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- Founder, VRMB
In the post-pandemic travel landscape, the professional vacation rental sector is one of the best positioned to flourish. And as vacation rental professionals, we seek trends to invest in today that will reward us over time. How our guests, properties, and business practices interact with the environment sits at the very top of that list.
VRMB Declares a Climate Emergency
We’ve signed up to Tourism Declares, an...
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Latest reply by - DMartinez
FYI- For those of you who have joined the Tourism Community focusing on Climate Change (whether officially through the Tourism Declares or via your own initiatives):
Survey on The Future of Natural Resource Governance
You may be...
- Founder, VRMB
IDEA
Small incremental changes in pricing and price structure can yield significant cumulative returns over the course of the year. The better your track record, the more bold you can get with these kinds of changes. You don't need software to do this: you need conviction.
ACTION
As 2019 closes, do an audit of your vacation rental business and look for areas in which you can make small incremental pricing...
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Latest reply by - PatrickP
YESSS! What was the profit increase over the course of 1 year?
In fact 50% as i am in a town with no many hotels
I am full booked
- Founder, VRMB
IDEA
Approximately 100% of VRMB subscribers want more repeat/referral bookings
Around 75% offer a world-class on-site experience
Maybe 50% send guests thank-you notes or parting thoughts upon departure
About 25% have a newsletter campaign to stay front of mind
But less than 1% are all up in da Club ♫
Da Club is a private and tightly-knit group of former guests who have stayed, enjoyed themselves, and...
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Latest reply by - Catherine
@Matt Landau Wonderful! I put lavender scent on them and also use them in my laundry. My clothes smell soooooo good!
You gotta get a "manly manly scent", Matt! Lol!
- Founder, VRMB
IDEA
All owners and managers want more bookings. Most try to achieve this by generating new inquiries. But few focus on increasing their conversion rate (the percentage of existing inquiries that convert to actual bookings). In reality, the same unit of energy spent on increasing a conversion rate can yield many more bookings than that same unit spent on generating new inquiries.
ACTION
1. Calculate your...
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Latest reply by - HWeb
@HWeb brilliant as I have only come to expect from you. Now I need to think up a way to explain this very true adjustment.
One thing I do that makes me feel better, is I track the denied conversions. So, if you inquire or submit a...
- Founder, VRMB
[Note to Self: "Tuesday Afternoon Motivation" doesn't sound nearly as good as "Monday Morning Motivation.]
Think Differently
Today Inspirato announced a new "netflix-style" travel service offering travelers unlimited access to 60,000 Luxury Villas and Resorts around the world for $2500/month. No extra taxes or fees. Just $2500/month for unlimited stays in luxe villas and five-star hotels with no nightly fees...
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Latest reply by - JPrugh
According to the Inspirato website, their board of directors includes the founders and some venture capitalists, of course. Meanwhile feel free to peruse their online magazine: https://www.inspirato.com/magazine/ and go to their...
- Founder, VRMB
IDEA: One single piece of management software sits at the core of all great vacation rental businesses. From 1 property to 1,000, put lightly, the right property management software can help grow your business. In stronger terms, you simply cannot grow your business to its full potential without one.
However, because different PMS softwares do so many different things, it is very easy to make the mistake of...
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Latest reply by - RichardC
We have found a problem with support. Our business in one timezone and our HQ in another. The tools we use now are party picked on how responsive the support team is. Not much good having great functionality, but when you need a hand...
- Founder, VRMB
Today's MMM celebrates the inaugural episode of Season 3 of the Unlocked podcast. This episode titled The Biggest Lesson of My Career features Steve Milo, one of the biggest (and some might say most controversial) property managers in the US. I would encourage you to listen to this interview: it includes some harsh realities but also some deep lessons in survival no matter how passionate you are. Here's my big...
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Latest reply by - Flo
@Matt thanks! It is 40% total direct bookings all of which came through our website so far for the summer, and 60% listing site bookings. Compared with only 15% direct...
- Founder, VRMB
NOTE: This MMM was inspired by @Mark's recent post: Mining Reviews for Marketing Gems
IDEA: As independent vacation rental professionals, our instinct is arguably our greatest advantage over bigger hospitality organizations: it keeps us agile, different, and focused (by following our intuition). Because our instinct is mostly internal, any tools that can help us channel, systematize, or articulate should used...
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Latest reply by
- Catherine
Hi Catherine, when I say “cache” I am referring to store away — this could be copy/paste, it could mean exporting a file from your platform of choice. So long as the content is on your own turf you have successfully stored it away for future use...
- Founder, VRMB
IDEA: If you want guests to actually read what you write, make it pleasing to the eye.
ACTION: I challenge you to use these four rules in all of your writing for the next week. If you're like me, once you start doing it, you will never look at text the same way again.
Keep your paragraphs short (2-3 sentences max)
Bold the important words or phrases or headers or titles
List things using bullets
Use numbers...
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Latest reply by - RuthM
@Matt Landau I think this might be the MOST powerful thing you can share with us. WHAT and HOW to communicate is KEY.
Write, read, EDIT, EDIT, and EDIT some more. Practice makes perfect. I am in the process of creating...
- Founder, VRMB
Warning: What I am about to share with you holds little weight in a formal business setting. It's not something my professors ever covered in business class. It never shows up on the profit loss statements at the end of the month. You won't find it in any formal contract and it's certainly never mentioned at "Disruptive" tech summits or conferences. And yet it might be our greatest secret weapon of all.
When I...
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Latest reply by - MeganM
Megan, How is the diffuser received? I love one in my own home, but am concerned that tastes vary so much, and people are sensitive to smells, that it might not be a good option in our rental...
- Founder, VRMB
Over the last five years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you around the world — sometimes only for a few minutes after a presentation, other times at length over meals, walks, car rides..etc.
And although our industry is so diverse and all our businesses goals so unique, I began to notice a pattern about your businesses (no matter the size/age/location) when compared to others in our industry. Some may...
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Latest reply by - Crafty
A suggestion re. the idea of Golden Ratio calculation: simplify it by calling it Earned-to-Bought index of revenue. Where "Earned revenue" is from bookings where the host paid no commission to any third party platform. "Bought revenue" is...
- Founder, VRMB
This past weekend I had dinner with a cornucopia of business professionals.
At the table sat a video game software developer, a painter, a special education teacher, an intellectual property rights lawyer (who also happens to be my upstairs neighbor), and a shrimp broker (who literally sells fresh Louisiana shrimp to restaurants around town).
And when it was my turn to introduce myself, someone leads in like...
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Latest reply by - CJ Devries
Great stuff here! I've always known professional photography to be of utmost importance as it has been my families' business for well over 100 years (excepting the picture to the left as we opted for a more informal shot for this...
- Founder, VRMB
Trust comes when a vacation rental host is genuinely more interested in ensuring that the visitor has a great vacation than in getting them to book his or her property. The vacation rental business that builds the most trust, wins.
Question: What are the best ways to earn trust with future and former guests?
(I’ll begin posting other responses that come in from non-IC members below)
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Latest reply by
- Matt Landau
Hi folks, I'd like to try to do these kinds of MMMs more often in which we take a deep dive into one particular technique or factor or idea throughout the week, use as much input as we can to produce something actionable (or at least...
Hi All,
It's been a while.
Have a quick question for the group.
Over the past two years it's become clear that our core markets are...
a) family gatherings / reunions... usually multigenerational in high / shoulder season - summer, Christmas, Easter etc.
b) group...
@Sallie totally. :)
Welcome to VRMB!
I’m Matt Landau, the founder of this forum. It was created in 2016 when a group of us wanted a safe space to discuss our growing STR businesses.
Today, you can join our community of 1,000+ creative, thoughtful, and generous members who believe in a better future.
Spotlight
Discover "Unlocked: The Intermission" - a captivating 6-part podcast series featuring the individuals who have shaped Matt Landau's horseradish in the past 6 months.