[Matt Landau]

Niches are the next big thing in vacation rentals.

They are the essence of Theory of Limited Edition: that if you do the things only/inimitably YOU, that no bigger/richer company can ever compete.

Special interest and geographic niches possess significant profit: they are not scalable: and they tend to be more intimate than the big box managers... therefore less hazardous to communities.

If you are an independent owner or manager and you want to carve out your own niche, here are three ways that only you can approach the opportunity.

Remember: what might seem obvious or longstanding to you is likely fresh to our emerging sector.

1. When YOU TRAVEL what combination of vacation rental property needs take a while to meet?
- Particular feature or amenity of a home
- Category of homes that cater to a particular style of visitor(s)
- Geographic or landscape attributes of surrounding area or location in proximity to something else

2. Is the process of finding this particular kind of vacation rental at times painful for you?
- Does the process take a lot of time in your otherwise busy life? (maybe you enjoy the hunt?)
- Does it cost you unnecessary money? Is it prohibitively expensive?
- Is the process bad or annoying enough to get you emotional?

3. How can you prove that other travelers feel your pain?
- Can you validate this in the form of Google forms sent out to groups of these people?
- Might your existing former guest list be able to validate or disprove your theory?
- Are there concentrated groups of potential travelers like this on Facebook you can poll?
- When you reach out to owners of listings on Vrbo or Airbnb, do they too have this pain? Perhaps they don't?

OK community members, I have a strong feeling there are more questions we can add to this list. What are some ways you have gone about discovering your niche? What are some pains YOU have when booking a vacation rental? What validation have you seen? How could you take it "one step further"?

I have a feeling the collective wisdom of the community is about to flywheel!

 

[Matt Landau]

P.S. this week's motivation was inspired by this Unlocked interview with Anthony Gantt of At Ease, a niche listing site for Military families. He figured out his niche because trying to book vacation homes for his military family was painful. Brilliant.

 

[Jefferson]

Niches are the next big thing in vacation rentals.

They are the essence of Theory of Limited Edition: that if you do the things only/inimitably YOU, that no bigger/richer company can ever compete.

Special interest and geographic niches possess significant profit: they are not scalable: and they tend to be more intimate than the big box managers... therefore less hazardous to communities.

If you are an independent owner or manager and you want to carve out your own niche, here are three ways that only you can approach the opportunity.

Remember: what might seem obvious or longstanding to you is likely fresh to our emerging sector.

1. When YOU TRAVEL what combination of YOUR OWN vacation rental property needs take a while to find?
- Particular feature or amenity of a home
- Category of homes that cater to a particular style of visitor(s)
- Geographic or landscape attributes of surrounding area or location in proximity to something else

2. Is the process of finding this particular kind of vacation rental at times painful for you?
- Does the process take a lot of time in your otherwise busy life? (maybe you enjoy the hunt?)
- Does it cost you unnecessary money? Is it prohibitively expensive?
- Is the process bad or annoying enough to get you emotional?

3. How can you prove that other travelers feel your pain?
- Can you validate this in the form of Google forms sent out to groups of these people?
- Might your existing former guest list be able to validate or disprove your theory?
- Are there concentrated groups of potential travelers like this on Facebook you can poll?
- When you reach out to owners of listings on Vrbo or Airbnb, do they too have this pain? Perhaps they don't?

OK community members, I have a strong feeling there are more questions we can add to this list. What are some ways you have gone about discovering your niche? What are some pains YOU have when booking a vacation rental? What validation have you seen? How could you take it "one step further"?

I have a feeling the collective wisdom of the community is about to flywheel!

Thanks for the post as always Matt! I am a HUGE believer in niches and we currently use two methods to discover them. I like to call it the "micro" and "macro" approach.
Micro Approach- I mentioned this in a previous thread but there is no substitute for calling your guests and talking to them in person. You learn things you would never learn in a survey. It also helps you build your guest profile (meaning my target guest is 25-35, female, and has kids between 5 and 14) This of course requires having previous guests to talk to so maybe not a good approach if you are new and trying to pick your first niche.
Macro Approach - This is a quantitative analysis and it involves sifting through LOTS of reviews. If you are techy you can use a third party software to scrape Airbnb and VRBO and pull all 5 star reviews. Then dump those reviews into a text analyzer and see what words stand out most. For example, if you do this in Nashville you'll see the word "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" be one of the most common words used. That's because most guests mention the reason for their stay in their review, and THATs the gold you're panning for. So how can you build an experience around Bachelorette parties? (If you want to do that...)

Hope that's helpful!

 

[Christina]

Niches are the next big thing in vacation rentals.

They are the essence of Theory of Limited Edition: that if you do the things only/inimitably YOU, that no bigger/richer company can ever compete.

Special interest and geographic niches possess significant profit: they are not scalable: and they tend to be more intimate than the big box managers... therefore less hazardous to communities.

If you are an independent owner or manager and you want to carve out your own niche, here are three ways that only you can approach the opportunity.

Remember: what might seem obvious or longstanding to you is likely fresh to our emerging sector.

1. When YOU TRAVEL what combination of YOUR OWN vacation rental property needs take a while to find?
- Particular feature or amenity of a home
- Category of homes that cater to a particular style of visitor(s)
- Geographic or landscape attributes of surrounding area or location in proximity to something else

2. Is the process of finding this particular kind of vacation rental at times painful for you?
- Does the process take a lot of time in your otherwise busy life? (maybe you enjoy the hunt?)
- Does it cost you unnecessary money? Is it prohibitively expensive?
- Is the process bad or annoying enough to get you emotional?

3. How can you prove that other travelers feel your pain?
- Can you validate this in the form of Google forms sent out to groups of these people?
- Might your existing former guest list be able to validate or disprove your theory?
- Are there concentrated groups of potential travelers like this on Facebook you can poll?
- When you reach out to owners of listings on Vrbo or Airbnb, do they too have this pain? Perhaps they don't?

OK community members, I have a strong feeling there are more questions we can add to this list. What are some ways you have gone about discovering your niche? What are some pains YOU have when booking a vacation rental? What validation have you seen? How could you take it "one step further"?

I have a feeling the collective wisdom of the community is about to flywheel!

Cool - Thor and I are traveling today (and through Sunday) down to visit with Ken and Deb at Beach Getaways (and staying there) and then visiting with Jim at Best Beach Getaways (thanks to all y'all)!

 

[Christina]

Thanks for the post as always Matt! I am a HUGE believer in niches and we currently use two methods to discover them. I like to call it the "micro" and "macro" approach.
Micro Approach- I mentioned this in a previous thread but there is no substitute for calling your guests and talking to them in person. You learn things you would never learn in a survey. It also helps you build your guest profile (meaning my target guest is 25-35, female, and has kids between 5 and 14) This of course requires having previous guests to talk to so maybe not a good approach if you are new and trying to pick your first niche.
Macro Approach - This is a quantitative analysis and it involves sifting through LOTS of reviews. If you are techy you can use a third party software to scrape Airbnb and VRBO and pull all 5 star reviews. Then dump those reviews into a text analyzer and see what words stand out most. For example, if you do this in Nashville you'll see the word "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" be one of the most common words used. That's because most guests mention the reason for their stay in their review, and THATs the gold you're panning for. So how can you build an experience around Bachelorette parties? (If you want to do that...)

Hope that's helpful!

Oh man, I love some quantitative analysis! What a great idea!

 

[Carole]

So interesting to see this topic here. As a travel advisor/agent this has been the main focus of my marketing. It's really been an important piece of attracting the clients I want to work with and weeding out those I don't want to work with. Since getting this focus in my travel planning business I've been using some of the same techniques with the vacation rentals - of course as travel has returned to our urban rentals so slowly - I think it will be a bit of time until I've gotten it as focused as I've been doing with my Greek travel business

 

[JPrugh]

Not to brag (well, maybe just a little), but Matt Landau might decide to call me Mr. Niche.

Present and past guests include:

• professionals on temporary assignments (Walmart, local hospital, AT&T, Pfizer, Wald Foods, Johns-Manville, wind turbine installers)
• hunters (deer and turkey, depending on the season)
• bereaving families here for a loved one's funeral
• RVers (trailer life) wanting a two-week break in a real house with real beds
• KWAA (Kansas Women Attorneys Association) annual conference attendees
• hospice care
• family reunions
• local college alums, potential students and families in town for graduation
• travel bloggers
• many who visit Lindsborg for a vacation!

At Ease seems like a good addition, but I'm over an hour away from some military installations. But I still might check this out.

I'm throwing down this gauntlet - erase the word "vacation" from the name of your business. Then you'll discover an abundance of niches. If you're in business to serve only guests on vacation, it's time to evolve.

 

[ConradO]

One thing I feel like I consistently see when a niche site becomes successful is they're capturing lots of search demand that was there, then growing it. Some examples like bringfido, glamping hub come to mind as success stories where much of their traffic is through search.



For example, one of the most obvious forms of this is pet-friendly - nearly every market we find has some demand for pet-friendly searches, of course the drive-to markets have 10x the demand than a market like Hawaii.

There are markets where pet-friendly searches on Google can reach thousands or tens of thousands of visitors per year: many VRMs that we work with have a dedicated pet-friendly page that earns lots of traffic.



When you have guests on your site clicking and viewing a page about X, where X is the niche, I think it's safe to assume you're also on the right track. For example, to Matt's questions above, can you find people searching on Google for your niche? It might be another data point to look at!

The At Ease is a great example here too -- search demand for "Military rental homes" and folks looking for housing.

 

[Susanne]

The development of a vacation rental niche begins in one of two ways. The conceptualized approach is a theoretical belief that "if-you-build-it-they-will-come." The evolutionary approach is a lot like carving a chunk of marble without a clear idea of where it will end up until closer to the end.

CONCEPTUAL

It has been my experience that the odds of creating a successful pop-out-of-the-box-niche are heavily dependant on the host experience. Have they dialed into the niche concept before? Do you understand how to target their marketing to the ideal guest?

Conceptualizing from the ground up is difficult for first-time owners. Boy, can you get it wrong! Take the expensive, beach-themed design rental in the forest, Aloha!? (true story).

Research the concept, start by looking at other similar properties. What are they doing well, what is working for them? If the structure is a big part of the niche, this is the only route to get there. Think yurt, treehouse, or wheelchair accessible,

EVOLUTIONARY

The good news is that anyone can create a niche with the evolutionary approach. Everyone already has a road map if they know where to find it and decode it. It is all in the guest reviews. Who has loved your place and why? Who hasn't been a fan?

Here is a great real-life example. An architect built cottage structures on his lakefront property in Quebec near Ottawa. He was puzzled by the fact that some people loved it and returned yearly, while others whined and complained. We decoded his reviews. It was clear some guests did not understand the layout. Or were not the outdoorsy type.

We described the journey between the sauna, hot tub, fire pit, and structures. It is a chance to be close to nature, inhale and fill those lungs with fresh air. We included a layout, so there was no confusion about what was where. We told guests that "it is not for everyone; please review the layout before booking." The chiseled brand message became "outdoorsy, a restorative getaway to recharge and bond". We rewrote his bio so that guests knew about his degrees in architecture and art history. He sketched the first building on a napkin and it grew from there. He builds all the wood furnishings and now sells them on the website. This property jumped from $80,000 to $200,000 gross annual income projected. He was able to increase prices and fill the calendar six months ahead. Guests began including all reasons why it would be perfect for them in their inquires, asking him to accept their booking.

Either pathway involves continuous improvement guided by guest feedback.

 

[Susanne]

One thing I feel like I consistently see when a niche site becomes successful is they're capturing lots of search demand that was there, then growing it. Some examples like bringfido, glamping hub come to mind as success stories where much of their traffic is through search.

View attachment 3993

For example, one of the most obvious forms of this is pet-friendly - nearly every market we find has some demand for pet-friendly searches, of course the drive-to markets have 10x the demand than a market like Hawaii.

There are markets where pet-friendly searches on Google can reach thousands or tens of thousands of visitors per year: many VRMs that we work with have a dedicated pet-friendly page that earns lots of traffic.

View attachment 3992

When you have guests on your site clicking and viewing a page about X, where X is the niche, I think it's safe to assume you're also on the right track. For example, to Matt's questions above, can you find people searching on Google for your niche? It might be another data point to look at!

The At Ease is a great example here too -- search demand for "Military rental homes" and folks looking for housing.

View attachment 3994

This captures the interest of the lookers, not just the bookers. Brillant!

 

[Robin]

Yep, I would say that we have a lot of "niche" in our DNA at Moving Mountains. By focusing on one part of the market (luxury) we have avoided being everything to everybody, which was the model that we saw when we looked at other management companies in our market. We have focused on being the best at luxury and so far it is working.

A focus on your niche harps back to the book Good to Great - where successful companies find their "hedgehog" - a metaphor for focusing on what they can be world-class at, better than all of their competitors. This is why focusing on a niche offers a pathway to success in the increasingly competitive world of vacation rentals.

You cannot out-scale the big guys, and nor should you want to. The path to the lowest price is paved with frustration.

But you can outplay them on so many levels by focusing on a niche - whatever you chose to define it as.

You can market to a niche more cost-effectively than the general market. You are more likely to get recognition and acknowledgment and repeat business from a niche, than the general market.

Go to a niche and never look back!

 

[Matt Landau]

there is no substitute for calling your guests and talking to them in person. You learn things you would never learn in a survey

Truer words never spoken. When you find yourself hearing the same thing over and over (even if it's 3-5 times) you're onto something. This is a kind of problem solving that I call "best closest proof" (as I shared in Vanessa's VR Tech Event). Find one instance, then another, and follow the trail to solve complex problems no one can predict otherwise.

As a travel advisor/agent this has been the main focus of my marketing

What I love about your Greek niche is that so many fellow colleagues have unique personal backgrounds: pools of niches just sitting there for them to step up and identify as a unifying solution. If I had some more interesting/influential cultural background, I'd follow my nose on that.

Mr. Niche

How about Mr. Niche Guy? I'd argue JPrugh that your niche evolved because you loved Lindsborg when you passed through and noticed not many places to stay. So you built them. That was the pain point that you solved and that your entire business model is founded upon. Bravo!

can you find people searching on Google for your niche?

And as a reminder, it needn't be millions or even thousands of searches! If there are 100 or 200 searches for your specialty, that's 100 or 200 people specifically interested in you! ConradO what free tool is easiest/best to evaluate keyword search metrics?

If the structure is a big part of the niche, this is the only route to get there. Think yurt, treehouse, or wheelchair accessible,

I think this is such a strong approach because it takes the most dedication/commitment (in the process alienating competition). ROster and his Golf Houses or Niche at the Beach being a prime example (granted, that project did not materials but the logic was sound).

This is why focusing on a niche offers a pathway to success in the increasingly competitive world of vacation rentals.

AMEN! For anyone concerned about bigger/richer competition, this is your mission statement.

 

[Susanne]

Mr. Niche Guy Someone buy that domain if it is still available!

 

[HeleenaSideris]

Niches are the next big thing in vacation rentals.

They are the essence of Theory of Limited Edition: that if you do the things only/inimitably YOU, that no bigger/richer company can ever compete.

Special interest and geographic niches possess significant profit: they are not scalable: and they tend to be more intimate than the big box managers... therefore less hazardous to communities.

If you are an independent owner or manager and you want to carve out your own niche, here are three ways that only you can approach the opportunity.

Remember: what might seem obvious or longstanding to you is likely fresh to our emerging sector.

1. When YOU TRAVEL what combination of vacation rental property needs take a while to meet?
- Particular feature or amenity of a home
- Category of homes that cater to a particular style of visitor(s)
- Geographic or landscape attributes of surrounding area or location in proximity to something else

2. Is the process of finding this particular kind of vacation rental at times painful for you?
- Does the process take a lot of time in your otherwise busy life? (maybe you enjoy the hunt?)
- Does it cost you unnecessary money? Is it prohibitively expensive?
- Is the process bad or annoying enough to get you emotional?

3. How can you prove that other travelers feel your pain?
- Can you validate this in the form of Google forms sent out to groups of these people?
- Might your existing former guest list be able to validate or disprove your theory?
- Are there concentrated groups of potential travelers like this on Facebook you can poll?
- When you reach out to owners of listings on Vrbo or Airbnb, do they too have this pain? Perhaps they don't?

OK community members, I have a strong feeling there are more questions we can add to this list. What are some ways you have gone about discovering your niche? What are some pains YOU have when booking a vacation rental? What validation have you seen? How could you take it "one step further"?

I have a feeling the collective wisdom of the community is about to flywheel!

Love this concept and approach and thought provoking exercise Matt!! Personally I am always searching for free standing homes or even duplexes with a private terrace/patio/lawn. So many listings leave out exterior shots that it takes some extra investigatory work to dig into what the on the ground experience will provide. What I'm looking for is exterior photos with context, and to highlight those properties that offer some privacy. (I think this last year has given us all a deeper appreciation for privacy!)

 

[SScurlock]

I'm throwing down this gauntlet - erase the word "vacation" from the name of your business. Then you'll discover an abundance of niches. If you're in business to serve only guests on vacation, it's time to evolve.

You have a right to brag JPrugh and I accept your challenge! There truly are many more niches" than just vacationers.

 

[SScurlock]

Niches are the next big thing in vacation rentals.

They are the essence of Theory of Limited Edition: that if you do the things only/inimitably YOU, that no bigger/richer company can ever compete.

I totally agree with your assessment Matt Landau ! Heeding your advice, several years ago I found 2 niches that have been very successful for me - farm stays and pet friendly. I signed up with Farm Stay US and Bring Fido, in addition to making my homes pet friendly on my web site and the OTA's I am listed with. The vast majority of my guests bring their dogs. Now over half of my guests find me on Farm Stay, or they are returning guests after finding me there.

I have been amazed at how the relationships can evolve during the process. I volunteered to assist Farm Stay US call farms to get them added to their website and was offered a job doing it! Farm Stay is partnering with Yonder and I got to meet and visit with Bill Lee, a co-founder and the CEO on a Zoom meeting. JPrugh you would love Bill as he is a huge proponent of helping our planet and getting people out to enjoy the outdoors.

Matt Landau your podcast with Anthony Gantt on niche marketing being the next big thing in vacation rentals will be mentioned often! It came at a very good time. I agree with the concepts the two of you discussed.

I will check out At Ease and sign up my homes. I am a one-hour drive to Ft. Hood, the largest Army base in the world. I have had many families visiting their loved ones stationed there stay at the farm, so it would be a good fit.

One point I particularly agree with is as owners/managers we must be truly inclusive of everyone. I purposely put photos of guests from different countries and ethnicities in photos on my listings and Facebook and I also accept instant bookings because of that.

i believe that finding a niche that fits us makes us a big fish in a little pond, and not a small fish in a big pond with the OTA's!

 

[KarenB]

i believe that finding a niche that fits us makes us a big fish in a little pond, and not a small fish in a big pond with the OTA's!

This is very, very true! Did I say, it was VERY true? Besides having a large pet friendly population of rentals, also simply having our office on-site in the condo complex or in the middle of the houses opened a niche market for Sunset Properties. Guests like the comfort of having us near and owners like the fact we can keep a close eye on who "goes and comes" thru their properties. This was an enormous investment for our company, but it has paid off in spades!

 

[Matt Landau]

This was an enormous investment for our company, but it has paid off in spades!

I so love this point. The original plan for “anchoring” was something very similar. If you can plant an anchor in your area, you achieve what out of towners ... cannot.

reference: 37:47 here: https://community.vrmb.com/threads/limited-edition-ltd-theory-for-vacation-rentals.3555/

 

[RuthM]

Thanks for the post as always Matt! I am a HUGE believer in niches and we currently use two methods to discover them. I like to call it the "micro" and "macro" approach.
Micro Approach- I mentioned this in a previous thread but there is no substitute for calling your guests and talking to them in person. You learn things you would never learn in a survey. It also helps you build your guest profile (meaning my target guest is 25-35, female, and has kids between 5 and 14) This of course requires having previous guests to talk to so maybe not a good approach if you are new and trying to pick your first niche.
Macro Approach - This is a quantitative analysis and it involves sifting through LOTS of reviews. If you are techy you can use a third party software to scrape Airbnb and VRBO and pull all 5 star reviews. Then dump those reviews into a text analyzer and see what words stand out most. For example, if you do this in Nashville you'll see the word "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" be one of the most common words used. That's because most guests mention the reason for their stay in their review, and THATs the gold you're panning for. So how can you build an experience around Bachelorette parties? (If you want to do that...)

Hope that's helpful!

Good advice. I pulled all my reviews together and did a word cloud which was interesting but not particularly detailed or helpful. Can you recommend a text analyzer? THANKS

 

[ConradO]

Truer words never spoken. When you find yourself hearing the same thing over and over (even if it's 3-5 times) you're onto something. This is a kind of problem solving that I call "best closest proof" (as I shared in Vanessa's VR Tech Event). Find one instance, then another, and follow the trail to solve complex problems no one can predict otherwise.


What I love about your Greek niche is that so many fellow colleagues have unique personal backgrounds: pools of niches just sitting there for them to step up and identify as a unifying solution. If I had some more interesting/influential cultural background, I'd follow my nose on that.


How about Mr. Niche Guy? I'd argue JPrugh that your niche evolved because you loved Lindsborg when you passed through and noticed not many places to stay. So you built them. That was the pain point that you solved and that your entire business model is founded upon. Bravo!


And as a reminder, it needn't be millions or even thousands of searches! If there are 100 or 200 searches for your specialty, that's 100 or 200 people specifically interested in you! ConradO what free tool is easiest/best to evaluate keyword search metrics?


I think this is such a strong approach because it takes the most dedication/commitment (in the process alienating competition). ROster and his Golf Houses or Niche at the Beach being a prime example (granted, that project did not materials but the logic was sound).


AMEN! For anyone concerned about bigger/richer competition, this is your mission statement.

The screenshots above are via Clearscope, which is great but costly. For lower cost research I recommend Keywords Everywhere --> https://keywordseverywhere.com/credits.html which is very affordable.

 

[EBadia]

And sometimes the niches find you. At Eveland 1.0 (my old Brooklyn, NY home) it was grandparents coming to visit their adult children and grandkids. Not multigenerational but just the grandparents. And I LOVED THEM.. Ohh how I'll miss them since Eveland 1.0 was sold this February.

But I'm going pet-friendly in two of my four new properties. I spoke in a new video about the acceptance of:

P: Plan ahead
E: Equip your space
T: Take charge
S: Supply the tools

Since I'm prepping these properties from scratch it's a great way to create them.

 

[CCapalbo]

My niche is family/extended family and groups of ladies/gents seeking relaxation, laidback vacation experience. And those seeking adventure and celebrating milestone life events.
The villa has amenities and services to meet the needs of each; like a bar lounge area, formal indoor dining, outdoor dining, family game room, outdoor barbecue area, pool onsite spa, and plenty of space to hang out for some alone time.

These features will meet the needs of everyone eg. Adults who want to sit back and drink a few of their favorite cocktails while the children swim in the pool, or enjoy a game of oculus or PlayStations, box, or switch.

 

[Jefferson]

Good advice. I pulled all my reviews together and did a word cloud which was interesting but not particularly detailed or helpful. Can you recommend a text analyzer? THANKS

Hi RuthM! Yeah word clouds are more pretty than functional in my opinion. What you want is frequency of words. Here is one I found online: https://www.online-utility.org/text/analyzer.jsp

 

[RuthM]

Hi RuthM! Yeah word clouds are more pretty than functional in my opinion. What you want is frequency of words. Here is one I found online: https://www.online-utility.org/text/analyzer.jsp

THANKS!

 

[DMartinez]

Interesting new niche! Maybe time to market for the whole life cycle?
I'm a honeymoon location. I partner with a massage therapist (whose husband is a catering chef) for "babymoons" and had people come for a memorial gathering

Dare I consider the birthing stage too?

"Midwives say business is booming during the pandemic. Many are scrambling to meet patient demand, resorting to Airbnbs for home births and providing fertility services to clients when some clinics shut down."

Homebirth NOT in your home- Kadie's Airbnb birth: how to do blog

A quick google shows it IS A THING!

And check out the HomeBirth Wishlist on Airbnb- so far just one house.

This one appears to be tongue in cheek...or is it???

​

 

[Stephen]

Thanks for the post as always Matt! I am a HUGE believer in niches and we currently use two methods to discover them. I like to call it the "micro" and "macro" approach.
Micro Approach- I mentioned this in a previous thread but there is no substitute for calling your guests and talking to them in person. You learn things you would never learn in a survey. It also helps you build your guest profile (meaning my target guest is 25-35, female, and has kids between 5 and 14) This of course requires having previous guests to talk to so maybe not a good approach if you are new and trying to pick your first niche.
Macro Approach - This is a quantitative analysis and it involves sifting through LOTS of reviews. If you are techy you can use a third party software to scrape Airbnb and VRBO and pull all 5 star reviews. Then dump those reviews into a text analyzer and see what words stand out most. For example, if you do this in Nashville you'll see the word "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" be one of the most common words used. That's because most guests mention the reason for their stay in their review, and THATs the gold you're panning for. So how can you build an experience around Bachelorette parties? (If you want to do that...)

Hope that's helpful!

So good--especially scraping the reviews. I have over 500 revews and 99% are 5 star. Sounds like a niche gold mine!! Thanks again.

 

[JPrugh]

SScurlock: Is the "Yonder" the one in North Carolina or another one? My properties are within city limits, but I could certainly direct guests looking for a true Farm Stay to visit another property outside of town. I suggested that these owners list on Farm Stay, but for some reason, they weren't that interest.

 

[JPrugh]

www.mrnicheguy.com is already taken! But there are some interesting alternatives.

 

[JPrugh]

ConradO Please recommend some "scrapers" for Airbnb and VRBO reviews. By any chance are there any "scrapers" that could work with my pictures of comments written in ink on a paper page in a guest book?

 

[DavidJacoby]

Just a friendly reminder that technically Airbnb owns the reviews and you're not allowed to post them on your own website. Many people do it, of course, but it's actually against their terms, so if they are looking for a reason to kick you off, you'll be giving them one. Do it at your own risk.

 

[DMartinez]

Just a friendly reminder that technically Airbnb owns the reviews and you're not allowed to post them on your own website. Many people do it, of course, but it's actually against their terms, so if they are looking for a reason to kick you off, you'll be giving them one. Do it at your own risk

hmm... even if you quote them as stated within our Airbnb listing?

The ones I scraped come from our old PM company who did not use ABB but did use old HomeAway's collection and VRBO (which are now one and the same).. so I would presume the same situation holds there too?

 

[DavidJacoby]

(Sorry, but I'm not 100% sure)

 

[ToonTownRob]

Just a friendly reminder that technically Airbnb owns the reviews and you're not allowed to post them on your own website. Many people do it, of course, but it's actually against their terms, so if they are looking for a reason to kick you off, you'll be giving them one. Do it at your own risk.

With respect, this is not correct.

We all know AirBnB doesn't have a lot of respect for the law if they don't like it, but even they can't get around this one, and don't try to. There are hundreds of years of tradition and case law that define these rules.

(I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Having said that, I'm reasonably knowledgeable on the subject.)

Copyright in a work is initially and always owned by the creator, unless the creator creates the work as an employee, in which case the work belongs to the employer; or the creator signs a specific agreement granting copyright to another person or entity (as in the case of selling the copyright to a publisher, for example); or the creator produces the work specifically under a commission for another entity (a magazine hires an independent writer to produce an article for them).

From AirBnB's own Terms and Conditions, under Reviews:

Parts of the Airbnb Platform enable you to provide feedback, text, photos, audio, video, information, and other content (collectively, “Content”). By providing Content, in whatever form and through whatever means, you grant Airbnb a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual, sub-licensable and transferable license to copy, modify, prepare derivative works of, distribute, publish and otherwise exploit, that Content, without limitation. If Content includes personal information, our Privacy Policy describes how we use that personal information. Where Airbnb pays for the creation of Content or facilitates its creation, Airbnb may own that Content, in which case supplemental terms or disclosures will say that. You are solely responsible for all Content that you provide and warrant that you either own it or are authorized to grant Airbnb the rights described in these Terms. You are responsible and liable if any of your Content violates or infringes the intellectual property or privacy rights of any third party. Content must comply with our Content Policy and Nondiscrimination Policy, which prohibit, among other things, discriminatory, obscene, harassing, deceptive, violent, and illegal content. You agree that Airbnb may make available services or automated tools to translate Content and that your Content may be translated using such services or tools. Airbnb does not guarantee the accuracy or quality of translations and Members are responsible for confirming the accuracy of such translations.

In posting a review on AirBnB, you grant them a license to show it on their site. Only the owner can grant a license for use. You do not grant them ownership. Whoever wrote it, owns it.

https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-ownership/

So technically, a reviewing guest could tell an owner they don't want their review used anywhere other than where they submitted it, but of course that is incredibly unlikely to happen. If an owner was concerned about this issue, they could include a clause in their rental Terms and Conditions agreement that the guest agrees that:
Any and all materials submitted to the owner/manager, or left at the property, by the guest, are provided with the full understanding and permission by the guest that doing so grants the owner/manager the right to reproduce and use them for publicity purposes without compensation.

You may want to add that line into your Terms and Conditions in order to save yourself some potential future grief, such as a guest coming back at you and demanding compensation for your having used their review or other content in your own promotional material without paying them to do so.

Just sayin'

 

[HeatherB]

Thanks for the post as always Matt! I am a HUGE believer in niches and we currently use two methods to discover them. I like to call it the "micro" and "macro" approach.
Micro Approach- I mentioned this in a previous thread but there is no substitute for calling your guests and talking to them in person. You learn things you would never learn in a survey. It also helps you build your guest profile (meaning my target guest is 25-35, female, and has kids between 5 and 14) This of course requires having previous guests to talk to so maybe not a good approach if you are new and trying to pick your first niche.
Macro Approach - This is a quantitative analysis and it involves sifting through LOTS of reviews. If you are techy you can use a third party software to scrape Airbnb and VRBO and pull all 5 star reviews. Then dump those reviews into a text analyzer and see what words stand out most. For example, if you do this in Nashville you'll see the word "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" be one of the most common words used. That's because most guests mention the reason for their stay in their review, and THATs the gold you're panning for. So how can you build an experience around Bachelorette parties? (If you want to do that...)

Hope that's helpful!

Absolutely! 100% true! StayLuxe has always employed your Micro approach, and I love the idea you have presented for your Macro approach. Data-driven decisions are very helpful in our industry as every market and business model are so varied. Thanks for your insight, Jefferson!

 

[HeatherB]

Not to brag (well, maybe just a little), but Matt Landau might decide to call me Mr. Niche.

Present and past guests include:

• professionals on temporary assignments (Walmart, local hospital, AT&T, Pfizer, Wald Foods, Johns-Manville, wind turbine installers)
• hunters (deer and turkey, depending on the season)
• bereaving families here for a loved one's funeral
• RVers (trailer life) wanting a two-week break in a real house with real beds
• KWAA (Kansas Women Attorneys Association) annual conference attendees
• hospice care
• family reunions
• local college alums, potential students and families in town for graduation
• travel bloggers
• many who visit Lindsborg for a vacation!

At Ease seems like a good addition, but I'm over an hour away from some military installations. But I still might check this out.

I'm throwing down this gauntlet - erase the word "vacation" from the name of your business. Then you'll discover an abundance of niches. If you're in business to serve only guests on vacation, it's time to evolve.

I would argue that serving only guests on vacation depends entirely on your market.

 

[Matt Landau]

Sharing this newly released video from our Roundtable Video Library:

 

[DMartinez]

A surprising spike in a keyword search bump was noticed today for my website -with thanks to a blog post I wrote a while ago about a potential niche that never really came to be...but COULD be if someone had an inclination.

Apparently, someone was holding a "reading retreat near 611 guerrero" (San Francisco maybe?) and as a result, my website and blog popped up on their searches (with 40 hits).

Good reminder to refresh the post! And perhaps market a bit more strongly to the bibliophiles.