Escapia Blog - Vacation Rental News and Trends

Vacation Rental Data Suggests that Hawaii Is On The Mend

By Bill Furlong, CEO



During our recent vacation rental breakfast seminars in Oahu and Maui, we presented a summary of vacation rental trends for bookings done in 2009.  The past 12 months have been rough ones in Hawaiian travel business.  More than anywhere else in the country, bookings have been incredibly slow in Hawaii since the country entered the recession.  A few of the takeaways from our recent analysis:

• Bookings have been on a steady recovery from the lows of early 2009.
• The recovery has been broad-based rather than narrow.  In other words, the steady improvement through the year isn't drive by a few management companies doing well.  It is a trend being felt by many of the companies in our survey.
• Most managers reduced rent in 2009 versus 2008.  Discounting accelerated as the year progressed, probably because more and more managers turned to pricing as a way to fill empty homes.  In July 2009, 93% of managers in our survey averaged a lower rent per booking than a year earlier.
• Lead times, which have shrunk in recent years, have shrunk even faster in the past 12 months.  The average booking lead time is up to 25% shorter than it was a year ago, averaging roughly 80-90 days.
• Weekend bookings appear to be smaller dollar value bookings.  And Monday and Tuesday appears to be when the long-range vacation planners book.

 The slides below have all the details.  In a few weeks, we'll be publishing our 3rd quarter 2009 vacation rental trends for the whole country.

Hawaii Vacation Rental Trends 2009

View more presentations from billfurlong.

Vacation Rental Seminars in Hawaii

By Bryan Boice, National Sales Manager

Two weeks ago, Bill Furlong, Mike Zaroudny and I “took-one-for-the-team” and spent the week of the 14th in Hawaii visiting vacation rental managers and conducting our bi-annual Hawaiian Vacation Rental Breakfast Seminars. This time we were on Oahu (September 15th) and Maui (September 17th). Both seminars had great turnouts and good energy from property managers looking to increase revenue and manage bookings easier. While the evenings were filled with tiki torches and beautiful sunsets, the days were packed with great discussions with on-island property managers.

Our Hawaiian Islands Market Trends study, the most comprehensive in the industry, was a big part of those talks. Bill Furlong presented our updated results to seminar participants eager for the information. Overall, lead times have shrunk but overall bookings and dollars appear to be trending upward. All attendees left with a printed copy of the findings and said they look forward to Escapia’s continued analysis on the Hawaiian vacation rental industry. Many were also excited to see the additional market-leading features we’ve added to the property management platform and our websites.

We’re looking forward to going back again soon! For more information on Vacation Rental Seminars, visit our website for details and upcoming dates and locations.

Escapia Trip to Sunriver, Oregon

By Mike Zaroudny, Escapia Sales

Fresh back from my honeymoon, this week I headed south to Sunriver with our VP of Sales, John Suzuki to host the Oregon Vacation Rental Breakfast Seminar at the Sunriver Resort on Wednesday.

When I met John at the airport I was pleasantly surprised to learn few things:

1. That members of our development team including our CTO, Melissa Yang, had piled in a car and had driven down the night before to spend time in the office of Escapia client Discover Sunriver.

2. We were staying in a fantastic Discover Sunriver vacation home at the resort.

3. We were all going to Maverick’s Tuesday afternoon to ride something called the "Flowrider".

I quickly learned that the Flowrider is a man-made turbine propulsion wave you ride on a surf/skim board. The kids that worked there made it look easy but we all quickly found out that it was not! Ross Yearsley, a member of the Escapia development team (pictured below) quickly got the hang of it and others, like myself, didn’t fair as well - narrowly missing a trip to the ER. Our host Larry Browning of Discover Sunriver even made his first outing on the Flowrider and looked rather impressive! We all had a great time - thank you Larry!

Ross Yearsley of the Escapia Development team conquering the Flowrider!

On Wednesday morning John and I hosted the vacation rental breakfast seminar to a full house at the Sunriver Resort. The energy was great and the crowd was very engaging. Between the Mavericks, the Flowrider, office time with Discover Sunriver and the Vacation Rental Seminar - we all had a fantastic trip to Sunriver visiting with clients and prospects.

Ross, Ryan, Mike, Peter, Melissa and Tong of the Escapia Development team visiting Discover Sunriver.

Florida VRMA - A Great Show!

By John Suzuki, VP of Sales

I am pleased to report that we attended the Florida Vacation Rental Managers Association's annual conference in Destin, Florida and survived the ravages of tropical storm Claudette, which flew right over our heads in Destin. Fortunately it was just a bunch of rain and some wind gusts, but it was fun watching it pass over us on TV!

The FVRMA conference was great. It was very interesting to see that there were several common themes presented during the conference that were new this year:

1.  It's all about the Web and "Cloud Computing." Those companies who don't embrace the integration and simplicity of web-based software will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. The good news: This has been in Escapia's DNA since day one. We are the best at this, and our lead is growing.

 2.  Reputation Management from guest reviews is no longer a luxury; it is expected and required by travelers shopping for lodging alternatives. The good news: Escapia has the only system that integrates Guest Reviews with the business software.

3.  "Revenue Optimization" (i.e. Yield Management and Dynamic Rates) based on supply and demand and time to arrival are something that vacation rental management companies must implement to remain competitive. The good news: Escapia offers the only automated yield and rate management system in the vacation rental industry.

Chris Kemp, Escapia founder and current big shot at NASA (really, he is!), gave the closing presentation from his office at NASA via televideo and presented his view of the future of technology in the vacation rentals. It was clear to me that Escapia not only holds the high ground in "cloud computing" with the core business functionality of EscapiaONE, but we also clearly have the leadership position (and growing) of all things new and strategic. Escapia clients have much to be excited about, and we have much, much more to come!

Thanks to the Florida VRMA for a great show!

New Video: Why did you attend the Escapia Vacation Rental Seminar?

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager

Over the last few years, we've gotten the chance to meet hundreds of vacation rental managers at our Vacation Rental Seminar series.  Managers come from all areas of the country to learn about the state of the vacation rental industry, the latest technology being used, increasing revenue and expanding their web presence - among many other topics.  If you haven't yet had the chance to go to the Vacation Rental Seminar, we highly encourage you take advantage of it.   Of course, don't only take our word for it!  From over 90+ seminars, feedback from our past attendees has been 100% positive. 

To give you a better idea of what to expect from the seminar, I asked a handful of attendees "Why did you attend the vacation rental seminar?"  Below is a video of their answers...

To see a list of upcoming seminar locations and topics to be presented visit www.vrseminar.com. We hope to see you at an upcoming vacation rental seminar very soon!

Observations from Palm Springs

By Bryan Boice, National Sales Manager

Last week Mike Zaroudny, John Suzuki and I traveled to the desert for our annual Palm Springs vacation rental breakfast seminar. We had a great turnout of local vacation rental professionals excited to learn and improve their businesses. It was clear folks can see the “light at the end of the tunnel” and most are hopeful that the worst of the recession seems to be behind us. Here are several observations that I made during our visits with managers:

1. Lead times have shrunk in the Coachella Valley more noticeably this year than ever before. Our data confirms this; 
2. Guests are in the mood to bargain. Local and national media outlets have publicized 2009 as the “Year of the Travel Deal”. Travelers know we’ve got vacancies and their schedules are flexible enough to capitalize on higher than normal supply. Unlike other areas we’ve been recently, managers in Palm Springs are willing to provide those deals to attract clients and generate bookings; 
3. Yield Management techniques are being used to help increase occupancy and revenue. I was surprised at the number of property managers employing manual yield management techniques. What does this mean? It’s telling reservationists to offer 20% off for next week when they talk to guests. It’s looking at bookings today for August and deciding to decrease the nightly minimum from 7 nights to 3 to generate more bookings. We’ve all been doing this for years. Progressive managers of all sizes see a huge competitive advantage with Escapia’s automated yield management system; 
4. It’s hot in Palm Springs in June. You know this and I know it, but it’s always a shock to actually experience 110 degree desert heat in person. Can someone just follow me around with patio misters?  

Palm Trees and Sun In Florida

By Bryan Boice, National Sales Manager

John Suzuki, Mike Zaroudny, and I had a wonderful time visiting with folks in Florida last week at our annual Panama City (May 12th) and Orlando (May 14th) vacation rental breakfast seminars. Both seminars had energized management companies and partners ready to tackle the current economic challenges head-on. Here was our favorite quote from a seminar attendee:

“Everyone who complains about their business but doesn’t take advantage of these seminars is really secretly wishing they would fail. I can think of no other reason to pass up this type of opportunity.” Dawn, Emerald Palms Private Pool Villas

Besides great participants, swaying palm trees and 85 degree weather made the time in Florida even more enjoyable. As a resident of a beautiful resort community, it’s easy for most of us to forget how great the weather and surroundings are. Don’t forget about what a powerful marketing tool this can be. Many of your former and potential guests live in places like Mike, John and I (where it was rainy and 50 degrees all week) and would LOVE reminders on how great things are in your destination. Occasional emails and postcards with images of palm trees and sun always do wonders to get people excited to visit. We’re looking forward to receiving ours soon – at least until the sun starts to shine in Seattle!

Eric and Betsy Laracuente of Near to Disney Resort with John Suzuki

Seminars in the Land of Aloha!

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager

Members of the Escapia team spent last week in Hawaii holding vacation rental seminars in two of our favorite vacation rental destinations: Kauai and the Big Island.  We had a great time hosting the vacation rental seminars and meeting with over 30 property management companies in Hawaii. We were joined by seminar sponsors Visual Data Systems, Kaba Lodging Systems and CSA Travel Protection.

The seminar attendees also got a sneak peak at Escapia Research reports on vacation rental trends in Hawaii presented by Bill Furlong.  The data analyzed vacation rental bookings and trends in Hawaii comprised from over 10,000 annualized bookings and over $30 million in annualized booking dollars.  The reports will soon be posted here, so keeping checking back! 

The 'Quotable Quote' from the vacation rental seminar came from Gloria at Regency Pacific Realty: "I feel Escapia addressed real time problems with real time solutions - lots of great ideas!!"

Mahalo (thanks) to everyone who attended the seminars - and we look forward to seeing you next time - aloha!

Bill and Bryan of Escapia with the team of Hawaii Holiday Vacation Rentals after the seminar.

Pacific Northwest Vacation Rental Seminar

By Kris Lande, Product Marketing Manager


Today we hosted our very first Vacation Rental Seminar in Seattle.  Since Escapia is based in Seattle, this seminar location was long overdue!  We held the seminar literally five blocks from our company headquarters, what a nice commute.

We had a great showing of property managers from as far as Bigfork, Montana to as near as downtown Seattle.  We really enjoyed the chance to catch up with managers who are doing business in our local area. 

 
Paul Herman of Visual Data Systems speaking to the crowd about online marketing and website development.

Edsel Moraleja with Amy & Ann Mary of Montana's Best Vacation Homes

Escapians Edsel, Dylan, Kris, Abby and Mike after the seminar.

'Quotable Quote' from the seminar: "It was very informative and I feel like I can take all this information and utilize it in my business."  Amy, Montana's Best Vacation Homes.

Blogging VRMA East: Trust Accounting 101

by Bill Furlong, CEO

At the VRMA conference in Charlotte, Christopher Smith, former NC state real estate auditor, provided an overview of trust accounting issues:

• Chris provided a lot of "war stories" with examples of agencies that have gotten burned by not following appropriate accounting procedures -- whether getting taken by dishonest employees or not being prepared for an audit by a real estate commission staffer.
• Agencies with more than 100 units should make sure they have adequate accounting staff.  He gets nervous when he hears of an agency with one person doing accounting for 100+ units.
• Why bother with trust accounting?:  Most states have laws requiring it.  Also boosts confidence in the integrity of your company's reports for owners and clients.
• Who is required to have a trust account?  The Broker in Charge, Property Manager in Charge.  Trust account has be to designated in the company name.
• When should you deposit cash? -- between "immediately" and 3 banking days depending on the location.
• Where should you deposit cash? -- Federally insured bank or savings and loan. Note that you should watch out for sweep accounts where banks will take funds in an account over a certain balance and invest them in money markets to increase returns.  Those are typically not FDIC insured.
• Know your trust account balance.  Ask for it every day so you can be on top of any changes that don't seem right.
• Monthly reconciliations -- Bank rec with ending blanace, outstanding deposits with detail, outstanding checks with details and any adjustments (interest, service charges, etc.).  Need to tie this out to your books.  Trust account balance sheet does this to reconcile the bank statement to the the GL/Journal balance (and ensure that the subsidiary ledger balances). 
• Balance sheet should balance - Assets (cash in banks) should equal liabilities (subsidiary ledger balances).
• What are the big potential problems/mistakes/issues.  Comingling of funds is a big issue.  You cannot mix the liensee's money with money held in the trust account for others.  Conversion is when trust monies are used for a purpose other than the intended purpose (e.g. using it for personal or agency business use or using one client's money for the benefit of another client or transaction).
• Fraud goes up when the economy goes down (like it is today).  Stay on your toes!

Chris's seminar was a good overview why vacation rental software like EscapiaVRS with a dedicated accounting module tailored to the vacation rental business is a critical protection for VR managers.  Chris clearly has phenomenally deep knowledge on vacation rental accounting and is a valuable resource for managers.  Two of the bigger agencies in the room mentioned that Chris does internal audits for them and they strongly urge having someone like Chris audit your books before the regulators do.