I have discussed the importance of niche marketing, picking your target customer, and speaking to the specific needs of a certain traveler on several of my webinars.  (check the out - Recorded LiveRez Webinars)  One example I have used is providing vacation home rentals for participants in the Coeur D'Alene Ironman race. 

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

HomeAway Offers New Reservation System is not exactly news to those of us who follow the vacation rental industry closely.  But the press announcement is out today and it seems good time to pontificate on what this means.

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
LiveRez