New Reality Show on Vacation Rentals Now Airing on PBS
A screen shot from Getting Away Together's episode in Kissimmee.
A new reality show highlighting the trend of sharing a vacation rental with families and friends is now airing on PBS. The show, Getting Away Together, is a part of a Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) initiative to showcase the trend and raise awareness about vacation rentals as a growing alternative to hotels.
The show is expected to generate great publicity for the professionally-managed vacation rental industry and the thousands of managers across the nation. Boise-based LiveRez, the vacation rental software Gold Sponsor of the VRMA, works with more than 500 professional vacation rental manager partners from across North America and beyond.
“This show allows America to see firsthand what staying in a vacation rental is all about,” said Tracy Lotz, founder and CEO of LiveRez. “With Getting Away Together, the VRMA has done a great job documenting not only the value and quality of vacation rentals, but also the bonding friends and family experience when staying together.”
Yet Another Reason to Rent from Professional Vacation Rental Managers
Last week TODAY aired a segment on a number of vacation rental scams, highlighting the importance of booking your vacation through a professional vacation rental manager.
Just last week TODAY highlighted yet another reason to rent from professional vacation rental managers. The segment (see video below) detailed a number of vacation rental scams where criminals listed and took payment to rent homes they did not own. In many cases, there was no way for the victims to recover their money, especially for those that wired funds or paid with a check.
Incidents like this have been widely reported in the news lately, stressing a growing concern about the security of renting vacation homes. The prevalence of these scams reinforces the importance of renting from professional vacation rental managers.
Steve Trover, CEO of All Star Vacation Homes in Orlando, FL, said that when researching vacation rentals, there are many things travelers can look for to feel confident in booking.
VRBOs Not Paying Taxes Creates Competitive Disadvantage for VRMs
When VRBOs don't pay transient occupancy taxes on their vacation rentals, they can often rent their vacation home out for a lower price, which often creates a competitive disadvantage for professional vacation rental managers and even other VRBOs who follow the law.
Last Friday, The Desert Sun newspaper of Palm Springs released the latest in what seems like a string of articles nationwide about local governments cracking down on individuals operating vacation rentals and not paying taxes. Similar issues have already been raised in Colorado, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and more.
But this issue goes much farther than cities collecting the taxes due to them; it goes straight to the heart of a competitive advantage these tax evaders have over vacation rental managers that pay taxes.
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet told the Desert Sun that the effort wasn’t just about raising revenue from TOT (transient occupancy tax) funds.
“It levels the playing field for rental agencies and hotels,” he said. “It gives the city oversight over who is renting the property and how it's being managed.”
Professional vacation rental managers (VRMs) in the area know this situation all too well.
Twitter Explained for Vacation Rental Managers
Learning how to use Twitter isn't complicated. A simple overview can put you on the fast track to social media success.
Twitter is a strange bird (pun intended). Many people, especially those used to Facebook, can have a hard time picking up Twitter and utilizing it to their fullest. But, it doesn’t have to be confusing. In fact, once you learn a few basic concepts, Twitter is actually really easy to use.
It’s a great place for sharing content, getting advice and giving advice, and following the news. If used correctly, it can be a great tool in your marketing arsenal, both for disseminating your messages and for listening. In the following blog, I will attempt to briefly describe Twitter and how to use it.
The main distinguishing feature of Twitter is brevity. On Twitter, you can only post in 140 characters or less. Because of this people mostly use their Twitter posts (called tweets) for short one-line updates, or use their posts as a headline and then insert a link that people can click to learn more. This makes Twitter a great place to get a breakdown of the “news” you care about. Now while many journalists are now breaking stories online, I use news in a more general sense. If you want to see what’s going on in the world as it relates to some topic, Twitter is one of the best places you can go…if you set it up correctly.
Web Monitoring: The Importance of Listening to Brand Conversations Online
Listening to what people are saying online about your business is important.
Monitoring what people are saying about your business online is one of the most important things you can do as a company. The good news is that there are multiple tools online, most of them free, that can help you carefully follow Web conversations about your company. In the following post, I’ll go over how to use some of these simple tools to help you keep tabs on these conversations.
What to Look For
When I develop my web monitoring strategies, I like to break down my efforts into categories. Three main categories that all business should consider are: 1. Conversions about their business and their products and services, 2. Conversations about their competition, 3. Conversations about trends in the industry.
Could Adding a Google +1 Button Help Your SEO Efforts?
Rumor has it, adding a Google +1 button to your website could help your SEO efforts.
Earlier this year, Google introduced its own social network, Google+ – believed by many to be the company’s answer to Facebook. While Google+ is not yet available for businesses (it’s coming soon, they say), businesses can still take advantage of Google+ right now by utilizing Google’s answer to the Facebook “Like” button.
You may have noticed that little “+1” button next to the results in your Google searches. Clicking that button is roughly the equivalent of liking that page (or result) and recommending it to the people you’re connected with through your Google account. As you +1 pages, your recommendations will be shared with the people you’re connected with via your Google account. The video below explains the concept more fully.
According to rumors in the SEO community, increasing the amount of +1s your website has will help improve your search engine rankings on Google. Therefore, as you seek to grow your vacation rental business, you’ll want to put a +1 button in all the places you would normally put a Facebook like button: on your website, on your blog, etc.
Who Won the iPad 2? LiveRez.com Announces the Winner of its 2011 VRMA GiveAway
And the winner is….
LiveRez.com Founder and CEO Tracy Lotz congratulates Margy Roe of Ocean Properties and Vacation Rentals, Inc. on winning LiveRez.com's iPad 2 giveaway.
Margy Roe of Ocean Properties and Vacation Rentals in New Smyrna Beach, Florida is the winner of LiveRez.com's iPad 2 Giveaway at the 2011 National VRMA Conference. The announcement took Roe completely by surprise.
"I was very excited. I had no idea. I kind of forgot I even put my card in there," she said. "So, this is nice. Thank you!"
Video and Slides: 5 Fundamentals of Closing Bookings over the Phone
Did you miss our own Tyler Hurst's workshop at this year's 2011 VRMA National Conference? Hurst, along with vacation rental managers Betsy LaBarge and Colleen Almoney, presented on the "5 Fundamentals of Closing Bookings over the Phone." If you missed the presentation, you can view the slides online or check out the video highlights below.
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How Commenting on Blogs and News Articles Can Help with SEO
Most blogs and news articles have a place at bottom where you can comment. This USA Today article uses a social plugin from Facebook that actually lets you comment on the article from your Facebook account. Make sure to include a link back to your website when you comment on blogs and news articles. It can help your SEO efforts.
Adding comments to news articles (and blogs) related to your industry is a quick and easy way to give a boost to your SEO strategy and create awareness about your company. Commenting on these articles will help you create back links (links back to your website) for both SEO and marketing purposes.
You can find these articles through searches or just keep tabs on them through a comprehensive Web monitoring strategy. Once you find the article, scroll down to the bottom. Many news articles will have a place where readers can leave comments. They might request that you sign in and create an account. Once you’re approved, draft a comment that is related to the story and make sure to include a link back to your website.
But make sure your comment is adding value to the conversation or else your post might come across as comment spam (and the moderator might not approve your comment).
This strategy works equally well for commenting in a forum. Just make sure you include a link back to your website in your signature.