instructions. As a family, we’d […]
The post Making the Vacation Rental Process Effortless appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Well, I finally got to Episode 8 after a long hiatus over the summer and into the fall. It seems there is no stopping this runaway train that is the business of vacation rentals and we felt it in our agency as many others have experienced too. The busy summer of rentals took all our […]
The post VRS008 – 10 Things We Learned from a Summer of Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Guests never run out of questions to ask and in the course of a booking season in our rental agency we deal with dozens of them each day. There is a pattern to them – often they just want clarification that the listing is accurate and what is shown will actually be there – […]
The post 4 Things Vacation Rental Guests Worry About appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve had the occasional rants and got some backlash for them, which in retrospect may have been justified to some extent. It’s easy to jump on the soap box and bang out some frustration in the form of a blog post and hit publish – it gives a little satisfaction to get it out there […]
The post Is a Public Rant Ever Justified? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
An article in the Huffington Post caught my eye this week as a couple of serial vacation rental guests delivered their criteria for reserving a property. Five Rules for Choosing a Vacation Rental gives their must-have list before they book a place and it interested me as there’s a couple of points that I wouldn’t necessarily […]
The post What’s Important to your Rental Guests may Surprise You appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Now the busy season is over for most of us (winter hot spots just ramping up) take stock of the wear and tear of a long summer of rental and spend some time do all those things that tend to get set aside with the busy period of regular changeovers. Here’s just a few tasks […]
The post 15 Tips for Fall and Winter Tasks for Vacation Rental Properties appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m always disappointed when I see reporting in the media such as this story from our own Canadian based CTV News. It’s about a couple from British Columbia who rented an apartment in Paris from a private listing on Airbnb. On one day of their vacation they inadvertently locked themselves out of the apartment and […]
The post When Guests are Locked Out – Who is Responsible? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When was the last time you planned a holiday? Was it in a vacation rental? Can you remember how you chose it – what made you say, “Wow – we’ve got to have that”? Think about it. Did you write a list of criteria your destination and accommodation had to have, or did you just […]
The post Thevine House – The key to a great ‘hook’ appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you have air conditioning your guests will be in control of the temperature within the property, but many places do not have the benefit of AC and it's therefore important to make sure they will be comfortable sleeping in the heat of the summer. Even with overhead and portable fans, on the hottest of […]
The post Keeping Your Guests Cool – Summer Bedding Explained appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We spend a third of our lives in bed and this is the same for our vacations. In fact, for many people, a holiday is a time for spending even more time catching up on sleep, having lie-ins, and hopefully luxuriating in comfort with a morning coffee or a good book last thing at night. […]
The post Vacation Rental Bedrooms – Quality Counts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Having a lot of rental guests go through our agency reservation system each year means we can see patterns and trends and often identify different types of people who stay in our properties. Mostly they are wonderful groups who book, pay promptly, have a wonderful time and write great reviews, however over the course of […]
The post Do you Know Your Guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“To the ancient Greeks, hospitality was a divine right. The host was expected to make sure the needs of his guests were seen to. In Greek society a person's ability to abide the laws to hospitality determined nobility and social standing.” Source: Wikipedia This year clarified a lot for me about the changing nature of […]
The post Is An Attitude Adjustment Needed in the Vacation Rental Business? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Wheee…..it’s been quite the ride over the last 10 weeks, and I can state for a fact that I’ve been living, eating and breathing the vacation rental business 16 hours a day, seven days a week. No matter how hard I work at not being hands-on, it’s tough not to be involved with 200+ emails […]
The post Ten Weeks in the Life of a Vacation Rental Manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this session of Vacation Rental Success, I’m delighted to welcome Evelyn Gallardo who I met for the first time at the Home Away Summit in Phoenix. She was a member of a panel delivering a social media workshop over the afternoon on the first day, and had my attention from the get-go after getting […]
The post VRS007 – Mastering social media for vacation rental with expert Evelyn Gallardo appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all love positive reviews don’t we? Most owners I’ve talked with would be unhappy with anything less than five star, and see a lower grade as a severe dent in their stellar record of ‘doing it right’. However much the review sites and experts tell us that it’s always good to get a lower […]
The post Dropping the Ball on my own Vacation Rental – A Learning Experience appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m still buzzing from my trip to Phoenix to the HomeAway Summit which was an amazingly valuable weekend. The best part of the trip was the networking and the tremendous professionalism and enthusiasm shown by the 350+ vacation rental owners who attended. I talked to owners with properties in Costa Rica, Panama, British Columbia, and […]
The post VRS006 – Getting Analytical with VR Marketing Expert, Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Putting together an emergency plan is one of those things we tend to put off for that day when ‘we've got a bit more time'. However, if you are like many people, that day rarely comes, and the next thing you know, a situation arises and we are scrambling around to make it right for […]
The post 10 Steps To Emergency Preparedness appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
No matter how comprehensive your website or listing is, your potential guests will have questions they want to ask. Often, the answers are already on the listing! Most owners have experienced the frustration of having to respond to emails with information that is already shown on their website. From the perspective of someone looking at […]
The post How to build an FAQ page appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I met some great people at the Home Away Summit and you’ll be hearing about them over the next few weeks, in blog posts and a few podcast interviews I have lined up. Freshest in my mind are Jim and Paula Davy who I had the pleasure of sharing a cab with on the way […]
The post No Small Potatoes – A Review of an Idaho Vacation Rental Listing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Studies by neuroscientists have shown that ancient neural circuits in the brain are activated when decisions are made on the importance of objects in the environment, allowing us to make rapid assessments and judgements. This is what we know as ‘first impressions’ and this work has shown how we form them within the first 30 […]
The post The Power of WOW – 30 Seconds to Increasing Revenue appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this session of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, I’m excited to have a chat with successful holiday rental entrepreneur, Wendy Shand of UK-based Tots To Travel. Launched in 2006, Tots to Travel has grown to be one of the UK’s leading agencies focusing on safe family-friendly accommodation in the UK and Europe and has […]
The post VRS005 – Creating Family Friendly Holiday Success With Wendy Shand appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s a lot of famous Canadians and we’re proud of most of them. James Naismith was the Canadian sports coach who introduced the world to basketball in 1891; Scott Abott and Chris Haney invented the game of Trivial Pursuit ( there’s a board in each of my cottages); James Bombardier is responsible for the snowmobile, […]
The post What Chris Hadfield can Teach us about Out of This World Marketing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s less than a week now until I head off to Phoenix to speak at the Home Away Summit, and I’m getting really psyched up for it. I love talking about this business and I’m so looking forward to a whole weekend of immersion in vacation rentals, with lots of vacation rental people. There’s a […]
The post How to Create ‘WOW’ Moments in the Kitchen appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Price of Free It’s hard not to be attracted to a free listing or a free template to build a vacation rental website. You won’t have to look hard to find blog posts and articles suggesting you use them – after all there is no cost to doing so and why wouldn’t you? It’s […]
The post Why Free Is Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We see so many vacation homes during the course of a year and one thing that has struck me is that owners seem to pay far more attention to the master bedroom than the others. While these rooms are larger and often have ensuite bathrooms, there really is no reason to downgrade the second and […]
The post Second Best Can Be First Class – Tips For Second Bedrooms appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There’s no arguing that quality photos can deliver conversions. It just makes so much sense to spend time on staging a room before taking the picture that will convince a site visitor to book your place rather than the competition. Whereas taking decent images was only in the realm of professional photographers ten years ago, […]
The post 9 Photographs You Should Not Have On Your Site appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Guest post by Matt Smolsky of Perfect Places.com Social media figures heavily in the plans of many cottage rental owners and managers in 2013. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Perfect Places Vacation Rentals, social media is a respectable 3rd to paid and free listings as a marketing tool. Social media even […]
The post Keep Them Engaged: 3 Social Media Networks for Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week’s guest thought she was pushing the envelope in setting a goal of 24 weeks of rental in the first year (the industry standard in her area is 17). The property was rented for 48 weeks! In this episode we hear from Lisa Sedore – a Canadian who has made a huge success of […]
The post VRS004 – Vacation Rental Success Story with Lisa Sedore of Sunshine Villa Orlando appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week saw a landmark for us as the 50th Review was posted for my own Osprey Cottage on Flipkey, I’m bowled over by the success of this because: · We don’t promote the cottage · We don’t have an active website for as it’s advertised on our agency listing site · It’s not […]
The post 50 Flipkey Reviews – Our Vacation Rental Success! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this session I explore the experience of being a guest. With a recent vacation in a Bahamas villa fresh in my mind, as well as the memories of many previous rental home holidays, I wanted to share some of my insights of what it’s like. From going through the selection process to booking, and […]
The post VRS003 – Being a Vacation Rental Guest appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I would not rent a property without Wifi. That is one of my ‘must-have’ criteria. Others will not consider places unless they are pet-friendly, and there are many more who are not interested in staying in a place that doesn’t offer post rental cleaning, either included in the rental rate, or offered at an additional […]
The post Staying Competitive in the Vacation Rental Market – the WiFi Connection appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I know I’m preaching to the converted here, but having just spent a night in a (not inexpensive) Nassau hotel/resort, it just struck me that this is why vacation rentals are so much better than the old alternatives. We’ve just left our beautiful rental home with a full kitchen (with decent sized tea mugs), luxury […]
The post Why More People Should Choose Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve been at Pura Vida a week now with a few more days to go, and like most guests in a vacation rental, are fully settled. We know where stuff is in the kitchen, we have our own favourite spots to sit and enjoy the sun or shade, the fridge is stuffed with food and […]
The post It’s the Little Things that Make a Vacation Rental Perfect appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In this episode of the Vacation Rental Success podcast my son, Mike Bayer, shares his experience of buying and setting up his Lake Ontario cottage for rental, and what he has learned in the first 18 months of business. Mike has been involved in vacation rentals for over ten years, from running a property management […]
The post VRS002 – Getting Started in Vacation Rental with Mike Bayer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Each year we rent a vacation home for our February vacation. We can be fairly specific in our needs but I am usually swayed by terrific photographs and great reviews. As long as it has the key amenities – hi-speed internet; queen beds; linens and cleaning included, I can make a decision. Last year we […]
The post Pleasing Guests From The Start – A Pura Vida Experience appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Well, after weeks of learning, setting up a mass of equipment with more knobs and dials than I've ever seen outside of Blake's Seven (that's a reference to a show that was on UK TV in the late 70's, better known as the Shaky Spaceship Show), and gearing myself up to talking for 40 minutes […]
The post VRS001 – Launching the Vacation Rental Success Podcast appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is the first in a series of guest posts by owners sharing their unique stories. Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, created a bit of controversy when he said that a home is not an asset, but a liability. This is because your home doesn’t make you money each year, but actually […]
The post How We’ve Made $30K/Year Renting Our Primary Residence as a Vacation Home appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I am sure we all get that sinking feeling when something unforeseen happens while guests are in our property. We do our utmost to make it beautiful; have it well prepared for guests’ arrival, and make ourselves available for help if required. Conventional wisdom would also dictate that a well-handled problem should deliver more satisfied […]
The post How negative reviews can bring positive results appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This guest post is by Beth Stockwell at the Home Away Community. Though some owners and property managers live reasonably close to their vacation rentals, there are many that live a long drive, or even a flight, away. Rest assured that in today’s technologically advanced world, there are so many gadgets that can help […]
The post Gadgets to Manage Your Rental Remotely appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Christmas is over; 2013 is fast approaching and if you have vacancies for January, February and March, it’s time to get them filled. Unless you are blessed with a property in a year-round holiday spot, encouraging guests in the low season should be high on your priority list. Here’s a few things I am doing […]
The post Warm up Your Winter Vacation Rental Marketing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I first started in the vacation rental business, I knew next to nothing. I was on vacation. I met some Dutch businessmen. I looked at some contracts. And then poof: I purchased their company (Los Cuatro Tulipanes), located in the scariest part of town, with two prostitutes and a small gang as neighbors. […]
The post Top 8 Vacation Rental Lessons I’ve Learned – Guest Post by Matt Landau appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting great photos of your bathroom can be challenging and many people don’t include them in a listing. In fact, an owner mentioned to me recently that since the room is not in constant use like the living areas, it doesn’t need the same time spent on it as say, staging the bedrooms. Wrong! We […]
The post Vacation Rental Staging – Bathrooms appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I think I have got it! In fact, after a month of frustration, reading manuals, tweaking this and tweaking that, I understand (sort of) how it all hangs together. Windows 8 that is! And along the way I began to really appreciate what it’s like when we take familiar landscape and functionality and transfer it […]
The post Tweaking Windows 8 & the Art of Pleasing Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s been a frustrating week here on our RV site in Alabama. While we’ve been watching presidential candidates making promises in their election campaigns that they may or may not keep, I’ve been patiently waiting for the promised internet connection to materialize. From the day we arrived here, ten days ago, the intermittent and poor […]
The post Why You Should Deliver on Your Promises appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all know how important photos are to capture interest in our vacation rental properties, and that time taken over setting up and staging a photo shoot can pay dividends in enquiries. Since many listing sites have restrictions over the amount of images that can be posted, it’s worth looking at some alternatives to post […]
The post Attract More Interest In Your Vacation Rental With Mood Images appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Are you pet friendly? Or, are you pet tolerant? Or, do you begrudgingly accept a small, non-shedding, hypo-allergenic dog that doesn’t bark, never climbs on furniture, and then charge a fee for it? As a pet owner, my view on this is: If you are not 100% committed to welcoming pets at your […]
The post Why You Should Not Accept Pets At Your Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Since I just signed up and committed to a blog post per day for NaBloPoMo ( National Blog Post Month) it seems a good idea to make my first post on blogging and a reflection on something I read this morning – on a blog, of course. With hundreds of thousands of vacation rental […]
The post You’ve Got To Be Different To Be Seen & NaBloPoMo appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been on vacation for a few weeks now on our annual road trip to the US and have already got through seven books. I save all my fiction reading for this trip since the rest of the year I’m usually immersed in How-To books on scintillating topics like SEO, WordPress plugins and Facebook […]
The post Giving Your Guests a Good Read appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This guest post is by Phil Schofield of Schofields Insurance At some point, holiday cottage rental owners will come up against problem vacationers. Unfortunately, it’s an occupational hazard – not every booking is good for business. Avoiding certain ‘difficult guests’ can result in fewer headaches and a higher quality experience for the guests you do […]
The post How to Prevent Cottage Rental Disasters by Playing the Insurance Card appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Some of your guests will do a lot of research prior to their vacation and will have planned their trip meticulously. Others, particularly the last minute bookers, may have decided to rent your vacation home on a whim and have no idea what they will do when they get there. I’ve seen reviews of places […]
The post Ten Cool Things to Tell Your Vacation Rental Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Thanks to Tom Harris of Home Away Australia for this guest post. With the number of vacation rental ads growing every day, it’s easy for your ad to blend in with the crowd. However, there are some strategies you can use to help your rental ads stand out from the competition. Do you tell prospective […]
The post Making Your Vacation Rental Ads Stand Out appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Buying another cottage wasn’t on the radar at all. In fact, after five on the go at one time a few years back, I did that ‘never again’ thing, and one by one we sold them until just Osprey Cottage was left. So, for a few years we motored along renting Osprey very successfully until […]
The post Kingfisher Cottage – from Offer to Fully-Booked in 6 weeks – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve stayed in many vacation rentals over the past few years and find my tolerance levels to lower standards have dropped significantly. The days have gone when it was acceptable to have the cheapest appliances and kitchen equipment; uncomfortable beds with thin comforters and insufficient pillows, and bookcases filled with unwanted Readers’ Digest condensed books. […]
The post How to Wow your Guests and Stand out from the Competition appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When professional stagers work on a home that is for sale and create a fabulous look for the listing, they know that after the home is sold, their job is done and they can move all the staging materials out, leaving it bare and ready for the purchasers to put their own mark on the […]
The post Staging For Your Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I was on Twitter this morning, and came upon an owner who is using Pinterest in a really unique way to showcase her vacation home and drive traffic to the web site and listings for it. I’ve been struggling for a while to see how Pinterest can be used for owners in the best way […]
The post Holiday Home Owner Uses Pinterest to Create Site Traffic appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The Cottage Life Show in Toronto each spring is a great place for vacation home owners to check out cottage-related products and services and the five halls in the Exhibition Centre were packed with everything an owner might need from docks, boats, composting toilets, all manner of patio furniture and cottage kitsch to realtors, insurance […]
The post VR Owners Questions –“What happens if renters trash my place?” appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Given the great success we’ve had with our current vacation rental property, Osprey Cottage , we are now embarking on the search for a clone. I wish! Osprey is a fabulous rental and out of the five we’ve owned over the past ten years, it has been the top producer with an average 43 bookings […]
The post Buying a Rental Cottage – Setting the Criteria appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is a guest post by Phil Schofield of Schofields Insurance – a UK specialist in holiday letting insurance. Your vacation rental is a valuable asset and I am sure you have spent a lot of time on making the property perfect for your guests, and that you want to keep it that way. Letting […]
The post Top Vacation Rental Insurance Tips for Property Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With London, and the world, gearing up for the Olympics this summer, many home owners may be considering moving out for the duration and renting out their space to make a little extra money. UK’s Daily Telegraph reports that prices have been massively inflated – up to 300% on regular rates – to cash in […]
The post Will You Rent During the Olympic Games? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Years ago when we purchased our first property in Canada, we were still living in UK. Romanced by the idea of owning an idyllic waterfront cottage that we could vacation in when we wanted, and rent it out at all other times, we gave little thought to the logistics of managing a vacation rental from […]
The post The Perils and Pitfalls of Renting from a Distance appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all know the importance of the visual impact a vacation rental makes on a potential vacationer. With my Costa Rica holiday coming up, I’ve pored over images of beaches, monkeys, toucans, fabulously colourful flowers, as well as having the listing site photographs imprinted on my mind. It was the visual aspect that first attracted […]
The post How Pinterest Can Boost Vacation Rental Buzz appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Following my previous post on the things we learned in the first half of 2011, here’s the second part. It was a very successful and profitable year and we enjoyed welcoming a wide range of guests from all over the world. However, there are new challenges every year and since I always keep notes of […]
The post A Year of Vacation Rental Learning – Part Two appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The New Year is always a time for reflection and now that January is just about gone, I’ve already applied a lot of the learning points from 2011 to our marketing and operational plan for the cottage. We kept a log of things that happened during the year as a reminder of the good and […]
The post A Year of Vacation Rental Learning – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you want your vacation rental to appeal to potential guests, your bedrooms must look inviting and appealing. I’ve been blown away by the poor standard of bedrooms being offered in some listings and wish I could post the photos I have found online to demonstrate just how bad they are. An example I […]
The post How to Attract More Guests to your Vacation Rental with Beautiful Bedrooms appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been doing some research this morning on long tailed keywords and how they impact traffic to vacation rental sites, for an article/ebook I’m writing for Renting For Profit. In the course of checking out material related to this I found a ton of resources on Aaron Wall’s SEO Book (which is a web site […]
The post Chasing the Long Tail of Vacation Rental Keyword Research appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We are in a happy position with Osprey Cottage – sort of….because we seem to have reached our maximum occupancy potential. Over the last two years income has been pretty steady with 44 bookings in 2010 and 42 this year. Considering we had closed the place down for renovations for a couple of weeks each […]
The post How to profit after rental income is maximised appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In just a few weeks I’ll be flying to Costa Rica for our annual escape from Canadian winter and even though the snow and cold temperatures have yet to arrive here, it will be a welcome break from the dull colours of our seasonal landscape. We booked our stay at Flying Toucans in February and […]
The post How to Rent More Weeks with Images that Sell appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Winter is a little slow arriving here in Ontario with Christmas fast approaching and no sign of a white Christmas yet. However, that doesn’t stop us from preparing our vacation rentals for the snow and arctic temperatures bound to come before too long. Our guests will arrive wanting to kick back and enjoy their weekend […]
The post How to Welcome Your Winter Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m often asked which listing sites are the best to use to attract a particular target market and my answer is usually the same – if you have invested in a couple of major sites that get a ton of traffic, and one or two free sites that may be rising in popularity, the next […]
The post A vacation rental listing is not enough to attract traffic appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been following Vanessa Warwick’s blogs and posts recently. Vanessa is co-founder of Property Tribes – a UK based landlord and property investment community and owns several holiday lets in the UK and Cyprus. This post caught my eye this morning as it mirrors my philosophy on marketing vacation rentals and references a great […]
The post Tapping into Anticipation Happiness for Vacation Rental Marketing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Writing this blog has created a lot of opportunities for me. I get contacted by owners looking for advice and consultancy, journalists needing material for a story, and a lot of interest in my membership site, Renting for Profit. Consequently I believe wholeheartedly that blogs are here to stay, they work to create credibility and […]
The post 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for Vacation Rental Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve written several times about how important it is to keep your vacation rental site refreshed and up to date, and to make it ‘sticky’ – as in encouraging people to stick around. One of the best ways of doing that is to install a blog on your site, so I tweeted a few days […]
The post Blogging – How it Works for this Vacation Rental Owner appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve stayed in several vacation rental properties this year and am now looking forward to my first visit to Costa Rica in February where we’ve rented Flying Toucans, an idyllic looking villa with a swimming pool and fabulous views of the Pacific Ocean. As I showed the listing to another friend yesterday and we […]
The post Being a Guest in a Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It was interesting to read this article from ABTA discussing sustainability in travel, and the growing number of tourists seeking socially and environmentally responsible travel experiences. The key points I picked up from the article are that creating and maintaining a ‘green’ policy for holiday accommodation not only benefits the environment but also appeals to […]
The post Going Green Can Create More Business appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I took up stand-up paddle boarding this past summer. It’s a cross between surfing and kayaking and I am hooked on this sport. When we were in Dallas a few weeks ago, and staying on Grapevine Lake in an RV park, I met up with another enthusiast and as we paddled out for an hour […]
The post Capture off season bookings with niche marketing techniques appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How often do you wash the bedding in your vacation rental property? I don’t mean the sheets and pillow covers that are more likely to come into direct contact with guests’ skin – I’m also referring to blankets, comforters, duvet covers, mattress and pillow protectors. Should they be washed after each rental? When we first […]
The post Washing bedding in vacation rental homes appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I realized recently how much I use review sites for anything from checking out movies on IMDB; books on Amazon; RV Sites on RV Park Reviews and of course vacation rentals on Trip Advisor. My son & his wife have just climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and been on safari in the Masai Mara with an Africa […]
The post Why I Like Review Sites appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Capturing bookings for the low season is tough with a lot of properties competing for a smaller market. There are a lot of promotional initiatives you could test but the ‘Try Before You Buy’ idea may be one that could work for most owners in areas where guests have a shorter distance to travel. The […]
The post Try Before You Buy – A Vacation Rental Loss Leader Strategy appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been writing about niche marketing recently and keep coming up with new markets that would lend themselves well to a vacation rental promotion. In fact most interests that get people outside and into the countryside are ones that owners can target with specific campaigns. Lets kick off with my new favourite sport of stand-up […]
The post A New Vacation Rental Niche Market – Stand Up Paddling appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians – the sun is shining, the water on the river is sparkling and my kayak is beckoning – it’s a great day. The last week or so has been somewhat of a challenge though. This blog was so thoroughly hacked that we had to take it down for […]
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This seems to be the time of year when every day sees another email proclaiming the best listing site….ever….more features, more photos, reaching more renters, more bookings etc, etc, etc. What a load of guff. When I wrote the first edition of Renting For Profit in 2003, I included a couple of examples of listing […]
The post What’s in a Listing Site? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Our recent trip back to UK was fleeting but it was a great week, enjoying the spring, visiting family and friends, and doing a lot of catching up. It was helped tremendously by our selection of accommodation which both worked out really well and added to my store of ‘best practice’ stories. After an overnight […]
The post Being A Guest in a Holiday Home appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Vacation rentals are hitting the media big time and owners need to be aware of what our prospective guests are being told in online and print publications. We’ve received a lot of requests for cottage previews recently and finally tracked down an article in a magazine that advised anyone thinking of renting a property for […]
The post 10 Rules for Renting a Vacation Home appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting insurance to cover renting out a vacation cottage can be tough here in Ontario. Some companies won’t touch short term rentals, others impose restrictions on the annual rental period or occupancy levels, and rates can be eye-watering. However, finding a good insurance broker who is prepared to do the leg work can uncover a […]
The post Is Your Vacation Rental Adequately Insured? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Finding a cottage rental in UK that has hi-speed internet is not an easy task as we found out recently when looking for a couple of rentals for our upcoming trip. The challenge we faced was not only to find a place that was available for the time we wanted, but to check the internet […]
The post Vacation Rentals & Internet Access – Is There Demand? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you have a nearby farm stand that sells the best garlic or free range eggs? Is there an out of the way bakery that does the best pies ever? Where can your guests watch maple syrup being made? When are the farmer’s markets held? Every area has providers of fresh local food but sometimes […]
The post Shopping Local – Are You Sharing Your Secrets With Your Vacation Rental Guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about copyrighting images, I had a Tweet from Schofields in UK (they provide holiday home insurance for UK cottages & overseas property and blog on holiday letting, travel and property news). They mentioned that its possible to also check and see if other people are using your photos illegally […]
The post Tin Eye – Reverse Image Search appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Sometimes we’d love to include an image of something on a vacation rental web site to create more appeal and to attract visitors to explore further. We did this with our UK holiday site about 10 years ago when we were trying to portray the Ontario experience, and what better to do this with than […]
The post Are Your Photos Legal? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
So, was it worth leaving the frozen north to battle through TSA checks, 4 flights, 2 kilometres of walking the concourse at Dulles International, and two days of really bad coffee, just for a taste of Florida sunshine and a course on Google Analytics and all things related to SEO and vacation rentals? Yes, Yes, […]
The post Top 10 Tips from Google Boot Camp for Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Writing a blog can be a challenge particularly if you want it to drive traffic to your site, or your listing. You need to attract a loyal audience and people who will talk about it to their friends on Facebook and Twitter. To do this, you’ll need to write regularly, create interesting content and consistently […]
The post 25 Ideas For Your Vacation Rental Blog appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Massive Facebook usage in all demographics is making it a ‘must have’ in the vacation rental marketing tool kit. If your competitors are using Facebook to promote their property listing or blog, or even as a site in its own right, then it’s time you jumped on the bandwagon. If you are already using Facebook […]
The post Facebook Page vs Profile for Vacation Rental Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It was a long day yesterday. A five hour flight to Los Angeles, then a two hour wait for the next leg – the five hours to Maui – but we are all here safe and sound in our wonderful vacation rental condo on the ocean. This is a small two-storey complex of one, two […]
The post Vacation Rental Maui – A Guest Perspective on Arrival appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This week has been busy with the topic of vacation rentals when an article in the New York Times tweeted & retrweeted, reposted on Facebook and the subject of much forum discussion. “Questions to Ask About a Vacation Rental” was a response to a couple of earlier NY Times articles, one that discussed how vacation […]
The post Save Time & Create Confidence with a Vacation Rental FAQ Page appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The use of live reviews is a controversial topic and this guest post from Dan Weisman at Flipkey is timely since a recent article on the Forbes blog highlighted the drawbacks of review systems on some of the major vacation rental by owner sites. The Do’s and Don’ts of Responding to Reviews Everyone appreciates […]
The post Do’s and Dont’s of Responding to Vacation Rental Reviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all want our guests to be self-sufficient in our vacation homes; use them in a respectful manner and leave at the end of their vacation with minimal breakage, damage or untidiness. Often this is a case of guest education, and since many are new to the concept of vacation rental, it’s a great idea […]
The post Is it Time to Update Your Welcome Manual? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There is no doubt that the market in vacation rentals is growing as it becomes more of a mainstream method of vacationing and not that quirky thing that the neighbours do. This has been helped by the publicity generated by celebrity renters, of whom the US President is one. Constant coverage of the Obama vacation […]
The post Trip Advisor Vacation Rental Annual Survey appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Just having a vacation or cottage rental website isn’t going to get you visitors. It requires a lot of work to attract people to your site, to get it seen in a Google search and encourage your potential guests to take a look. Spending on search engine optimisation and advertising works but it affects your […]
The post 10 Free Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Vacation Rental Website appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I made up this list after spending an entertaining afternoon looking at the worst of the worst vacation rental web sites. I am not naming and shaminng, and this is simply my opinion as one who sees a lot of sites and frequently asks for feedback from people who are looking for a cottage to […]
The post 10 Signs Your Vacation Rental Website May Not Be Attracting Bookings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Yesterday had a WiFi flavor on my Twitter stream as the argument against hotels charging for the service featured in a rant or two. This came at a time I am considering installing a satellite internet system in my rental cottage since there is no wireless or cell signal available for my guests. I’m not […]
The post Free Internet Connectivity For Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I consider myself a professional vacation rental owner in that I consider my guests to be paying travellers who deserve respect and trust. So it was with a degree of shock that I recently spoke with an owner of a rental property with an alternative perspective on the industry. His initial approach was to tell […]
The post Toilet Paper Not Included – Cottage Rental Gone Minimal appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every so often I spend an hour or so reading reviews on Flipkey and Trip Advisor and look at what vacation rental clients are griping about. We can learn so much by these reviews if we use them as a research resource to educate and inform on what we could be doing better. Many of […]
The post Avoid Negative Trip Advisor Reviews With A Simple Changeover Checklist appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I wouldn’t normally blow my own trumpet but as a lead-in to a bit of a rant, I have given myself permission on this occasion. And anyhow, it’s my blog and I can do as I please so here is a snippet from one of my Osprey Cottage reviews on Flipkey: “What I liked the […]
The post Delight Your Guests with Beautiful Beds appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been researching web sites and listings recently and have come across a significantly large proportion of howlers – those that turned me right off even thinking of renting a vacation home at all, let alone the ones I was looking at. This is not a good reflection on our industry and I really don’t […]
The post 10 Super Easy Ways to Create Bad Vacation Rental Images appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I had an interesting and very educational few days at the Vacation Rental Managers Association Conference in San Antonio this week, and am now heading home for Ontario with a new perspective on the rental industry and with a lot of ideas to pursue. Given that the vacation rental industry in North America still represents […]
The post Kid in a Candy Store at the Vacation Rental Managers Association Conference appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The VRMA is the largest organisation of its kind representing vacation rental agencies and brings together owners, managers and staff from hundreds of agencies in North America to an annual conference, this year in San Antonio, Texas. For me, it’s a great finale to our road trip before we head back to Ontario for the […]
The post Reporting from the Vacation Rental Managers Association Conference appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This Guest Post by Terry Gronenthal is the first in a series inviting representatives of our client group – rental guests – to comment on their experiences of staying in a vacation rental home. Having spent the past six weeks selecting RV parks, based solely on on-line reviews, I was interested in how our rental […]
The post Vacation Rental Reviews from a Guest Perspective appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every October we take to the road in our fifth wheel and explore the US, usually heading south to get a last blast of summer before returning to the snowy climes of Ontario for the start of another busy booking year for our rental management company. This year our road trip has taken us to […]
The post What I’ve Learnt about Vacation Rental from RV Sites appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I just loved this Facebook post and wanted to share it because it illustrates what many of us experience: I’m not sure what my response would actually be and whether it would be appropriate, but it would be something along the lines of: “I’m glad you’ve recognized the massive amount of work that goes into […]
The post So, do you work or just do this? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I spend a lot of time on this blog, and in my day job as a vacation rental manager, talking about the ‘cost of doing business’, and have referred occasionally to that cost being emotional at times as well as monetary. So….yesterday…I had cause to experience that for myself for the first time this year […]
The post Just Cheesed Off with the Changeover! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I loved the photo posted by Rebecca Brigolante on her Facebook page recently. It’s not just an outdoor photo but an experience and reminded me how important it is to stage photos to evoke emotions. Her web site at Brigolante Apartments shows a real grasp of how important it is to create images to capture […]
The post Grabbing Interest with Great Vacation Rental Photos appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I wanted to share a blog post I read today on At Home in Tuscany because it says very succinctly what renters want when they book a vacation home. The post is written by Pauline Kenny, someone I admire hugely for the knowledge and information she shares on the vacation rental business, from a […]
The post Does Your Vacation Rental Feel Like Home? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The past few weeks have been nuts but things are beginning to slow down a little so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a little of what my day job entails and what I’ve learnt from a summer of rentals. We are blessed in our part of Canada to live amongst thousands […]
The post A day in the life of a vacation rental manager appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m curious to hear how many owners have experienced requests, or even demands from their guests for services that we would not expect to be provided in a vacation rental. I recently heard of a few incidents of guests seeming to believe they were in a resort or hotel, asking for items to be delivered […]
The post Rising Expectations of Vacation Rental Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As a proponent of raising standards in vacation rentals and an enthusiastic follower of other successful owners, I often come across examples of best practice to share. This morning, when I checked Facebook there was an update from Margaret Leach, who runs a number of self-catering apartments in Bavaria, Germany. Margaret is a great example […]
The post What we can learn from other owners’ reviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When was the last time you checked under the beds in your vacation rental home or cottage? Did you check the bathroom cabinet; the dresser drawers and the shelf in the nightstand? I hope it was on the last changeover day. If not, how do you know what your last guests left behind. Dust bunnies […]
The post What’s Under the Bed? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve heard the phrase, “It’s the cost of doing business” on several occasions recently and thought it would be interesting to reflect on what this actually means. I use it myself at times when I feel a grumble coming on about having to replace the mesh in yet another screen door ($30 + time), or […]
The post What’s the Cost of Doing This Vacation Rental Business? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My son & his wife just spend a sleepless night as their beloved Beagle took off for a walkabout yesterday while they were both at work, and didn’t come home until the early hours of this morning. It brought to mind a frantic phone call we had one Saturday morning last year, from a renter […]
The post When Pets go Missing at a Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With the vacation rental season in full swing most owners, myself included, approach changeover day with a mixture of trepidation, anticipation and sometimes, confidence. Whatever we expect, there are times when we’re surprised, either by the pristine way in which the property has been left by the outgoing guests, or by an ungodly mess. When […]
The post Changeover Without Tears – An Owner’s Guide to Changeover Day appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Your vacation rental guests are your best advocates. If they love your place they will tell their friends, write great reviews and talk about the great time they had on Twitter and Facebook; post photos on Flickr and video on Youtube. And if you have a presence on some of these social networks they will […]
The post Harnessing the Power of Your Vacation Rental Guests on Facebook appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
For many of us the high season is already in full swing but I had a few days with vacancies at Osprey Cottage this week so used them to do some final checks and make sure everything is spotless for the next 12 weeks of back-to-back rentals. We’ll be there for changeovers of course, but […]
The post 8 final checks before the vacation rental season starts appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With thanks to Marcia of the food blog , ‘The Aperitif’, I am able to illustrate one of my own pet peeves about cottage or vacation rental – the underwhelming kitchen. Here’s just a short excerpt from her latest post, Vacation Rental Blues: “It never fails…one can always expect to find a trusty cast iron […]
The post Will Your Guests Love Your Kitchen? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Here’s a note from my guest book following a rainy few days at Osprey Cottage. ‘We came here looking for a place to sleep and cook the occasional meal while we explored the area and did some hiking. Instead, because of the rain, we stayed indoors most of the time but when the sun came […]
The post Who Wants Happy Vacation Rental Guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I was watching the ‘tech expert’ on Canada TV AM this morning and was interested with this statistic: “The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55” This struck me, as it doesn’t seem that long since Facebook was regarded as the haunt of the 16 – 25 age group, and of no interest […]
The post What’s the value of Facebook for Vacation Rental Owners? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There are two distinct types of vacation rental properties, each with their own drawbacks from a rental guest perspective. The cottage or holiday home that has been bought for investment and is solely used for rental purposes can sometimes lack ambience and charm while, on the other side of the spectrum is the property that […]
The post Who should not be in the vacation rental business? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Following on from my post yesterday about renter feedback on finding a property to rent, the other question we were asking people at the Cottage Show in Mississauga was about their past experience of vacation rental. We wanted to know what they liked and what a turn was off. The responses weren’t surprising and mostly […]
The post Vacation Renters Speak Out And Owners Need To Listen appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s always refreshing to get a vacation renter’s perspective on what we do, and an eye-opener to find out how many haven’t got a clue that our business even exits. Having spent yesterday at the Mississauga Home & Cottage Show talking to a stream of people who stopped by our booth, I wanted to share […]
The post From The Renter’s Perspective appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Sometimes I despair of getting the message across, particularly in my part of the world. Traditionally, cottage rental was simply an alternative to camping – with walls and a roof being the difference, and an inside toilet an absolute luxury. Over the past 5 years, it’s been a slow move to the realisation that ‘renters’ […]
The post Cottage for Rent But Bring Your Own Pillows & Toilet Paper appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Have you ever read a description of something, watched a video or heard something on the radio, and felt an immediate pull to purchase it or to find out more? Of course you have….it’s something we all experience at some time and companies spend billions finding out what motivates consumers to choose one product over […]
The post How to Create Great Copy on Your Listing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is a question we hear occasionally although it's not one of the most common ones our rental agency receives. When I ask the potential renter what they mean by ‘family friendly', there's often a vague response asking about the waterfront and if it has shallow entry. We rarely get questions about safety issues or […]
The post Is Your Vacation Rental Home Family Friendly? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Surfing around Flipkey last weekend I found a review for a cottage which read “It rained, and rained and rained some more. Our longed for vacation was a complete washout. The cottage was OK but there was nothing to do in the rain except watch TV. We hadn't prepared for that. I'm not sure we'll […]
The post How To Create A 5 Star Rental Review Against The Odds appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I read a report in a New Zealand newspaper this weekend about a rental agency who had evicted a family who ‘overcrowded' a vacation rental property under their management. You can read the article for yourself and come to your own conclusions however there are a few points I wanted to raise. There is a […]
The post 5 Ways To Prevent Overcrowding At Your Vacation Home appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s a competitive world out there folks, and the vacation rental market is no different from any other with thousands of cottages, cabins, villas, gîtes and vacation homes jostling to grab the attention of the rental public. To get their attention, the number one priority is to make sure your listing has ‘eye candy’ appeal […]
The post 5 Ways To Make Your Vacation Rental Stand Out From The Competition appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I clicked through a Google Ad today to a site advertising a cottage rental here in Ontario. I thought I would approach it as a potential renter and see how user friendly the site was and whether I could be encouraged to book. The home page was fairly good and provided a lot of information […]
The post Let’s Respect Our Vacation Rental Guests and Provide Them With Pillows! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every so often I go off on a tangent and decide we need something for the cottage that will please our guests and keep them coming back for more. And that is the key….if the new addition will attract more guests and repeat renters, then we evaluate the decision to buy based on the income […]
The post Does It Sell More Chickens? Or…Do We Really Need That Patio Heater? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My good friend and author of children’s books on composting, Larraine Roulston is an environmental journalist and over the past few years has taught me a lot about living responsibly in cottage country. She and her husband Pete, are building a straw bale home in Elliot Lake which will be a prime example of sustainable […]
The post How to Contribute to Greener Vacation Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As a transplanted Brit I remember the comedy surrounding Butlin’s holiday camps with their regimented programmes, and rules and regulations for being a good guest. We’d like to think that way of relating to customers has long gone and we treat our rental clients with respect and trust, but I still come across evidence that […]
The post Let’s say Goodbye to Rules and Regulations in Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Since we started using Flipkey to invite reviews on our cottage rentals, we’ve had a great response and mostly they show our owners are doing a really good job. It’s been quite a learning curve though as we appreciate it often only takes a minor action (or inaction) on the part of an owner, to […]
The post Lessons in Attracting Negative Vacation Rental Reviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There is little doubt that having a hot tub is an advantage in attracting low and shoulder season rentals. When there’s a lot of choice for prospective renters looking for an out-of-season break, extra amenities can be the deal decider, so the more options you can offer the better chance you have of converting a […]
The post Is Your Vacation Rental Hot Tub Squeaky Clean? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
As I was writing this post I got to thinking about how much we learn each year and how nothing ever surprises us any more. What stood out more than anything was the number of guests who had never rented a vacation home before and their pre-conceptions about the experience which are based primarily on […]
The post 21 Lessons Learnt in a Summer of Vacation Rental – Part 2 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It was a long and not-so-hot summer here in Ontario and it seems the trend for staying closer to home caused a boost in interest in cottage rentals as we have had our busiest year ever, which is why it’s been over three months since I last posted to the blog. A sad […]
The post 21 Lessons Learnt in a Summer of Vacation Rental – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’m not alone in wondering when common sense died, and humans ceased to accept responsibility for their actions. I’ve laughed in disbelief at stories of claims made against companies who failed to inform people that coffee may be hot, or that they should not make coffee in the back of their RV while leaving […]
The post May Contain Nuts – A Note of Caution for Vacation Rental Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
An appliance break down at any time of the year is a challenge, but when the fridge stops working on a hot summer day, it’s important to have a game plan in place. We’re fortunate in living so close to our vacation rental that it’s just a 10-minute drive to get there to manage any […]
The post Be Prepared For Vacation Rental Breakdowns appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Having a web site and/or a good listing on a major site may be enough to maximize your vacation rental occupancy , however most owners can do with a little extra help in filling up low and shoulder season availability. I have been a Twitter devotee for a few months now and already reap […]
The post 25 Ways to Create a Vacation Rental Buzz with Twitter appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We like to think we have everything covered in our vacation rental cottage. A good website, pre-arrival information, a welcome letter, and a comprehensive cottage guide. We only live 10 minutes from our cottage and let our guests know that if they have a problem, they just need to call, and we’ll be there to […]
The post How to Love Your High Maintenance Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve got guests going into Osprey Cottage tomorrow and with a forecast of four days of rain, I am hoping they will find something to do from our Rainy Day Activity Book. This was something I started a couple of years ago after a guest at the cottage called and just asked the question, […]
The post Adding Value for Your Guests with a Rainy Day Book appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When we came to Canada on vacation and rented our first lakefront cottage there was huge excitement in the family. All focus was on the location and what we were going to do when we got there – swim; fish; sip G & Ts as we watched the sun go down, and enjoy a lot […]
The post How to Educate Your International Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Have you ever taken a completely objective look at the first impression your guests get of your vacation rental home? Not from the moment they walk in, but from the approach to the place – even from a few kilometers out? For the moment, forget the interior and concentrate on what they see as they […]
The post Is The Welcome Mat Out for Your Vacation Rental Guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I spoke with several renters this week who were pondering options for their summer vacation, and as usual, asked what their criteria were for their dream vacation rental. The response is usually the same – that the ‘must-have’ requirements are: “Great waterfront for the kids; a clean and well-maintained home, and comfortable beds” There’s not […]
The post What Do Your Bedrooms Say About Your Property? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
So what is going on in the vacation rental market? Is it booming? Are we in a slump? According to Property Wire, many areas of the US are reporting a downturn with competition high and the expectancy of a last-minute market driving discounts and deals, while here in Ontario, we’ve just experienced our most active […]
The post Why Complacency Won’t Get Vacation Rental Bookings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Part-time vacation rental owners make up the bulk of those entering the market in many areas. By part-time, I mean those who are, perhaps reluctantly but for good economical reasons, renting out their cottages, cabins, villas, vacation homes (whatever you want to call them) for the weeks they are not using them personally. I talked […]
The post How Much Should You Share With Your Renters? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With so many new properties coming onto the vacation rental market, owners are bound to make some mistakes along the way. I did when I started out, and learnt to my cost that if you don’t do the homework and get the systems in place at the outset, more problems are created along the way. […]
The post The Five Most Common Mistakes Made by New Vacation Rental Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do we have to bring pots and pans? Is there an Ipod docking station? How many pillows are there on each bed? How often do you empty the hot tub? Are there enough outdoor chairs for all of us? Should I bring my blender? Do you have sports channels on your satellite program? Is there […]
The post Save Time with FAQ Lists for your Vacation Rental Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In an ideal world, your renters will call or e-mail you to check availability of your property; complete a rental agreement; pay you on time; enjoy a wonderful vacation and write a glowing review in your guestbook. However, ideal world situations don’t always apply in our fun business of vacation rentals. Although most rental clients […]
The post 10 Ways to Spot a High Maintenance Renter appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
“When renting a vacation rental, do you want a detailed meet and greet from the owner or would you rather just get on with your holiday?” This question appeared on Twitter this morning and it was very topical since we were discussing exactly the same thing yesterday while we were preparing our cottage for our […]
The post To greet or not to greet – that is the question appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you have a cancellation policy? Is it clearly stated on your website, on your Terms and Conditions, and in your Rental Agreement? Do you know what you will do when a guest with a confirmed booking, calls and asks for their money back because an event has occurred and they need to cancel? If […]
The post Handling Cancellations Without Tears appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
OK – I have just shut my Tweetdeck down, finished all the @replies and retweets I’m doing this morning and am working on getting my followers up to 500 by the end of the week. I am suffering badly from TMT (Too Much Twitter) and bad pun syndrome having just read a post called Twick […]
The post Twitter and Vacation Rentals – A Good Marketing Mix? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Getting positive reviews should be one of the primary goals of your business. Prospective guests love to read reviews and hear what other guests have said about their stay in your vacation rental property. They can be hard to come by though, but when you do get them, treasure each one and shout it from the rooftops!
The post 6 Comments Vacation Rental Owners Want to Hear appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In these heady days of social networking, if someone experiences something negative they will shout it out to the world and in many cases, much of the world will hear. One video posted on You Tube, a photo on Facebook, or a 140 character review on Twitter could be quite damaging to your reputation. On […]
The post 20 Ways to Make a Difference to Your Rental Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The UK Times Online has addressed the issue of second home ownership in its article Strangers in Paradise. This mirrors the difficulties cottage owners are facing here in Ontario as the demand for purchasing vacation properties falls off. This is exactly what I was talking about with Seamus O’Reagan on the Canada AM Show […]
The post Can’t Sell? – Then Reap The Benefits of Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I haven’t had a rant for a while so think it’s time to get something that’s been bothering me recently out in the open. Don’t go into this business if you don’t like people If you went into a store, there were no lights on, it was cold and you were totally ignored, wouldn’t you […]
The post A Bill of Rights for Vacation Renters? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every day I talk to people who want to rent a vacation home. Mostly, they are frustrated and confused with so many sites; so little information and so much uncertainty about the choice they are making. As one lady said yesterday: “I’d love to go back to the good old days where I could talk […]
The post Could Twitter Be Your Competitive Edge? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
You check your property at the end of a rental and find some damage. First of all you decide if you'll accept it as normal wear and tear and simply fix it; put it down to experience and add the renters to your blacklist, or whether you will make a claim on the damage deposit. […]
The post How to Handle Guests With Colic appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How quickly do you respond to an inquiry? I was reading a thread on Lay My Hat this morning and was interested in the range of issues this raised. Some people commented that when they had sent out inquiries to vacation rental owners, in many cases there was a less than 50% response rate. This […]
The post The Early Bird Could Catch the Booking appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Vacation rental clients have higher expectations than ever before, and property owners should be giving this trend the attention it deserves. I recently saw a couple of photos submitted to a listing site that clearly showed the message is not getting across. Why would anyone find a photo of an unmade bed attractive? Who is […]
The post How To Clear Out The Bad Apples In The Vacation Rental Barrel appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Here's some questions…. Do you have a clear marketing plan? What targets have you set for occupancy this year? Have you got a budget for advertising and promotion? Is your web site working effectively for you? What strategies will you use to attract more visitors to your site? Are you ready to deal with enquiries […]
The post How to Stand Out in a Crowded Vacation Rental Market appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When I bought my first rental property in Canada, I was still living in the UK, but didn’t even think of asking a third party to manage the rentals. I wanted to do it myself, and I am glad I did because what I learnt from buying that cottage, and the five that followed […]
The post Rent By Owner or Use A Rental Agency – Your First Decision appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If you are already feeling the pinch with your vacation rental bookings then maybe you should be considering accepting pets. Our own stats show that over 60% of enquiries this year have been from guests who want to bring their pets on vacation, and the bulk of our current bookings are in pet friendly properties. […]
The post Being Pet Friendly May Bring More Bookings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve made a few changes on the blog – only minor tweaks but there were a few things that needed doing. I changed some photos; moved the categories over to the left, and adjusted the comments list on the right so it no longer shows twice. I added some plugins, a contact page, and set […]
The post Outsourcing – The Vacation Rental Owners Guide appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is such a great time of year for planning. We are scheduling in some renovations for the cottage – new kitchen flooring, deck remodelling – and a whole bunch of repairs. But while I leave that to the experts, I'm doing a renovation that can be planned and implemented from the comfort of my […]
The post It’s Time to Renovate The Cottage Guide appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Now we are in the grip of winter here in Ontario's cottage country, my mind turned this morning to all the things that could go wrong with my upcoming rentals. Since we installed the hot tub, bookings for out of season breaks took off – we have folks going into the cottage today for a […]
The post Disaster Planning or When City Dwellers Come to Cottage Country! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I read a post on the Traveling Mamas blog this morning that was a chilling reminder of how lack of attention to safety issues can have horrifying consequences. A family of four from Denver on a vacation in an Aspen rented home, all died from carbon monoxide poisoning. They were found dead in their beds […]
The post Are You Giving Your Guests A Safe Night’s Sleep? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I felt compelled to write this after spending an hour or so surfing the web for Ontario cottages. In no more than 10 minutes I'd found half a dozen listings for cottages with photos so bad I am surprised they ever get a booking. One in particular was beyond belief. A bathroom papered with newspaper […]
The post Really Bad Rental Listings – What Are They Thinking? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
2009 could be a tough year for cottage rentals. There's indications that the increase of properties available for rent, coupled with a reduction in the rental population could mean a difficult time ahead. This means that owners need to market wisely, upgrade, price competitively and be responsive to every enquiry. I've written before about ‘cherry […]
The post How to Stand Out from the Competition in Tough Economic Times appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Just over a year ago I wrote a post on bed bugs and it has been one of the most-read posts on the blog. Since then the issue has raised its scaly head again with headlines such as "Bed Bug Epidemic Hits Toronto" and "Toronto's bed bug infestation getting worse" just in the past few […]
The post They’re Back! Are Bed Bugs Heading For Your Cottage? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Offering winter rentals can provide much needed income in the slower, low-season months and properties that are geared up for the cold, snowy weather can reap real benefits in this competitive market. Creating an ambient atmosphere and cosy welcome is the top priority and here's a few tips to make it successful. Bedding Change thin […]
The post How To Create A Winter Wonderland Experience appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
No-one can tell what effect the economic crisis will have on vacation rentals in 2009. Some say that more people will be staying closer to home therefore the industry is in a good position to promote family vacations to the domestic market. Others are concerned that belts will be tightened to the extent that vacations […]
The post Video or Virtual Tour? How to Add Interest to Your Listing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With so many new vacation rental properties being listed for rent, it's fun to look at the names and to give some thought as to the impact a name may have on a potential renter. Names tend to fall into clearly defined brackets. There are the animal names: Beaver Creek Cottage; Moosewood; Squirrel's Leap; fishy […]
The post What’s In A Property Name? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We all want 5 star renters; those who leave the place as if they had never been there; write lovely comments in the guest book, and never call at midnight asking how the microwave works. Just as much as we'd like to win the lottery; raise kids who never act out and save the planet […]
The post How To Minimise The Rental Risks appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
All the signs are pointing to a crowded market for vacation rentals in 2009. The fact that Home Away were able to raise $250 million in venture capital with relative ease indicates that this is an active and buoyant area of the tourism industry. Or does it just show how many owners are now having […]
The post What’s Your Cottage Rental USP? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There's a lot of media coverage about vacation rentals at the moment which is interesting as it shows an increased focus on what to many north Americans is a niche vacation product. The latest article in the Wall Street Journal comments on a phenomenom with the handy acronym SNAD or ‘Significantly Not As Described'. Sadly […]
The post Significantly Not As Described – The SNAD Phenomena appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Every time you send an email, you have a great opportunity to promote your property at absolutely no charge, and it is so simple. John Romano of the Vacation Rentals Community suggests using the Outlook signature function to add a personalised footer that you can attach to every email. His post includes instruction on how […]
The post Promote Your Vacation Rental With Every Email You Send appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This is a question I hear frequently. Vacation home owners are always reviewing their past occupancy; thinking about improvements and most important of all, considering whether to raise their rates for the next year. With the current economic climate, the rise in vacation rental properties coming onto the market, and changes in travel demographics, it's […]
The post Should I Raise My Rental Rates? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Pampering your pet-owner guests can be a real boost to your bottom line for out-of-season rentals. About 75% of the guests to my cottage bring their dog; many are returning guests who come back, not only for their annual summer vacation, but in the fall, winter and spring as well. This is because we welcome […]
The post Pet Owners Can Be Your Best Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Out of season rentals are such a bonus and we are lucky that we rent most weekends in the winter. Many of our guests are returnees and we like to make them feel really welcome, which of course is why they keep coming back! Making sure the place looks great and creating that wonderful first […]
The post 10 Ways to Welcome Your Guests this Winter appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We have just driven 10,000 kilometres and stayed in 15 separate campgrounds on an amazing vacation in the US south west. Every campground was chosen from a terrific web site called RV Park Reviews which allows RVers to comment on the places they have stayed and provides an open forum for both positive and negative […]
The post Vacation Rental Reviews appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This year has seen a big increase in the trend for taking last minute vacations, with owners and agents reporting growth in short notice enquiries. These can be anything from a month in advance, to one I received last week from an optimistic renter on the highway, all packed but with nowhere to go! In […]
The post Are You Ready For Last Minute Rentals? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There's a fragrant aroma of wood smoke in the air in our neck of the woods and vacation rental enquiries are mentioning wood stoves and open fireplaces more and more. With the first frost of the year last night, and more cool evenings to come, renters are concerned about finding cozy warm homes for their […]
The post Wood Stoves And Open Fires In Demand For Fall Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I've already seen indicators that there will be a lot more rental properties on the market in the coming year. The second home market has always been volatile in uncertain economic times, and the potential for a fall in value is prompting more owners to consider renting to ride out the storm. This will increase […]
The post How to Be a Vacation Rental Professional appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Marketing your vacation rental does not always mean spending money. There are lots of ways of getting traffic to your listing or web site without parting with a cent, and this is all possible because of the way people use the web, particularly through social networking. Social scientists tell us that each person has a […]
The post How Viral Marketing Can Bring More Traffic appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The end of the summer season is coming up and with it comes the opportunity to review your marketing strategy for the past year, and make some changes if necessary. Evaluating how effective your vacation rental listings have been is important, particularly if you are using a number of paid sites to advertise your property. […]
The post How Effective Was Your Marketing This Year? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It seems as if more people are taking vacations at the drop of a hat than at any time before. The last minute vacation rental market has always been there, but this year it's been the most active I have known it. We had several cottages vacant for this upcoming week last Wednesday, and by […]
The post Is Your Vacation Rental Last-Minute-Ready? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With commercials for back to school products in full swing, it's time to firm up the plans for fall and winter marketing of your vacation rental. This is the time to be creative and aggressive as the balance turns from low inventory and high demand, to a high number of available properties and a significant […]
The post Vacation Rentals Are Not Just For Summer appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I've received a lot of emails recently about damage deposits for vacation rentals, and what circumstances should occur before a charge is made. This is a thorny issue and one that needs some thought and reflection before making a decision. Where do you draw the line on additional cleaning? What constitutes normal ‘wear and tear'? […]
The post When Should You Claim On A Vacation Rental Damage Deposit? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There's something about a nicely packaged gift. The attractive wrapping; ribbons; tissue paper peeking out of a bag – all add to the excitement and anticipation of wondering what's inside. If you have taken care over choosing the right gift, you probably won't use a store bag or torn and scuffed wrapping to present it. […]
The post Is Your Vacation Rental Packaging Attractive? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Results from a 2007 Yahoo Travel survey revealed 'that 61% of those questioned now go online for vacation recommendations. Travellers are no longer just searching for a hotel based on price, they are now mainly looking for user reviews, user ratings and photos.' Sites such as Trip Advisor have areas where visitors can leave testimonials, […]
The post How to Make Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Work appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Put yourself in your rental guests' shoes. Perhaps you live in a high-rise condo building. You have a small balcony overlooking another high-rise condo building, so the only time you can enjoy fresh air and better views is when you get away from home. You've rented a cottage and spent the last few months counting […]
The post Five Complaints That Can Easily Be Prevented appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It is likely that most of your vacation home rental guests will be of the low maintenance variety. They book; pay their money; arrive at the designated check-in time; leave promptly on the last day, and apart from a few lines in the guest book, you may never hear from them again. Sounds ideal? Sure, […]
The post Are High Maintenance Guests Your Best Assets? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Hopefully, your rental season has kicked off on a positive note, and all will run smoothly through the summer. Your renters will all be totally knocked out by your property, won't bother you with any issues, and you'll get to the end of the season without a single problem. And pigs might fly………. Seriously, if […]
The post Seven Keys to a Happy Rental Season appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I talk frequently with cottage owners who are considering renting and are understandably a little apprehensive about the prospect of strangers in their property. A common decision is to start out by renting to friends and relatives because it feels more comfortable when they know their rental guests, but there's evidence to show this is […]
The post Friends And Relatives As Renters appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We manage the rental of about 120 cottages at CottageLINK Rental Management so weekends are pretty busy here in the office as families check in. We ask that guests let us know if they have any complaints, or need to report something that needs repair or maintenance, within the first 24 hours of occupation and […]
The post What Do You Leave In Your Cupboards? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
New owners often ask what they should provide for renters to ensure their cottage rental vacation gets off to a good start. I like to hear this because it tells me the owners are already feeling a responsibility to their clients, which is not always the case. I recall hearing of a situation where a […]
The post What Should Your Guests Bring To The Cottage? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I've heard the expression, ‘it's just a cottage', too many times. Used to make excuses for tired and mis-matched furniture, saggy mattresses, ancient appliances and 70's décor, it's a cop out. Having ‘just a cottage' is absolutely fine… unless it is being rented out. Some friends of mine were over from UK last week. They'd […]
The post It’s Just a Cottage! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Hot on the heels of the Globe and Mail article, I got a call from another freelance journalist looking for insights into rising gas prices and how it may (or may not) be affecting cottage rental occupancy this summer. I responded by saying that the impact of this issue shouldn't be taken in isolation. There […]
The post How To Fill Those Last Minute Weeks appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I recently read a forum post from a non-renting cottage owner blaming cottage renters on his lake for all manner of poor behaviour. Late night noise, operating watercraft in an unsafe and irresponsible manner, and general rowdiness were a few of the complaints levelled at the rental groups. This is not the first time I […]
The post Educating Your Guests in the Etiquette of Cottage Living appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I spoke to a number of renters today looking for last minute availability for the summer. One of them wanted three full weeks in August. I know of plenty of cottages that have weeks empty but none of them are pet friendly, so had to turn away all the potential clients as they all had […]
The post Being Pet Friendly Could Be The Key To Increased Occupancy appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
No matter how well you screen your renters, talk to them before their vacation, and educate them with your cottage manual, there is a risk of damage. Some damage we can accept and will write off, but there are other situations where we must take a practical approach and put the responsibility for payment firmly […]
The post Dealing With Damage – Do You Have a Plan? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There's no arguing it has been a damp and rainy spring, offset by the occasional glimpse of summer. And hopefully, given the recent forecast for June and July, the warm weather is coming. However, I've learned over the past few years that preparing my cottage for rainy weather is just as important as making sure […]
The post Rainy Day Activities at the Cottage – An Owners’ Guide appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
This may not apply to you if your rental cottage, cabin or villa is already fully booked for the summer. But if you have only just listed your property, or traffic is slow so far this year, it may be time to take some remedial action on your listings. Here's my top five tips to […]
The post 5 Ways To Fill Up Your Empty Rental Weeks appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Some years ago when I was sourcing properties for marketing to our UK clients, I viewed a cottage on Kennisis Lake in the Haliburton Highlands. The owners showed me around their slightly messy property and then said it would be the last time they would be there for the summer since it was fully rented. […]
The post Good Changeover Management – A Responsible Approach appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I bought an item yesterday and was eager to open it this morning. With no scissors or knife available, I gave up after fifteen minutes of battling with the packaging, threw the product on the floor and declared it useless. I found it quite a stressful experience and afterwards realised I had a completely different […]
The post How Is Your Cottage Packaged? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Whether you are a vacation rental owner who has been renting for some time, or new to the cottage rental business, spring is a busy time preparing for the upcoming rental season. Although my place rents year round and I have honeymooners in there at the moment, I always set aside a week in spring […]
The post Getting Ready for Rental – the Cottage Audit appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Overcrowding in a rental cottage is a fear for many owners thinking about listing their place for the first time. Most of us have heard the horror stories of a friend or neighbor taking a booking for a couple or small family and then discovering that more people have turned up than expected. This is […]
The post How to Prevent Overcrowding at your Cottage appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
"If you are told you can't have it – you want it more! Ever watched a child in a candy or toy store?" Lay My Hat Forum contributor I was reading an interesting thread on the Lay My Hat forum this morning. The gist was that the more honest you are about the shortcomings […]
The post Honesty Can Bring More Rental Guests – Honest! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What do Sedona, Arizona; Maui; the Napa Valley in California, and Wasaga Beach, Ontario have in common? These are just a few of the locations across north America that are cracking down on the growth in short term vacation rentals, by banning them altogether in some cases, and by introducing draconian licensing regulations in others. […]
The post Keeping on the Right Side of Your Neighbours appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What do the terms, “luxury cottage”, “upscale cottage rental” or “executive property” mean to you? Do you use any of these terms to describe your cottage, and if so, what criteria do base your description on? Craig and I were driving up to Fenelon Falls yesterday to view a ‘luxury, executive’ cottage, and as we […]
The post Does Your "Luxury" Cottage Deliver Its Promise? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I got such a great comment on my Renting 101 post that I wanted to deal with it separately because I think it's an issue many new cottage owners face. This was the comment: "We are first time renters beginning this summer. What are your thoughts on how to deal with immediate family that wish […]
The post Renting to Family and Friends appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
With the Cottage Life Show fast approaching, I've been spending the weekend doing some research for the seminars I will be presenting. Since one of the presentations is on Marketing Your Cottage Rental Profitably, I used a couple of hours early today to take a look at some cottage web sites to see what cottage […]
The post How to Create a Web Site Your Visitors will Love appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In an increasingly competitive vacation rental market, you have to do things differently to help you stand out from the rest. That might be a matter of using well-staged photos on your website, having features and facilities that others don't offer, and making sure your rental rate is set fairly. But, there's another key component […]
The post Are Your Rental Guests Happy? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I've had a couple of emails from potential cottage renters in the past few days that reminded me how many first-time renters there are each year and how important it is to provide basic information for them It's hard sometimes not to become irritated by seemingly ‘dumb' questions which are in fact perfectly relevant if […]
The post Renting 101 – Creating Your Beginners Guide appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Do you have an open fire or wood stove at the cottage? If so, do you allow your renters to use it? Do you supply clear and concise instructions on its use? Julie Nelson at Cottage Daily highlighted the potential for a mishap in her post Fire Safety at the Cabin – a cautionary tale […]
The post Vacation Rental Fire Safety appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How much of your time is taken up by answering questions from your cottage rental guests? Questions about the length of the dock; the location of the nearest marina, Beer Store or supermarket; bed configuration or type of appliances, are common. It seems that as soon as I've finished answering a set of questions from […]
The post Save Time By Including FAQs On Your Listing appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
f you have ever stayed at a vacation rental you will know that one of the first things you look for is the book that tells you where everything is, how to work certain appliances, where to find the local grocery store, and what to do in an emergency. Well, maybe not everyone is like […]
The post What’s In Your Cottage Guide? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I like cottage names. A good name is evocative, inspiring or downright cute, and looks so much better on a sign than a house number or the surname of the owners. Great names are inspired by an array of sources – trees, animals, locations and views, literature and legends – and can be generated quite […]
The post Does Your Cottage Have A Name? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
1 Magnetic door locks When you spend time in your own cottage, there will be things you don't want to take home with you, or pack away in totes. Storing them in a cupboard that is designated as ‘owners' storage' is the best way if you don't want guests using particular items. You'll need to […]
The post 8 Great Ideas for Vacation Home Owners appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I'm at Cottage Fest this weekend. This is the first cottage show of the season at the Markham Fairgrounds and is always a good way to spend a snowy weekend in February. As it falls on our new Ontario long weekend, it also a good opportunity to get out with the family and for a […]
The post How to Start Renting Out Your Cottage appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It's clear from talking to owners of vacation rental homes that those who have real success with their rentals have more returning guests and fewer issues with problem renters. What do they do that sets them apart from the competition? Why is it that some properties rent earlier and achieve higher occupancy rates over a […]
The post 8 Insider Tips for Vacation Rental Success appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It's that time of year for vacation home owners when the first flutterings of panic can set in. Maybe you've got a week or two booked; perhaps you've had lots of enquiries but few conversions so far; maybe you are already fully booked, in which case read no further! If the first two describe your […]
The post 5 Tips to Boost your Bookings appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What is the one thing everyone will do on a vacation in a cottage? I mean everyone….from the tiniest baby to great grandma? They will do it, not once, but every single day of their holiday. They will sleep! And since they are on vacation, they would hope that it will be a good […]
The post What do Your Guests do Most at Your Cottage? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I was reading posts on Lay My Hat yesterday, which is my new favourite forum for vacation home owners. It's a great read and quite illuminating in places as I would guess over 90% of the forum members have their rentals in Europe which gives a whole new perspective on the international rental industry to […]
The post Are You Welcoming Your International Guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
When we travelled out from England to buy our first vacation rental home in Ontario, we had a week to close, furnish and set it up for rental. At that time, we didn't have the big stores in UK like Wal*Mart and Home Depot -at least not where I lived – so we were like […]
The post The High Cost of Buying Cheap appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I've finally got around to thinking about the domain name for my new cottage blog. Over the past couple of years I've come up with names for web sites and occasionally got around to registering them. From around $8 a year if you go for a 3-year registration, it's not a big amount to pay […]
The post Choosing a Domain Name for your Vacation Rental Blog appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We’ve all heard stories about Cottage renters who, during their stay at a Cottage, have either wrecked something, done something stupid, failed to follow instructions given, left the cottage in a mess or upset the neighbors. Many of these tales may just be legend or embellished over time to make a better story. However, there […]
The post ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A COTTAGE RENTER? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I've been talking for a while about the value of using a blog to promote a vacation rental property, in place of a static web site. I wanted to demonstrate this from the beginning so have decided to use my own property as the guinea pig, and my ever patient husband as the guinea […]
The post The Big Vacation Rental Blog Experiment – Part One appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Having your own website to advertise your vacation rental is the number one way of marketing your vacation home. However, if all you are doing with it is promoting the cottage there is a finite amount of income in weeks rented. Once those have been reserved there is no more money arriving in your mailbox. […]
The post Four Ways To Make Extra Income From Your Web Site appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What inspires you? What captures your attention when you visit a website so that you explore every page? Perhaps it's the eye-catching design or photos that get your initial interest, but it's the words that will spark the desire to read more. When you write for your website or blog it's important to pay close […]
The post How To Write Captivating Copy For Your Vacation Rental Website appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It can be very frustrating to spend hours on the phone and in emails with a prospective renter, only to find they never contact you again. The cost of that time can be hefty, particularly if you're so convinced they are going to book that you hold the week for them, thereby losing other potential […]
The post How to Spot a Cherry Picker and Other Rental Tips appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I was talking with a cottage owner this weekend who remarked that he could not understand why renters cannot seem to follow the simplest of instructions in the cottage guide. One explanation could be that they follow them too closely and my experience after my Christmas renters supports this. We ask our rental guests to […]
The post Why Don’t Guests Read the Cottage Guide? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
How do your renters access your cottage? Do you mail them keys, or hide them under a flowerpot, in the barbecue or on a hook under the deck? I'm often amazed at the ingenuity of homeowners in finding new places to conceal their keys, but wonder why on earth they don't use a simple lockbox […]
The post Leaving the Door Wide Open and Other Security Measures! appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I know that many owners are already well into their booking season, and if your 2007 marketing was effective you'll continue to reap the benefits for next year. However, if you were not too satisfied with your advertising impact, or you feel your website is a little dated and needs a makeover, take a look […]
The post 10 Ways to Kickstart your Vacation Rental Planning for 2008 appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
It’s 5am on Christmas morning and I’m in my favourite spot – curled up in front of the fire with a mug of Tim Horton’s chocolate. BBC Radio 2 is on – wonderful commercial free entertainment that reminds me of Xmas mornings back in UK – and my living room looks wonderfully festive and really […]
The post The WOW Effect – Creating A Lasting Impression For A Festive Break appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
My sister owns a beautiful cottage on Clear Lake –in fact there are two cottages together that she rents out either individually or together for larger families. She really enjoys talking with guests, helping them with their vacation plans and making sure the cottage is right for their needs. She has a great website and […]
The post Build a Cottage Blog to Maximise Rental Income appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
A well-equipped kitchen will encourage returning guests and may inspire some great testimonials and reviews so ensure your property is ‘fully loaded'. This means supplying a good variety of small appliances and cooking aids. Here's my top 10 list…. Coffee Maker – don't go for the cheapest and if you buy a spare jug at the […]
The post 10 Small Appliances for a Well Equipped Kitchen appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
What one thing can make your cottage vacation rental easier to manage as well as leaving you feeling comfortable about the guests you have staying? What can also increase your income in the offseason, and boost your referral rates significantly? The secret is in your returning guests. Those wonderful families that come back year after […]
The post The Secret to Renting Out Your Vacation Home – the Stress-Free Way appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been having some interesting conversation recently with the founders of We Check it Out. Angela Balan and Jeff Sopik have partnered to bring their unique business and management skills to cottage country in the form of a membership package. Their current plans are designed for owners who need occasional checks to be made on […]
The post How Much Should You Pay for Property Management? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I’ve been in lively discussion with a fellow cottage owner about providing bed linens for guests. From my knowledge of the rental market here in Ontario, I would guess around 20% of owners supply sheets and towels, while the rest provide comforters, blankets and pillows and ask their renters to bring their own linens. Our […]
The post Are You Adding Value by Providing Linens for Your Guests? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
The time has come for some renovations at my cottage in the Kawarthas. We’ve been renting out Osprey Cottage for three years now and have had a lot of success, with full occupancy in the summer and decent reservation rates the rest of the year, but it’s looking a bit tired in places. We are […]
The post Additions, Renovations and Improvements to Increase Rental Profit appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
1 Change the photos on your website to show winter scenes Potential renters are going to find your site more attractive if there are winter photos to motivate them to book. Next time you get a good snowfall, take some great pictures of the exterior of the property before the snow gets trampled on. If […]
The post 8 Ways to Attract Winter Cottage Rental Guests appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Here’s an interesting viewpoint on the fast growing vacation rental industry: “all vacation home owners who rent more than a couple of weeks in the year should be licensed and meet minimum standards for vacation rentals”. I read this on a forum recently and it has been niggling at the back of my mind ever […]
The post Should Vacation Rentals be Licensed and Regulated? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
On one of our first winter visits to our Haliburton Highlands cottage from the UK, we experienced a 36-hour power outage during and after a winter storm. It was pretty scary as the road out was blocked by snow; the plow didn't get round until the second day; we'd never realized we'd be without water […]
The post What Your Guests Need to Know About Winter Rentals appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Blogs have gone way beyond being just a platform for self involved people to share uninteresting details of their mundane everyday life. Although there a plenty of these types of ‘journal’ around, the whole focus of blogging has changed. Businesses and entrepreneurs are using the blogging medium to promote their products and services to a […]
The post How to Market your Vacation Rental with a Blog appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
In the course of a year, I probably visit over 100 vacation homes and cottages. Sometimes this is an annual inspection for rental cottages for my management agency; sometimes as part of my consultancy services to owners who are considering renting out their properties, and very occasionally it is in response to a complaint from […]
The post Why You Should Give Your Guests a Good Night’s Sleep appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Bed bugs are on the march, and could be marching into your cottage mattresses, sofas and carpets. Pest controllers in Toronto are reporting huge increases in call outs to infestations and the situation has now got to the point that Dr. David McKeown, the city's medical officer of health, attended a sell-out east end town […]
The post Are Bed Bugs Biting at your Cottage? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
We've just bought a generator. It took us a long while researching and considering the expense but we finally decided to take the plunge and bought a 16kw automatic propane model at a cost of just over $7000. Ouch…..I hear the intakes of breath and sucking in of teeth…that's a lot of money for additional […]
The post Winter Power Outages -Buying a Generator appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Making your guests feel welcome when they arrive is the key to creating happy clients who will return and refer their friends. They are more likely to respect your property and to leave it in an as-found condition if you have provided them with some pleasing touches that will enhance their cottage experience. These are […]
The post 10 Ways to Add Value to Your Cottage Vacation Rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Rental guests come in all shapes, sizes and from a great variety of backgrounds. Similarly, they all have varying preconceived ideas about what to expect from their vacation rental. Where people are used to city services – water, sewage, garbage collection and of course snow removal, it’s important to let them know the differences they […]
The post Preparing your guests for winter rental appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
I was out having a final kayak on our lake yesterday and it was so quiet and peaceful; the docks are all in and shutters are on the windows of cottages that all have that vacant look. Another few weeks and the snow, ice and cold will keep all but a few in hibernation until […]
The post Is your cottage sitting empty when it could be earning for you? appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
There is a natural fear about renting out your cottage paradise for the first time. Wondering how you will feel about strangers using your things, whether they will treat your property with respect, and what your liabilities are, may be questions that need answers before you commit. I spoke to a couple at the Fall […]
The post Minimising the risks of renting out your cottage appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
If there is one phrase guaranteed to send me into soap box mode, it is ‘It’s just a cottage’. This usually comes from a veteran cottage owner whose property has been in the family for generations and who was brought up with the view that getting away to the cottage was a return to the […]
The post Are We Complacent? There’s Evidence to Show We Need to Improve Standards appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.
Although managing your own cottage rental can be rewarding and, in some ways, economical, it is very time consuming and demands a high degree of attention for it to be successful. This is where rental management companies can offer a great alternative, or become an additional tool in your marketing plan. Types of agencies and […]
The post What you need to know about using a rental agency appeared first on Vacation Rental Formula.