Archive for December, 2008

« Older Entries

Holiday Numbers. Amazon is up 17%. What can you learn from that?

Sunday, December 28th, 2008

Some of the numbers coming in are a bit scary…….like my weight gain as tracked on my new Wii Fit.  It measured me at a stout ‘overweight’ to start my 2009 training.  My wife and kids have found this to be quite amusing – some of you are aware of my Ironman triathlon racing and can probably also see the humor in this.

Numbers can be deceiving.  As I have posted before, the media is having a grand time with the economic news and their doomsday predictions.  Remember, they only sell papers and get viewers based on sensational numbers in the negative or the positive.  They have to be sensational.

The 2008 Holiday retail numbers for the brick & mortar stores  are definitely dismal.  Sales are down in the 10-15% range across the various big stores like Target, Walmart, and Macy’s.  They are down even further in the luxury category, to the tune of 15-25% for stores such as Nordstrom and Tiffany’s.  No question this is bad news.  Got it.

 But, Amazon.com has reported another record Holiday shopping season.  Amazon is UP 17%.  Why?  I cannot say for certain, but based on what I have read and discussed with experts in the online retail business, it is based on the ease of shopping.  That includes the selection, checkout, delivery, and service.  All these have been communicated to customers through effective marketing efforts.

What can you learn for your vacation home rental business from Amazon?  Look carefully at what differentiates Amazon from other retailers. 

Amazon provides a seamless and complete online shopping experience.  

  1. Selection is almost limitless – this is difficult to accomplish for vacation rentals, but you can do much through your descriptions and marketing of properties to provide variety
  2. Checkout is simple – make it a seamless and easy process that inspires confidence to your guests
  3. Delivery is reliable – ensure that you follow up on all actions taken by prospects and guests
  4. Service is great – share the love, and make sure that everyone interacting with your guests shares the love

Certainly there are many more lessons to be learned from Amazon, but these are a couple that are at the top of the list.  Look to the winners in the current economy for lessons on how to get more ‘heads in beds’ and how to find the marketing messages that will inspire guests.

Happy Holidays.  On a closing note, here is a picture of me taking my two older kids on some snow-rafting.

Rafting.....in the snow in Idaho.

Rafting.....in the snow in Idaho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ralf VonSosen
www.LiveRez.com
www.LiveRez.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Bookings, Online Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Holiday Love……make sure everyone shows it to your Vacation Home Guests

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

What else is there to think about during the holidays but ‘love’, and how we show it to others.  As we strive to be a part of our guest’s very special time with family and friends, we should remember how we can show our hospitality and gratitude to them for choosing us. 

This should really be a theme for us all year round, but it seems that we always remember it even more during this holiday time.

Also make sure that all those associated with your business are aware of how you want to show hospitality & friendship to guests.  During their stay at your vacation home, guests will interact with many individuals, from travel agents, to restaurants, to your staff, and many many more.  Ensure you know the complete experience of your guest.

Recent Article on CNN.com about what traveler’s should look for in a travel agent.

  This made me think about how important it is to know where your new guests are coming from and who is part of your guests ‘value chain’.  The Value Chain is the collection of all the components that make up the guests vacation experience.  Travel agents can be an important part of that value chain.

9 Signs of a Bad Travel Agent
1. Demands you pay in cash
2. Acts funny when you bring up commissions
3. Has no certifications
4. Adds a booking fee to your bill after you’ve decided to buy a vacation
5. Doesn’t know a thing about where you’re going
6. Has a Better Business Bureau rap sheet
7. Is impossible to reach
8. Doesn’t listen
9. Other warning signs

Tags:
Posted in Industry Trends, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Simplify……and make money with Security Deposits

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

I like things simple.  Life is complicated enough – economy, family, work, holidays, BCS college football rankings, …….  So I am one to jump on anything that simplifies life and vacation rentals.  Here is my simplification tip for the day:

Security Deposits – these can be very laborious, hard to track, and not super efficient in helping to control damages.

So here is a potential solution that has become popular with many of the LiveRez vacation home rental managers – use a flat non-refundable fee that covers processing and the security deposit.  Using a flat fee of something around $69 – $89 that covers your processing fees and security deposit is a way to simplify the traditional dance of “collect, monitor, hope they report, checking the property, refunding the fee, finding something later,……”.

Here is the logic.  You collect a non-refundable fee that in essence insures the guest for any accidental (not deliberate) damage up to $1500 (you choose the amount).  They know they are covered and are more likely to report any damage.  Most people will not break anything and that is cash in your bank.  You do not have to mess around with refunding the deposit.  Win, Win, Win.

Maybe this change in operational process could work for you.

All the best.

Ralf
www.LiveRez.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Bookings | No Comments »

Know the Travelers to Your Vacation Rental Destination

Friday, December 19th, 2008

How much do you know about the visitors to your destination?  Not just your guests, but the general travelers to your destination area.  This information should play a vital part in your marketing efforts as it will tell you about your target market and what you should emphasize. Here is some information that I had the opportunity to review with a vacation manager from Florida.  These are 2007 numbers for Central Florida and Kissimmee. Among overnight visitors to Kissimmee (defined as Osceola County) in 2007:61% had been to Central Florida before
57% had been to Kissimmee before  Among those who had been to Central Florida before, this is the breakdown on number of past visits toKissimmee:
1 Visit              24%
2-3 Visits          23%
4-6 Visits          16%
7+ Visits           30% 
For an additional 7%, it was the first time to Kissimmee, even though they had been to Central Florida before. Among those who had been to Central Florida before, the time since last visit was:
Less than 6 months      
14%7 months to 1 year       
10%1-2 years                      
18%2-3 years                      
21%3-5 years                      
19%6-10 years                    
7%More than 10 years         So why is this so interesting?  It tells you some important information about the frequency of repeat visitors to Kissimmee.  It tells you in what time increments they are likely to return.  The better you can understand your target market, the better you will be able to tailor your marketing campaigns, message, and special offers. I encourage you to work with your local organizations to track and document such important information to everyone whose business relies on travelers to your destination.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Search Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

More Investment $$ Flowing into the Vacation Industry

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

I am a big fan of positive news.  I am a glass half-full kind of guy.  I thrive on positive energy.  So here is some more positive news to all you out there in the vacation rental industry who are also thirsting for positive news in what has become a competition on who can be the darkest doomsday newscaster.

SellMyTimeshareNOW.com has raised $8.5M in venture capital funds.

Why am I so excited about this?  Because there are some pretty smart people at Edison Capaital and they see the vacation industry as a place to make some bets.  (Edison’s successes include Best Software, Dendrite, E-Transport, Gain Capital, Liberty Tax, VirtualEdge, Visual Networks, Vocus and many other information technology leaders, which have a combined market value exceeding $5 billion.)

Staying Positive in a cold Boise!

Ralf
www.LiveRez.com

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Some Stats on Online Travel and Online Vacation Home Rental

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

All I hear about is what a bummer the economy is.  Enough already.  All our futures are at stake here.  Yes?  Well, I suggest we all focus on what we can do tomorrow when we get up in the morning and make it a better day, a better economy, and a better country.

Do not misinterpret me for someone who does not care.  Quite the contrary, I care a lot.  That is why I want us to focus on the positive.  So I looked at some online stats at www.compete.com. 

What does this tell us?  Traffic has dropped off significantly, but that is an annual cycle.  Look at the year-to-year, it is down but not massively.  Among these three travel sites there were almost 30million people in Nov that were shopping for travel.  30 million is about 4X the population of my native Austria.

Now below is the traffic for VRBO and Homeaway.  Again look not only at the seasonal trend, look at the year-to-year traffic.  It is actually up for both these site. 

So before you stick another pin into that Ben Bernacki voodoo doll, take a closer look at the stats and think about what you can affect, what you can change, how you can drive your business further.

Full of hope.

Ralf
www.LiveRez.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Use Survey’s to help your Online Vacation Rental Presence

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Ever watch Family Feud?  Survey says, “………….”  People, in general, like to know what others are thinking, doing, or have an opinion on.  That is where collecting survey information can help you attract more travelers to your site – create some material that is interesting to them, news that they want to read……Top 10 List, Why Travelers……great hooks to get people to your site and fantastic SEO content.

That is one part of the equation.  The other part of the equation is that you can learn tremendous information by analyzing the responses you collect from guests, prospective guests, and ‘just looking’ browsers.

One part I like about surveys is that there are some great tools out there that you can use on your website and through email marketing.  I have recommended Zoomerang and Survey Monkey before.  Today I ran across a new one Surveygizmo. 

Surveygizmo allows you to engage visitors and find out how they feel about your site experience by asking them directly. SurveyGizmo does just that. You can structure your surveys in many ways, including polls, quizzes, landing pages and even mobile marketing campaigns. Extensive analytics and reporting features are included.

A basic account was available at no cost. This is an actual working account (not just a test account) that allows you to gather 250 responses per month on an ongoing basis. Pricing for larger surveys is available at the site.

Another tool and strategy to look into to enhance your vacation rental business.  It is FREE and can provide you excellent data, as well as new guests.

Ralf
LiveRez

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media/Network is Popular with Online Shoppers (& Vacation Rental Bookers)

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

I thought maybe it was just my wife and kids (I have been watching then get more active on www.Facebook.com and my wife has developed quite a following on her blog www.wenderful.com), but I have come to realize that we seem to be at an inflection point in the utilization of online social networking.  Here is the most scientific  evidence I have for this – my mother-in-law has a Facebook profile.  Now it is mainstream for sure!!

 

If that is not scientific enough for you, here is some more data from a recent study by Universal McCann International Social Media Research.  Check out this study for some amazing detail and info.

  • Watched a video  82.9%

  • Read a blog 72.8%

  • Visit a photo sharing site  63.2%

  • Manage a profile on a social network  57.3%

  • Leave a comment on a blog  54.8%

  • Leave a comment on a news site  44.8%

  • Subscribe to an RSS feed  33.7%

What this means to you?  Here is my opinion. 

  • First, you get familiar with these sites, tools, networks.  Understand them, do not rely on anyone else to define them for you.  If you do not consider yourself technical, do not let than be a roadblock, the point of these social sites and networks is that they are for humans – not techie guys. 

  • Second, match your target audience and target message to the appropriate online social channel.

Hope this helps in your vacation home rentals.

 

Ralf

www.LiveRez.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Your Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty? Overflowing for Vacation Rentals, I say!!!

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Latest report from PhocusWright on Leisure/Unmanaged travel shows that both overall travel (2-4% per year) and online travel (7-9% per year) will GROW in the next couple of years.  Grow!!  Have you been paying attention to what is going on in industries all around us.  Builders, Bankers, Car Makers, Manufacturers, and others are flailing to avoid bankruptcy and get gov’t bailout money.

Vacation homes should be at the forefront of this and take advantage of it.  Let’s use this time to sharpen our value proposition, our marketing, our services, and grab more market-share.  

Way I see it, 5% of 1,000 is 50.  OK,  this only grows 7% to 1,070.  Now the 5% is 54 – so that is your growth plan?  HECK NO!!!  Vacation homes have a distinct advantage for value, we have great online tools, and a killer message……………we can crank up that 5%.  That is where the growth will come from.  Get that 5% to 6% and all of a sudden you have grown to 65 in the same scenario – an over 20% growth. 

Let us not get caught in the ‘bummer the growth is so small’ talk.  Let’s be the ones that attack, that make lemonade from lemons, the fighters & survivors. 

Ralf
LiveRez.com

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Bookings, Online Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

Emotions – that is how you hook the travelers in a tough economy

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

The TIA (Travel Industry Association) recently shared the following news (TIA Article about Holiday Travel).  Not sure what the numbers came in at for the Thanksgiving travel, but what is clear is that there is an incredibly emotional driver to travel for the holidays.  Most of us tend to focus on our relationships during tough economic times.

 What does that mean for you:  Focus on the family tradition, the emotional bond to a vacation, during these tough economic times.  Do not pound the luxury or adventure aspects of the vacation.  Focus on the importance of family, togetherness, relationships, and friends that take on more and more meaning during tough times and will bring guests to your vacation home rental.
The survey of 2,256 adults conducted earlier this month showed that despite economic concerns some 60 percent of those visiting with out-of-town family or friends strongly feel the time and money spent is a small price to pay to be with people they love.The Harris survey revealed that among those who visit with out of town family or friends:

  • 70 percent recognize it’s a tradition to be with family or friends at Thanksgiving.
  • 68 percent strongly agree that it creates memories for them and/or their children.
  • 61 percent strongly feel being with family and friends over the holidays helps them reconnect with loved ones and build relationships.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Industry Trends, Online Marketing, Vacation Marketing | No Comments »

« Older Entries