That is some serious money.  I can add from experience, that the multiplier is much higher in the general eCommerce industry…….more like 10-15x.

Holding on to your guests and keeping them coming back is not rocket-science according to the recent discussion at the VRMA conference.  It is about making it a priority, and starting the sales process for the next visit, the moment they book with you for the first visit. 

The guest experience was broken into several stages, with ideas on each stage.

• Pre-Arrival – find out why they are coming, who they are bringing
• Arrival - ‘welcome home’, let them know how happy you are to see them
• Stay – treat them like family
• Check-out – provide special offers
• Post-Stay – stay in touch with emails, newsletters, offers

In my April Webinar, I will cover each of these areas in detail.  Please join us for this event on Thursday, April 23.  See details and chance to sign-up below.

Webinar:  Repeat Guests – 9 Ways to Make the Most of Guest Relationships

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Vacation Rental Managers Association

First I want to say to everyone, flying is pretty good. As much as everyone complains (which by the way is not a good way to promote vacations), I had 3 flight to make it from Boise to Charlotte and all flights were on time. The only hiccup was the Delta employee who suggested that I should pay $175 for my over-sized suitcases. Really? I don’t think so. He caved like bad souffle.

The show. It was an active evening reception in the vendor showcase. More traffic than expected and more positive conversations than folk complaining about the economy. I have found a positive effect of the economy on many vacation managers. It has forced the issue of improving their operations and their marketing/selling.

We will come out of this recession stronger and in a better position to fight for market-share from the hotels. The activities I see vacation managers making to enhance their websites, their online marketing, the analysis of their prospects & guests, and the improvements in their operations are all very positive.

Overall the mood is very positive and anticipating a great recovery for our industry.

More to come tomorrow after some of the sessions.

LiveRez

VRMA has also launched Discover Vacation Homes as a national public awareness initiative for our industry and to make vacation homes a primary vacation option for travelers. 

Be a part of it!  Vacation Managers have the opportunity to become a part of VRMA – check it our at www.vrma.com.  In addition, Discover Vacation Homes offers vacation managers a position at the leading edge of marketing and positioning the vacation home rental industry.  Don’t sit on the sideline, be a part of the goings on. Check it out:

WATCH Video For More DetailsCreate more business for YOUR company, YOUR owners, and YOUR destination.  Don’t miss out on the many benefits of this national campaign!

      Join the Cause!

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Following are several specific online marketing activities to focus on.  None of these have to cost much money, they just have to be executed diligently and with very specific goals in mind.  I will cover each of these items in more detail in future posts.  For now, use this as a checklist for your online marketing activities:

• Focus on Campaigns/Specials Be specific with your marketing activities, making them value based and targeting specific events or seasons.
• Flexibility in your Rates, Offline&  Online Do not limit your travelers in the # of days they can book for and adapt pricing to different demand levels.
• Invest in your Website  Create and update content to be engaging and useful.
• Optimise your Web Site  Search engine optimization, page layouts, and click-paths are all areas toi look into.
• eMail Marketing  Use email campaigns to promote special offers and collect new email addresses at all possible opportunity.
• Protect your Brand Online  Make sure your brand is visible online and becomes something travelers trust in and can recommend to friends.
• Monitor Online User Reviews Continually monitor reviews posted on popular travel sites
• Use a good Analytics package Do not fly blind, make sure you know your traffic, clicks, and conversions information.
• Respond to Market Conditions Look what is happening in the world, country, economy and respond to these changes.

In summary, challenging times lay ahead for the vacation home rental industry, but if your website and online presence are in order, the internet sales channel can be an area of revenue growth for your business in 2009-10.

LiveRez

The next moring, while I was spinning on my trainer in my garage and listening to music on songza……SURPRISE!!!……up pops a Travelocity ad about going from Boise to Charlotte. 

Personalized Travel Ad Based on a Previous Search

This is truly amazing marketing. 

Targeted marketing from Travelocity on a completely different website, on a different day, and at a different time.

This is amazing stuff and is setting the expectations of travelers as to how they will interact with their vacation provider.

Kudos to Travelocity.
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I am an avid Ironman Triathlete and was surprised to see a marketing email from North America Sports (the organization that puts on the Ironman races) promoting a new website for vacation home rentals at the various North America Ironman race locations.  The site:  www.nasvacationproperties.com

Cool.  Great idea.  Very focused.  Bringing vacation home rentals mainstream.  Broader exposure for our industry.  All good.

Then I clicked on the link.  Ahhhhhh!  What is that?  What do I do?  Where do I shop the homes?  What can I click on?  Are my colors messed up? 

Website – always remember to follow the principles of :

• Affinity (you assure me that I am on the right site for what I need)
• Usability (intuitive & simple navigation and activities)
• Focus (I know what you want me to do with a clear call to action)

Then I checked into the actual vacation homes.  What homes are available?  Where do I book?  Is there only 1 home in each location?  All this is doing is popping me to a VRBO listing.

Now I pride myself on being a positive person and I think you will have to look very hard to find a negative tone in any of my posts.  But I cannot comment on how poor this website is and how poor the execution/delivery of the promise of a great vacation home in the Ironman location is.

Take-away:  when you have the ingenuity & courage ( like www.nasvacationproperties.com has shown), then also take the time, care, and resources to execute at the highest level.

I wish NAS Vacation Properties all the best and hope they continue to improve their offering, presentation, and website.
LiveRez

The Good:
Attention, publicity, and more recognition of our industry.  This enables a large portion of vacation home inventory to potentially be booked online.  This may spur interest in vacation homes across all kinds of travelers.  HomeAway will continue to be a good sales & marketing channel for vacation managers.

The Bad:
Competition – one of the advantages the vacation manager enjoys over the ‘rent by owner’ has been the ability to offer an online transaction.  A question comes to mind (let me know if you have the answer) – as a vacation manager, how do I synchronize a calendar with HomeAway to allow me to take bookings?  Sounds like you have to use the HomeAway reservation system to be part of theonline bookings on HomeAway.

The Ugly:
Lots of individual, lots of individual home, lots of one-on-one transactions, lots of $$’s, ………… this could create an environment with more fraudulent activity and undermine the credibility and trust we are trying to build into the vacation home rental industry.  Especially as it pertains to online transactions.

A comparison also comes to mind.  A spent several years working fro an eCommerce solution named Infopia.  Infopia provide small online retailers an eCommerce engine that allowed them to sell via their own website and via eBay.  Starting see where I am going?  Vacation managers have a brand (a valuable sign of quality & trust) on their own website, but no identity on directories, such as HomeAway.  Just like online retailers have an online store with a brand, but are just another supplier for an ‘I got it on eBay’ – even with branding efforts.

Which of these online retailers were most successful ?  The retailers who saw eBay as a sales & marketing channel.

Which of these online retailers were least successful ?  The retailers who saw sales on eBay as their goal – they lost their brand, competed only on price, and could not build their own business.  They became completely dependent on eBay.

An interesting analogy I think.

Ralf
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On a more serious note, check out the traffic. Interesting downward or even trends on the various sites, except for facebook.com and wikipedia.com. Since all the traffic on wikipedia.comis probably people looking up ’stimulus package’, ‘depression’, ‘recession’, and other uplifting economic terms, I want to focus on facebook.com.

Note the substantial increase. I have also see a substantial increase in activity on my personal Facebook page. I have had a Facebookpage for well over a year and until this summer, there was never much activity. In the fall, suddenly there were lots of friend requests, updated status (some of these updates really need not be shared), and I found myself searching for old acquaintances. I admit, I even started updating my status.

Why should you care? I think we should care about anything that is growing and capturing people’s (potential guests) attention. Social media such as facebook can help us to reach our market and, maybe more importantly, to understand our market. What gets people’s attention? What are the talking about? What do they have strong opinions on?

….and if you want, you can come visit me (Ralf VonSosen – only one there) and make me your friend on Facebook.

Ralf
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1. The long-term business traveler
2. The business meetings & awards

The long-term business traveler is the consultant, or the person assigned to work with a different division or on a remote project.  These prospects can be all over the map, young & old, white collar & blue collar, high paid & low paid.  Finding them requires some creativity and some info gathering about what companies and projects you have in your area.  Is anyone bringing in lots of contractors, anyone starting up new business unity, anyone building a power plant (you would probably notice that one).

Business meetings, offsites, and award trips are being scrutenized like never before – by the government, the public,a nd the accountants.  An opportunity to offer companies an alternative to the high-flash vacation resorts.  The business meeting and awards will require you to do reasearch into companies as well.  You can look at what companies have done events at local hotels in the past, and you can start a marketign campaing directed at the HR and Executive groups.  Also think about going after the Marketing departments, maybe they want to give away some vacation time at one of your vacation homes as part of a promotion.

Hope this can help you get some more bookings.

Ralf
www.LiveRez.com

Here are some noteworthy stats – based on 2007/2008 bookings:

• For 1 Week 25% 
• For 6 days 20%
• For 3/4/5 days 15%

My expectation, and what i am observing across our many vacation managers is that the % of 7 day rentals is decreasing and travelers are looking for more flexibility.  While not being able to afford the full 1 week vacation, they do not want to forgo the vacation completely and a few days is much better than no vacation home at all.

So my advice is, put the old ‘week-to-week’ rental only strategy on the shelf while the economy and travelers are in recovery mode.

Ralf
www.LiveRez.com