Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to take my wife and kids to LA for a little beach and Disneyland.  With shame, I have to admit that we stayed at a Timeshare Resort.  Many years ago I bought an Annual Timeshare at the Maui Marriott.  So this year we traded the Maui Vacation Club for a week in LA.  Something we learned is that just as some vacation rentals are great and others are not, some timeshares are great and some not.

Even though this LA timeshare was far (like vintage 1984 for the LA Olympics) below the standard of the Marriott Maui, it did not have to be as much of a disappointment as it was.  I spent some time with the general manager of the resort discussing what I thought he could do to improve the experience.  Here is part of our conversation:

Set expectations - be very clear about what it is, and what it is not.  Trying to make it sound and look more than it is will only lead to disappointment.  This is especially true about the information provided after the booking is made.  I understand that a certain amount of 'marketing/positioning' needs to happen to get the booking.  But once the booking is made, start setting the expectations and preparing guest for exactly what they will find.  ('a retaining wall 4 feet from your balcony and bedroom window, but you only have to cross the street and you are on the beach, so enjoy the beach live, not through the window')

Little things - budgets are tight, you cannot replace the carpet in every room every year (although 2 decades next to beach is probably the limit).  Update some pictures, some decorations, the plates/silverware, the outlets that wiggle in the wall and do not hold plugs in them b/c they are so worn, maybe a shower-head, .........you get the idea.  Details make the experience.

Preparedness - we had a planned outage as a transformer was replaced in front of the resort one morning.  Unfortunately the resort staff did not alert any guests about this and most of the emergency lighting and the flashlights (which are 'plugged' into the wiggly outlets) did not work.  I understand you cannot control the utility, but you can control your response.  Their response showed me very little respect for myself and other guests.

Welcome Gift - again it is the little things, but this just shows that "we are happy you are here, we are here to serve you, we are here to make your stay great, we appreciate you choosing us over all your other options".  This can be something inexpensive & small, but it should be thoughtful.  It can make all the difference in creating a collaborative feeling between guests and the host.

We had a great stay.  The pool was awesome, the location next to beach perfect, and the distance to town convenient.  Unfortunately this was overshadowed by some shortcomings, that if addressed proactively would have been overlooked.

Now, I am not thinking of the harried 2 night trip to Dallas, or the overnighter to Boston.  I am talking about two very specific categories:

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

On my way into the office this morning I listened to an interesting discussion about how some travel companies are utilizing travel insurance to help travelers feel more comfortable about booking a vacation.

Do not lose bookings to anxiety!

There is tremendous uncertainty about incomes, jobs, and personal wealth among our target market.  In order to avoid losing potential vacationers, that will not book a vacation just because they are uncertain about their future income,  we can address that anxiety by offering travel insurance.

We have all positioned travel insurance for the purpose of helping travelers in case unforeseen events prohibit them from taking their vacation.  Well, the most likely unforeseen event for many travelers is the involuntary loss of income and inability to pay for the vacation.  Some insurance companies will guard against this loss of income due to the loss of employment.

Take the time to find out the details about the employment requirements the insyrance company has - could be 1 year employed or even 5 years employed at the current company.  Also be aware of other potential conditions.

Once this information is clear to you, offer it to customers to help them ease their anxiety about booking their 2009 vacation home.  This can also become a differentiators for you and make you stand apart from your competition.

Ralf
LiveRez.com

If you are like me, you might be all set for your January marketing, but have not finalized all your marketing themes, campaigns, and promotions fro 2009.  So here I am hammering out our complete & detailed 2009 plan and thought I would share couple of the steps I undertake that may be helpful for your vacation home rental business.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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