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- Founder, VRMB
This week's podcast episode (embedded below) featuring @TomG of Mt. Laurel Chalets in Gatlinburg, TN includes a very special segment (starts at 11:05) about an idea Tom calls Hometown Heroes here's how it's described on his site:
Every hometown has its heroes. The unseen caregiver who is called to serve. An unlikely achiever who tackles obstacles with a can-do spirit. Perhaps it's the unsung champion who runs...
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Latest reply by - Debi
Matt and I had a discussion about our Hometown Hero Contest on his podcast Unlocked back in May. We launched this pilot right...
- Founder, VRMB
Setting and meeting a guest's expectations is an essential factor in any hospitality marketing campaign. After all, if you don't set and meet expectations (no matter how spiffy your direct booking funnel) there's no repeat or referral stays.
And I don't think I've ever come across a question that sets the tone for the booking and stay process quite as well as the following:
"What's the purpose of your visit?"...
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Latest reply by - RichardC
We tend to direct guests to our FAQ’s page and a link to our home page, but we follow up with the comment. If you can’t find what you’re looking for please get in touch and we’ll do our best to help. Directing people...
- Founder, VRMB
Hospitality is one of the few sectors that customers touch, feel, experience, walk-into.
Which makes us hyper-connected to our local communities.
(We should really have a code of ethics, but I digress)
And hyper-connected means disruptive: for better and for worse.
Good disruption: guests spark the local economy, managers/hosts are closely tied to local causes and issues, business contributes as much (if not...
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Latest reply by - Curated Stays
I posted this recently in a local FB STR group.
Advocating for Short-Term Rentals: Keeping a...
“Long before Walmart starting pushing into South Texas, H-E-B began studying the company’s success, and it adapted the productivity loop to its own business. They anticipated Walmart’s arrival and they cut the advantage that Walmart has over every other retail chain. H-E-B is...
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Latest reply by - JPrugh
A few years ago, Lindsborg’s family-owned grocery store stopped Walmart in their tracks and probably saved our town in many ways. Here’s what happened.
One of their brands is the Walmart Neighborhood Market - a smaller version that provides groceries and a pharmacy. Bentonville had...
- 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'...
- Founder, VRMB
I first learned the phrase "creative destruction" from my co-founder in Esperanza Social Venture Club (gang intervention program).
Brief Aside: Building a demobilization program was new and uncharted territory. No one had done anything like this in Panama. So with little experience, we assembled a team, raised money, planned a pilot intervention program with Gang #1 and it went surprisingly well. So well in...
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Latest reply by - Lauren Madewell
Creatively destroying my homeowner acquisition process as we speak. Up until Summer of 2020, onboarding a new owner was like meeting a new...
- Founder, VRMB
As the worst year ever winds to a close, some vacation rental professionals find themselves in surprisingly good situations whereas others are still completely stuck due to travel restrictions.
This applies to both vacation rental managers (VRMs) who manage other peoples' properties AND "RBOs" or rent-by-owner types who manage their own select property(s).
So what's a vacation rental hopeful to do? I've broken...
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Latest reply by
- ConradO
Get serious about email marketing: segmentation and personalization allow you to better control, monetize, and project future bookings. Your list is the most important marketing asset you own, so it's time (with an excess of inquiries) to nurture market those contacts back to future...
- Founder, VRMB
Last week marked the end of our third round of Keystone Retreats, which are small-group learning experiences for short term rental professionals (new but still ugly website here) and I’d like to share one of my favorite takeaways.
"No Matter What Happens, You Can Always Pick Up And Move To France"
We hosted this particular retreat at Spring Lakes Ranch which used to be a drug rehab facility.
When they learned...
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Latest reply by - DMartinez
Ever since @Heather's first conference I had a great desire to attend a vacation rental focused event/conference. I would have made it there were it...
- Founder, VRMB
OLD BAY is a limited edition brand that we can emulate.
It is valuable, it is authentic, and it is niche!
What started as a family-owned, locally-headquartered, and specialized spice eventually got acquired in 1990 by McCormick Spice Company (adding to its portfolio alongside brands like Lawry’s, Simply Asia, Thai Kitchen, and Zatarain’s -- which should underscore the VALUE of any niche spice brand when it...
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Latest reply by - RuthM
I really love the quick "limited edition" backstory on the back of every box:
"Our unique blend of 18 herbs and spices was born in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1939. It has been made the same...
- Efficiency Manager, VRMB
In my exploration of AI, I asked Pi about Matt Landau and VRMB. Pi's response was insightful and nuanced (screen-recording below).
Pi's voice is about a 1-second delayed. That's why you see the lag time from when I text and Pi's voice starts.
What's your take on Matt...
- Founder, VRMB
If you do one thing thing this year, double down on your hospitality brand.
Your hospitality brand is your unique style of taking care of guests (both internally with your team and outwardly with guests) and it's the single most valuable asset *fully in your control* that deserves attention, resources, and in some cases serious course corrections. Remember, Quality Branded IP stands the test of time.
I just...
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Latest reply by
- Matt Landau
I guess my issue with branding is that it feels like a marshmallow. It's a little hard to get a real concept of, and I can't quite put a finger on something concrete. And then how do you express it? Develop a set of words that are used...
- Founder, VRMB
One of the big shifts I've made over the last year is in recognizing creativity is THE muscle all homerunners need to start exercising more consistently and pronto -- said another way, it is the LACK of outside-the-box thinking that gets even the most innovative companies stuck in their old/comfortable ways and in some cases sunk.
Side Note: I've become so enamored with creative pursuits that I have begun to...
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Latest reply by
- JPrugh
For several years I worked with a printer for big jobs as well as small jobs. He was easy to work with, reliable, and his...
- 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...
- Savvy Vacation Rentals
I stumbled into vacation rentals a few years ago and had no idea what I was doing. Yet, the transition wasn't too tricky coming from a hospitality background. What was difficult was the transition from amateur to professional.
My business partner and I got started with one...
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Latest reply by - KarenHunt
There are several great tidbits here that we will work into our business. We charge the same for housekeeping whether you rent for 3 days or 7 and have never had a complaint.
Our two homes are beach homes in Charleston, SC where locals and guests use golf carts all year long. We bit the bullet...
- Founder, VRMB
Good property names stand out and inspire.
Even cooler, good property names drive repeat and referral bookings!
But bad property names disappear from our memories the moment we depart.
Settling on great property names is tricky.
I am recently going through this process with @MeganM about her new property in Cocoa Beach, FL.
It's located on the Space Coast where Megan grew up (she had friends whose...
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Latest reply by - Sherry
Whatever you do pick something that is easy to spell and easy to pronounce. Our property name is a marketing blunder. The name is French, Mais Oui and is a good play on words in the hospitality business if you know French. 90% of our guests are...
- 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 our new website and I keep trying...
- Founder, VRMB
I recently came across a scene from 'Sense of Place' Blue Ridge that I wanted to share because I know a lot of our members are thinking about staffing and team building.
When I asked @CJ how he plans to grow, he says, "I'm going to invest in people."
Watch it first...
Investing in your people is one of the most impactful ways to allocate funds as a modern day vacation rental professional.
If demands of the...
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Latest reply by - SScurlock
Here's the full episode in case anyone wants to see me jump off an abandoned boat after drinking moonshine:
@Matt Landau this is my favorite Sense of Place...
- 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
I recently came across this quote (above) and realized how many of the most successful vacation rental pros I know are masters of leverage AND how many of the most knowledgable vacation rental pros I know could use leverage in fun new ways to thrive (however they may define that).
So I wanted to begin a thread about using subject matter expertise as a "force multiplier" -- giving members the potential to lift...
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Latest reply by - TeenaNH
Happy almost Independence Day everyone,
First of all - I had to look up the word leverage as it pertained to business.
Verb
Leverage...
- Founder, VRMB
This week's motivation is a hat-tip to @ToonTownRob who introduced us to the concept in this thread: Remodel nearly done. Now need a Logo
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IDEA
A wordmark is a text-only typographic treatment of the name of a business (or vacation rental property) used for purposes of identification and branding.
It is different from a logo, which is usually shapes, symbols, icons, badges...etc.
Because a...
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Latest reply by
- Matt Landau
We struggle with the individual name aspect as we have 80 plus homes. At what point is it a hinderance to add...
- Owner & Hostess
I am at it again - after moving from Nashville where I ran the local Advocacy group for over 5 years, I am started efforts in my new hometown (Cocoa Beach, Florida). This is a MUCH smaller area than Nashville so I am working with a lot less resources (ie Airbnb and Vrbo...
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Latest reply by
- MeganM
Did you see my post on this other thread? Take a look, especially at the articles I linked to.
Thanks, Rob. I hadn't seen your post. I did already have a link to the UCF article but since it was...
- Founder, VRMB
Permission to Prune
IDEA: Tree pruning means selectively removing injured, dead, or infected parts of the tree in order to improve the tree’s structure, and promoting new, healthy growth. Vacation rental businesses can prune too by selectively removing parts of the business that are weighing us down and impeding our goals.
ACTION: Prune parts of your business that may be restricting your growth. Some examples...
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Latest reply by - StacyW
We are removing our property service homes as we no longer have the band width to take care of them for the peanuts we are making. We are dropping 12 homes where we do security checks and clean for owner use from time to time. It was a...
- Founder, VRMB
What do Japanese whiskey, oysters at a hardware store, and limited edition basketball jerseys have in common?
We'll get to that in a moment...
This week I had the chance to see many of you (@Megan C @MichelleR @Matthew @BrianO @BlakeM @AndyM @Nars @StacyW @GregoryF) at the NWVRP Conference in Oregon, where I featured an important new workshop titled First Mover Status, now available for your educational...
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Latest reply by
- DMartinez
What specifically about your destination (to borrow a phrase from @Virginia) makes your heart race?
Actually, it's the fact that my heat is NOT racing, that...
- 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...
- Founder, VRMB
Last week I visited @Tarkan and Julia in Istanbul, Turkey and WOW what a gigantic bustling historic crossroads of world history (if you haven't consider planning a visit -- Turkish Airlines is amazing and Julia and Tarkan's properties rock).
For dinner one evening my best friend Adam and I booked our maiden meal on Eat With, which is basically like a listing site for home-cooks. In short, home cook makes a menu...
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Latest reply by
- SScurlock
My sister has traveled all over the world, and she and her husband always book a meal in someone's home (not sure through who) when in another country. She has said those meals are some...
- Founder, VRMB
I recently came across an insightful case study (attached) titled "From Niche to Movement to Mainstream" about the rise of the food truck movement (and hip hop).
Reading it, I couldn't help but see the parallels with our work (and think about a similar discussion Can we copy the craft beer movement?)...here are some of the interesting nuggets I gleaned from the food truck PDF (attached):
The catalyst for the...
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Latest reply by
- Lauren Madewell
@Dawn what a wonderfully relevant moment for the Hedgehog to make its return to the community.
@TomG and @Lauren Madewell -- I'm curious (been thinking about your family businesses this week as you have both endured centuries of market growth) -- is the hedgehog a kind of...
- Founder, VRMB
Sometimes, great initiatives need to be shut down because they are not sustainable.
Which is a difficult pill to swallow, especially when you're passionate (read: stubborn) about something and you badly want it to work.
But it's the truth: as vacation rental innovators we test out lots of ideas...some work, others don't...and then some (the really "special" ones LOL) are both amazing and unsustainable.
What...
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Latest reply by - DeborahL
I love this. I love what you guys have done, I love the lack of a plan (and the honesty to say it, but that is the reality of what happens, speaking from experience) and the fact that you learned about monetisation. This is EXACTLY what I am going through this year/ right now. I really...
- Founder, VRMB
My friend Molly is on vacation in India and shared with me how hospitable everyone is: how strangers were so generous and welcoming with food; how everyone refers to her as Miss and Madame; how she felt like royalty and soon discovered the Sanskrit phrase:
Atithi Devo Bhava which translates as "The Guest is God."
Note: You can read more about this 'code of conduct' here.
In our world, many argue a mantra that...
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Latest reply by
- DMartinez
I suggest each owner or property manager needs a MISSION to drive their business that makes sense for their goals with 2 fundamental cornerstones: Guest Satisfaction and Profit...
- 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 bookings all of last summer...
- Founder, VRMB
In this episode, Matt sits down with Carl Shepherd, co-founder of HomeAway, for an oral history of some of the vacation rental industry's formative moments and a visionary look at its future.
This episode is brought to you by Point Central, the leaders in smart home automation, and Breezeway, the best in class property care and automations platform.
**Special Note**: The full transcript of this interview...
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.