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

1.  Calendar – I like to create a new Excel document where I can create a simple monthly calendar.  The calendar is critical to balance the timing and the media of marketing campaigns.

2.  Holidays – Successful marketing is dependant on timing & message.  Holidays are great for this because on holidays (MLK, President’s, Valentines, St. Patrick’s, Easter, Mother’s, Memorial, etc……..you get the idea) you know what people are thinking about.  So it is easy to create the right message at the right time around holidays.  Do not miss your chance.

3.  Target Market – cleanse your list of contacts, leads, guests, partners, ……………..whatever you call all the names you have in your database.  Ensure high quality data that you can divide into targeted lists.  (success of an email campaign has more to do with the target list than the email itself)  Put special emphasis on past guests and giving them a compelling reason to return.

4.  New Leads – line up your sources for new leads in 2009.  Will it be from partners (restaurants, shops, golf courses, etc.) or will it be from events (local marathon, car race, world cup ski race, business convention, etc.).  Make sure you have a plan to market to new folks in 2009. 

Now weave these efforts together in a colorful 2009 marketing tapestry……very poetic, no?  My point is, think about a balance of efforts, the utilization of different marketing tools, messages, and target markets.

Thanks.

Ralf
www.LiveRez.com

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.

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

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

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

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

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

It was entertaining.  What I learned was that there seems to be plenty of money out there waiting to be spent.  There is definitely less money for the Tiffany’s of the world, but the Walmart’s of the world seem to be selling stuff, stuff of all kinds.  Is this because people want cheap?  I argue, no.  People want (1) Useful, and (2) Value.

So what does this mean for the vacation home rental industry?  It does not mean that we should focus on price.  Let me repeat that, it does not mean we should focus on price.  A focus on price implies that cheaper is better. 

Easier said than done you say.  OK, yes.  But think about what people want Useful, and Value.  I suggest we focus on the usefulness of a vacation home vs. a hotel.  The value for a larger group.  The value of having a kitchen and laundry.  The usefulness of having a family room, and not 3 separate hotel rooms with nowhere to hang out.

Get you message together and send those email campaigns out there.  Now is the time to fight for that very sparse disposable income.  Get them to put a great vacation under the tree.

Ralf
LiveRez