Escapia Blog - Vacation Rental News and Trends

The Griswolds are Back!

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager

(Image via HomeAway)

Today my day was made for multiple reasons.  In addition to the recent excitement surrounding last month's announcement of a HomeAway Super Bowl ad featuring vacation rentals; today HomeAway announced that the Griswolds - the famous family of the National Lampoon's Vacation movies - will be the reunited for the Super Bowl ad.  As a child of the 80's, an advocate of vacation rentals and a lover of the National Lampoon's movies... let's just say that 'ecstatic' is an understatement of how I feel about this! 

Here at Escapia, we're particularly excited as our partnership with HomeAway will give our clients' properties a flood of exposure due to this advertisement that will reach more than 100 million people.  This is a reminder that if you haven't opted into HomeAway via EscapiaNET, now is a great time to do so!  Depending on where your vacation business is located, opting in on EscapiaNET is an easy way for you to take advantage of this fantastic marketing campaign by HomeAway. Opting into HomeAway is simple, and your properties will automatically and immediately be shown on HomeAway and ready to be booked by football fans and National Lampoon lovers alike.  If you have any questions about opting in, contact Escapia Support. 

Blogging VRMA: 25 Top Web Sites for VR Managers

By Bill Furlong, CEO

Trent Blizzard, founder of Blizzard Internet Marketing, presented his list of 25 Web sites that every VR manager should know.  Trent's presentations are always lively and packed with info.  And best of all, they are very practical with some tips and/or sites that present opportuunities for VR managers to improve their online marketing.

Oh, and if you're counting you might note that Trent admitted that he fell a couple sites short of the 25.  But there should be more than enough below to keep you busy.

According to Trent, links drive 66% of Google's search results.  Metatags drive 0% of Google today (still drive Yahoo search results, but Yahoo search will switch to Microsoft's Bing under the recent deal between the two companies).

Social Networking faves:
- Facebook: Good for search engine results saturation.  But you can waste a lot of time.  A lot of people are doing it wrong.
- Twitter: All about last minute stuff.
- Linked In: All about your business.  About business networking and not guests and bookings.

SEO Faves:
- DMOZ.org: submit your self
- PRWeb: for distributing press releases.
- Best of the Web:  Nice listing and link that helps in search engines ("SE"s)

User Gen Content faves:
- Flickr: upload your pictures.
- YouTube: Second biggest search engine in the world.  50/50 split in the audience of how many managers are using videos on their web site.  Consider Wistia.com for hosting videos.  More customizable if you are putting it on your site.  Tubemogul.com will push videos out to multiple sites at once (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
- CommunityWalk:  Create maps.  Good for search engines.  Especially local SEs.
- Google MyMaps:  Ditto above.
- Google Earth (keyhole):  Ditto above.

>> Tip:  Put full contact info with address and phone not just link.

Review Faves:
- FlipKey
- Yelp
- Judy's Book
- Google Local:  Take ownership of your listing on Google Local

>> Tip:  Try and get reviews in a lot of different places.

Yahoo Faves:
- Travel.yahoo.com
- Local.yahoo.com
- Yahoo Biz Directory: $299/year

>> Spending 10-20 hours can pay off.  Sites are below the radar for a lot of people, so you can do well.

VRM Faves:
- Postlets: Upload homes.  RE and VR site.  Very time consuming to upload by hand.  Free.
- Besttraveldeals.net:  Helps Google page rank as well as passing traffic.  Completely free.

Learn to Fish!
- SEMRush: Most exciting tool on Internet.  Searches Internet phrases and what keywords you rank for.
- Yahoo Site Explore: Top links to your site or your competitors'.
- SEOMoz Juicy Link Finder:  Fee-based tool.  Rich tool set. 

Blogging VRMA: Measuring Online Success

by Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager

At this year's VRMA show in Washington DC, I got the chance to attend some great educational sessions throughout the week.  One of my favorite sessions was "Measuring Online Success: Following the Metrics the Matter" presented by Mark Randle and Rebecca Lundregan of Visual Data Systems.



In the session Mark and Rebecca discussed how to measure your company's website success by looking at the nine metrics that they feel matter the most.  Here is a rundown of the metrics that matter according to the presenters:

1. Average Time on Site: What is the total time for all visits when divided by the total number of visits?

2.  Average Pages per Visit: What is the total page views divided by the total number of visits?

3. Bounce Rate:  Bounce rate represents the percentage of initial visitors to your website who see a single page and immediately leave to a different site. Also known as 'hit and run' visits, and not to be confused with 'exit rate.'

4.  Exit Percentage: This is the percentage of visitors leaving your website from a particular page.

5. New Visits vs. Returning Visits:  This shows you data for new visitors compared to returning visitors and is determined by a tracking code and not by an IP address. 

6. Goal Conversions:  Setting up goals on your site is a great way to measure if your visitors are navigating through your site as you'd like them to.  An example of goals to set up would be getting visitors to a 'contact us' page, the booking page or the 'email a friend' page. 

7.  Paid Traffic vs. Organic Traffic: This is the overall visits brought to your site by either your SEM (search engine marketing) pay-per-click efforts versus the traffic brought to your site by SEO (search engine optimization) organic efforts. 

8.  Map Overlay:  The map overlay is a great way to see where your website visitors are coming from by geographic area.

9. Google Custom Search Statistics: Google Custom Search creates a customized web search on your site with results from your website pages.

Double your bookings in a flash

By Bill Furlong, CEO

I spent some time this weekend looking for a vacation home in Austria for some friends who are planning a vacation (they apparently think I am their "personal shopper" when it comes to vacation rentals).  As I powered through a lot of vacation rental listings on Friday night, I could see a clear pattern about how I was making instant decisions -- filter as much as possible to get down to a manageable number of possible homes and then make instant decisions based on photos.  With hundreds of homes to look through, my brain was looking for three things: 1) are there enough photos, 2) does the place look nice and 3) is the photo quality decent?

Given that, I thought it would be interesting to go to the data and see if there is any corellation between the number of photos a unit has and the number of bookings a unit gets per year.  The results are a lot clearer than many of the photos you see for vacation homes!

 

So, are you interested in doubling your bookings per unit per year?  Well, then you might want to get out your camera (or even spring for a professional photographer).  As the chart above shows, vacation homes that have 0-4 pictures get less than half the bookings as those that have 20 or more photos.

Sure, getting those photos done is a hassle.  You have to drive all over the place.  You have to invest in some equipment.  You have to learn iPhoto or some other editing software.  Or you have to hire a photographer.  But think through the napkin math.  How much would it be worth to average 14.7 bookings per year instead of 6.4?  If you have 100 homes under management and get $1,400 on average per booking, then we're talking about $1.2 million of incremental booking revenue per year.  If you keep 25% of all booking revenue (including fees), then we're talking about $291k of incremental revenue to your agency.

How many agencies put the effort into having a lot of photos for each unit?  The top two categories above -- units with 15 or more photos -- represent 20% of all units in our sample.  At the bottom end, units with 4 or fewer photos also represent just over 20%.  Agencies with a fifth of the units out there have a clear opportunity to improve their listings and their bookings by increasing the number of photos.

Sure, photos alone might not drive your bookings per unit from 6.4 to 14.7.  But it is hard to argue with the clear corellation in the chart above.  If the reality is even a fraction of those numbers, investing in a large number of high quality photos is almost certainly worth it.  If you have any doubts, then spend next weekend shopping for a vacation home in some place you don't know like I did.  And stop to see how much you rely on the photos to narrow down from hundreds of options to a handful.  I think you'll find that your experience matches the results above. 

Blogging VRMA East: Surviving and Thriving in a Recession

 by Bill Furlong, CEO

Steve Milo, an Escapia customer and owner of VacationRentalPros in Venice, Florida presented tips at the VRMA East conference in Charlotte about how to survive and thrive in a tough economy.  Steve did a blog post here several weeks ago with some of his tips.  Here is the full list of compelling ideas to weather the economic storm – ideas that total over $150k in savings for VacationRentalPros.

Increase your cancellation fee:  Steve raised it from $100 to $300.  And made it after 48 hours instead of 30 days.  Cancellations dropped by 50%.  And cancellation fees projected to generate over $20k of revenue in 2009.

Electronic contracts:  Roughly ¼ of managers in the room appear to use an electronic contract.  The sooner you can deliver a contract to a guest, the more likely the booking is to stick.  Helped to decrease Steve’s cancellations by 50%.  Doing it electronically saves postage and staff time (Steve estimates $13k per year in savings) and storage space.  The service ensures automatically that the signatures happen in the right place.  Follow-up emails are automatically sent if the contract doesn’t get signed.  Cost of the service Steve uses (EchoSign.com) is $99 per month.  And, note that it is very green friendly since no paper is used.  95% of guests will and can do this – 5% of guests don’t have a computer.  But the rest can.

Keyless rentals/no check-ins:  No staffing required for check-in.  Allows managers to have a wider geographical range of properties.  Guests prefer not to have to go to two places at arrival and departure.  And the keyless entry systems let you see who was the last person out of a unit so you can monitor things.  No need to copy keys, search for lost keys, etc.  Steve charges owners for the keyless system at the setup and it is a profit center for them.

Restructure the booking fee:  Change it from being calculating on just rent to rent plus all fees.  Steve uses a 4.5% booking fee.  If you have $300 in fees per booking, you can add $15 per booking.  Across thousands of bookings, that adds up.  For Steve, it will amount to $300k in 2009.  Don’t roll it into your rent – that might boost your rent over your competitor just because you roll it into your rent and your competitor doesn’t.

Use Adobe docs for quality control and housekeepers:  No more manual paper forms.  Can keep historical records.  Find info in seconds.  Need Adobe at $299 one time license to make unlimited forms.  Housekeepers do it through wireless internet in the units so you can get the documents very quickly.  Estimated 2009 savings of $12k.

Restructure and rebid travel insurance:  Steve did a competitive bid.  Increased his T.I. split by 10%.  Also changed the basis for how travel insurance is calculated to be on all costs (sales tax and booking fees).

Rebid credit card merchant fees:  Steve’s fees were 2.55% in 2008.  He rebid it and got to 2.19%.  You must analyze merchant statements every month to understand the “true” bottom line “hidden” fees.  Annual savings of $15k.

Automate welcome to guests:  Steve created automatic “text” welcome emails to guests 72 hours before arrival and pre-recorded welcome phone calls (12 cents per minute per call).  Lock code, directions, FAQs, etc.  Eliminates staff time of calling people.

Email drafts and auto responders:  Created over 200 templates to tackle everything so staff doesn’t have to start from scratch.

Audit your phone bill:  Replete with excess charges.  Rebid it out.  Costs are decreasing from technology (VOIP).  Avoid long-term contracts.  Estimated savings of $6k per year.

The presenters provided a rich amount of detail in the session beyond what you see below.  It was clearly very, very helpful for the audience, which was very engaged in the discussion.  A great example of a VRMA session with enormously valuable ideas and information for attendees. 

Twitterpated!

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager

The Urban Dictionary defines the word 'twitterpated' as "being completely enamored with someone/something."  You might recall from a popular Walt Disney cartoon, when Bambi learns from the wise old owl that springtime makes everyone get 'twitterpated.' That said, I am officially 'twitterpated' for Twitter, the social networking service that lets you micro-blog your thoughts and updates 140 characters at a time.  And I'm not the only one - Twitter is everywhere lately.  It seems to be all the rage on the Today Show, Fox News, CNN, the John Stewart Show...and the list goes on and on. 

I've 'tweeted' (aka: used Twitter) personally for about a year, and recently ventured into tweeting for Escapia.  I've been pleasantly surprised and impressed with all the great networking and the instant circle of vacation rental industry tweeters I've been able to connect with.  So many companies in the industry are tweeting, it is great to see everyone's updates and links to great and valuable vacation rental industry information. 

The other day I attended a webinar hosted by Blizzard Internet and Resortquest on 'Marketing Vacation Rentals on Twitter.'  It was a terrific opportunity to learn more about how vacation rental managers are using Twitter to market their rentals by promoting specials and engaging their audience.  I've also been reading many articles on using Twitter effectively.  Based on what I've learned over the past few weeks as I've started tweeting, here are some Twitter tips I'd like to share with you:

1. Follow interesting people/companies: I've began 'following' a lot Twitterers I find interesting (ex. vacation rental directories/companies, social media experts, etc.). By following them I've already been introduced to lots of interesting articles, studies and tips/tricks that they've posted.

2.  Follow interesting people/companies: Okay, yes I realize this was also #1.  But another reason to follow interesting people is that by following them, they may in turn follow you - getting your updates in front of them.  Great exposure for you!

3. Share a mix of information with your Twitter community: I view Twitter as a great place to not only feature blog posts and company updates, but also to share your company's personality.  Many companies on Twitter only tweet 'new blog posts.'  While sharing blog posts on Twitter is great, I encourage you to share more - such as what you're doing, what you're reading, and what you're working on.  I've enjoyed putting 'fun' company pictures and updates on Twitter as well.  The key is to be personable, yet professional.

4. Engage your Twitter following: Watch the conversations happen on Twitter, and chime in to respond and help as needed.  For example, if you see someone tweet "looking for a vacation rental for 10 people somewhere along the California coast in June," engage with that person if you can point them in the right direction. By the way, below is an actual tweet I saw, and there are tweets like this all the time - potential customers for YOU!

 

5. Use Twitter tools to make it easier on yourself: Twitter can be addicting and a time-suck, so use tools available to make posting, following and searching easier.  I came across a great list of '10 Twitter tools that help you work smarter' - check it out.  These tools can help you integrate your blog, search for keywords, create auto-updates, and broadcast your tweets to your other networks such as Facebook. 

You're feeling a little twitterpated now too aren't you?  If your company is not yet on Twitter, you should definitely see what it's all about. Twitter can be another way to create your own online community to engage, interact and share your company's information.  There are lots of vacationers on Twitter looking for that great rental!

Oh, when you're there be sure to follow us. :)

Fun with Word Clouds

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager

I came across a blog post from one of our website development partners, Blizzard Internet, on creating word clouds with Wordle.  Word clouds are visual depictions of tags or word content on a website.  In other words (ha!) it is a way to create a visual of weighted word frequency in a given text.

Wordle is a self-proclaimed 'toy' for creating fun and artistic word clouds of whatever content you choose (such as your website, blog, etc.).  Of course when I read the word 'toy' I had to try for myself!  I created 'wordles' for the Escapia site homepage, as well as for a client's homepage...

Escapia Homepage Wordle:

Client Wordle:

It is fun to see the words used most frequently in your content - what a great way to visualize your most important keywords! Check it out - and try it out on your website or blog.

Yield management hits the slopes

By Bill Furlong, CEO

Escapia is a big believer that vacation rental managers have a terrific opportunity to embrace yield pricing/dynamic pricing/revenue management/variable pricing (pick your favorite term) to vacation rental management.  So we are particularly pleased when we see the same basic principal introduced in a similar space by people equally dedicated to innovating to help grow revenue for their clients as we are.
>As the attached blog post explains, Liftopia (www.liftopia.com) is introducing variable pricing to ski lift tickets with very positive results.  As we've seen with vacation rentals, while it takes time for the idea to be embraced, those who do so see benefits and the idea spreads to other companies.

As with Liftopia, Escapia's software platform lets vacation rental managers adjust prices on a real time basis to take advantage of consumers who are motivated by great deals when they book their vacation.  On our consumer site, ClearStay.com, we have a collection of offers where consumers can save if they are booking at the last minute.

We wish the Liftopia team well and are excited to see their passion for helping bring advanced pricing and promotional tools to a part of the travel industry that hasn't yet benefitted from them.

Remarkable is a Choice.

By James Sells, Dir. Client Services

A very thought provoking article from the great Seth Godin. (Who’s blog you should read religiously if you are a business owner, marketer, manager, or decision maker that values innovation, emerging trends, and insightful commentary.)

The two points that jump out to me the most are;

      “You’re probably boring on purpose.”
     “Remarkable costs time and money and effort…”

What are the areas that you are boring in and how can you get un-boring?

Is your staff boring? (How do they answer the phone, greet guests, write e-mails?)

Is your company boring? (Do you specialize in anything? Is there something that you do or offer that no one else does?)

Are your units boring? (Are they like every other home in your area? What is unique about them? How can you draw that out in the pictures and descriptions on your website?)

Is your pricing boring? (Is it the exact same as every other agency in your area? Do you offer discounts for last minute bookings? Partial stays? Do you offer special promotions?)

Is your website boring? (What does it communicate? Professionalism? Fun? Luxury? Or does it look like your 16 year old nephew designed it?)

Are your services boring? (Do you offer services that no other agency does? At lower costs or better value?)

“If people aren't discussing your products, your services…there's a reason.”

Keywords Aren't the Only Way to Unlock Rental Bookings

By Parag Vaish, Vice President Consumer Marketing

With competition in the vacation rental industry always increasing, there’s been a lot of focus on which “key” words most effectively attract renters.  But now, some insiders say we should go back in the opposite direction – instead of simply listing several brief, attractive terms to snag attention, we should expand the terms into longer (sentence-format) descriptions of the actual experiences they evoke.  This automatically generates strong imagery which will distinguish your rental from those that require imaginative effort on behalf of the traveler.

To grasp the gravity of the difference that focusing on experience makes, imagine for a moment that you are the renter looking for a vacation home to share with a few of your friends.  The first ad you come across simply lists its amenities, which are indeed impressive:

Ocean view
Beautiful natural stone patio with outdoor furniture
Gas BBQ grill
Close to fine wine shops

But the second ad you come across draws you into the experience and gives you images of how you will enjoy utilizing the amenities; it says:

Step out onto your beautiful natural stone patio on a warm, breezy evening and fire up the gas grill.  Indulge in a glass of fine wine from one of the many friendly local shop owners and enjoy a delicious outdoor meal with your friends as the sun sets over the glimmering ocean in front of you.

Both ads boast the same amenities, but the latter makes them sound like true luxuries rather than clear-cut commodities – and in this waning economy and increasingly competitive market, renters want the most luxurious experiences they can get for their dollar.  The bottom line, as property owner Jon Ludwig puts it, is that putting a little more time and thought into your rental advertisements is the key to making a real impression on your renters and unlocking those extra bookings.